"Spandex" (the catch-all term for form-fitting attire) has been pretty much the traditional garb of superheroes (especially Western-style) since the beginning of the superhero genre (unfortunately, while it looks great in comics, men in spandex do not seem to translate well to live-action).
Two alternatives to spandex have been...
1. The "natural" look, ie, no formal, fancy costume. What you see is what you get. Examples: Surfer, Hulk.
2. Regular clothing, from traditional garb (eg, DBZ), to street clothes (Superboy, with his tee and jeans), to leather or even paramilitary (movie X-men).
What are your preferences and why? Should superheroes stay with muscle-/curve-showcasing spandex? Is regular clothing better because it's more realistic? But if a character dons regular clothes, does that somehow detract from his/her superheroness (after all, shouldn't a superhero look like a superhero)?
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Shinier than a speeding bullet.
How so? Where does spandex work? Where does it fail? Why?
What characters go better with regular clothing? What characters are better with the natural/non-costume look? (I'm not asking for specific characters per se, eg, Batman, but rather what type of characters, eg, street-levelers).
I'm asking because, in some ways, spandex appears timeless: no matter what real-world fashion may be, the superhero will always be identified by the spandex look. On the other hand, is the spandex look itself dated?
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Shinier than a speeding bullet.
Movie Spider-man and Superman (Roth) looked great in spandex costumes, while the X-Men - who opted for a less "comic booky" appearance - looked all sorts of lame.
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Play League of Legends for free and reference me - GentlemanZombie - when you join
I hated - like really, really, hated - Batman's cowl/mask in Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. I think it looks horrendous. I really don't like how the points/ears are on the top of the head and curve inwards instead of going straight up the side. Can't stand it. And the bottom sides of the mask is padded to make it look like Bale as a strong jawline. None if it works for me.
... but the rest of the suit looks great.
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Play League of Legends for free and reference me - GentlemanZombie - when you join
Spandex is good for characters that are in the traditional portrayal.
Ostentatious robes work well for mages.
Street clothes works best for "realistic" or "gritty" characters. For supers normal clothing is essentially counter-cultural.
Sometimes you have to accept what the original artist wanted. Who's going to complain about Engineer or Zatanna or Craven?
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Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 15th, 2008 02:46 PM
