Posted: 24 May 2018 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | 2
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My preference is for costume redesigns to revert to type after a storyline or two or six have gone by. As much as I liked the black and white "nun" costumes for the FF, I did not want them to replace the blue for all time. Unfortunately, what occurs in these situations apparently is that once the door is open, everyone and his brother feels free to redesign the costumes. So the next creative team redesigns them. And the next. And the next. It makes for some garish and off-putting looks for the heroes over time, and diminishes their ability to be recognized. Still, it's standard procedure now, and therefore will likely continue to be.
I liked the idea of the "Strange Costumes of the Batman" back in the day, and thought that carried considerable appeal. I wanted costumes like those to start showing up in the stories. Alas, they were a one-time thing.
Supergirl's look was in constant flux throughout the late 60's and early 70's as she accepted reader suggestions for what she should wear and must have stocked up on double-sided tape to hold some of them in place. The Legion was also responsive to reader suggestions in this regard, with good and bad results. Saturn Girl's pink bikini is a personal favorite of mine, almost because it's so much the opposite of her previous outfits. But again, these likely fall under the umbrella of permanent costume changes rather than alternative wear the heroes only slip into now and again.
Interestingly, when Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy first appeared, they wore costumes we did not see again until they showed up on the members of the Legion of Super-Villains. Since the LSH appeared to both Superboy and Supergirl, who have a noticeable number of years between their ages, the writers first explained that Supergirl's group were the children of the originals who visited Superboy. This was quickly set aside as unnecessary, and the dialogue was removed from all future reprints of the story. Yet...
The costumes worn by the group who first visited Superboy go on to appear as those of the LSV, so is it possible perhaps that it was THEY who first went back in time to contact the Boy of Steel and razz him with their initiation pranks? Maybe throw him off the idea of joining when the Legion actually did show up later? It would also clear up the question of who all those members shown in the shadows were in that first story. Just blue-skying.
There was a fun story illustrated by Don Newton in a Robin back-up story in which he agrees to wear three different outfits designed by students on-campus (actually the readers once again) as he goes out on patrol over the next three nights. One of the them was equipped with a rocket pack.
Superman once wore a fairly ghastly Sci-fi uniform in yellow and purple with a space helmet, winged boots, and an anti-kryptonite belt for the duration of one story. Similarly, Underdog was made to feel tragically old-fashioned due to his costume, and exchanged it for a patriotically-colored glitter thing with bell-bottom slacks. That also lasted the length of the story that introduced it.
The most prevalent use of alternative costumes is probably Iron Man's array of specially purposed armors. While I agree with those who say it diminishes the versatility and power of the original, base-line suit, I still come down in favor of them because, more importantly, these alternate armors are just plain fun. As a kid, I fell hard for the polished black, red-eyed Stealth Armor and the Space Armor which was introduced around the same time. Later we got the undersea armor, the Hulkbuster suit, and the Godbuster, all of which are just plain fun to have around.
I wonder if Eric might not have been thinking of Cosmic Boy's almost-nude corset ensemble from "The Rokk Krin Horror Picture Show" in his comment.
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