The Dark Knight Rises The TDKR Batsuit Discussion Thread

[Paste Pot Pete]

I dunno, I hope that if Bats has a new suit in TDKR, he just starts the movie with it, or at least doesn't have a specific reason for the change.

If he changes his costume with every problem he runs across, it'll start to look less like Prep Time Genius and more like a comedy routine.

"I'm too slow, need a lighter costume!"

"I got shot in the stomach. I need more armor again!"

"I spilled grape juice all over my cape. It needs to be stain resistant!"

"LUUUUCIUUUS!!!!!!"

 

[Dave McFly]

I dunno, I hope that if Bats has a new suit in TDKR, he just starts the movie with it, or at least doesn't have a specific reason for the change.

If he changes his costume with every problem he runs across, it'll start to look less like Prep Time Genius and more like a comedy routine.

"I'm too slow, need a lighter costume!"

"I got shot in the stomach. I need more armor again!"

"I spilled grape juice all over my cape. It needs to be stain resistant!"

"LUUUUCIUUUS!!!!!!"

 

[Savage]

In live action, it does. The gray tights and black panties would not look good in a movie. There, I said it!

What if he wears briefs instead? Or a speedo? I never really thought of Batman as the panty type.

 

[Mr. Earle]

Define "comic accurate" if it doesn't look like gray tights with black panties over it. If you want Batman's suit to be "comic accurate," then it's gray cloth, a cloth cowl and cape made out of black or blue fabric, black or blue panties, cloth gloves, and boots.

The only things "innacurate" about this costume is that he probably does not have kevlar underneath the cloth, that the cowl is not attached to the cape, the gloves, and he does not have white lenses over his eyes. This is the ugly truth about tights-- they don't work the same way in real life as they do in comics. In comics, tights are pretty much painted on. They fill in every nook and cranny of a characters' anatomy, making their muscles look more dynamic than anything that's possible in real life unless vacuum sealing is involved. Real tights do no fill in the nooks and crannies, and instead stretch over them to smooth and flatten everything out. Someone may have washboard abs, but in a tight shirt it's all just going to look puffy.

The way tights look in comic has become more and more exaggerated over the decades, and it's gone from representing what was simply accepted as the pinnacle of costume design during a more archaic era of superheroes, to being some kind of otherworldy material that does not exist in real life which is poured over the muscles of characters with impossible muscular proportions. Fans might not like it, but they should turn their ire towards the comic artists who set their expectations so ridiculously high in the first place for what tights and undies should look like. As soon as you concede that something other than skin-tight fabric and a cloth cowl need to be used for the costume, you can no longer make the claim of being "comic book accurate." And if there's one thing that I know about fans, is that many of them value accuracy over practicality anyway so there's no point in chasing that chuck wagon.

Compare that with this and imagine what it would look like if the cosplayer had Nolan's budget to make his suit.

 

[Savage]

There really is no excuse in this day and age. Bale would look pretty good in the suit. They're on the right track with the costume in TDK. Just reverse it. Cloth/kevlar on top of the armor this time. It'd pretty much look like a muscle suit (which I guess it really would be).

 

[storyteller]

The armor just looks cooler alright. The cloth works in the comics but in real life that armor is pretty damn badass. To go from that to cloth(even if you lie to me and say its over armor causes my badass meter to going into lil ***** zone.

 

[Yurka]

I dont care about the whole cloth/no cloth nonsense. I do care about them fixing the god**mn mouth opening and inverted ears though.

 

[RustyCage]

There are some fan films on youtube that make the gray/black look awwwwwesome, and if a fan film can pull it off, a 100+ million dollar franchise can too. (Not that I want to see it)
"City of Scars" is one.

I like the CoS cowl a lot, but the suit was pretty lame imo.

 

[Saint]

This is the ugly truth about tights-- they don't work the same way in real life as they do in comics.

No, they don't--but that's irrelevant. While they may not work the same way, they do work just fine. This is 2011, and Spider-Man exists. The debate ended ten years ago.

 

[Timstuff]

Again, the accurate comic book costume still looks good. If it didnt, Batman would never look cool. Spandex or not, Batman's costume design always rocks, at least for me

Of course it can look good when someone is DRAWING it. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to cheat with the physics of tights in real life than it is when you are drawing it. Drawings are removed from reality and under the direct control of the artist. The fact that it is not real is already disarming for the idea that someone would wear tights and expect to be taken seriously as a crime fighter, but on top of that, when an artists draws tights they can make them look however they want. The painted-on dynamic looking tights from comics simply do not exist in the real world. Tights will rarely ever look as good or be as believable in real life as they are on the printed page, and in terms of believability it does not make visual sense for many superheroes to dress like that. Batman is not supposed to look like a circus performer, so why do some fans advocate he have such a circus-influenced getup in the movies?

