For all those who say" It's just a collar" well it's just a cape, why not make it have a hood, tiny change, or make it really short?
Sme thing, it is simply about the heroic look of something. It is not about the collar, but what the collar does to the cape.
The shoulders and neck are a very important part of ceating a heroic look. Again, I refer you to almost every heroic incarnation in history, particularly those with capes. The cape is made to accentuate the broad appearance of the shoulders and neck, AND the traps coming from the neck.
You can show just that area of a person and very clearly establish that they are ment to look heroic, and show the rest and it will just look like a person in good shape.
But if you just look at that area on the SR costume, it is simply NOT heroic. Just looks like a cape tucked into a shirt. It actually takes away from Rouths shoulders and neck rather than accetuating them like it is ment too.
So no, it is NOT just a collar. Not when there's a cape attached to it.
the only way that collars like that work with capes are when the cape does not attache right to the collar. OR the cape is more of a cloak, and wraps right around to the front, ala dracula. Again, in this case, it all comes to gether to still not create, in any way, a heroic look, but rather a mysterious one.
The only other times that collars like this work is when the cape attaches some where else, like Cpt. Marvel, or a cape more like Batman's, where he has no neck or anything showing, but the cape still comes down making itself a notable part of the costume in the front. Not just this tough of fabric peaking up at the top.