Up and at Them

I've been trying to lay off DC Comics (which is still weird because the 'C' in DC stands for Comics, so it's effectively saying Detective Comics Comics, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms) during the whole "DCnU/Reboot/Relaunch" event, because, well, there wasn't any specific reason. I guess I just wanted to wait and see how this thing plays out before tearing it apart.

But then, in DC-related news, the first shot of Henry Cavill, the man who would be Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, in the costume surfaced today. What. The. Heck? How come, in over thirty years, has no one been able to make a decent looking big-screen Superman suit? If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it HERE. And be sure to check out the enlarged version, where a lot more detail is visible.

Just from the shot on SHH!'s story page, the costume doesn't look half bad. But, in the enlarged shot, some things really start to stick out. First, there's the latex-scale thing going on. Spider-Man started a dangerous trend when he first appeared on the silver screen in 2001, and no one has used it to as great as success (including the last attempt at a Superman film) since.

The 'S' is still raised, but not as much. However, it also has the scaley pattern to it. It just looks...weird. It also appears to be closer to the Golden Age 'S' shield than his modern costume. That begs the question, "Why?" There's a reason that artists no longer draw the logo that way. It just looks awkward.

The sleeves have kind of a cuff to them that at first I though was how some artists have been drawing him lately. It could have been that they had already seen the costume and were trying to integrate design elements into the comics, but then I realized that Supergirl is the one with a similar pattern. Not exactly the same, but similar. I also noticed that there is piping on the legs and along the torso. Not sure what the fascination with that these days, and it appears to pop up in most redesigned costumes (I've even tried it out with the Zero character a couple of times). Hopefully, the suit doesn't have ribbing...

We haven't seen the back of the cape yet, so we don't know if it'll have the yellow S shield, but I will give them props for having what appears to be a cloth cape. Looks better than the Returns cape, anyway. I also like that the colors look to be brighter in general than the Routh costume. The reds are red, instead of a maroonish/brownish color.

Speaking of reds, I can't be certain, but from the picture it looks like Supes is missing his bright red briefs. A lot of people say that it's goofy to have a grown man in tights AND wearing his underpants on the outside of his clothes. I argue that, without the pants, the character just doesn't feel right. There's too much blue, broken up only by what appears to be a dark-colored belt. Now it looks like one, big ,scaley, blue body suit. It's a similar argument to the Wonder Woman bikini debate. People crow on and on that a person shouldn't be fighting crime in a swimsuit or with their tighty whities (or in this case, red...ies) on display for the world to see. But without these elements, the characters don't look right. They just don't seem like themselves.

To me, it always comes off as a desperate ploy to look hip and modern, just like with the armored panels and piping and ribbing. At least, however, it isn't CG alien musculature and is an actual, physical costume.

The actor looks like he could play an evil Superman. Could be the seemingly lack of eyebrows.

I went on longer about the costume than I thought I would, so I'm going to cut it off here. I'll probably tackle the DC Reboot when I have more time and energy. Also have to get in my thoughts on Captain America eventually...