 

[TheBatman072]

 

[Saint]

They've got a pretty killer Batman design in Young Justice; it's got enough going on that it looks like armour, but it still looks like Batman (sort of like the Arkham Asylum suit, but without the terrible gauntlets and steroid Batman).

I think if they built a suit like this using the approach of the Tron suits (which is a lot like the TDk suit; a mesh undersuit with a tougher looking material on top), that would be pretty ideal. The medium length gloves are really neat, too.

 

[Timstuff]

Compare that with this and imagine what it would look like if the cosplayer had Nolan's budget to make his suit.

No matter how much money you throw at it, it's still going to look like circus tights. It's a design that only works in comics because comic books are far enough removed from reality for it to work. Batman just plain isn't a colorful enough character that if he existed in real life, I'd be able to believe he'd wear something like that. There's a lot of things that are acceptable in the world of comic book superheroes that would not work well in a live action film, and I think Batman's costume as it appears on the pages of comics is amongst them.

 

[Timstuff]

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8080/youngjusticebatman.jpg
They've got a pretty killer Batman design in Young Justice; it's got enough going on that it looks like armour, but it still looks like Batman (sort of like the Arkham Asylum suit, but without the terrible gauntlets and steroid Batman).

I think if they built a suit like this using the approach of the Tron suits (which is a lot like the TDk suit; a mesh undersuit with a tougher looking material on top), that would be pretty ideal. The medium length gloves are really neat, too.

I still don't get why he needs the external panties of differentiated color for a live action suit to be "good" by some fans' standards.

 

[GothamAlleys]

Of course it can look good when someone is DRAWING it. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to cheat with the physics of tights in real life than it is when you are drawing it. Drawings are removed from reality and under the direct control of the artist.

The thing is that ALex Ross isnt just another comic book sketcher. Hes a painter and his illustrations are extremely relaistic. I tihnk many people would mistake the second illustration I posted for a photo at first glance, and the costume does look good

The fact that it is not real is already disarming for the idea that someone would wear tights and expect to be taken seriously as a crime fighter

I disagree. Most of the old classic cartoon heroes wear thights and spandex costume and it was never change and doesnt looks silly - Superman's costume doesnt change, Spiderman is still all spandex, and Batman was one of them. And it does make all the sense in the world and there IS a functionality to it since Batman relies on his physical prowess and has absolutely no restrictions in his movements when wearing spandex. In the comics, he almost has SpiderMan-like moves, he has that agility and he needs that to avoid bullets and do all those acrobatics to fight criminals. Its actually the armor that doesnt make sense when it comes to functionality because it gives him weight and seriously impairs his perception since his ears are covered and his mask is thick and restricts his movement. My point is, the costume wasnt changed to armor due to functionality or to update it to the movie look - after all, it wasnt done in the serial or in the TV show and wasnt changed for Superman or Spiderman. It was changed because it simply looked cool, and it all stemmed out of Bob Ringwood's idea who disliked the look of Batman and was never a fan of his, and redesigned his suit to an armor back in '89, an idea that still looks badass today

Remember what Stan Kubrick said, real is good, but interesting is better. And the idea of Batman wearing black body suit instead is damn interesting and as cool as cool can be, but the comic book spandex outfit is still just as good

 

[Saint]

I still don't get why he needs the panties for a live action suit to be "good" by some fans' standards.

I'm uncertain as to why you quoted me, as what you said doesn't seem to have anything to do with what I wrote.

There's a lot of things that are acceptable in the world of comic book superheroes that would not work well in a live action film, and I think Batman's costume as it appears on the pages of comics is amongst them.

Your lack of imagination is a little depressing. I doubt there are really that many things that "wouldn't work" on film, which is why we've so often seen claims that these "wouldn't work" fall flat on their faces when movies actually attempt these things.

I remember when yellow costumes "wouldn't work" for the X-Men.

 

[Mr. Earle]

I dont care about the whole cloth/no cloth nonsense. I do care about them fixing the god**mn mouth opening and inverted ears though.

Inverted ears? What do you mean?

Of course it can look good when someone is DRAWING it. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to cheat with the physics of tights in real life than it is when you are drawing it. Drawings are removed from reality and under the direct control of the artist. The fact that it is not real is already disarming for the idea that someone would wear tights and expect to be taken seriously as a crime fighter, but on top of that, when an artists draws tights they can make them look however they want. The painted-on dynamic looking tights from comics simply do not exist in the real world. Tights will rarely ever look as good or be as believable in real life as they are on the printed page, and in terms of believability it does not make visual sense for many superheroes to dress like that. Batman is not supposed to look like a circus performer, so why do some fans advocate he have such a circus-influenced getup in the movies?

Besides that guy nobody is asking for spandex.

Spoiler

They've got a pretty killer Batman design in Young Justice; it's got enough going on that it looks like armour, but it still looks like Batman (sort of like the Arkham Asylum suit, but without the terrible gauntlets and steroid Batman).

