Justice League Let's Talk Costumes?

[Sun_Down]

With the exception of Reeve, direct translations (ie spandex) of comic book costumes tend to look pretty ridiculous on screen. It's hard for the general Joe Popcorn audience to take a movie seriously when the hero's running around in flashy tights. In addition, comics and films are two distinct mediums, and what works in comics won't always work in film.

It's amazing that it's 2012 and some people still don't get this.

 

[theMan-Bat]

The reason why the first costume was an exact translation from the comics was because it was a USO costume. It was meant to be showy, impractical, and subject to ridicule. Steve clearly felt like an idiot wearing it, though he did come to recognize the symbolism it carried, hence elements of the suit's design being incorporated into his more practical uniforms.

Steve looked like he felt nervous before he went onstage. He quickly became conformable and was smiling and enjoying it as the people cheered for him, and they didn't ridicule him and laugh at him.
ww.youtube.com/watch?v=DxRKwKJI_uI
Yes, the other two suits provide protection for him in combat situations and his Avengers suit also manages to be pretty faithful to the iconic look from comics, showy, flashy bright red, white and blue colored mostly nylon cloth tights, while also providing protection more for him in combat in the context of the film with Kevlar and the helmet, etc.

With the exception of Reeve, direct translations (ie spandex) of comic book costumes tend to look pretty ridiculous on screen. It's hard for the general Joe Popcorn audience to take a movie seriously when the hero's running around in flashy tights. In addition, comics and films are two distinct mediums, and what works in comics won't always work in film.

I don't agree with that opinion that Christopher Reeve was the one exception, and that all others look ridiculous in the cloth Superman tights. There is an inherent cheesiness to all superhero costumes. They either look cool or ridiculous to a person. These characters are over-the-top, flashy, not subtle. Most of them wear colorful tights. Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man's costume was cloth tights, Captain America's costumes were nylon cloth, and not received very negatively in the eyes of the general Joe Popcorn audience.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

Yes, the other two suits provide protection for him in combat situations and his Avengers suit also manages to be pretty faithful to the iconic look from comics, showy, flashy bright red, white and blue colored mostly nylon cloth tights, while also providing protection more for him in combat in the context of the film with Kevlar and the helmet, etc.

That's it though. It's only "pretty faithful". You seem to have different standards for Superman in comparison to Cap. I consider the Man of Steel suit "pretty faithful".

I don't agree with that opinion that Christopher Reeve was the one exception, and that all others look ridiculous in the cloth Superman tights. There is an inherent cheesiness to all superhero costumes. They either look cool or ridiculous to a person. These characters are over-the-top, flashy, not subtle. Most of them wear colorful tights. Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man's costume was cloth tights, Captain America's costumes were nylon cloth, and not received very negatively in the eyes of the general Joe Popcorn audience.

Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man suit was made with neoprene (along with some other materials) and had a foam muscle suit underneath. A polymer, the same kind of material Andrew Garfield's suit is made of, as well as Henry Cavill's Superman*, Brandon Routh's Superman, Garett Hedlund's Tron suit and a great deal of Christian Bale's Batman**. They are largely using the same material, as it is a modernisation of the old materials used in the 70's I believe Chris Reeve's was a wool/spandex polyblend.

*-Henry Cavill's Superman suit has a silicon body cast to achieve the "definition".

**- Christian Bale wore no padding under his suit.

Until we see people react negatively to adaptations, which is what this is so there must be some adapting, the argument is fairly baseless.

 

[Majik1387]

Regarding Batman's costume, I'd like a combination of the following.

Numbered the pics for reference; pics have original watermark and artist signatures as well.

1. I know a lot of posters here hate the cowl, but it's the thing I love most about the concept of this costume, it's a great looking cowl I would love. I also love the way the cape is attached and the knee pads used.
Also not numbered, but I thought the Batman Begins/The Dark Knight belt is perfect.

