gwenfrankenstien

I sort of accidentally am a million years behind on this, oops?

Favourite Costume

Man, I have about a million of these. I think I'll split them into arbitrary categories!

Donna Troy's Wonder Girl, as drawn by George Perez. I don't even know why this is one of my absolute favourites, given that I don't particularly care about Donna. It's not even really that interesting a costume, just a simple red jumpsuity thing. But I LOVE IT. The stars that match the (impractical but cute) earrings, the belt with the WW logo in the same colour. The boots are the same black as her hair, which I think balances it out (the costume didn't look nearly so good when Cassie wore it in Sins of Youth, although that may also be because it wasn't drawn by Perez and therefore automatically looks less polished...)

More predictable of me: Damian's Robin costume. I think it's a great update on the classics. I love that they kept the green in, because as much as I love the OYL Robin costume (we'll get to that next) Robin should really always be red, yellow, and green, black optional. The hooded cape is cool-but-slightly-impractical, exactly the sort of thing a kid would add to his costume. And although you can't really see them in this picture, I love his boots. Green boots with red laces! You can actually see how they do up! (This is something that has always bothered me, okay. HOW DO THE SUPERHEROES GET THEIR BOOTS ON.)

And another Robin. I think this is a much more balanced design than Tim's original costume (and don't get me started on how cluttered Steph's Robin suits were). (And yes, I know, that's because they lost the green, but I miss it, okay.) I love that he has Batman glove-spikes. I love the (again, impractical but really cool looking) two-coloured cape with the feathers cut into it. I sort of wish this had become Tim's costume a lot earlier, so that Steph's could have been this with a skirt, because how cool would her hair look with that cape? (Aaand we're back to balance.)

Cully Hamner's Renee Montoya Question. I LOVE THIS. I love that she's not just wearing Vic's costume (like she is when other artists draw her). I love the hat. (Of course I love the hat. Anyone who knows me IRL knows how I feel about hats.) But what I really love about the way Hamner drew Renee? She didn't (always) wear this. She wore the mask, and a hat, which was usually the fedora but could also be a baseball cap if it was more appropriate to the task at hand. She didn't wear her nice jacket when it would just get in the way. There are a lot of characters with costumes that look like normal clothes, but you can tell they're really costumes because the character wears the same exact thing all the time. And I love, love, love that Renee didn't do that. (Of course, now that the Rucka/Hamner stories are over, she's back with long hair and the blue trenchcoat. Sigh.)

Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl, mid-Young Justice era. I actually love most of Cassie's costumes, but I think this is my favourite. I love Cassie in pigtails but I hate the jacket she used to have with them, this is sort of in-between. I'm honour-bound to love any costume with goggles. Apart from the GIRL necklace (what is the point of that necklace? Never fight crime with grabbable jewelry, Cassie!), it's one of the most practical costumes out there. And it looks like clothes a girl would actually wear. Scratch that, not just "a girl." It looks like clothes Cassie would wear. Her current costume... Doesn't, to me, or at least it doesn't look like something the Cassie I cared about would wear. I guess she lost her own style when she lost her personality...

And, of course, Misfit. This design had been around for about three months when I made my costume. That's how great it is/was. The fact that it's really easy to make is of course intentional within the story, but it also makes it awesome for the cosplay-inclined. Again, what I love about this is that it's made of clothes that Charlie would absolutely wear. I love that she fights crime in a t-shirt, a denim skirt and chucks, because let's face it, if I discovered today that I had superpowers that's pretty much what my costume would look like. I love that unlike a lot of other characters, Misfit actually does wear leggings under her skirt. Basically I love everything about this costume. (And this character, to be honest.)

Spoiler! I love the Spoiler costume. Or, more accurately, I love what the Spoiler costume became... Going through her costume history is entertaining just to watch as the inexplicable early-'90s design clutter gets slowly pared down until you end up with this. This is great. Eggplant/purple is a nice dark colour, so she doesn't pop out when she's trying to hide in the shadows doing Bat-things. I also love that she has a full-face mask (because really, how secure is your identity in a domino?). I know everybody is supposed to hate pouches on superhero costumes, but I love Steph's bandolier-belt-thing and the Utility Garter. For a character like Spoiler, who doesn't have any powers and starts out with very little training, having easy-to-reach gadgets makes sense. Practicality!

Huntress! I love this for a lot of the same reasons as I love Steph's. It covers her whole body! It's in dark, lurk-in-the-shadows colours! I hate, hate, hate the Jim Lee redesign, for reasons I think are obvious. But even the later redesigns (the costume Nicola Scott had her in in BoP, the one Cully Hamner designed for the Question back-ups) use the Jim Lee costume as a base. Quite apart from the exposed belly problem, that costume has a huge white cross over her essential organs. That thing is a target. The bright-colours-easy-to-spot thing works if you're Robin, maybe, but it definitely doesn't mesh with Huntress' M.O. I'm glad we're finally going to see the tail end of the Jim Lee monstrosity soon, but really I just wish we could go back to this one.

And finally, Kate. I liked the Batwoman design from the minute we first saw it, even though the original Alex Ross design was sort of horrendously impractical. (I think I mostly liked it 'cos of the red.) And then J. H. Williams III came in and got rid of everything I hated about the original and kept the things I liked-- The heels became combat boots. The belt became a bit more useful-looking. The mask got a lot more intimidating. The long hair turned out to be a wig, an intentional target. Williams changed where the cape fastened, made her gloves both more visually interesting and an actual weapon. All kinds of little, subtle changes that turned it from a visually appealing but impractical costume into something awesome.