[OOC] CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

[Lord Wraith]

There were a few Rebirth costumes that I liked-- Superman finally had a version of the no-trunks look that I could get behind before they put the trunks back on him, Supergirl's previous costume was a perfectly good classic-style outfit, Jon's costume is a great fit for a Superboy-in-training, I liked that they just went ahead and made Wonder Woman's movie outfit her official costume since I thought that was a great compromise between the old one-piece bathing suit and all the different sets of over-designed battle armor they keep slapping on her, Starfire and Raven no longer look completely ridiculous.......

....and that's about it.

@AndyC

Not a fan of Raven's particularly, nor Starfire's. Both aren't terrible, but I like the previous iteration of Starfire's costume more, the one from her solo series. Raven's best costume is arguably her animated costume I think.

[Master Bruce]

I love Batman's Rebirth suit and am actually pretty bummed that he's arbitrarily going back to the Hush design. I get putting Superman back in the trunks to a degree, but Batman moved beyond that look a long time ago without any real problems.

Rebirth seemed like a natural progression of all the suits from the past. The purple cape was a cool change of pace and a nice nod to the original gloves, I liked the belt quite a bit, and the yellow trim around the symbol was uniquely suited to bridge the Bat and Oval symbols.

Now he's just going back to looking like dude in tights again after Capullo nailed the armor meets bodysuit aesthetic.

Guess I can add that to my long list of grievances with King's run.

[AndyC]

<Snipped quote by AndyC>

Not a fan of Raven's particularly, nor Starfire's. Both aren't terrible, but I like the previous iteration of Starfire's costume more, the one from her solo series. Raven's best costume is arguably her animated costume I think.

@Lord Wraith

Agreed on both counts. I'll still take their current looks over their atrocious designs from the New 52 any day, though.

[Sep]

There were a few Rebirth costumes that I liked-- Superman finally had a version of the no-trunks look that I could get behind before they put the trunks back on him, Supergirl's previous costume was a perfectly good classic-style outfit, Jon's costume is a great fit for a Superboy-in-training, I liked that they just went ahead and made Wonder Woman's movie outfit her official costume since I thought that was a great compromise between the old one-piece bathing suit and all the different sets of over-designed battle armor they keep slapping on her, Starfire and Raven no longer look completely ridiculous.......

....and that's about it.

@AndyC

Flash I can get behind... But then it never changes much. I like Wally's costume. It's a nice balance between that he wore as Kid Flash and as the Flash

[AndyC]

While I'm thinking about it, have we ever done just a straight-up "what's your favorite design" talk yet? Not necessarily your favorite era of a character, just your favorite look that they've had. Outfit and/or artist.

For example, Batman's had a godjillion different takes on the Bat-suit, but to me it's always gonna be the Bronze Age Neal Adams look. The blue-and-gray, the yellow circle, the utility belt with capsule-things instead of pockets, ears at just the right length so they're not little stubby bumps or giant devil-horns, and a build that's designed more for swashbuckling than for brutality. In much the same way that most people can't say 'Superman' without immediately conjuring an image of Christopher Reeve, this is the immediate Batman that comes to my mind:

[Master Bruce]

Batman

Spider-Man

Superman

Daredevil

Captain America

Wonder Woman

Iron Man

Wolverine

The Flash

Punisher

[Sep]

@Master Bruce nu52 Flash. Ballsy.

I'm just headed to bed so will have to skip on this conversation but I'll throw up my limited picks tomorrow, I only got into comics a couple of years ago so I don't have this massive history you all do with the characters. A byproduct of rural living in Scotland as a kid, even as an adult I have to order them online as there isn't a shop near me. Yes I can read them online, Which I tend to do for Flash but I also like physical copies.

[Supermaxx]

@Master Bruce Very surprising Batman pick. Never expected you to go so controversial.

[Sep]

Before I go to bed, as one of the few picks I'm going to make. I have to say. World War Hulk to me, takes the cake.

