JB, it looks like the artist(s) realized those costumes were a nightmare to draw and changed them within a year or so, except for Red Robin's. (The new DC seems all over the place when it comes to decision making.) Not too crazy about these Tron inspired ones the Teen Titans are wearing now either. They look like a headache to draw too.

Here's another angle of this debate.

How many of us can draw Captain America's original costume without reference? Spider-man? The original X-Men (or even most of the All New X-Men? Thor? The Fantastic Four? Iron Man?

Right, I wonder how many of today's artists, who are actually drawing comics, can draw the current crop of Marvel and DC costumes without refencemore complicated does not equal better.

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If the "intention" is to stand out as a symbol, yes. But the rest of your statement makes no sense. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash -- all those Golden Age characters who started the ball rolling. Who among them wore a costume that was a "reflection of the time it represents"? Who among them wore a costume, in fact, that "represented" any specific time period? None of those outfits were modeled on then-current fashions -- which is one of the places modern costume design has gone seriously off the rails, with coats and jackets and other such "cool" street clothes passing for costumes.

The very fact that any of the modern costumes (like those Teen Titans) can be described as looking like "90's Image style costumes" show they are DATED.

Kip Lewis

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Well, to tell you the truth, Kip. According to the color theory the problem with Superman colors costume is that blue should never be placed side by side with red. Actually when their put together the two colors should be broken by the white as it happens with the American Flag or the Pepsi-Cola logo. In the case of Superman's costume colors the creators preferred to use Yellow to break between Blue and Red.

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Superman's belt was made yellow so it could be seen against the trunks. A primary color was chose because that was easier. There was no deep "color theory" at work. Barely any thinking at all, in fact. Look at the cover of ACTION COMICS 1. Superman's "ballet slippers" are blue, not even colored to distinguish them from the color of his leggings.

As to the FF's uniforms -- they look fine without trunks for the same reason Spider-Man's costume looks fine without trunks: they didn't have them to begin with. They don't look as if something has been "left off".

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First, my reference was to others here saying the Nu52 costumes looked dated.

Second, as noted, the inspiration for superhero costumes as they appeared originally were circus performers. Altho the natives of Krypton were dressed in fashions that were meant to appear "futuristic", that was no the inspiration for Superman, or any who followed.

Superman, to name one, and also as noted, dressed as much like a circus strongman as anything else.