Friday, June 3, 2011
DC Stands for Dumb Costumes
I had almost gotten used to the steady stream of terrible news coming out of DC Comics this week. Every book is getting cancelled so that titles can restart at number 1? Stupid, but I survived the 1990s once. DC will be launching 52 titles over the course of a month? Ridiculous, but I survived the DC Explosion, too. Creative teams are being totally reshuffled? Pointless, as the best teams will still be on the books with the highest selling potential. Every DC character dons a new costume designed by Jim Lee. Uh oh.
There's no denying it: Booster's first costume was a time-capsule of its era. Love it or hate it, it screams 1980s, as did the character of Booster Gold: a selfish corporate crusader who saw super-heroics as a means to capital wealth. For good or ill, the high-collared costume became indelibly associated with the character.
By the 1990s, both Booster's status and costume were destroyed. His costume was redesigned to look completely ridiculous, like a football player's pads on steroids. This was done intentionally, allowing a slow transition during which his costume design could evolve alongside its wearer, eventually emerging with typically 1990s flair. These costumes weren't all good -- that was the point -- but the changes were story-driven and organic.
Booster was reunited with his partner Blue Beetle in the 2000s, and his costume was miraculously and inexplicably restored to its 1980s glory. Take note, if you are going to make changes to a design without explaining how or why, tried-and-true is the direction to go. Someone must have realized that this costume wasn't new-millennium enough, and the collar was dropped and the gold sections of costume were linked by wide stripes. Sponsorship patches were added and removed, all in the name of character development.
But now DC decides to change everything just for the sake of changing everything. This is a marketing event, plain and simple. Somewhere someone said, "Jim Lee's art sells, so let's let Jim Lee do all our art!" Make no mistake about what this really is: a travesty.
THIS COSTUME SUCKS.
While Booster's costume was once iconic and unique, it now looks like every other "future-tech" costume in comics. Yes, Booster has a blue star on a gold field. And he's wearing goggles with exposed blonde hair. It's almost like there was a corporate-mandated checklist for what Booster's costume had to incorporate for licensing purposes. (You don't really want the kids who see Booster Gold on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, DC Universe Online, and Smallville to wonder who this dumb-looking character is, do you, DC?) After that, it goes quickly to hell. From the top down:
- Head: Booster Gold now has a visible forehead. This means that either his goggles are responsible for holding his cowl up, or he has a very stiff and uncomfortable head covering. On the upside, artists now have space to draw sweat on Booster's brow! Hoo-ray?
- Face: What is the need for the gold on the mask around the face? Is Lee just curious to see how fast he can make the colorist screw it up? The design makes Booster look older and wider. Apparently now "Booster Gold" should be synonymous with "fat head."
- Neck: Why a "w" encircling the neck? This is artist shorthand for "technology" and does nothing but make the neckline busier. As if we didn't already know it, Jim Lee demonstrates his belief that you can never have too many extra lines on a costume.
- Shoulders: Yay! More extraneous piping on the shoulders. At least Booster doesn't have full-scale 1990s shoulder-pads, but I'm guessing that's only because someone realized that would be too obvious.
- Arms: I suppose it was too unrealistic to have his Booster Shots mounted on the back of his gloves anymore, so now Booster has sleeves. What kind of high-tech design is that in gold at the end of the sleeve, anyway? Atlantean? Apokolipsian? Arrows? Please, not arrows. Surely by now Booster Gold knows which end of his arms to point at the bad guys without context clues on his costume.
- Waist: There is no such thing as a great male super-hero costume without a belt or similar costume element separating the torso from the waist. Otherwise the costume ends up looking like a unitard, and no one looks great in a unitard.
- Feet: We can't see them here, but I promise you they look terrible. The new costume probably doesn't even have golden boots, but terminates in solid blue stocking feet in keeping with previous costumes. Couple that with the lack of a belt, and Booster's new costume would look like elaborate footed pajamas.
Will this redesign stick around? I sure hope not. It already looks like garbage. The sooner DC takes out this trash, the better.
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