Comic Book Resources

I thought Wally West’s costume change was because he started using a costume made out of the Speed Force.

That was his NEXT costume change.

“The main stars of the story are two brothers in the early 80s in the Midwest. The conceit is that the brothers are drawn as anthropomorphic animals. Which is a conceit I have never really gotten behind.”

Dude! Uncle Scrooge!

Dude! Three Fingers!

Dude! Why are You Doing This?, Hey Wait!, You can’t Get There From Here, etc.

…

Agreed on Ben Urich. It was really cool how resepctful Miller was to other people’s ideas. Marv Wolfman’s Bullseye even BEAT his pet character.

Uh, I’m afraid the remark about the Wasp’s costume changes qualifies as snark.

“That was his NEXT costume change”

Actually issue 50 does sound a bit early. What changed with his next costume change then? Was that the belt?

In the 1990’s Daredevil changed his costume to signify low sales and reflect the attitude of the “EXTREME!” 90’s.

In honor of their graduation, all the original X-Men were allowed to have individual costumes rather than the Xavier uniforms. Granted, most of them were almost exactly the same, but Marvel Girl’s was rather striking.

In recent X-Men continuity, the Rachel Summers Marvel Girl (formally Phoenix) changed her code name and costume to signify her coming to depths with her mother’s death.

I also suppose Kingdom Come Superman wearing the black backgrounded S counts. Sure, it’s mostly an older design, but as Bruce so aptly points out in the story, it really represents his attitude towards the new heroes and his being gone for ten years.

The cover homage is to Captain America v.1 #113.

In the 1990’s Daredevil changed his costume to signify low sales and reflect the attitude of the “EXTREME!” 90’s.

Well, technically — and in keeping with the spirit of Snark Free Corner — the story rationale had to do with Daredevil not thinking the cloth-red togs were enough to protect him from the oncoming onslaught of guest heroes and villains, all of whom were venturing into New York to obtain the “About Face Virus.” This was a telepathic virus which would transmute its carrier into whatever that person’s most secret desire was.

Knowing he was going to run the gamut, he crafted his new costume out of comic-book pseudoscience called ‘Biomimetics,’ wherein each feature of the costume resembled something genetically — the threads of the cloth part of the costume had the same tensile strength as the webs of a spider; the armor plating was structurally similar to abalone shell, et cetera.

Say what you want about the look of the costume, or the ultimate end result of the ‘Fall From Grace’ arc, I always thought the in-story explanation of the costume was rather sweet.

Doctor Strange–I’m trying to think of a time either one of ‘em blabbed a secret, and it’s not coming, but I figure Doc’s got a background in medicine and doctor/patient confidentiality, in addition to his whole “secret mystic defender” thing.

And y’know, just the mere mention of Flash #50 is like armor against the very notion of bad comics. If I could only keep one comic from my entire collection, that’d be a very strong contender for the one I kept. “I could’ve caught that bullet from 50 yards away–100 yards away–two miles away. Care to try another shot? I’ve reloaded the gun for you.” William Messner-Loebs is always great (too great to be unemployed, Marvel and DC!) but he was just on fire that month.

(Bonus quote: “But you’ve lost the advantage of surprise.” I’ve replaced it with something better. Fear.”)

Hmm, Wonder Woman or Doctor Strange with a secret…

I think I would trust Wonder Woman more; with a caveat: If, right after you told her, she felt she couldn’t keep it, she would tell you; then and there. She would only do that if it posed a threat to others, of course.

I have mixed feelings about Skyscrapers of the Midwest (though, as I think I said in an earlier comment, I’ve only read the third issue). On the one hand, it seems a little outdated–does anyone really do tortuous semi-autobiography anymore, besides Joe Matt? It’s always seemed like a fairly limited and facile genre–extreme awkwardness/embarrassment is so easy to achieve, just because we can all relate to it in a very primal way. On the other hand, I felt like I’d been hit in the gut after reading it, which is a reaction I’d never had from similar comics. I kept thinking about the relationship between the two brothers days after I’d read it. I could relate in a very specific way; I was in a similar position to the older brother, and still feel guilty that I wasn’t a better friend to my little brother when I was 11 or 12 years old (we’re very close now, though). And all this happened at approximately the same time this story took place.