Image

It's got his brutal element, his gladiator element as well as the crown which is a pretty important item of memrobelia. Especially for as far as the heroes on Earth are concerned, this is a very evolved Hulk.

Least favourite has to be:

Image

The Indestructible Hulk. Just the way the armour looks, and I suppose also the artwork he looks like a Green Goblin reject.

[Master Bruce]

@Master Bruce Very surprising Batman pick. Never expected you to go so controversial.

@Superboy

Well, it was either that or this. And while I love this to death, it'll probably always rank second.



Honestly, my taste in Batsuit designs tend to vary. I like the Young Justice animated suit alot aswell, and the suit in the Arkham Asylum game. There are few Batsuits I utterly loathe, so for the pick of 'least favorite'...

This shit right here

[AndyC]

I'll go ahead and put the rest of my picks in as well. You've already seen my pick for Batman, so let's go with a few more:

Superman

The Classic costume spent an awfully long time without any significant overhauls, and for good reason: it's the superhero costume. Sometimes the S is a little different, sometimes the blue is a little darker or a little lighter, sometimes the cape is a different length, but those are pretty minor quibbles, and it served him well for about three quarters of a century. Of my favorite takes on the Classic costume, I've gotta give it up to one of the absolute definitive Superman artists, Dan Jurgens.

If we're gonna spice it up and go with the more modern no-trunks look, though, I've gotta go with the Rebirth 2.0 design by--oh, it's also Dan Jurgens. How about that.



I also really liked the costume they made for him in the Smallville Season 11 comic, at least when they drew him to look like a classic Superman instead of trying to draw Tom Welling's face:

Wonder Woman

I know, I know, the DCEU fanboy likes the DCEU costume, what a shocker. But seriously, I love this costume. She looks like a fighter without the need to cover her head-to-toe in plates and blades and shit. She looks sexy without the need to have her boobs and butt on display. Most importantly, she looks like a goddamn superhero, which is something tons of artists completely fail to convey.

And while it's not canonical, I really liked this more simplified fan design as well:

The Flash

To anyone and everyone out there aspiring to design a costume for the Scarlet Speedster: please, for the love of all that is holy, KEEP IT SIMPLE. This is the absolute last character in the world that needs to have armor plates or Tron lines or little fiddly bits all over his costume. In comic books especially, since you can only really simulate motion and speed. Therefore, in my opinion anyway, the best way to simulate speed with the Flash is to streamline his design to the point where the eye takes in everything you need to know as quickly as possible. And DCAU Flash does that perfectly, particularly with that semi-permanent smirk that lets you know his attitude right off the bat.

Green Lantern

Kyle Rayner's pretty much the only Lantern that doesn't either put me to sleep or get on my nerves, and on top of that, he's got the biggest wardrobe to choose from. Sadly, most of his costumes are kind of lame (why do they keep giving him that mask with no nose?!), but I really like this one. Cool minimalist logo, a few glowy bits here and there to make him look appropriately sci-fi, but still immediately recognizable.

Aquaman

While the Sword of Atlantis book itself never really did it for me, I really liked the costume design, which I thought really brought home the whole "King Arthur, but, y'know, underwater" angle.

Close second goes to his underwater camouflage costume from the 80s. I mean, if you want to convey that the guy spends all his time in the deep blue sea, how about putting some actual blue on his costume?

Supergirl

Is Bruce Timm a dirty old man who draws all of his women like something you'd see sprayed on the nose-cone of an old B-17? That argument can certainly be made. Do I mind? NOPE!

Batgirl

Might be a bit of a surprise given that I hate-- hate with a capital HATE-- everything they've done with Barbara Gordon since the launch of the New 52. But I gotta admit, I do kinda really like this costume, especially when it's got that purple hue to more clearly differentiate her from the other Bats. In my own personal head-canon, Babs should still be Oracle, but in any flashback sequences to her days as Batgirl, she'd be wearing this suit.

