MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned?

RKMBs

From Enigma2k at SHH! and Superman-V.com:

- two-toned cape

- low-slung belt with an S-shield buckle

- a high collar on the tunic

- S-shield treads on the boot soles

- a diamond texture on the fabric not unlike the rectangular pattern on the Spider-Man movie duds

- dark shades of blue and red, with gold replacing the yellow

- small red trunks

- no S-shield on the cape

- a small S-shield on the chest (closer to Kirk Alyn and George Reeves, or even the Lois & Clark pilot costume)

Here are some fan visualizations based on this report:

Keep in mind, this design is NOT confirmed for the movie (there's conflicting reports as to its legitimacy), so take this with a grain of salt.

Personally, if the costume does look like the above drawings, I could live with it. Based on these drawings, the design isn't too much of a change from the classic (although Wizard's "Ultimate Superman" is still the best costume redesign they've ever done for the character). What do you think of this?

Posted By: whomod Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-15 7:40 AM

Well....

the artist certainly aint no Jim Lee.

Posted By: ShazamGrrl1 Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-15 7:50 AM

KK, did you draw the pic in your post? Either way, pretty good work there.

Posted By: the G-man Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-15 8:05 AM

I can live with it.

Posted By: Darknight613 Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-15 8:21 AM

Yeah, me too.

I'd like to see a roayl blue for the costume - maybe the same shade used for military dress uniforms?

Posted By: King Krypton Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-15 9:31 AM

Quote:

ShazamGrrl1 said:
KK, did you draw the pic in your post? Either way, pretty good work there.

The art's not my doing. I found it at Superhero Hype! in a thread where people were doing drawings based on the suit description. The pics I posted were the best of the bunch, and the ones that probably best reflect what this rumored suit might look like.

There's been a lot of criticism of this rumored design, the biggest points of contention being the high collar (namely, how would it be hidden under street clothes), the S-shield boot treads (some think it's overkill), and the S-shield buckle (see similar complaint about the boots). But again, this design isn't confirmed, and there's some question as to whether or not it'll even be used, so I wouldn't worry too much until the actual suit pic hits.

Quote:

I'd like to see a royal blue for the costume - maybe the same shade used for military dress uniforms?

The royal blue of Dean Cain's suit looked great, barring the shiny texture. A matte-finish suit in that color would be terrific. But military blue? For Batman, absolutely, but that might be a bit too dark for Superman. The violet-blue used on the animated Superman and Justice League is probably about as dark as I'd want to get with him. Wine-red, however, would look really classy and regal on him.

There's also been talk of the S-shield on the tunic being slightly raised and engraved (similar to the webs on Spider-Man's costume). Personally, I'd like to see such an emblem done up in shiny, relfective metal tones (especially if they're using gold instead of yellow), similar to how Ed McGuinness and Lee Bermejo draw it in the comics (Bermejo more so). Something to really drive home the "Man of Steel" motif and hint at Superman's extraterrestrial heritage.

Posted By: King Krypton Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-18 7:09 AM

UPDATE:
According to insiders at SHH!, the high collar has been nixed from the Supersuit. It'll be something closer to the traditional boatneck collar.

As for the other proposed tweaks, that's still unknown. More as it develops....

Posted By: Jeremy Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-18 10:21 AM

Thanks for the report KK, I love a few of the tweaks. The collar is too high and the blue should be 'Lois and Clark' blue. The shield in L&C also worked, it was just big enough. Though if it's made smaller...I'll deal. The S on the belt and the gold are such obvious changes that I'm surprised no one came up with it before. That does exclude me seeing as though I'm not all that creative. The one thing I hope isn't done though is adding black ANYWHERE on the costume. Wizard's Ultimate Superman was cool looking, but too Kingdom Come-ish. Stick to the classic...it works.

Posted By: the G-man Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-18 4:30 PM

I could never figure out why no one ever uses "Navy" blue for the super suit.

It's the dark blue that's found on the U.S. flag.

It would satisfy the desire some have for a "darker" less garish suit, play off the whole "American Way" conceit, and still allow us to have a "red and blue" Superman suit.

Posted By: Chris Oakley Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-18 6:37 PM

Quote:

King Krypton said:
UPDATE:
According to insiders at SHH!, the high collar has been nixed from the Supersuit. It'll be something closer to the traditional boatneck collar.

As for the other proposed tweaks, that's still unknown. More as it develops....

Let's just hope the costume designer doesn't turn out to be a complete idiot who feels obliged to "re-imagine" the whole thing from the ground up.

Posted By: PJP Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-18 6:52 PM

black leather anyone

Posted By: Jeremy Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-18 8:02 PM

No!

Posted By: Darknight613 Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-19 12:37 AM

I remember hearing a long time ago that Tim Burton's idea for the costume involved some sort of Edward-Scissorhands style bio-suit (black, naturally).

Posted By: King Krypton Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-19 3:54 AM

Quote:

Darknight613 said:
I remember hearing a long time ago that Tim Burton's idea for the costume involved some sort of Edward-Scissorhands style bio-suit (black, naturally).

Burton had four suits in mind for Superman:

1. An all-black suit that would have been a cross between Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and a Borg.

2. A partially translucent suit that would expose Superman's internal organs for all to see. (Kerry Gammill, an underrated Superman artist who had the misfortune of having to redesign the characters to Burton's dictates, confirmed this at last year's May Motor City Comic Con.)

3. An all-silver body armor/"healing suit" that would have made Superman's body look robotic. I've actually seen the design for this outfit; it's even more Borg-like than the all-black one.

4. An all dark blue suit with a "blood-red" cape.

All the suits would have sported armored boots like Keaton's Batman and silver-relief versions of this emblem:

There was a Fleischer-style emblem designed during Kevin Smith's time on the movie, but it was trashed right along with Smith's script once Burton decided he wanted to "re-invent" Superman.

Believe it or not, there's actually a furious debate over using gold in place of the yellow, with fanatical puritans asserting that such a change would destroy the "purity" of the costume and make it look disco-cheesy. (No, this isn't a joke.) As for the emblem buckle, people are complaining about that, but it does have a precedent in the HJ Ward Superman paintings of the 1940s:

Posted By: PenWing Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-19 8:19 PM

I don't really see the point in having the s-shield on the chest and the belt. Why show it twice from the front?

That said, I don't really care, as long as it looks cool.

As for the gold instead of yellow, I never liked the yellow anyway, so I'm curious to see how the gold will look.

Posted By: King Krypton Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-20 5:18 AM

By the way, according to Superman Lives concept artist/Burton ass-kisser Bradford Richardson in an interview with The Kryptonian.com, the spiky, bladed look of the Burton S-shield is for a reason...the S detaches and becomes a pair of battle knives Superman uses on his enemies.

Be glad this never happened, folks.

Posted By: Jeremy Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-20 8:59 AM

There was also a rumor at one time that the costume was supposed to be organic. I'm quite glad it's out of McG's hands as well as Burton's.

Posted By: King Krypton Re: MOVIE RUMOR: Superman's costume to be redesigned? - 2005-01-21 4:35 AM

Quote:

Jeremy said:
There was also a rumor at one time that the costume was supposed to be organic. I'm quite glad it's out of McG's hands as well as Burton's.

You mean the living costume in a can? That was from the McG/Rater period (2002-2003). When McG came back (2003-2004), the idea was to make Superman's costume a Kryptonian body armor. Naturally, it would have been sculpted rubber, just like Burton's proposed suits.

That's WB for ya. Every superhero has to wear rubber suits or they're not happy.