Agreed 100%, but it's just Batman and Superman who have regressed due to nostalgia. Everyone else has moved on.
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Superhero costumes need to move away from trunks entirely
- Thread starter DragonSJG
- Start date
I came into this thread wondering what the fuss was about since the primary example Batman already ditched the undies for the best comic batman costume of all time:
...only to discover that this costume is already old news, having double checked recent Detective Comics and Batman and finding things already back to the old status quo.
I came here to fight but now I find myself on team OP.
I'll always give a pass to the OG Superman but Batman has no excuse when the rebirth suit is right there.
Excellent post, I couldn't agree more with everything you said. It's so disappointing they scrapped this suit so quickly. It is the best batsuit. The bat looks lame to me now without the yellow outline, I can't let it go ; ;
OTOH I sometimes wonder how many artists could pull it off as well as Capullo...and I want to say Dave McCaig was colorist? Not 100% on that but the coloring on this suit panel to panel is pure magic that I am not sure would be easy to bring out with a different style.
Everyone pulled it off well.
I don't think it was as cool in tec 🤷♂️
Might be the belt.
Trunks need to stay, especially for Superman. So many have tried to get rid of them but it never looks good.
I've said this before, trying to design costumes for cartoon characters in the most realistic and practical way possible just never works. They look like that in live-action because they need to and it's a completely different medium.
I've said this before, trying to design costumes for cartoon characters in the most realistic and practical way possible just never works. They look like that in live-action because they need to and it's a completely different medium.
Comic books are drawings, and I don't see the need to have them conform to the same considerations as real-world costuming. You can have good costume designs with trunks, and good designs without them—but simply deleting them from an existing design where they served a graphic purpose usually looks bad. And graphic simplicity (color blocking, etc.) usually translates better across a broad range of art styles than does a costume that relies on a lot of fussy details.
Aside from the minor details in things like the gloves, boots, etc.—which are generally things the individual artist has some creative license over regardless—I don't find any aspect of this an improvement over the classic suit. The belt/trunk area looks plainly worse to me than a basic yellow belt + black trunks would.
Aside from the minor details in things like the gloves, boots, etc.—which are generally things the individual artist has some creative license over regardless—I don't find any aspect of this an improvement over the classic suit. The belt/trunk area looks plainly worse to me than a basic yellow belt + black trunks would.
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you just cemented your awful taste by liking the culmination of every OC fan design with the scar, heterochromia and two toned hair lmao
I dunno, but if you argue that the DCU or Star Wars don't look silly then I disagree. Jedi bathroom robes are very comical.
The trunks on Supes' costume do serve an aesthetic purpose, the red breaks up the sea of blue, which would be too much otherwise. If you look at the countless attempts to redesign his suit, it just looks weird with only a skinny red or gold belt. That larger presence of red in the trunks + the gold belt are more visually pleasing (at least to me) than having one or the other.
It's why I've never loved the Snyder Superman suits - having that tiny gold "belt" just kinda floating there always looked terrible to me.
That said, I do think the Rebirth design was probably the best attempt I'd seen at ditching the trunks in favor of incorporating both the red and gold into the belt.
It's why I've never loved the Snyder Superman suits - having that tiny gold "belt" just kinda floating there always looked terrible to me.
That said, I do think the Rebirth design was probably the best attempt I'd seen at ditching the trunks in favor of incorporating both the red and gold into the belt.
Hell no. Superman's trunks stay on. If it needs an in-universe explanation just say the trunks are Kryptonian fashion.
Wolverine is already modernized.OFC not black suit like X-men stuff, just modernize and update like this:
Marvel solved this problem 17 years ago by using multiple shades and slight design changes rather than just omitting trunks.
That picture is just his comics suit with sleeves and pockets.
The in universe explanation is that the trunks was the suit his mom made, he made a better one, gave it to Lois, used the trunks suit as a spare until she was done with it, but it got destroyed so now he's left with trunks again.
It's stupid and needs to die.
As for all the attempts to redo Superman to get rid of the trunks, I'll accept this one:
All the rest just look like a big onesie. You need something solid to split up that midsection and solid yellow is too much yellow. This gives you the red from the trunk and the yellow from the belt in a nice package.
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Superman looks way better with them than without, you need something there to break up the blue - which is why even if there aren't trunks, they always give him a belt. But then, belt doesn't make sense without the trunks..because why would you just have a non-functioning belt attached to nothing. Or if you look at the Snyder one you just have..a floating bet buckle that fits seemingly no purpose.
