So… Let’s Talk About Those Goofy Costume From The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises


Now that the Summer is drawing nigh, I thought it be a fair time to confront one of the biggest complaints that I’ve heard coming from the fanboy community… and that’s how damn goofy all of the costumes look from The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. I understand why everyone’s complaining. Thus far, we’ve only been privy to behind the scenes footage or quick photo grabs by paparazzi, and that’s how we’ve based our opinions. But there’s a lot of work that goes into the back end of these films, and a lot of that includes making the costumes not so goofy.

Especially when it comes to Christopher Nolan’s Batverse, fans can get pretty damn touchy about the suits. Sure, Bane isn’t exactly the menacing brute that he was in the comics and Catwoman doesn’t seem to have the same ‘cat burglar’ flair. In fact, she looks pretty frumpy. But then again, we only know that from either unofficial shots or stills.

When you look back at Batman Begins, Nolan worked really hard to make sure Batman and his villains didn’t look goofy. That’s a huge reason why most of the film has such a dark color to it. It’s easier to conceal how silly a costume is under the garb of night, and Nolan will heartily concede that fact… but I guess i should also point out that’s usually when Batman is out and about patrolling Gotham’s streets.

Now, when you compare The Avengers to The Dark Knight Rises, it’s clearly night and day (no pun intended). Especially since we’ve seen all of this fresh footage in the most recent trailers, we can really conclude how Earth’s Mightiest will look on film… and I’m kinda torn on the issue.

On one hand, The Avengers shamelessly places its characters into a bright world without the distraction of night or other techniques to ‘conceal’ the inherent goofiness of their costumes (unlike the Batman films). It’s a pretty damn brave move on Joss Whedon’s part, but admittedly, it makes some of the characters look a bit… corny, which is especially true for Captain America. The rest of Earth’s Mightiest are dressed in suits that have a type of ‘form meets function’ philosophy behind them, but Cap just looks like the bright, campy holdover from a Joel Shumacher Film.

Alright, that might have been a little bit harsh, but I still think that Whedon should have given Steve Rogers a better costume. Just take a look at his suit from The First Avenger. It was clearly war garb, frayed and torn, meant for battle. I know a few of you might claim “He’s supposed to be a bright, shining symbol”, but still, I think it’s a bit gaudy.

Then again, that’s part of Whedon’s brave new direction. Like I’ve said previously, he hasn’t hid the characters by focusing on night time shots, which would have been really easy to do. Just look at the one night scene in the trailer, the heroes actually look a lot more badass in that bit.  He’s fully embraced the whole concept of a ‘superhero team-up’… whether for good or bad.

But as one of our favorite fanboys has said, trying to complain about these films is like complaining about sex… no matter how it ends up, it’s still f***ing amazing.