- The great people over at
Fun.com sent me this suit.
You may have seen me wearing it on
all of my social media
things, I love it so much.
It's a comic book themed
tie and pocket square,
and, oh yeah, full suit, check it out.
Bam!
What?
I love this thing and I
never want to take it off
I want to wear it in every single video.
They have a ton more like
this over at their website
Fun.com, go check it out.
Link in the description below.
But wearing this suit made me
think about superhero costumes.
How's that for a forced transition?
But seriously though last
year around this time
we did a four part series
about why superhero costumes
are designed the way they are.
Everything from capes, spandex,
underwear on the outside of the pants,
and those awesome white eyes a la Batman.
I had plenty of other videos
lined up for this month,
including some Christmas special stuff,
but you know what?
Gosh dang it I love superhero costumes
and I want to revisit the series.
So over the next couple weeks
we're going to be talking
more about superhero costumes.
But instead of talking about why they're
designed the way they are,
I want to take a look at
the function of costumes,
why they are so important
in superhero stories.
Both in the comics and in the movies.
Now obviously comic books
are a visual medium,
costumes are visually eye catching
and they should help tell the story.
We talked about this
plenty of times in the past
but the early comic book industry
didn't really have great
printing technology.
So designing superheroes with bright,
vivid costumes helped the reader
follow the character from page to page.
And it became so effective that a reader
could identify a character just by
looking for their color
scheme and pattern.
And so in that way
costumes made characters
iconic and easily recognizable.
I mean, plus they're just super cool.
Look at Superman here,
look how confident he is
in this costume despite the fact
that in real life it looks kind of silly.
And if there are characters out there
that can wear these kinds
of costumes confidently,
then that kind of signifies that they know
exactly who they are
and what they stand for.
A costume should inform and reflect
a very large part of the character.
Not all of it, mind you, but a lot of it.
Look at characters like Punisher,
or Aquaman, or Doctor Strange.
You can just look at these characters
and know a lot about them instantly,
just by what they're wearing.
And that's a huge part
of what costumes are for.
As comic scholar Peter
Coogan points out, quote,
"The difference between
Superman and earlier figures
"such as the Shadow or Doc Savage
"lies in the element of identity
"central to the superhero, the costume.
"Although Superman was not
the first costumed hero,
"his costume marks a clear
and striking departure
"from those of the pulp heroes.
"A pulp hero's costume
does not emblematize
"a character's identity.
"The slouch hat, black cloak and red scarf
"of the Shadow or the mask and fangs
"of the Spider disguise their faces
"but do not proclaim their identities.
"Superman's costume does.
"Particularly through his S chevron.
"Similarly Batman's costume
proclaims him a bat man,
"just as Spider-Man's webbed costume
"proclaims him a spider man.
"These costumes are iconic representations
"of the superhero identity." End quote.
And in some cases a costume hero
can be a metaphor for real life.
When Marvel comics
printed that famous cover
of Captain America punching
Hitler square in the jaw
they got a ton of backlash for that.
From isolationists who
believe that the U.S.
shouldn't even be involved in the war.
And then here comes Marvel
printing a character
who's literally dressed
in the American flag
not only getting involved,
but going straight to the top
and taking matters into his own hands.
But of course the tights and the capes,
those are just one costume
that a superhero wears.
Their civilian clothes are
also a type of costume.
Someone like Batman for example
feels more comfortable
in the cape and cowl
than he does as Bruce Wayne.
Bruce Wayne is his costume.
But where heroes' civilian clothes
are in constant flux from day to day
wearing different outfits,
the superhero costume
is resistant to change.
Barry Allen might wear
a different combination
of sweater and button up from day to day,
but when he's the Flash he
has a very specific uniform.
Because a hero has to be
clear in their intentions
and motivations and goals.
And a costume helps create
that sense of stability.
If Superman wore a different
costume every single day
you wouldn't really know
what to look out for
if you were in trouble,
but once you see that red, blue blur,
you know that help is on the way.
Which is not to say that
costume redesigns don't happen,
of course they do.
Things get rebooted and
updated all the time.
Most of the time it's
minor tweaks and updates
that don't change a lot of the character.
But when they do change drastically
it can change how we perceive a hero.
When Superman was de-powered and put
into a t-shirt and jeans
with that old classic Superman logo,
it was to represent
that he is getting back
to his roots as a character.
A different costume change
can even allow a character
to reach a completely
different audience than before.
Take Batgirl's redesign,
or even how Marvel
will take characters from the comics
and make them look like their counterparts
in the movies.
This is all an attempt to
reach a different audience.
Someone who might not be familiar
with a character's classic costume
and more familiar with
their movie costume.
Which honestly could be
an entire video of itself,
but let's get back on track.
I could talk about
superhero costumes forever
and honestly I was planning on it.
But I figured with all of
the thoughts that I had
the video would turn out
to be a 40 minute long
rambling, disjointed mess.
But I figured to save you all from that
I would just break this
up into individual chunks,
critically examining
very specific superheroes
as case studies.
So over the next couple of weeks
we're going to be taking
a look at characters like
Superman and the X-Men, Watchmen,
even the movies.
And seeing what they're doing right
and wrong with superhero costumes.
The importance of Superman's
cape for instance,
or why he doesn't wear a mask
and why that's so effective.
Why the X-Men having a unified
costume theme is significant.
How Watchmen deals with the
power of masks and identity.
And how costume designers
for comic book movies
design super-suits, how
it informs the actor,
and how restricting movement
might actually be beneficial.
And if there's time
potentially talk about cosplay.
But all of this is just
in the works right now.
I'm still writing all of these videos,
which is also why I
wanted to make this video.
To inform you about what's
going to be happening
and also to get the
conversation started right now.
Maybe I could even use
some of your comments
in these upcoming videos.
So all of this is going
to start next week,
but not before we do a Star Wars video
because I forgot Star Wars was happening.
So that's going to be first,
and then we'll move on
to superhero costumes.
So once again a huge thanks to Fun.com
for sending this awesome comic book suit.
Go check them out, they've
got a ton of other ones
like Joker and Hulk and Iron Man.
Just a bunch of great stuff over there.
Links are in the description.
And while you're down
there hit that like button,
and that big sexy subscribe button.
If you can't wait to learn
about superhero costumes
we've got an entire playlist
already from last year
that you can binge watch to get ready.
So you can click right here to watch that.
My name is Scott, reminding
you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.
