#superhero costumes

[teafourbirds]

They're so subtle.

-- Green Lantern (1960) #120

#so good at maintaining their cover #superheros and their secret identities #dinah/ollie/hal #dinah lance #oliver queen #hal jordan #green lantern (1960) #superhero costumes #out of context comic panels #my posts

[productofmtwundagore]

May Calamawy on the set of Moon Knight! 🌙

#moon knight #scarlet scarab #layla el faouly #may calamawy #women of mcu #marvel #madeinwundagore #superhero costumes #movie costumes #marvel behind the scenes

[armed-with-a-waffle-iron]

Those purple accents on Steph Brown's Batgirl costume were perfection💜

#personally i think superhero costumes peaked in 2009 with this look #also ALL of helena bertinelli's preboot costumes💜 #purple #superhero costumes #stephanie brown #batgirl #steph brown #robin #batman #batfam #bat family #comics #dc comics

[racefortheironthrone]

Considering superhero comics predate the invention of spandex, when did the idea that superhero costume are made from spandex come from?

Great question!

To answer this question, I first need to backup and do some history about fin-de-siècle strongmen and the origin of the "superhero costume" as a distinct cultural concept. In the late 19th/early 20th century, circus strongmen were not just huge draws but celebrities and cultural icons in their own right, part of the whole obsession of anxious masculinity in that era, along with the emergence of bodybuilding and quite a bit of racist eugenics (think "Passing of the Great Race" stuff) about how industrial civilization was making white men effete and degenerate and thus vulnerable to the Other.

However, the strongmen had something of a fashion problem: in order to do their shtick, they often wore close-fitting silk tights and shirts in order to show off their musculature, and these had a tendency to split when they were flexing. This could run the risk of leaving the strongmen hanging in the wind, as it were, so they adapted by putting on wrestler's unitards over their tights to keep themselves under wraps.

Throw on a cape, and you literally have the archetypal superhero costume. But if you take a look at how these costumes look on an actual human body, they're not literally skin-tight. You can see some muscle definition in places, but there's also visible wrinkles and folds at the joints and other places where you need more flexibility. It's just not quite there yet in terms of evoking the whole George Sandow aesthetique.

And then in 1958, spandex was invented as a much more elastic fabric that could be truly skintight without splitting, so you could really see the musculature much more clearly. Add this to the expanding and increasingly professionalized and advanced culture of postwar bodybuilding, and people's expectations about what their superheroes could and should look like began to change. Thus, starting in the Silver Age and into the Bronze Age, superheroes start to look a lot buffer and their costumes look a lot tighter so that the reader can see every damn muscle (and curve) on superheroes' bodies - because artists and editors and publishers realized they could make more money by making comics that were a bit sexier, thanks to the magic of "spandex."

Now this gets us into the economics of the comics industry and changing generational cohorts, but as we passed from the Silver Age to the late Bronze Age, you started to see a shift from comics artists who worked in comics because Jews and Catholics weren't welcome in the Art Departments of Madison Avenue, to comics artists who worked in comics because they had grown up reading comics and learned to draw from comics.

This had an impact on superhero costumes, because the older artists tended to be plugged in more to fashion and fashion art and thus drew superhero costumes as clothing with real three-dimensionality to it and the younger artists found it easier and faster to just draw familiar superhero bodies naked (with "spandex" as the figleaf) and then put in a few lines showing where the costumes end - and this easier and faster style that turned up the dial on allowable sexiness was more profitable for the companies.

Once you get to Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, and the other "Image Kids" of Nineties Comics, the spandex-ification of superhero comics had reached its peak because now the hot new trend was stuff that wouldn't work even with real-world spandex, hence the phenomena of the boob sock and the logical extension of the swimsuit/bikini for superwomen to the battle thong.

So ultimately it all comes down to the combined pressures of culture and economics.

#comics #comics meta #superhero costumes #silver age #bronze age #nineties comics #cultural history #superhero comics #marvel #dc #marvel meta #dc meta #image comics

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I just had a thought. Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters are wearing designer, Prada/Armani/Gucci-level costumes (made by the one and only Luke Jacobson, of course).

Clint Barton’s costume was literally a cosplay commission.

Peter Parker, now that he’s in the trenches, had to make his own costume.

