Saturday, July 3, 2010

Modernizing a Classic: Costume Changes Part 2


My second post (of hopefully only 2, unless one of the comic companies decides to start changing costumes willy-nilly on us) about how I view the changing of costumes in comic books (and now comic book related media). I'm specifically talking about the revealed concept art for Captain America. But Kellen, we l-o-v-e Cap's costume!!! It's teh awesomes!


This may be the only time I will ever say this, but if that was the first thing out of your mouth (or in your head) when you read that first paragraph, stop reading. Please. You're not going to like what comes next and I don't want to hear about it later. This was prompted by Brian Denham, a Marvel artist I follow on Twitter. Yes, I'm on Twitter, too. Yes, most of my posts are equally pointless. But back to the story. He posted an image he drew of what he called "World War II Cap." I followed the link and, lo and behold, it was an image done in the style of the movie's concept art. Now, I have a problem with this. One, nowhere on the DevArt page was it ever mentioned that this was based on said concept art. And two, all of the comments on said page were to the effect of "WWII Cap is teh BESTESTS EVAH!1!


For those of you who do not know, Cap was created in 1941...during World War II! What costume was he wearing then, you ask? Well, there it is on the right. Y'know what that looks like? What Captain America is wearing in the comics today (when Steve Rogers is Cap, Bucky Barnes' costume is much different).
My question is this: If Captain America wore that costume during World War II, how can someone today make a costume that is 'how he would've looked during World War II' when the costume was designed during World War II?
Not only that, but the material the costume appears to be made out of doesn't even seem like something that would've been around during WWII. It looks like a futuristic kevlar body armor that a cross between The Dark Knight and Robocop would've worn. Now, I'm told that this was done because this makes the costume more "realistic and practical." Then, when I try to point out that such materials wouldn't exist, the replies are, "It's a comic book movie, what do you expect?" This is from the same people. How? Does? That? Work?
My point, as long-winded as it is, is this: Captain America was created during World War II. He should be wearing what he wore during, you guessed it, WWII. If the creators want to update the outfit for after he gets thawed out in the Modern Era, fine. That's up to them. But they should not be saying that their costume is somehow more 'WWII-era' than the costume designed during that time period.

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