Alex Ross calls for new era of Superhero Costumes

[KenK]

The whole point of the watchmen suits was to be ridiculous and over the top. Especially Ozzy's was a satire of Schumacher's Batman suits.

Stop making people think!!!

 

[Batman]

Malin Akerman even hated her costume.

Not liking how uncomfortable a costume feels to wear and not liking a costume in general are two completely different things. No superhero actor - Bale, Keaton, Kilmer, Reeve, Maguire, Affleck, whathaveyou - has liked wearing their costume, and for good reason. They're generally just uncomfortable because... well, they're costumes.

 

[Red Mask]

Which is why costume designers should appreciate fabrics for what they are, not to mold rubber into something it's not. I think the Spidey suit was the least uncomfortable of the new materials. It also didn't need fake pecks and abs to look cool.

 

[Addendum]

The Daredevil costume worked because it was it a functional use of leather in bright red. If it was rubber he'd look more like a condom. Blade and Batman can get away with black costumes because they don't need to be seen clearly in broad daylight.

Even though I haven't seen Daredevil, the leather outfit looked pretty cool. If it was a red spandex body suit, it'd look like ****.

 

[JackBauer]

The Daredevil costume worked because it was it a functional use of leather in bright red. If it was rubber he'd look more like a condom.

What kind of scary ass condoms do you use?

 

[Bruce Malone]

No matter how much the actors work out you still cannot get the same visualization as in the comics. You would litterally have to paint on the outfits to the actors to get the same muscle definition contures etc as you do in the comics.

 

[DACrowe]

Remember this was his idea for a spidey movie costume:

 

[DeGenerate10]

For heroes like Spiderman I agree they should've have rubber suits. But Bruce Wayne is a damn billionaire he can afford costumes that'll help keep him safe

 

[The Guard]

Sounds to me like he wants an old era of costumes, not a new one. Let me guess. He wants to see more spandex and bigger crotches, on men and woman alike.

Ross has a fetish. Beautiful art, but he's getting predictable. Some of his designs I like, and some I can do without. Didn't hate his Spider-Man redesign, but did dislike his Green Goblin one. His Wolverine redesign is ****, as is his Captain America one. As someone else said, his idea of redesigning tends to be adding black to things.

He's missed the point completely in terms of why Nite Owl and Veidt wore overdesigned armor in WATCHMEN.

And I have no idea what point he's trying to make about how IRON MAN got it right in terms of materials. IRON MAN presented, drumroll, a guy in armor, which is what the movie required.

THE FLASH costume being armored had a purpose within the show, and actually looked pretty decent when it wasn't a publicity shot or still for some reason. Spandex or thinner material for The Flash would probably, and does generally look absurd when rendered in a live action format. I really think any version of The Flash needs to have some padding to be believeable.

 

[Seth71]

One thing he's got right though. Pretty much every single superhero costume, specially the non powered heroes, has been a rehash of Michael Keaton's 1989 costume in one form or another. From Batman himself in BB and TDK to GI Joe now. I'm sick of that too. I'm sick of rubber and sick of molded muscles.

 

[gwynplaine]

As much as I like Ross' Joker, I wish he had made him younger.
Still a great Joker though. (I wonder if someone posed for him for that one and if yes who it was ?)

 

[Seth71]

As much as I like Ross' Joker, I wish he had made him younger.
Still a great Joker though. (I wonder if someone posed for him for that one and if yes who it was ?)

I don't find his Joker old at all. He looks to be what, 40?
Actually, something that makes me cringe is the current trend that every comic book character has to be played by a younger boyish looking actor these days. Characters that look and even are knowingly older in the comics are played by some 20 something in movies. Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect age for Stark but you find a lot of comic fanboys whining that he is too old.
I also miss the time when tough guys were played by real man and not by kids.
Arnold, Sly and even Eastwood have been criticized for their acting but at least when they did something tough it was easier to believe. They were believable bad asses. Now what you get are guys who would look more at home in a fashion photo shoot or wearing lipstick and mascara trying to come across as bad asses.

