| Posted: 04 May 2013 at 11:06am | IP Logged | 10
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"You missed the whole POINT of my initial post in this thread, didn't you?"John Byrne ---------------- Possibly, JB! But I'm not against superheroes wearing costumes/uniforms. They should/could or can wear costumes, but not necessarily. A superhero can be a superhero without a costume. I defend that a character, literarily speaking is composed by his or her physical and psychological description. The physical also comprises his or her main attire. The most important for any character in literature is his or her psychology, the costume, or the daily clothes might be a reflection of a persona, but are not strictly the person inside. As any person a fictional character represents the human behavior, generally, and like people they can develop attachments towards the objects that populate their world. Just like the Sherlock Holmes pipe. In the case of superheroes we're talking about characters that have alter egos, that wear masks to conceal their true identity and wear costumes not because their going to participate in some masquerade, but because their going to fight. So to me, if a superhero choose to wear a costume (and I'm saying this from the point of view of the fictitious world), he or she should wear something that make perfect logic in accordance to what that character is up to... as he or she participates in a WAR, if is the case. If I do sports I wear spandex, if I go into the night fighting criminals it has to be more than that. Of course when it comes to characters like Superman, invulnerable, or the ones that dispose of force fields to shield themselves against any threat the battle suit are not needed, they can go naked that makes no difference. Just like Namor that only wears the swim trunks, which makes perfect sense for him in the middle of the ocean or on the beach although no so among civilians (he should put something on). Also depends on the type of character or superhero, because if he is an anti-hero type, the outlaw type, the ones that hide in the shadows the bright colors doesn't make so much sense. In the case of Batman he wears a bat like costume because he believes that it scares the criminal, although in order to accomplish that he needs an act and the right environment. In the case of Superman, his costume became a reference for civilians to be identified with, he is after all the most popular superhero. But these are the explanation from inside those stories, from inside that fictional world. From the outside the reason why Superman wears a costume, the way he does, is because Jerry Siegel decided that he wanted, for his character, the most bright colors he could find to call for the reader's attention, not necessarily to call for the attention of the fictitious civilians that lived inside the Superman's fictional world. One thing is what communicates on the cover of a comic-book, other is the logic going on inside fiction.
One of the things that made me read comics on the first place was the idea that I could live, somehow, those adventures inside my head while I was reading them. For a reader like me to be part of the adventure in that particular fictional world has its importance, and in accordance to that I would, most of the times, fill the heroes shoes therefore that adventure that would come to life in my imagination had to make sense. I would then ask myself what, why and how should I wear as a costume if needed.
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