Saturday, June 11, 2011

Superman is getting a new costume

Starting in September, DC Comics will introduce Superman wearing a new costume.  Gone will be the attractive red shorts.  He'll just be wearing blue pants.   This makes it so much easier for the Man of Steel to take cellphone pictures of himself and send them to Lois.

Not sure I like tampering with tradition.  Plus, does this mean I have to get all new action figures and replace my lunchbox?   Great Caesar's Ghost!

22 comments :

Ami said...

Obscene in so many ways.

What has happened to our world?

Dan J said...

I give this new costume six... no... four months before fanboy ire convinces them to change it back. Remember when they tried to give Spidey that new black costume back in the 80s and fanboys hated so much Marvel had to turn it into a villain?

Ian Sokoliwski said...

Didn't Fanboy Ire open for Yes back in '78 in Baltimore?

Mike McCann said...

It just made your old lunchbox a classic. Tripling in value, it's only a matter of time till you post it on eBay.

Max Clarke said...

It's a change for the better. Perhaps they can follow that with Superman wearing a tanktop. Stiletto heels would be nice, too. And he needs to start wearing a hat. Clark Kent wore a hat, Superman should sport a pith helmet. And a single white glove....

Anonymous said...

DC lost a lot of aspects of Superman back to the families of his original creators. Meaning that whatever DC/Warner does with Superman, said estates would have to be paid a cut.

I guess that's the reason for the redesign.

DJ said...

A number of DC superheroes will be getting redesigns, apparently. They may be redesigning Green Lantern to resemble the movie version; Wonder Woman's new costume will resemble what Adrienne Palacki wore in the recently-filmed (but not picked up) TV pilot.

The proprietor of my local comics shop was a bit amused as he described how two DC characters known for wearing fishnet stockings (Black Canary and Zatanna) would be getting spandex and leather pants, respectively (Zatanna wearing her leather pants with a bustier). He said, "so in the new DC Universe, you can show boob, but not leg."

Breadbaker said...

Manscaping by Kryptonite

David said...

This may have something to do with a long-running lawsuit that was recently decided in favor of the original creators of Superman. Comic Book writers and artists gave up a lot of the rights to their characters when they were published, and some of them have been fighting to get a piece of the ownership back so they (or their heirs) can share in some of the revenue of their creations. While newspaper comic artists (like Charles Schulz) became multi-millionaires due to their royalties, comic book creators for the most part did not get a percentage of the continuing revenue of these iconic characters.

Nat G. said...

The costume looks to be the least of the changes, with hints of a new origin for Superman bouncing around. Seems like the owners may be more willing to mangle a character that has thus far given them an amazing stream of licensing (five modern feature films, two serials, at least four live action TV series and plenty of animated ones) rather than share in the money they generate.

Cap'n Bob said...

Dumb idea, on the level of DC refusing to run Daisy BB Gun ads.

Brian Phillips said...

One of the few nerdy things I know about the Superman legend is that his costume was made from the fabric he was wrapped in when he was sent from Krypton, therefore it is able to withstand all those bullets and whatnot. I suppose that if you wanted to pants Superman, shoot him with sewing needles.

To give him a new costume is to take a large chunk out of the legend. Then again, Superman has "died" and come back, so...

Dear Ian:
Fanboy Ire was the band that was formed by three ex-members of the Specials.

Dining Tables said...

I too don't like the new costume. I just wanted the original. That makes him superman.

Mike Botula said...

Gads! What's next? Captain Marvel in tutu?

Al said...

As an avowed fanboy let me assure everyone. These things happen about once every ten years in comics to boost sales and they rarely have long term effects. It's only because the media now cover comics news and it hits the national papers that anyone outside of the comics community notuces these days.

Dave Creek said...

Al said, " It's only because the media now cover comics news and it hits the national papers that anyone outside of the comics community notuces these days."

I'm amazed that at least three stories about the DC changes hit the AP wire this week. At least they were in "Features" and not the general news bucket. When I was a kid buying these things for a dime apiece, I never dreamed these characters would become such a part of the mainstream (you decide whether that's good or bad).

And another reason to love Ken's blog -- a Yes reference, and a funny one! I love reading unexpected references to my own obsessions!

D. McEwan said...

"Brian Phillips said...
One of the few nerdy things I know about the Superman legend is that his costume was made from the fabric he was wrapped in when he was sent from Krypton, therefore it is able to withstand all those bullets and whatnot."


Oh Brian, you haven't been keeping up. After being asked a billion times how Martha Kent's sewing scissors and needles could have in anyway altered Kryptonian cloth to make that Super outfit, that "explanation" was jettisoned in the Johnny Bryne Superman reboot of 1986, Old, old news.

Nowadays, in the comics at least, his outfit is plain old earth material. His body projects an "Invulnerabilty Field" about a half-inch thick around his person, so his suit is protected by it, but not his capes, which get shredded and replaced on a regular basis.

I'm not making this shit up.

You'd think they'd have learned fromt he disastrous Red & Blue Superman redoes of the mid-1990s, not to mess with Supe's estabished costume. It's like the flag.

And it gave me a stupid thril to see, after ten Loooooonnnnnng years, Tom Welling fly off to do Superdeeds in the Superman outfit in the Smallville finale.

blogward said...

The words 'emperor', 'new' and 'clothes' tumble round my mind

Anonymous said...

>I give this new costume six... no... four months before fanboy ire convinces them to change it back.

Nope, they are actually rebooting the whole comic universe and putting in new origin stories. Not just for Superman, but all of DC Comics.

Mark Patterson said...

As a comic-book retailer, all I can do is counsel those bothered by these proposed changes to go do something else and wait half a year to a year.

Too many people know the old costume and origin. Too many movies reference them, too many collections of story arcs and graphic novels that reference it and are making money for DC. They make too much money from the original deal to risk it by making real changes.

You can bet that the new Superman movie coming out will have the old costume. Don't fret.

Tom Welling clothing said...

great superman

Emma Jason said...
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