^Isn't that already true?
No. Cap's first costume was the one seen in his first solo film. It looked decent there and I didnt find it silly. They changed it in Avengers 1 for the worst. Story had nothing to do with those changes. It looked especially bad next to everyone else as I found them to be decent and he stood out in a bad way. The one seen in AoU seems to be more inspired by that original suit in terms of the color scheme shades and elements like straps as opposed to the bright simplistic one in Avengers 1.
I never said I or anyone went to see these films for pure aesthetics. I don't think story or "emotional value" make silly costumes look non-silly. It may or may not explain why a hero is in one, but aesthetically if the thing looks bad, then it looks bad.
You said you are just talking about pure aesthetics, I pointed out that people don't go for pure aesthetics to point out that your focus is not necessarily relevant to the quality of a costume in a film. That is, silly and bad are two different and largely unrelated things. No matter how good something looks, if it is way out of place, it's silly. No matter how bad something looks, if it makes perfect sense, it's not silly. If you're just talking about outside of a film, then it's off topic when talking about film costumes.
Story had everything to do with the changes to Cap's costume from Cap 1 to A1. The exchange between Coulson and Steve on the jet is essentially Cap's A1 storyline. He's old fashioned. He's got silver age values in the Post-modern age, does that work? A bright simplistic costume, which really did look great without the helmet, drives that home. A busy WWII drab fatigue set doesn't. Plus as a rival to Iron Man he has to shine as bright, he has to be mockable, for being simplistic, in order for IM to learn his lesson. Story very much drove that costume. They just had a horrible helmet. Ugh, THAT thing was ugly.
The AoU suit does go back to Cap 1, and combines it with the suit from Cap 2... because that's exactly the journey that Cap has just been on, bringing his Cap 1 values and mission into the world of Cap 2, something that was symbolized even in Cap 2 by... a costume change. Costume is part of the story, and vice versa. Anything less than that is missing a chance at telling the best story possible.
So for Carol, her costume has to do the same thing. That's part of why the classic Ms. Marvel costume is so much fail, because it says nothing about Carol and everything about generic hot chick #2. That's part of my problem with her current outfit, because she's not Captain America, she's not representing old fashioned values... kinda the opposite in some ways... so why is her costume telling the story of a throwback when she's all around so progressive?
I don't think the costume needs a complete overhaul, I think one complete overhaul every 20 years is enough for anyone. I think though, the costume needs some element added to make it emblematic of her story, and not generic symbol girl. They could just make it emblematic of Mar-Vell's identity and life and then she becomes emblematic of Mar-Vell, but even that seems like a bit of a disservice to who Carol is because she's not really all about Mar-Vell, is she?
