You're joking right? Superhero costumes like this are more accepted in the past decade than they've ever been.
The X-Men came out when Blade and the Matrix were popular and colorful costumes would be associated with Batman and Robin which almost irreparably damaged superhero films for audiences.
I hate armored superheroes. I think they're so inherently goofy as a concept that asking "but what if they get hurt" is like asking "what if Batman has to poop, does he just do it on a rooftop?" I'm fine if someone tells me he's got tri-weave kevlar or something in the Batsuit so he doesn't get immediately killed. It's fine as long as it doesn't get too bulky.
But then you get Injustice where everyone looks like the tripped and fell into a scrap metal junkyard wearing a skintight suit coated with gorilla glue. It just looks awful.
Nothing about the DCU makes sense with respect to real world physics or logic. The concept of the Batrope is ludicrous on its own, as is Superman catching someone who is falling from a building. But it works in their universe and I can live with it because those are the rules of engagement with the medium. Same with manga and how every character tells the person they're fighting what move they're using and somehow they always still land, or how the pacing needs to be god awful because the mangaka are under one of the most grueling work environments we know of in any creative field and are tasked with writing and drawing 20 pages a week with an army of people filling in their line work. It's part-and-parcel with the medium.
Some bullshit kevlar weave for the Nightwing suit? Cool. I can buy it. Won't protect them from higher caliber rounds but it's protective. The Future State Nightwing suit? Hard pass!
while I wouldn't say manga or other media in totality is never guilt of this (it's a matter of bad storytelling and hack writing) but it's a FAR more prevalent issue in comics. however, i gotta call cap on the My Hero comparison, especially because 90% or their costumes are specifically made with to compliment their abilities; like in universe. support items and building your hero identity around your skillset is a pretty overtly integral part of their power system. hell, even fanservice-heavy characters like Midnight, Mirko, and Yaoyorozu have designs built around powers that compliment and/or play off them being fan service characters. mind you, these are secondary and tertiary characters, yet they are handled with more care they some of the characters that DC haphazardly gave [doomed] titles too.
keep it a buck 50, My Hero and One Punch Man a lot of the time highlight just how stagnant and weak comic book storytelling culture is (or has become I guess) with their characters and ability to worldbuild.
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
Just looking at Midnight for example, how does her dominatrix get up compliment her ability to make people fall asleep? And trying to justify a fanservice character doesn't make her well written or interesting. DC and Marvel are also making that type of character less prominent after being called out for it for years.
Manga is certainly better than superhero comics in some regards (and weaker than other types of comics in many regards).
For instance, western comics are and have been a lot better with LGBT characters than manga has been for a long time. One need only look Puri-Puri Prisoner to see how backwards manga is in that regard. To say nothing of the issues regarding female characters in manga vs the ones in comics. I don't think anyone can claim with a straight face that shonen manga is better than western comics in that regard.
Last edited by Agent Z; 03-07-2021 at 03:57 AM.
Gods yes. The only decent costumes in the Injustice franchise are the ones where they barely change anything or DLC skins from stuff like the movies (aka the costumes NRS had little to no creative input on).
All the others across both games are easily the ugliest things those characters have ever worn.
I may be mis-remembering but I think it helps her spread her pheremones? I could be wrong.
For Midnight's it's also basically a style thing. The My Hero Academia Vigilante's manga show teenage Midnight who had an even skimpier costume because that's just what she wanted to wear until they passed a law restricting her to do so.
I'd like to see Superman trust more people with kryptonite. That should be a sign of an extreme bond between Superman and whichever character he decides to trust with it.
I think readers need to be willing to accept we can’t get what we want, though it doesn’t mean we have to support what we don’t like or want.
For instance a lot of people, me included, want a JSA book again especially after they made a big deal bringing them back. I want it but I can’t make DC make it because they are their own business and will make whatever they want. Not to mention if I were to be upset all the time then I may miss out on good books I may enjoy.
May not have JSA but I could read The upcoming Shilo Norman Mister Miracle or Crush & Lobo which could be just as good. However I would like to reiterate that if you don’t like what is being released you are allowed to vote with your wallets, but maybe give what exists a chance instead of just being angry about JSA, or Legion, or Supersons, etc.
"It's fun and it's cool, so that's all that matters. It's what comics are for, Duh."
Words to live by.
Hot take: the Creeper has more potential than The Joker these days.
You're asking comic fans to look at the current line-up of books and make an informed decision based on them to find material they like from the universe they love instead of just bitching that DC hasn't been serving the same flavor they got hooked on (even though it existing meant the reader before them's flavor got discontinued)?
Are you new?