2. With the Batman Earth One suit, I want the yellow bat-symbol again. If no yellow, then I like the grey and midnight blue/black combo here. I want the black bat-symbol to be prominent on top of the grey. I also would like the piping here from the torso and legs; the leg piping here is the only amount of piping I want, it's in the proper place for the legs to stretch, bend, and it has a proper codpiece without it looking like an overly huge bulge.

3. With Cap's costume, I want to use the same fabric for Batman's suit, excluding cape, except in Batman's colors in pic 2. I also would like the same type of boots.

4. On the Tron costume, I like the hexagon-pattern mesh underneath the armor to combine with the Cap America Avengers costume.

5. Snake Eye's arms are just like how I'd like Batman's to be like. I'd like to see the mesh material be the Tron hexagon-mesh instead. I also like the shoulder and bicep pads, and the gauntlets, all that needs to be added are the bat-fins.

6. I liked the material used on Nite-Owl's cape from Watchmen, and in the color of pic 2. One change I would make, would be to make the cape fully black, but have the underside to it be the midnight blue color.

This is also what I want for the Batman Reboot, as I figure whoever is cast in this movie will be the new Batman for the new series.



For how I'd like to see Aquaman's costume done.

For the orange fishscale top, I'd combine the torso armor from Immortals, with the chainmail from the Thor costume, as well as the fishscale used on the mermaid tail from Annie Leibovitz photoshoot of Little Mermaid. Possibly going sleeveless at some point.

For the Green pants, I'd combine the material from Amazing Spider-Man, with the same mermaid scales from said photoshoot, as well as the fins.

I can't quite find a good example of how I'd like to see the metallic belt, but I'd like the one from the comics in the pic posted to be used.

 

[TheWatcher]

Some great ideas man!

 

[Majik1387]

Thanks, now that my laptop issues are over, I can continue putting together the rest of the characters charts.

 

[TheWatcher]

No problem, I look forward to seeing them.

 

[az824]

Ross actually draws Wonder Woman to be so unattractive! Ugh!

Haha that's the biggest reason why I don't like Ross, his women look like men

I like majik's suggestions, I actually think aquaman would look pretty bad a with that type of costume.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Haha that's the biggest reason why I don't like Ross, his women look like men

They do not look unattractive and look like men to me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say, but wow.

Alex Ross depicts a balance between femininity and strength. Wonder Woman is strong and powerful-looking with some muscle, and she has her feminine curves, feminine features.

 

[theMan-Bat]

That's it though. It's only "pretty faithful". You seem to have different standards for Superman in comparison to Cap. I consider the Man of Steel suit "pretty faithful".

Unlike Captain America, Superman doesn't need any armor protection in combat, and I consider the nylon cloth Captain America tights in Avengers more faithful to his classic iconic look than the Man of Steel suit is to Superman's classic iconic look, as I've previously explained in detail. You obviously disagree. We are repeating ourselves. We are going to have to agree to disagree.

Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man suit was made with neoprene (along with some other materials) and had a foam muscle suit underneath. A polymer, the same kind of material Andrew Garfield's suit is made of, as well as Henry Cavill's Superman*, Brandon Routh's Superman, Garett Hedlund's Tron suit and a great deal of Christian Bale's Batman**. They are largely using the same material, as it is a modernisation of the old materials used in the 70's I believe Chris Reeve's was a wool/spandex polyblend.

Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man suit was made of lycra spandex with urethane webbing. Even if he wore foam padding under the suit to help achieve the Spider-Man look, it's impressively faithful to the iconic look. Christopher Reeve's Superman suit was spandex and he wore shoulder padding under the suit to help achieve the Superman look. It was impressively faithful to the iconic look.

*-Henry Cavill's Superman suit has a silicon body cast to achieve the "definition".

Henry Cavill's Superman has a muscle-sculpted suit as Kryptonian body armor.

