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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17707
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 7:02am | IP Logged | 1
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Iron Man with the pointy face mask
---
That may just be my favorite version of Iron Man's armor. I was happy to
see Tony Stark in it again (albeit briefly) during Alan Davis' time on
AVENGERS.
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Kip Lewis
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 March 2011
Posts: 2880
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 7:29am | IP Logged | 2
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I think Paulo is right; most people don't see them as trunks, but as
underwear. It doesn't help when kids have a character called Captain
Underpants. (It's not a word I hear often outside of this forum. It's
an old-fashion term.)
Plus, I think the other part of it is that around the 70s, different color
trunks went away in new costume designs. How many costumes from
70's on had them? When all the new stuff moves away from a design
element, it makes that design element part of a previous age and thus
dated.
And it's not just multi-color trunks--it's capes too. New characters
with capes are rare compared to those without them.
Ultimately I blame Spider-man. He has one of the best costumes of all
without a multi-color trunk or cape. He became the catalyst for
change between the old style and the new style.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133769
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 7:56am | IP Logged | 3
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Why can we accept wing/horns/pointy ears on masks, symbols, capes, et.al. but we draw the line at trunks?!?!?! What is the reasoning that makes people think these are somehow rediculous? I mean if you want to get super anal retentive about it -it's ALL rediculous-so why trunks??!?!! ++ The problem may be that they're not generally thought of as trunks. They're thought of as "underwear worn on the outside." •• About a million years ago, I was drafted into judging a costume parade at a New York convention. One of the entrie was a kid dressed as the Vision. He was, I would judge, 11 or 12 years old, and while he had done a pretty good job of capturing the elements of the character's costume, he was wearing literal underpants. Yellow, but straight out of a Hanes catalog. Which mystified me since, even with the bizarre habits of some, mostly civilians, of referring to superhero costumes as "underwear on the outside", a glance in a mirror would have surely told him that was NOT what the Vision looked like. Given the amount of effort clearly put into the rest of the costume, those tighty whities, albeit yellow, seemed a very odd choice.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133769
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 7:57am | IP Logged | 4
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Iron Man with the pointy face mask--- That may just be my favorite version of Iron Man's armor. I was happy to see Tony Stark in it again (albeit briefly) during Alan Davis' time on AVENGERS. •• Absolutely my favorite version of the red/gold mask.
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Steve Ogden
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1263
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 8:51am | IP Logged | 5
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There are, as some of you pointed out, too many to list. Some come to mind immediately:
Ditko Iron Man
Superman with the "gladiator" type boots and shield with the "S"
Ditko Captain Atom
The Falcon (both versions)
Golden Age Aquaman
The Vigilante (Greg Saunders)
Dynamo
The Phantom
Spy Smasher
Mr. Terrific
Nighthawk (The Defenders)
Some obscure Golden Age heroes that I like:
Skyman
TNT TODD
The Hood (Craig Williams)
Zippo
Commando Yank
The Avenger (Roger Wright)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133769
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 9:03am | IP Logged | 6
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The Phantom•• A classic! I especially like the combination of cowl and domino mask. An unusual configuration, but it really works.
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Steve Ogden
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1263
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | 7
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You are so right, JB. The striped trucks add to it as well.
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Don Berner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 06 July 2010
Location: Canada
Posts: 75
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| Posted: 06 November 2011 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | 8
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Thanks, John, for your insights. I had started a response that this was still a vaguely unsatisfying answer, as it didn't explain the workings of this segment of fandom's minds to me.
Upon rereading your answer however, I focus in on the very last line :
"another of those faux "cool" affectations".
If I take that literally it certainly does explain the actions (Monkey see, monkey do I guess.lol), although I would think being a fan of superheroes would certainly encourage more character and self-reflection than that. Guess I may be being a tad overly optimistic here.
To get back to the original topic-best designs IMHO:
Spider-Man
Superman
Silver Age Flash
Golden Age Captain Marvel
Captain America
Silver Age Batman
Doctor Fate
Original gold and red Captain Atom
Ditko Blue Beetle
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16036
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| Posted: 07 November 2011 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | 9
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Trunks make sense to me. If the costume is so skintight that you can clearly see the definition of muscle then a pair of trunks over the nether regions would seem like a neccessity.
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Tony Midyett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 January 2010
Location: United States
Posts: 2834
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| Posted: 07 November 2011 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | 10
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^ I always suspected that the trunks were first put on super-hero "leotards" to help break up that large, unbroken area of body space that seems to say "nude", especially if the art is in black and white.
I've also read stories that Chris Reeve and Dean Cain were so <ahem> blessed that if their costumes had excluded trunks, they would have been constantly showing the audience more than was intended in family entertainment.
Edited by Tony Midyett on 07 November 2011 at 4:11pm
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Bill Catellier
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 September 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 3225
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| Posted: 08 November 2011 at 7:06am | IP Logged | 11
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No real surprises among my favorites: Classic looks like Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain Mar-vell (redesign), Silver age Flash & GL, Kid Flash (2nd outfit), and the Fantastic Four (classic or JB's negative look)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133769
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| Posted: 08 November 2011 at 9:11am | IP Logged | 12
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Trunks make sense to me. If the costume is so skintight that you can clearly see the definition of muscle then a pair of trunks over the nether regions would seem like a neccessity.•• Trunks, or at least trunk-lines, break the long vertical expanse of the costume, and help diminish the "long underwear" effect. Even character that do not literally wear trunks, like the Silver Age Green Lantern, or Spider-Man in his original costume, have costume elements that break the vertical expanse. That this works so well, and is often necessary, becomes all the more apparent when costumes are redesigned without trunks, and the effect is as if the character forgot to put his pants on. (When I was looking around the web for responses to the redesign of Superman's costume, I was struck by the number of "fans" who were obviously doing their own mental retcons, like the guy who said Lee's redesign got rid of the "one thing I hate about the costume" -- the trunks! Seriously -- do people really devote that much thought and negative energy to these things? Did this guy REALLY see Superman for the first time, however long ago, and instinctively "hate" the trunks? Or is this yet another "too cool for school" response from an ennui-engorged fanboy who should have moved on away from this hobby years ago?)
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Topic Closed)