Anyway, I don’t know if I can really judge the issue I read as objectively as I would like. But I totally agree that Cotter is a very good, creative storyteller. And the yearbook section at the beginning was absolutely phenomenal, making me think that I’d enjoy his work even if he moved on to other topics which I didn’t respond to so viscerally.

On the negative side of the “costume change” thing, wasn’t Kitty Pryde’s brief demotion out of the X-Men in UXM #168 marked by a change to the Black-and-Yellow outfit the New Mutants were wearing at the time?

Speaking of the X-Men from that era, there was also the infamous Mohawk Storm costume change in UXM #172 (?) and Kitty’s adoption of the Shadowcat code name and the corresponding costume change in “Kitty Pryde & Wolverine.”

As for the secret thing, I would trust Wonder Woman with it more. If nothing else, I think it’d be much more pleasant to whisper something in Wonder Woman’s ear than in Dr. Strange’s. Besides, telling a magician a secret is always a dangerous thing to do, at least if fiction is any guide, even if he is the Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme. On the other hand, Wonder Woman is an embodiment of truth, so depending on how deceptive the secret is, it’s possible that one might not even be able to tell her.

Does Quislet helping Wildfire make a solid anti-energy body count as a ‘costume change’? If so, I nominate that.

Also, Miracleman made extensive use of the ‘life change==costume change’ business (since the costumes were telepathic life forms, it was pretty easy to manage.), both with the title character’s change from the classic logo to the angular ’80s-ish one to the ‘divine’ arched one, and with the yellow-and-black jagged designs of Kid Miracleman’s later costume…

(And, speakng of Moore, he closes Watchmen with Silk Spectre II contemplating a new costume design…)

Those Skyscraper kids look like the skulls of Halloween pumpkins. Yeesh!

Uh, I’m afraid the remark about the Wasp’s costume changes qualifies as snark.

When I started doing Snark Free, part of the definition of “snark” that I said I was working under was that good-natured teasing was okay, just not mean-spirited teasing.

So I wouldn’t consider a joke about Wasp’s many many costume changes snark. At least not how I framed it.

Didn’t the Invisible Woman have some sort of change in her life that spurred her to cut out the “4″ on her costume and show off some cleavage?

“I do not even know what animal they are supposed to be. Anyone know for sure?”

Um, they look like skulls to me. there’s no way it would even have occured to me that they might be meant to be animals, if you hadn’t said they were; and to be honest, i really don’t think they are meant to be animals.

Seriosly, look at the eye sockets and the nostril cavities. if they ARE animals, they’re dead ones.

Something I would really like to see done with the Wasp, growing from her background as a fashionable, upper-class woman…

Most superheroes, especially male superheroes, treat their costumes as a sort of personal uniform. But Janet is supposed to be the modern-day equivalent of a debutante, no? I think a woman coming from her background would treat her costume primarily as a fashion statement.

So Janet should have lots of costumes. She should debut a new costume for every adventure, especially if there might be cameras around that she can pose for. Some adventures, in this era of decompression and long story lines, may very well merit two or three costumes, for changing times of day or different environments.

Want to make them sexy? Fine, Wasp would want to show off her body and her good looks in the course of saving the day. Especially as a member of the Avengers with little to no reputation as a solo crimefighter, I’d think she’d want to garner attention any way she can. And, let’s face it, when your powers are “shrink, fly, and shoot little energy thingies”, you’re not terribly likely to get everyone’s praise by single-handedly stopping Kang the Conqueror or whatever.

The viability of this idea would be somewhat dependent on how well the artist working on the title handled designing a constant barrage of distinct, fashionable costumes. And by “fashionable”, I sort of mean inspired by the world of women’s high fashion, especially the sort of cutting edge concept outfits that are never really meant to be worn off the runway. In the right hands I could see this working out marvelously as a way to express certain traits of the character.

Hey, Joey Q, you reading this? Let me have a stab at writing it, why dontcha? I can’t treat the character any worse than what Marvel’s already published about her!

Lynx–

Agreed, completely about the Wasp. That was really well put.

What about Psylocke’s outfit when she first joined the X-Men, and her costume when she turned ninja? I liked the first one better.

The figures on the covers of Skyscrapers of the Midwest clearly have skull heads–no one’s arguing that–but if you actually open the book, you’ll see that the characters within are anthropomorphic animals. I assumed cats, because they all have whiskers.