It's images like this that remind me why Superman needs an "S" shield on his cape. For some reason or others, designers want to keep it off the costume and I feel that it just makes him look a little more generic. It started with Superman: The Animated Series and on into Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. OK, those shows got just about everything else right, so I can give them a pass and accept the reasoning that it was too hard to animate (although somehow they managed it on Super Friends, decades earlier). But then the live action movies decided to drop it - first on Superman Returns and now on Man of Steel. I just don't get how in this era of CGI that it would be a problem and again, it works so well design-wise to keep the shield. The worst cut was in DC New 52 costume redesigns, where now it is gone even in the comics! I can understand the reasoning behind losing the red trunks but this omission I just don't get. Add in the fact that they changed the color of his belt to red, and you now have hardly any yellow on the costume at all. The overall result is that the uniform just looks like it's missing something.
6 comments:
Ross, I fully support DC's attempts to get rid of as much "yellow" (and red) as possible from Superman's look and design- from the belt (it was corny back then, its corny now)to the red boots. That goes for the "S" too. Personally, as a primary fan of Batman, I never "got" Supes. He was too powerful. If I ever brought an issue, it was due to the villians he fought. I could not relate to Superman, but I could ASPIRE to be Batman.
Unfortunately, most of the folks working in Hollywood and for DC Comics right now have no idea what the terms "classic" and "iconic" really mean, when they revamp and reboot things so they bear little semblance to what inspired them.
DC's been spending far too much time over the past quarter-century "messing with success." They cite contradictions and confusion, and just end up generating more and more of it with every reboot -- every "fix" seems to only make matters worse. I haven't read any of the new stuff, but from everything I've seen (here and elsewhere) the latest reboot is worst of all.
I think they should ask the fanbase what would work best, and do one final reboot based on the consensus.
In a way, this cover represents the situation; the only time Marvel has done a true reboot of Earth-616 (that I can think of) was the "House of M" storyline. If the dead person on this cover had been the Scarlet Witch, it could have been a perfect commentary.
Hm... maybe you could address this with a future cover, teaming up the Scarlet Witch with some of DC's "no longer part of the DCU" characters?
DC's revisionist designs are not capturing the imagination of the comic buying public, and it shows in the ho-hum response to the current continuity. Is it any wonder the company has rebooted so many times in the past 10+ years? Everything has to be darker, while finally removing as much of the iconic imagery and stories as possible...yet what have they replaced it with) Stories few care about.
About your cover: great crossover, with classic Superman and one of the more interesting Avengers line-ups. Clever use of what appears to be an Adams Superman on a Buscema Avengers cover, as both were masters at muscular, flexible forms always appearing to be in motion.
How about Cap appearing on a Silver Age JLA cover?
There's a Cap/JLA cover coming up - in fact it's one of my favorites.
Great cover....fits perfectly. Period artwork and the lettering looks genuine
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