**- Christian Bale wore no padding under his suit.

Bale's Batman (like Keaton's Batman, Kilmer and Clooney's Batman) has muscle-shaped suits as body armor, like Cavill's Superman, except Bale's Batman's are from Lucius Fox at Wayne Enterprises, not Krypton, and, unlike Superman, Batman actually has a need for bullet resistant protection. Even in the early comics by Batman's creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Batman regularly wore a bullet-proof vest under his Bat-suit.

In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Batman uses the round yellow oval as an armored target to draw gunfire away from his head. Batman also wears body armor when he fights Superman in Dark Knight Returns. Frank Miller's idea of Batman using the round yellow oval as an armored target to draw gunfire away from his head influenced Sam Hamm in writing the script for Tim Burton's first Batman film. Sam Hamm explained in the Comics Interview Batman Special (1989):

Which lead to Keaton's Bat-suit. Frank Miller's idea of Batman using the round yellow oval as an armored target to draw gunfire away from his head also influenced other Batman comic book writers, as seen in Batman #528 (March, 1996) "Two-Face Part 2: Schismid Faces" written by Doug Moench, for example.

Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, didn't have him wear any kind of armor because he doesn't need it.

Until we see people react negatively to adaptations, which is what this is so there must be some adapting, the argument is fairly baseless.

People have reacted negatively to some adaptions, as I've also previously pointed out. We are going to have to agree to disagree. No amount of back and forth arguing is going to change the others preferences and point of view.

 

[solidsnake86]

I like the Jim Lee wonder woman with the battle skirt. I have yet to see a live action version make the bathing suit look good. If there is one thing I did like from the JMS run was the bracers because the ones in the comics don't translate well in live action.

I would prefer them to stick with silver instead of gold.

 

[gkokujin]

as long as the cowl for batman looks correct, and not like a helmet the way it does in the Dark Knight Trilogy, I could not care any less about everything else. I know they won't mess those up.

 

[gkokujin]

I like the Jim Lee wonder woman with the battle skirt. I have yet to see a live action version make the bathing suit look good. If there is one thing I did like from the JMS run was the bracers because the ones in the comics don't translate well in live action.

I would prefer them to stick with silver instead of gold.

I Agree, she doesn't need high heel boots either, sandals are just fine!
just like how she looked in DC Online

 

[Changeling]

Wonder Woman needs to look like JMC's design

 

[gkokujin]

*nevermind*

 

[gkokujin]

http://michaelmay.us/09blog/09/0908_wwlopresti.jpg

I like this...easy on the cape though

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

Every costume worn in The Avengers just felt natural. Every character had a reason to wear what they were wearing.
Captain America? He's a propaganda figure and his costume is a symbol.
Iron Man? His "costume" is his "power," so he has to wear it in order to be effective.
Hulk? See Iron Man ^^^
Thor, Loki and Thanos? Warriors from a different world.
Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury? Spies in spy gear.

I hope the characters in the Justice League movie also have practical reasons to wear their costumes. So far I can find good reasons for every character to wear their costumes except for the Flash. What reason does he have to wear his suit? Not every character can just be a symbol, the audience wouldn't buy that. It'll be interesting to see what WB/DC comes up with.

 

[cleverusername8]

http://michaelmay.us/09blog/09/0908_wwlopresti.jpg

I like this...easy on the cape though

I'm gonna seem kinda hypocritical but I think this is going too far... Full on battle armor doesn't seem too much like Wonder Woman's style. I know she's a warrior but a battle suit should be on her in a situational basis like in that one Justice League video game.

And as far as the Flash costume explanation goes, it could be engineered to keep him cool when moving at top speeds. Also for his mobility similar to the stuff that bike racers and marathon runners wear. Running in normal clothes would be less practical and it would only get worse with the high speeds with which Flash moves.

 

[metaphysician]

Well, if you go with the idea that Barry is something of a low grade science genius, maybe its a special "running suit" he designed to better deal with wind resistance and such? Sure, his own natural speed force aura largely handles it, but maybe a low friction outfit helps when he pushes his speed to its limits.

