Friday, January 27, 2006

Not Quite The Last Thing I'd See Myself Talking About, But. . .

I'm posting about costume changes, and remarkably it's not Spider-Man's. First, the backstory.

I'm cruising Absorbascon. Scipio has provided four new entrees for Galact. . . I mean four new characters for the Marvel Universe. Below that he links to all the previous donations. I admit, I hadn't read them all, so when I see Starfire, I'm a little surprised. I like Starfire. I like the one in the cartoon better, but that's because I've seen her more often. My experience with the comic version is probably less than 20 issues, hasn't really given me enough depth with the character. Anyway, Scip had a lot of reasons for not liking her, most of which are irrelevant to me. Yeah, she has a trail of energy flowing from her hair, and yes, she shoots energy out of her clenched fists, instead of an open hand. So what? I can't figure any reason why Superman has heat vision or x-ray vision. Superpowers often don't make sense. Back to the topic.

Scipio ragged on the costume (uniform? outfit?) she wears, and I have to admit, he's right. it's just absurd, and this is coming from a guy who has played the stupid, drooling fanboy more than once. Prior to his post, I didn't know about her life as a slave girl, so I'd never really understood about the significance of it, or why she'd wear that, other than the creators were guys (which I'd figure is the real reason, but still). So she needs something different.

Now this is where you come in. Because I have very little artistic ability, and less fashion sense, so me designing her a new outfit, is probably not wise. But let's set things up.

1), She needs more clothes. It doesn't have to be be head-to-toe coverage I don't think, but it should probably be near what she has on the cartoon. Personally, I kind of like that outfit, but it feels too young for comic book Starfire somehow.

2) She doesn't need armor. She's not invulnerable, but she's resilient enough that armor is kind of redundant. Plus, would armor interfere with her ability to absorb energy?

3) No capes! With that hair, she doesn't really need a cape, unless you're going to cut the hair, and even then, as a warrior, you think she would understand the danger of wearing something that can be grabbed and used to spin you around and fling you into buildings. Look at Wonder Woman. Top notch warrior, no cape (usually).

4) I like the color, what is that, lavender? Like Aquaman and orange, not many people can make that work, and I think she's one of them.

5) I think the boots and the arm gauntlets (yeah, they're probably just gloves, but 'gauntlets' sounds cooler) are fine.

Anyway, I'm kind of thinking something like the Jim Lee drawn Psylocke only with the different colors, plus maybe some designs that might reflect Tamaranian culture (is there any of that shown in the comics anywhere?) I mean, obviously that's not heavy coverage, but it's an improvement and besides, baby steps people.

But, like I said, I have no clue what I'm talking about when it comes to designs. Help me out. Maybe we get some artwork from people, we can let the people who read this blog decide what looks best. Then we march on DC's offices! How's 10 on Saturday on sound?

2 comments:

kalinara said...

You've got good ideas for costuming. I do kinda like the armor personally, but definitely not a cape.

They show Tamaranean culture a few times in Teen Titans, especially, I think, around the time she and Dick were to be married.

Hale of Angelthorne said...

There was an issue back in the day of the George Perez/Marv Wolfman Titans when Starfire was going to stroll out to the pool naked because she didn't think the bathing suit had "any special protective properties." Donna Troy talked her out of it (or into it, I suppose) to the everlasting regret of fanboys across the universe.