#daredevil #matt murdock #jennifer walters #she hulk #clint barton #hawkeye #spiderman #Peter Parker #avengers #the avengers #she hulk spoilers #she hulk attorney at law #spiderman no way home #superhero costumes #she hulk tv #mcu spiderman #mcu hawkeye #mcu she hulk #mcu daredevil

[thepariahcontinuum]

I'll be honest, the mental image I have of Triumph's costume, based on the details that stuck in my mind whilst reading the description is basically "Daishi from Power Rangers Jungle Fury"

Which lets be real, is far too cool of a suit to be justified by anything Triumph actually did.

#wormblr #worm web serial #Parahumans #Triumph #Protectorate #Brockton Bay #Power Rangers #Power Rangers Jungle Fury #Daishi #Black Lion #Tokusatsu #superhero costumes

[recursive-occlusion]

MCU Captain Marvel costume variants so far

#mcu #captain marvel #carol danvers #brie larson #superhero costumes #aesthetic not costume #marvel #the marvels

[just-a-local-lunatic]

every day I wake up and I want to design Luna Maximoff a superhero costume but every day I wake up and I CAN'T DRAW

#the pains of being a writer but not an artist #i am in pain #artists help #please someone #writing woes #artists #luna maximoff #marvel comics #marvel redesigns #marvel costumes #superhero costumes #inhumans #x-men

[wcwit]

Kamala Khan 🤝 Clark Kent                  “Cool suit”            “Thanks, my mom              made it for me :)”

#ms. marvel #kamala khan #superman #clark kent #ms. marvel+ #superman & lois #marvel studios #marvel comics #dc comics #superhero tv #comics #iman vellani #tyler hoechlin #mcu #marvel #superhero costumes

[tightguys]

Two tight.

#tightguys #lycra #spandex #hot guys in lycra #men in tights #guys in lycra #cosplay men #superhero costumes #cosgay #superan #guys in spandex

[saintastaeroth]

My Nightwing cosplay but changed to the proper blue colour 💙

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Cosplay: Nightwing

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#nightwing #cosplayer #superhero #gay spandex #spandex #superheroes #dc titans #dc cosplay #nightwing comics #nightwing cosplay #gay superhero #superhero costumes #batman comics #batman costume #batman and robin #batman

[teafourbirds]

Lousy way to run a utility belt! Why *didn't* Batman label those crummy vials?

(Ollie uses the unlabeled vials as projectiles, the belt to tangle up the villain's feet, and the cloak to wrap around the villain's head.)

World's Finest Comics #249

#oliver queen #green arrow #batman #(sort of) #superhero costumes #ollie & bruce #world's finest comics #ollie snark #batnames #my posts

[productofmtwundagore]

I will forever be so in love with this costume

#moon knight #marc spector #steven grant #marvel #marvel behind the scenes #superhero costumes #movie costumes #madeinwundagore

[tuxedosaurus]

I only care about superhero costume practicality a little bit. Like sometimes I see the heels they put on lady superheroes and CANNOT believe anyone can run in them.

#superheroes #costumes #superhero costumes #dc comics #dc #marvel comics #marvel

[bubblyernie]

A superhero AU for my OCs!! I don't like spandex suits so I wanted to make some outfits inspired by more contemporary fashions. Thalin still gets a cape though bc he's dramatic and likes his body to have a backdrop 

art tag // commission info 

#sunshan draws #costume design #superheroes #superhero costumes #superhero #Character Design #character sheet #character illustration #Illustration #art #conceptual illustration #concept art #oc #ocs #audacious #z'thalylin #erril #alphonse alepenski

[northoftheroad]

I've posted before about Dick Grayson and how fashion of the time has influenced the clothes he's been drawn with. Honestly, neither Dick Grayson’s original Robin nor his first Nightwing costume would make my ten top most outrageous superhero costume...

Here are some examples that I would consider as contenders for my list, in no particular order.

Saturn Girl (front and back); Havoc; Scarlet Witch; Tyroc; Princess Projectra; Wasp; Yankee Girl; Zatanna; Phantom Lady; and Green Turtle (I kid you not...)

Sometimes, it's the headweare that does it, as the first Wasp costume, Havoc and Scarlet Witch. In other cases, it's the liberal amount of naked flesh, as Green Turtle (and that cape...), Yankee Girl and Saturn Girl. Or the really weird décolletage that Tyroc and Princess Projectra wears.

I'm sure there are other examples out there. If you‘ve got any personal favourites, please do show me.

#superhero costumes #nightwing #robin #comics #comic books