Superhero Fashion: Sensible Choices or Black Leather Ninja Crap?

Christian Bale's Batman Costume

With the explosion of superhero movies out lately--and many more to come--some thoughts on the fashion choices made by directors and filmmakers.

- Batman: Black leather ninja crap. I’ve hated most every variation of his movie costume. Would a dark gray suit and midnight blue cape and cowl really be garish and awful? No. Instead, the coolest part of his costume, the awesome black bat on his chest, gets lost and we’re back to generic black ninja crap. Hopefully the director of the new Batman vs. Superman film will present Batman in his more traditional costume. With Ben Affleck playing Batman and the general dark depressiveness of most DC movies, the movie doesn’t have much else going for it.

- X-Men: For the most part, black leather ninja crap. Again, not asking for yellow spandex, but couldn’t they have a tiny bit of color in the leather? Magneto’s helmet looks great in red and purple.

Ben Affleck as Daredevil

- Daredevil: I know the movie is ten years old now, but the main costume looked great. The villain Bullseye? Black leather ninja crap. And no mask. Yes, masks can look ridiculous, but it’s a COMIC BOOK MOVIE. Hopefully the upcoming Netflix series will at least keep the red devil look.

- Spider-Man: The costume is spot-on, especially in the latest Amazing Spider-Man, which was otherwise somewhat blah.

- Avengers: Iron Man looks good. Captain America looks all right, but he has to have the 3D wings on his head to be Cap. And why put gray in his costume? Is red, white and blue not good enough? But he doesn’t wear black leather ninja crap, which is a plus. With minor variations, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow all have black leather ninja crap. Thor has a red cape, Hawkeye has purple highlights. Natasha doesn’t even have gold highlights for her belt and wrist weapons. Would that have killed them? Why can’t Thor have (toned down) gold-wrapped boots or his cool winged helmet? He wore it in the first movie for five minutes and it didn’t look too bad. Marvel really doesn’t like head wings.

Chris Evans with No Head Wings

 

Reeve as Supeman Done Right

- Superman: The Donner movie costume was fantastic, right out of the comics. The recent movie costume could be worse—but the colors are incredibly muted. Filmmakers are so afraid of primary colors—but this is Superman! I don’t want him lurking in shadows and needing to wash his costume with Tide. And I’ll take the red underwear on the outside. It’s worked for the better part of a century.

I realize the costumes can’t be reproduced exactly like they are in the comics. But they can brighten up some of the worst examples and make them a bit more colorful or interesting. When almost every movie has the majority of its characters in the same, boring black leather, it all looks like a generic mishmash of dark-dressing mercenaries. How would filmmakers do Iron Fist? Or Luke Cage? Or one of my favorite comic costumes, Dr. Strange?

 

Dr. Strange. Can we dare hope to get this costume in the movie?

I guess we’ll find out, as they are all on the production schedule for the next few years. I’d really hate for them to all wind up in black leather ninja crap. Give me some interesting visuals and color. Don’t be afraid of your source material!

Powerman & Iron Fist