The Teen Titans

Switching over to Red Team:

Spider-Man

Not a good movie. But an absolutely fantastic costume.

Captain America

I always wished that the first Captain America movie was less of an Indiana Jones adventure sort of affair and more like an episode of Band of Brothers. And this costume is pretty much what I'd want. And hey, in the first movie he did wear a costume pretty similar to this for a bit, so points there.

Iron Man

I don't really have a long or thought-out reasoning for this one, I just think the Bleeding Edge Armor is cool.

Thor

Man, the God of Thunder series was so friggin' good. And a big reason I was so drawn to it was the cover art, which looked like something from a trashy fantasy pulp novel. Dude looks like what every D&D Paladin dreams about being, and Old King Thor and Young Idiot Thor compliment him really well.

Daredevil

Frank Miller absolutely defined Daredevil's tone, but it's only half-finished without Mazzuchelli giving him the look. If it's not drenched in film-noir lighting, it's not Daredevil.

Captain Marvel

Screw you, Carol, I'm not calling him Shazam.

The X-Men

Rather than go through each of them one by one, I'm just gonna pick my 'definitive' X-Men lineup and my favorite takes on their costumes:

[Byrd Man]

Thanks for the hider tags, guys. If I saw this page had thirty-six thousand images on it I would have bailed pretty fast.

[Master Bruce]

Green Lantern

Kyle Rayner's pretty much the only Lantern that doesn't either put me to sleep or get on my nerves, and on top of that, he's got the biggest wardrobe to choose from. Sadly, most of his costumes are kind of lame (why do they keep giving him that mask with no nose?!), but I really like this one. Cool minimalist logo, a few glowy bits here and there to make him look appropriately sci-fi, but still immediately recognizable.

Aquaman

While the Sword of Atlantis book itself never really did it for me, I really liked the costume design, which I thought really brought home the whole "King Arthur, but, y'know, underwater" angle.

Close second goes to his underwater camouflage costume from the 80s. I mean, if you want to convey that the guy spends all his time in the deep blue sea, how about putting some actual blue on his costume?

Supergirl

Is Bruce Timm a dirty old man who draws all of his women like something you'd see sprayed on the nose-cone of an old B-17? That argument can certainly be made. Do I mind? NOPE!

Batgirl

Might be a bit of a surprise given that I hate-- hate with a capital HATE-- everything they've done with Barbara Gordon since the launch of the New 52. But I gotta admit, I do kinda really like this costume, especially when it's got that purple hue to more clearly differentiate her from the other Bats. In my own personal head-canon, Babs should still be Oracle, but in any flashback sequences to her days as Batgirl, she'd be wearing this suit.

The Teen Titans

Thor

Man, the God of Thunder series was so friggin' good. And a big reason I was so drawn to it was the cover art, which looked like something from a trashy fantasy pulp novel. Dude looks like what every D&D Paladin dreams about being, and Old King Thor and Young Idiot Thor compliment him really well.

Captain Marvel

Screw you, Carol, I'm not calling him Shazam.

The X-Men

Rather than go through each of them one by one, I'm just gonna pick my 'definitive' X-Men lineup and my favorite takes on their costumes:

@AndyC

I forgot all of these characters because I was having a massive brain-fart beyond the ten I listed, but since you've reminded me...

Green Lantern

Aquaman

Supergirl

Batgirl

Teen Titans

Robin


Cyborg


Kid Flash


Wonder Girl


Speedy


Starfire


Beast Boy


Raven

Thor

This costume...



...with this helmet.

Shazam/Captain Marvel

X-Men minus Wolverine

Cyclops


Jean Grey


Beast


Iceman


Storm


Colossus


Nightcrawler


Kitty Pryde

[Lord Wraith]

I'm not going to list all my favorites because I'm too lazy to hop onto my laptop and because the majority of them have been covered so here's two that I haven't seen referenced yet.

