The Pressure to Look "Real"

[electr1cgoblin]

Looking over the planned costumes for some of the Marvel heroes lately, including Spiderwoman, Quicksilver and others, it seems like there is a lot of pressure to make these comic heroes' costumes more "real" and keep them in line with the more "practical" costumes of the films.

I don't like it.

I "get" it; the movie makers don't want Hawkeye wearing that crazy purple skirt with the crescent shaped eye mask because it could easily produce laughs and keep moviegoers away. But for me, part of the appeal of the comics was always that very kind of "over the top" colorful costume that attracted the eyes and stood out in a crowd. All of this drab, functional stuff like goggles and leather pants is counter to one of the things that drew me to comics in the first place.

Yep, I'm old. Yep, I understand all this from a marketing point of view. Whatever Marvel is doing in their films, it's obviously working because even a 'Who is that??" team like the Guardians are breaking box office records.

But understanding it and liking it are two different things. Anybody else kind of pine for the garishness of days past?

[gurkle]

This is one of those things that goes in and out of fashion. Like in 2001, after the success of the film, the X-Men lost their silly costumes and started wearing black leather uniforms, and then a few years later Joss Whedon brought back the silly costumes ("All that black leather was making people nervous"). Since the '60s DC has repeatedly tried to give Wonder Woman a more practical outfit, with pants, and she always winds up back in the bathing suit.

So I wouldn't say that colorful costumes will ever go away - in fact, I think if we miss a character's classic costume, we usually just have to wait a few years and it'll be back, or something like it. It's very cyclical, partly because "new costume" gets a lot of free publicity, but the costumes are often quietly retired a few years later.

[Emma's Midriff]

Apparently sunglasses are as good as masks now.

[Overhazard]

It isn't a new trend, these things tend to be circular. Remember when morrison was writing the X men around the time the movie came out? The big black and yellow jackets, black shirts and pants? Eventually, they went back to their old outfits.

I get toning down the fanservice for female characters, but the costumes don't really pop. They don't really say, "superhero" Ms. Marvel's does, and it's not a fanservice-y costume, neither is captain marvel's or spider-gwen's. I kind of wish new costumes were like that instead of jackets and goggles.

I think this will affect cosplayers too. Sure, these easy to replicate costumes will be fun at first, but I think it will take the challenge out of it.

[Gordonstar]

Real sells.

[cyberhubbs]

Goggles have been a part of comics forever.

Even the current trend of leather jackets and such can be traced back recently to the 90s. Me, I like leather jackets. Nothing wrong with accessories until you have too many.

[electr1cgoblin]

Goggles have been a part of comics forever.

Well, sort of, but I'd argue that there's certainly more in evidence now than five, ten or twenty years ago.

[legion_quest]

How long until pouches are back in fashion?

[Silvermoth]

I don't get the drama. Fashion comes and goes and the characters reflect the decade they're in

[Arfguy]

I am against it. Then again, there are good and bad to both "practical" costumes and "fantastic" costumes. For instance, the spandex stuff brought us awesome costumes like Spider-Man, Dark Phoenix, Jim Lee's Rogue. However, it also brought us lousy ones (IMO) Hawkeye, Triathalon, Falcon.

So this need to look realistic may result in a look that I think is pretty good. Thus far, I haven't seen any good ones, so I'm not a fan.

[Gordonstar]

Nothing stays the same. Besides no character ever sticks with their original.

[ZedsDead]

Kirby's characters mainly wore cloth, just follows RL fashion.

[ed2962]

Goggles have been a part of comics forever.

Even the current trend of leather jackets and such can be traced back recently to the 90s. Me, I like leather jackets. Nothing wrong with accessories until you have too many.

Right. I wasn't reading a lot of Marvel comics at that time, but the Avengers went thru a phase when the team was wearing bomber jackets. So was Rogue...

[cyberhubbs]

Well, sort of, but I'd argue that there's certainly more in evidence now than five, ten or twenty years ago.

Maybe? Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Cannonball immediately come to mind. And that one flying girl from Valiant's Harbingers.

[ed2962]

Thing is when you put real people in tights, even beautiful fit athletic people, they don't come close to looking like Jim Lee drawings. They just look like people in tights. So the filmmakers had to come up with things that actual flesh and blood people look cool in. That's when we started getting the suits with rubber padding, the leather, etc.

If there's a problem it's that some comics creators have decided that they must be exactly like the movies.