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Reply Subj: Cap's movie uniform Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 09:56:26 pm EDT (Viewed 541 times) | |||||||
All the debate about Cap’s screen costume has provoked me to dust off and restate my views about superhero suits in general and Captain America’s superhero suit in particular. Back in the day when almost all the iconic costumes were created comics had to be drawn with an economy of line and panel. Artists were expert at conveying story quickly – events that would take a six-issue mini-series now were packed into a 12-page feature then. The panels had to express movement, cause and effect, and yet still be quick to draw for by-the-page pay rates. The male body is based around a downwards-pointing triangle with an upwards-tapering egg or triangle on top of it – plus arms and legs. The best superhero costumes accentuate that triangle by design and colour. They place an emphasis on the chest then have lines that convey position and motion. Often a cape or cloak shaped like an upward-pointing triangle adds counterpoint and shows direction of travel. On the head a mask with eyepieces emphasises the hero’s determined eyes and his expression. This counterbalances the bold prominent square jawline that forms the triangle’s base. Boots or gloves add weight to the ends of the limbs and help show movement. The first superhero costume remains the best. Superman has almost all the elements of a successful comics page super-costume, lacking only the mask. First there’s his chest, the muscled tapering torso accentuated by the shape of the prominent S-symbol. Spots of red at boots and trunks, along with pink hands and a red cape balance out the other predominant primary colour of his costume. The cape can flare for flying and forward lunges, helping to depict action, to show force and direction. Captain America is the other examplar costume. Also in primary colours plus white this Kirby creation uses all the same principles as Superman’s outfit, sans cape but with added mask. There’s the prominent chest star, which echoes the shape of the hero himself with arms and legs akimbo and serves as the same counterpoint triangle that Superman’s cape accomplishes. Vertical red and white belly stripes guide the eyes upwards to the pectorals and that powerful logo. Horizontal lines at waist and trunks break the body up into sections to suggest a compact fighter; just use the horizontal lines alone and you’ve got a 1940s boxer. Red boots and gloves again emphasise pose and motion. But there’s more. Cap’s original triangular shield continues with the torso-motif. The various lines, including the belly-stripes and chainmail indents, help to show Cap flexing and shifting. The mask emphasises his eyes and jaw by having a prominent A (another triangle) with the downward strokes pointing directly to those big blue eyes. The change of the A-letter on Cap’s forehead to a stylised-V eagle motif was one reason Liefield’s revision of the Cap costume didn’t work, by the way. Instead of enhancing Cap’s eyes it emphasised the bridge of his nose, so his scowl became his most important facial feature and his eyes appeared smaller and beadier. Which brings me to the concept art image for the movie-Cap. The costume works, but it’s the elements retained from the Kirby original that do that in spite of changes that detract from the iconic version and suggest that the designer didn’t really understand what he was messing with. Hence we have a chest harness adding vertical lines that detract from the chest triangle, and shoulderpads with stars on them that emphasise yet more points of the body, points that don’t particularly convey motion or emotion and drag attention from hands and face that do. Most serious of all is the lack of Cap’s mask wings. Now I admit that the wings seem goofy. They shouldn’t work; but they shouldn’t work as a costume accessory in the same way that “taking arms against a sea of troubles†shouldn’t work as a literary phrase. Neither make sense by the usual rules but both are somehow right. Cap’s wings balance his mask to prevent him being some strange earless wonder. They trail backwards indicating forward motion. They help to indicate head movement. They add the balancing splashes of white that prevent the white A from appearing isolated and random. And they allow the other Avengers to call him “wingheadâ€Â. So for me the movie’s budget department could have saved designer costs and stayed with the costume that’s worked for six decades and more now. Chainmail and canvas trumps plastic and spandex. Simple lines work better than harnesses and pouches. And head-wings work against all the odds; so if your costume team can’t pull them off then get a new team. IW | |||||||
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