Dec 28th 2007 By: Wayne Beamer
The evolution of Iron Man from his bulky original suit to the current look happened over the course of several redesigns, including a gold version of the original, the "Silver Centurion" armor of the '80s, and Football Pants.
Oh, Sue Storm. I don't know what possessed someone to redesign your costume as a swimsuit with a giant "4" cut out over your cleavage. Oh wait, yes I do. As you might expect, the Invisible Woman's costume reverted back to the bodysuit that Jessica Alba later donned in the movies, and the "4" costume now lives on only in infamy.
By far one of the most absurd costume changes in comics history, Speedball was a happy-go-lucky teen hero who made colorful energy bubbles, until one of his teammates accidentally blew up 612 civilians. He renamed himself Penance, as now dresses in a metal gimp suit with 612 internal spikes that stab him every time he moves. You know, as penance.
In the '90s, Aquaman ditched his original costume in favor of an updated look with long hair, a beard and a hook in place of his left hand, because his Super Friends gear apparently just wasn't piratey enough.
After Bruce Wayne had his back broken by the villain Bane during the 90s, another vigilante took over the mantle of Batman -- while wearing brightly-colored battle armor and excessive yellow pouches. He also eventually started killing people, forcing Wayne to take back the Batman name -- and the costume we know and love.
After his secret identity was revealed in the 90s, Daredevil faked his own death, had a breakdown, became a street hustler, and returned in a mecha-suit with razor shoulderpads. Mercifully, none of this lasted, and he returned to his old identity and costume for reasons that ultimately, don't really matter.
One of the most famous costume changes in comics history, Spider-Man's black suit was actually an alien symbiote that bonded to his body during an intergalactic conflict called the Secret Wars, but we're pretty sure it was really put there because everyone was tired of drawing all those webs on his classic costume. He eventually removed the symbiote and returned to his classic costume, except for a brief period when Aunt May was hospitalized and he decided to dress in a non-symbiotic black costume to express the darkness of his soul.
While a lot of folks (including Jughead) went punk in the '80s, Storm's transformation into mohawked, leather-wearing badass was less about the music and lifestyle and more about going down into the sewer and having knife-fights with super-powered gang-leaders. And THAT is punk as hell.
The biggest major change from Wonder Woman's traditional costume into something with pants coincided with the rise of the Women's Lib movement, but unfortunately involved her losing all of her powers in the process, which is kind of a mixed message. Much like bell-bottoms, her groovy costume soon disappeared in favor of a more classic ensemble.
The X-Men have worn a lot of colorful costumes over the years, but it wasn't until Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely gave the X-Men a more paramilitary-inspired uniform that they actually made sense for the mutant fighters. The more realistic take was also adopted by the movies, where they donned appropriate fitted black uniforms rather than neon spandex.
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Friday 28 December
By The Junior Mad Scientist
No surprise here why IM overrides TDK for geekwhip: we've already seen Batman in action. The new incarnation is good but Iron Man is new -- brand new – never before seen on the big screen. Add to that the fact that Favreau has already proven himself very capable of handling a range of material and his casting of Robert Downey Jr. in a role he was practically born to play and you’ve got a fresh-n-tasty cinematic sundae.
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Friday 28 December
By The Comics Creator
Can't wait to see Iron Man, particularly Downey Jr.'s take on Tony Stark. Though I get squeamish everytime I hear that synthesized voice at the end of the trailer... "I am Iron Man!" Sounds like a cyborg wrestler.
Happy New Year!
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Tuesday 01 January
By Sarin
In response to comment 2, you've NEVER heard Ozzy Osbourne's song, Iron Man? Jeez. Some people.
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Tuesday 01 January
By Obviously
Don't worry about the voice, that was just part of Black Sabbath's song "Iron Man" which is the song that's featured in the trailer. It's not going to be Iron Man's voice in the movie.
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Tuesday 01 January
By Godspeed
Anyone who is surprised of Iron Man movie taking down Batman "movie"(if you can call it movie),has no idea of comic books.First of all,how can you compare movie made from DC comics and movie made from Marvel? Marvel have millions of readers more than DC.
Batman was total disaster for anybody who knows the comics. Maybe it was a good movie,but it was very bad Batmen movie.The batmobile was...(i don't have words to describe this,sorry)Batman movie was made by somebody who have read one comic book in his life and it was where Batmen is a ninja and the batmobile was looking like it was in the movie,awful.Many times before this has happened,where the movies are made by somebody who have no idea what they are doing.Some examples are:Street Fighter,movie by the game where the characters in the movie have nothing in common with the ones in the game. X-Man,who give the right to the maker to KILL Cyclops?? Also,Wolverine is 5" toll. Spiderman,Kirsten in the part of Mary-Jane? C'mon,Mary-Jane is an actress,but also she is hot photo model,but you can't say this for Kirsten,right?There is more,but you get the point,yes?
And for the end,Robert Downy for the part of Iron Man? Not cool.
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Tuesday 01 January
By Godspeed
To add to my comment,Superman Returns was awesome.
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Tuesday 01 January
By The Invincible Iron Man
"Iron Man" is a Black Sabbath song with Ozzy Osbourne lead vocals, not an Ozzy solo song, Sarin.
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Tuesday 01 January
By Misfitboxer
This movie looks like it will be awesome, I've read comics growing up and not too many movies are living up to the hype, this one looks to be a bit more interesting.And in regards to post #5, Batman was interesting, Street fighter was a classic, Kirsten isn't hot, and Wolverine is the s***, that is all I have to say about that.
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Tuesday 01 January
By Me
Wow, poster number 5 has no clue.
1. Lately, DC's market share has been creeping a lot closer to Marvel's, but even when Marvel did have a whopping lead, that's not quite the same. Rather than comparing that, compare the sales figures for Batman vs. the sales figures for Iron Man. I think Poster 1 is closer
2. "Batman was total disaster for anybody who knows the comics." Really? I've been reading Batman comics since 1981 (and have gone back and read many more from all kinds of different eras of the comics) and I loved that movie. Most of the comic geeks I know of loved it, too.
3. "X-Man,who give the right to the maker to KILL Cyclops??" Marvel did it themselves at one point. Granted, it didn't last, but what comic book deaths have? Everyone who died in that movie has been dead at one time or another in the comics.
4. "Also,Wolverine is 5" toll." Tolls are measured in money not inches. OK, I know what you meant and you can get some leeway on that one, but that's relatively superficial. Other than that I thought Hugh Jackman was a great Wolverine.
5. "Spiderman,Kirsten in the part of Mary-Jane? C'mon,Mary-Jane is an actress,but also she is hot photo model,but you can't say this for Kirsten,right?" This one I always laugh at. These complaints usually come from people who've spent so much time reading comic books that they forget what real women look like. Considering that Kirsten Dunst is an actress and she's modelled in Maxim or one of those magazines before, I think she would qualify as being acceptable to play a model/actress.
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Tuesday 01 January
By ccthomps
To poster 5: "And for the end,Robert Downy for the part of Iron Man? Not cool."
Downey Jr. used to be a depressed alcoholic. Tony Stark is a depressed alcoholic through the start of Iron Man. How can you say that doesn't fit. He was born for the roll.
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