 

[gwynplaine]

Not really what I meant. I just like the Joker to be closer in age to Batman (kind of like what they did in TDK, or even TKJ), it feels less like a twisted "father and son" relationship and more like two "brothers" who chose different paths. But it's just my opinion and I guess some people like it better the other way around. To each their own.
As for other comic book characters, I wouldn't really know because I mostly care only about the Jokert:.
As for badasses, I really miss actors like Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Charles Bronson, Georges Raft, James Cagney, Bogart... They certainly don't make them like that anymore .

 

[KenK]

Remember this was his idea for a spidey movie costume:

And thank God it never went past this stage (at least not officially, as several fans have made costumes based on this design).

 

[Mr. Earle]

That Spiderman suit is identical to the new Cap's. Inverted triangle on the upper torso, big gloves, and the rest of it is black.
Predicable much?

 

[Red Mask]

As for badasses, I really miss actors like Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Charles Bronson, Georges Raft, James Cagney, Bogart... They certainly don't make them like that anymore .

No, they don't. It's like Clint some time ago.

 

[gwynplaine]

no, they don't. it's like clint some time ago.

qft.

 

[SoulManX]

I don't find his Joker old at all. He looks to be what, 40?
Actually, something that makes me cringe is the current trend that every comic book character has to be played by a younger boyish looking actor these days. Characters that look and even are knowingly older in the comics are played by some 20 something in movies. Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect age for Stark but you find a lot of comic fanboys whining that he is too old.
I also miss the time when tough guys were played by real man and not by kids.
Arnold, Sly and even Eastwood have been criticized for their acting but at least when they did something tough it was easier to believe. They were believable bad asses. Now what you get are guys who would look more at home in a fashion photo shoot or wearing lipstick and mascara trying to come across as bad asses.

I see what you did here...well played, sir

 

[Mr. Earle]

I don't find his Joker old at all. He looks to be what, 40?
Actually, something that makes me cringe is the current trend that every comic book character has to be played by a younger boyish looking actor these days. Characters that look and even are knowingly older in the comics are played by some 20 something in movies. Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect age for Stark but you find a lot of comic fanboys whining that he is too old.
I also miss the time when tough guys were played by real man and not by kids.
Arnold, Sly and even Eastwood have been criticized for their acting but at least when they did something tough it was easier to believe. They were believable bad asses. Now what you get are guys who would look more at home in a fashion photo shoot or wearing lipstick and mascara trying to come across as bad asses.

RDJ is in his forties and its apparent when you look at him. He is a bit too old to play Stark in his first years as Ironman. Tony is supposed to be... what... 30? Anyway, he is so good that he makes you overlook his age.

 

[Sawyer]

I'd rather not see Batman in a cloth suit, thank you very much.

 

[bubbadoom]

Ross' Spider-Man redesign is much better than the other redesigns that Sony was considering. Of course I am happy they went with something close to the Ditko design, and Ross was just giving the studio what they asked for. Even when they went with the original design, they shot for the first month with solid black eyes [like in Ross' design] before the Marvel guys made them change them to what we ended up with in the movie [so they had to digitally alter the eyes in the scenes already shot using the black eyes].

I would blame the studio for not having any faith in the original designs, and not the artist brought in to rework them for the studio.

Did you guys like the FF uniforms - they were spandex with rubber muscles underneath. Personally, I would have preferred something a little looser, more like a pilot's flight suit.

 

[Mr. Earle]

Why didnt they go with the classic Spiderman suit from the beginning? Why, why, why?

 

[Red Mask]

qft.

I meant it's like what Clint Eastwood said a while ago about American society. They've grown to be a bunch of *****es. Former Australian PM Howard said the same thing about Australians, and they've got real cowboys in the Outback.

 

[keith_v]

While I agree with Ross insofar as easing off the rubber for once, I can't ignore the fact that this is the same guy whose idea of redesigning superhero costumes is to leave the head/mask, shoulders/chest/logo and glove areas pretty much the same and make everything else all black. Unless it's Batman, in which case his body armor would have the three tailpipes off the old TV Batmobile on the back. Seriously, the only costume redesign of Ross' I ever truly liked was the unused Green Goblin for the first Spidey flick.

You hit the nail right on the head.