Underneath My Mask: Clothing Makes the (Super) Man
Aug 10th, 2009 | By Aaron | Category: Articles, News, Underneath My Maskby Aaron Einhorn
The biggest problem I have with superheroes is that they wear their underwear outside of their clothing.
I was talking to a friend of mine about an idea for a Live-Action Roleplaying Game (LARP, for those of you in the know) involving the X-Men and Spider-Man, as they were portrayed in their respective movies, when that statement came up.
So, let’s talk about the superheroic costume, shall we? When taking superheroes out of comic books and putting them into virtually any other type of media (other than cartoons), their costumes are the hardest part to translate. Film and television directors have tried a number of different approaches to handle this thorny issue.
Sometimes, the directors had the courage to just put their actors into tights. And sometimes this works out. Christopher Reeve had the physique to pull off the Superman costume, Adam West did not have the physique to pull off Batman. This technique hasn’t had a huge representation in modern superhero films, for good reason.
The next option is for the silhouette hugging costume that is made of something a little sturdier than spandex. The Spider-Man costume that Toby Maguire has worn, and the Superman costume for Brandon Routh both fit into this category. Visually they follow the design of the costumes from the comic, but the textured fabric they’re made of gives the costume a weight and reality that spandex lacks. The sculpted muscle-suit of the Flash television show also followed this pattern, and while it didn’t work, so did the rubberized Captain America uniform. Most of the costumes from Watchmen fit into this category, with the exception of Nite-Owl.
Then we have those costumes that aren’t superhero costumes, but neither are they ordinary clothing. The leather outfits that the X-Men wear, the “costumes” of the Mystery Men and the armored Batsuits fit into this category. (Although there is an argument for the Batsuits fitting into the previous category.) These outfits aren’t something that any sane person would wear down the street, but neither does the audience viewer think of them as being “men in tights.” Personally, I put armored costumes, like that of Judge Dredd, Robocop, or the archetypical power-armored hero, Iron Man in this category as well.
And then there is the option of keeping your superhero out of costume. Tom Welling on Smallville, of course, is the quintessential example of this. (At least until this season). However even movies and television shows that take one of the above approaches tend to give us a lot of time with the heroes out of costume.
(Then there’s CGI, but we won’t talk about that right now.)
Part of this is practicality. Regardless of the fact that Judge Dredd has never shown his face, you don’t pay Sylvester Stalone’s salary and not use his face to sell your movie. (Which is really a damn shame. Stallone was willing to do it, and the Judge masks and armor looked really good.) Also, unless you’re dealing with a Hugo Weaving, it’s hard to have your actors emote through a mask. But I think part of it is that, regardless of how good your superhero costume is, people are afraid of showing too much of it, because they think it looks silly.
Outside of licensed novels, superhero novelists used to shy away from costumes too. In the Wild Cards novels, very few of the Aces wore a costume, and those who did still had serious concessions to practicality. Part of this was the “realistic” nature of the series, but having tried my hand at writing a superhero novel, I think the other part of it is that when describing a costume, it’s hard to not just describe someone in colored tights. That said, both Perry Moore’s Hero and Austin Grossman gave their heroes traditional superhero outfits, and did so with style and flair.
I give Hollywood credit for it’s continuing attempts to get the superheroic costume right. But I fear that the costume will largely continue to be restricted to the drawn image, and that our live action heroes will continue to mostly wear leather, plastic and trenchcoats.
On the other hand, there is a large and vibrant superhero cosplay community, as anyone who has ever attended any major convention can attest to. I’d love to hear from some of them on their thoughts about superhero costuming.
Underneath My Mask features thoughts, ideas and opinions about superheroes in all forms of media. These ideas belong to Aaron and no one else – and he frequently finds himself in arguments about the ideas put forth here. Feel free to offer up your own arguments in the comments below.
I have appreciated the new visions of the Hollywood designers. I agree there’s still a considerable difference between Spider-man and the X-Men (movie versions). The X-Men suits, imo, are actually quite practical with the exception of Storm’s cape. They’re not much different than any other motorcycle gear. The latest Batman franchise is the same and in fact, there are consumer versions available (http://www.girlsentertainmentnetwork.com/interview-ud-replicas-batman-joker-streetwear/)
I also would have hated if someone re-imagined Superman to the point of not being recognizable. I’m not a big fan of the Returns suit but at least you can tell by looking at it, what it’s supposed to be.
What movie goers need to keep in mind is that back in the 1940s and Golden Age days, the costumes were reflective of actual vocations where one would see people with “super” strength and agility – the circus! The strong man, the acrobats, even the world of professional wrestling are influences on the design of comic book characters. And why wouldn’t they be? Even today’s world of MMA and UFC shows contenders in “underwear” and boots. The psychology of sports and competition however tells us that darker colors, especially black, are intimidating so the design aspects have veered from the bright colors of Dick Grayson or Deadman. Mexican Wrestling still embraces the flamboyance so thankfully, there is somewhere you can see it live in action.
As a costumer – well, I just love my spandex! I invent reasons to wear it out in public. There is also a large element of fantasy and I get rather upset when fans criticize costumers so badly because they aren’t built like the character. Seriously, how many of us out in reality look like a comic book character? Not many who also happen to be comic fans. If you see a Spidey with a little paunch, big frakkin’ deal. Let the fella enjoy his con. I feel it’s even more critical of the female costumers and cosplayers because it is a normal fantasy for the male demographic to dream of seeing the perfect White Queen and Slave Leia. The internet of all places, is not exactly kind to the women who love pop culture; when insults abound it only drives the female fans further into obscurity. The male fans should not complain about the lack of female comic fans when they are primarily to blame for these insults.
While I understand how hard it is to translate the superhero costumes from the page to the screen, I admit I wish Hollywood would give it a little extra effort to bring these images to life. Christopher Reeve looked like he stepped off the page. It can be done again.
Granted, sometimes you just can’t justify what the character wears in the book in the context of a movie. What if they had given Wolverine his costume from the comics? The first leap in logic you would have to overcome isn’t the color yellow in his outfit but his mask. Why would he wear one? When did he ever need to hide his identity in the movies? What if Bullseye had his tights in the Daredevil movie? He would have been laughed off the screen. In these cases, I undertstand and support the film maker’s decisions. However, when they replace the red in Brandon Routh’s costume with a deep, dull purple I cannot see the logic or reason especially when they start re-coloring stills of the costume for press releases. Just have some guts and go with the bright colors.
Now if they’ll just give Deadpool his costume….
An advantage the X-Men movie uniforms had was that the X-Men comics have a history of using a team uniform. That made it easy for X-Men fans to buy into the look they used for the movies.