Batman

For Batman, I have always loved Lee Bermejo's take on the suit in Joker and Batman: Noel. The rendering of it by Jim Lee however made me fall in love with it all over again.

Dick Grayson

I think Young Justice did a better job of modernizing the Robin suit than the comics have so for Dick Grayson as Robin this is definitely my pick.



This was hard because I love the classic Black and Blue, the DCAU and the Rebirth costumes. But honestly once you recolor the second Nightwing suit from the New52 to blue instead of red it is pretty tight in my opinion. Plus it retains the finger stripes which are by far the most important aspect of the suit :P.



I love this Earth-2 Dickbats because it so obviously homages the Disco Nightwing suit while still being obviously Batman. It does things differently too from a lot of other Batsuits and most importantly it's one of the few times where it's not Dick standing in for Bruce but rather a version of Dick who is free to carve his own identity beneath the cowl.

[Master Bruce]

Liking for Bermejo. I fucking love that look and wish more artists would adopt it.

[Lord Wraith]

Liking for Bermejo. I fucking love that look and wish more artists would adopt it.

@Master Bruce

Also love what we saw of this suit in the 'Crossfire' segment of Batman: Gotham Knight.

[AndyC]

<Snipped quote by Master Bruce>



Also love what we saw of this suit in the 'Crossfire' segment of Batman: Gotham Knight.

@Lord Wraith

Wait, there's an animated Batman movie where they play Crossfire?! Awesome!

[Sep]

@AndyC Favourite Costumes, I've already done Hulk and have little comic book preference outside of these two.

Flash/Kid Flash

I enjoy the Young Justice costume for the reasons Andy described for his Flash pick. It's simple, and the way the mask highlights his face in a way that can easily show his caring aspect as well as his jovial nature. I agree that soemtiems Flash' costume gets too many lines on it which means there's too much going on. In the Negative Flash arc while his lightning was red/black the panels just looked a mess of Red, Black, Yellow and it didn't really work.

For Kid Flash/Flash/Wally West 1



I gotta go with his Rebirth. It's similar enough to that of the Flash, yet it's different. I never liked the KF wearing yellow thing, I mean his costume closer resembles that of RF when it's yellow, and I think that's mainly for the contrast of yellow/red in comic panels to show who is where. That said, I think it works with the blue and the blue lightning to really highlight the difference between the two, despite them both wearing red.

Too start my own discussion, who is your favourtie underrated villain? Someone that never really grows (but has the potential to do so), or someone that just gets isnta-knocked out. Why are they you're favourite?

[Lord Wraith]

Too start my own discussion, who is your favourtie underrated villain? Someone that never really grows (but has the potential to do so), or someone that just gets isnta-knocked out. Why are they you're favourite?

@Sep

Dr. Thomas Elliot aka Hush.

I feel as though more than any of Batman's rogues, Hush has the explicit opportunity to be Batman's Mirror Universe Counterpart. Bruce's parents were murdered, Thomas murdered his parents. Thomas was jealous of Bruce's seemingly carefree life while forced to go to school after school to pursue a medical degree while Bruce was free to travel the world. I just feel that beyond his introductory arc, Hush has never been made a legitimate threat again despite this being a man who was able to cut out Selina's heart and keep her alive or perform open heart surgery on himself. Not to mention making his face look identical to that of Bruce's.

Elliot is able to physically go toe to toe with Bruce and given his knowledge of the human body should be able to target vulnerabilities with surgical precision. He's a master strategist and during the pair's childhood, Thomas always beat Bruce at their 'friendly' games of chess.

I would just love to see Hush rise to the same notoriety as Joker, Two-Face, Riddler etc especially because I think Hush is far more of a threat than a lot of Batman's 'A-List Rogues'.

[Lord Wraith]

Two-seven-one-nine-three-nine

@Master Bruce

I see what you did there.