 

[mclay18]

Since it's likely Henry Cavill will reprise his Superman role in Justice League, I expect the costume designer to keep the same design from MOS but offer some minor changes and adjustments. I imagine the differences are similar to the costume changes Chris Hemsworth wore in Thor, The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World.

 

[solidsnake86]

^I found that Cap and Thor's costume's took a step back in terms of visual look. Especially thor, but on the positive side, the new thor 2 costume looks great from the spy pics. I would have rather they kept the costumes from the solo movie. I realize obviously cap's had to change, but the helmet portion looked off.

In terms of batman's look. I would be fine if they kept the costume all black because it just looks good in live action.

 

[TheWatcher]

Every costume worn in The Avengers just felt natural. Every character had a reason to wear what they were wearing.
Captain America? He's a propaganda figure and his costume is a symbol.
Iron Man? His "costume" is his "power," so he has to wear it in order to be effective.
Hulk? See Iron Man ^^^
Thor, Loki and Thanos? Warriors from a different world.
Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury? Spies in spy gear.

I hope the characters in the Justice League movie also have practical reasons to wear their costumes. So far I can find good reasons for every character to wear their costumes except for the Flash. What reason does he have to wear his suit? Not every character can just be a symbol, the audience wouldn't buy that. It'll be interesting to see what WB/DC comes up with.

Superman- He is a symbol and he needs to come off that way.
Batman- He isn't indestructible, he needs the suit to battle more powerful foes.
Wonder Woman- It's formal wear on Themyscira.
Green Lantern- It's his uniform.
The Flash- The suit not only protects his clothes from burning off, but it also tells the public that he's friendly.
Aquaman- A king wears armor in battle.
Martian Manhunter- He wants to be seen as friendly while still retaining Martian qualities, so he takes elements from Supermans suit.

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

Superman- He is a symbol and he needs to come off that way.
Batman- He isn't indestructible, he needs the suit to battle more powerful foes.
Wonder Woman- It's formal wear on Themyscira.
Green Lantern- It's his uniform.
The Flash- The suit not only protects his clothes from burning off, but it also tells the public that he's friendly.
Aquaman- A king wears armor in battle.
Martian Manhunter- He wants to be seen as friendly while still retaining Martian qualities, so he takes elements from Supermans suit.

Keeping his clothes from burning off is one thing, but I'd like for it to be explained why his costume is designed the way it is. Maybe it just starts out as some red full body suit used to test how the materials respond to blazing speed and then he modifies it later on and designs it after something significant that happened in his life... something like that. But looking "friendly" isn't good enough.

 

[ClarkLuther55]

Giving the Flash some important life event tied to something as simple and straightforward as yellow lighning bolts would really seem contrived.Being a symbol or trying to look good is the only justification that you need. People in real life wear all kinds of crap that serves no practical purpose.

I love Nolan's movies, I think people talk up their "realism" too much, but Nolan himself sometimes gets too caught up in it himself. Like how he had to "explain" why Catwoman would have cat ears, which he eventually turned into flip-down goggles. Apparently, "she wants to copy Batman and look cool" wasn't enough for him.

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

Giving the Flash some important life event tied to something as simple and straightforward as yellow lighning bolts would really seem contrived.Being a symbol or trying to look good is the only justification that you need. People in real life wear all kinds of crap that serves no practical purpose.

I love Nolan's movies, I think people talk up their "realism" too much, but Nolan himself sometimes gets too caught up in it himself. Like how he had to "explain" why Catwoman would have cat ears, which he eventually turned into flip-down goggles. Apparently, "she wants to copy Batman and look cool" wasn't enough for him.

I just think wearing a costume just because you have superpowers is a dumb reason. Other than Daredevil, I can't think of a single superhero movie where the character wore a costume just because. There has always been an obvious, practical or symbolic reason for it. I'd be fine with a scenario where it starts out as a special running suit and he changes later on because he feels like he made an impact and wants the public to view him as a superhero or something.