I think if they built a suit like this using the approach of the Tron suits (which is a lot like the TDk suit; a mesh undersuit with a tougher looking material on top), that would be pretty ideal. The medium length gloves are really neat, too.

This is great!

If only they used this as a guide for Arkham Asylum and the movies.

 

[Mr. Earle]

No matter how much money you throw at it, it's still going to look like circus tights. It's a design that only works in comics because comic books are far enough removed from reality for it to work. Batman just plain isn't a colorful enough character that if he existed in real life, I'd be able to believe he'd wear something like that. There's a lot of things that are acceptable in the world of comic book superheroes that would not work well in a live action film, and I think Batman's costume as it appears on the pages of comics is amongst them.

In real life Batman would have at least covered his mouth with a gas mask. So since this is a comic book franchise, why not go all out? As Saint has shown the grey suit can be done in real life. Hell, there have been manips of the TDK suit in black and grey livery, so why wouldnt a black and grey "cloth" suit work?

And when i say cloth i mean something tough, like the material we see in Arkham Asylum or something like that.

 

[GothamAlleys]

I simply fail to see how in any way Batman's costume is circus -like or bad. I have never heard anyone excpt for Ringwood saying they dont like Batman's look, and I sure didnt expect to see it on a Batman forum. Ross showed almost photorealitsic paintings of the suit and it looks very good, after all, Superman's and Spiderman's suits are spandex and look good. Spandex doesnt mean it has to look like a cheap haloween costume.

http://www.**************.com/images/users/uploads/14229/spiderman.jpg

Im not saying I want a spandex suit in TDKR of course, as I already mentioned at least twice in this thread that I want the TDK suit to stay in plus spandex was already done so why repeat it, but in no way I would say that Batman's comic book suit is bad by any possible means.

 

[the dmg]

On TDK special edition Nolan explained that the reason why they changed the costume in TDK is because that was the type of a costume they wanted to do all along but they didnt have enough time for design and research on BB but they finally had it in TDK. So it wasnt just to do something new, so I hope the TDK costume sticks

The batsuit was an afterthought for Nolan. He spent most of the BB budget on the Tumbler, and while they had ideas for what it wanted to be, they ran out of money to do what he really wanted. Plus, the TDK suit is far from being perfect, but is a step in the right direction, IMO. I would hope that they would want to improve it even more.

 

[GothamAlleys]

Oh and after all, Batman looked great in Dead End

 

[GothamAlleys]

The batsuit was an afterthought for Nolan. He spent most of the BB budget on the Tumbler, and while they had ideas for what it wanted to be, they ran out of money to do what he really wanted.

I know I just posted the exact same thing on the last page

As for the design of the TDK suit, it naturally all comes down to personal preference. I myself really, really dig the TDK costume a lot, despite the criticism that it looks like the Catman's suit. Perhaps it does in a way, but it still looks phenomenal and is very much to my liking

 

[DaveMoral]

The idea that tights wouldn't work in a movie is entirely based on the premise that the movie is in a contemporary setting. Personally, I'd love to see a Batman movie that is almost a 1-for-1 live action adaptation of BTAS. In that setting, art/dark deco, you could have modern technologies with a classic 30s look and culture in which you could easily reconcile the costume design. I wouldn't make it tights though, but a tougher material with a kevlar body armor underneath. You could literally have a Bat-suit that looked exactly like BTAS/comics, have it make sense within the world it exists in, and sell it to the audience.

Audiences don't go into movies, especially superhero movies, expecting it to correlate with how things are in this world. You have to set up a world where everything the superhero does makes sense. Nolanverse Batman does not make sense for a 100% comic accurate Batman. That's fine by me, but just because neither he nor Tim Burton(who constructed a Bat-verse all of his own) found it suitable to do a black/grey outfit for the worlds they created doesn't mean it can't be done convincingly and better than any of the previous comic accurate portrayals of the Bat-suit in cinema(Adam West is the most atrocious example for sure, but there are also those serials from the 40s).

 

[the dmg]

As for the design of the TDK suit, it naturally all comes down to personal preference. I myself really, really dig the TDK costume a lot, despite the criticism that it looks like the Catman's suit. Perhaps it does in a way, but it still looks phenomenal and is very much to my liking

I love the fact that the TDK suit is the first for the franchise to move away from all rubber, which is a good sign. They just didn't nail it right with the design as a whole. If they went with the approach that the new Tron suits took, I think the batsuit could look a lot better. I still hate the the BB suit more than the TDK one, but the cowl needs a redesign in the baddest way.

 

[Yurka]

Inverted ears? What do you mean? Besides that

I hate that theyre angled inwards in stead of straight up, ridiculous I know, but if they were straight the cowl would look so much better.