Either way, without the belt and the shorts, its just a dude in a monotone catsuit.
Either way, without the belt and the shorts, its just a dude in a monotone catsuit.
Everything about this design is pointing directly at his crotchMember when Injustice tried to make Superman's trunk look "cool"?
While I'm well aware of the root origin of trunks, they've been a part of standard superhero design so long that they just feel like they belong at this point. I can't see the issue.
but I'm also 44. It's ok if things are changing to match what appeals to newer readers.
but I'm also 44. It's ok if things are changing to match what appeals to newer readers.
I think you're just proving him right with these examples.
All of these look great to me.
Only the first two look half decent, and I think that has more to do with the deep shadows doing more to break up the blue. The design of the second one isn't far off from the third, but the third one, with the soft shadows, has the onesy problem real bad. Batman can sometimes get away without the trunks, but that's because the yellow belt breaks up the costume more than grey-on-black, usually drawn in heavy shadow to boot. Superman, in bright colors and usually in broad daylight, needs more to break up that sea of blue.
Plus whatever is going on with his belt in that last example is way more distracting than the red trunk, imo
I disagree. The third (and fourth, since they're basically the same suit) with the belt of the third and wrist cuffs of the first would work well in tandem as a modern superman suit.
It wouldn't take too many subtle design changes to make it work, and I think it works already.
If it works for Wolverine, Batman, and Cyclops, it'd work for Superman.
Superman Reborn looked pretty great.
I really don't see what the trunks add.
It's pretty telling that most of the time the trunks get heavy shadowing compared to the rest of the suit. The red doesn't even really help with color balance anymore.
But they're wearing armor in-universe. Even Spider-Man has armor plating woven into his costume.
Counterpoint: Superhero costumes need to move to trunks-only.
Boxers and MMA fighters are a more modern take than the classic Circus Strongman trope superhero costumes originated from.
Boxers and MMA fighters are a more modern take than the classic Circus Strongman trope superhero costumes originated from.
Nah, pro wrestling is still a thing.
Because it's a boring design. If you're going to wear a costume, at least make it elaborate design.
I certainly don't think it makes sense as a design element for NEW superheroes, but those that have it as iconic parts of their classic costumes should keep it.
This is mostly Superman and Batman.
Batman works well w/ and w/o it and I generally don't care which of the two approaches they take with his suit.
Superman NEEDS it. it makes his costume work w/o adding a bunch of other silly elements to balance out its absence.
This is mostly Superman and Batman.
Batman works well w/ and w/o it and I generally don't care which of the two approaches they take with his suit.
Superman NEEDS it. it makes his costume work w/o adding a bunch of other silly elements to balance out its absence.
Actual design spices up the design.
Both Wolverine and Cyclops have two fan favorite designs centered around trunks and both have had modern redesigns that ditch them, with Cyclops being 95% blue! It's not a problem for Cyclops and it wouldn't be a problem for Superman with an appropriate design.
Well it definitely comes down to very subjective taste. I much prefer this as Wolverine than what you posted. Though not saying it would translate that well to live-action movies, things work very differently when they're drawn afterall.Actual design spices up the design.
Both Wolverine and Cyclops have two fan favorite designs centered around trunks and both have had modern redesigns that ditch them, with Cyclops being 95% blue! It's not a problem for Cyclops and it wouldn't be a problem for Superman with an appropriate design.
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Looking at all of the examples in this thread, I feel like the problem isn't so much trunks, which are stupid, but the skin tight spandex bodysuits on big muscular dudes. A bodysuit works well on a Spider-Man because he's lanky and agile, it invokes images of acrobats. But then you have a huge dude like a Bats or a Supes wearing the same fabric you can see every detail of his well-defined ass tendons. That's why I do tend to like the designs that are a bit baggier or at least look like they're made like real fabric rather than just paint. Trunks help break that up a bit by adding something, anything, to the design, but it's still red underwear on a guy who painted himself blue, knawmean?
People saying costumes look silly anyeay...
It would be silly if you wore them as your work suit, in the context they are not at all. People using that excuse just need justification for trunks.
It would be silly if you wore them as your work suit, in the context they are not at all. People using that excuse just need justification for trunks.
They look much better without trunks, all of them.
Superman's design just does not work for me without trunks.
It needs them to break up the costume. Same for Batman.
It needs them to break up the costume. Same for Batman.
OP
OP
But I posted examples of non spandex and body armor, which is what people are moving toward like Batman or the MCU