Today’s the day we’ve all been waiting for: the release of Wonder Woman #1 by Greg Rucka and Liam Sharp. My thoughts on that next week. (Apparently, I’m not important enough to get an advanced copy.)
This week, we’ll talk about Wonder Woman’s costume, as this has already been revealed. With a new number one, there must be a new costume, no? The fanbase flipped out so much over The New 52 giving Wonder Woman pants, they caved and stripped her of them at the last minute, replacing them with more familiar shorts adorned with stars – only two – but, hey, John Byrne did it, so why not? I, for one, didn’t have a problem with the New 52 costume. I dug the silver; it seemed still pretty faithful to what should be there.
An interesting thing happened. Warner Bros. released a photo of Gal in the WW costume, and the fanbase went nuts. In a bad way. They thought she was too thin. The costume looked like Xena . . . blah, blah, blah. So, did Warner Bros. cave again? No. Batman V Superman was released, Wonder Woman was arguably the best part of the movie, and the fanbase was eating crow. (Hey, I love crow!) Now that’s not to say perhaps Warner Bros. didn’t “brighten up” Wonder Woman’s costume in post-production. As heavily photoshopped as Zack Snyder’s films are, it would have been a simple fix.
They made the new “Rebirth” costume (designed by Jim Lee) to resemble her film costume, presumably because she was such a hit in the flick. But, honestly, I think it had little to do with the costume, but what do I know?
I guess I’m so stuck in iconic iterations of these characters that I don’t see the need for change. Is changing her look so dramatically the right thing to do in the middle of her 75th anniversary? Make the most recognizable female character internationally different? Um… what do I know?
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dislike it. I’m just not in love with with.
The Good:
The tiara looks right. The breast plate looks chic. Thank goodness there are stars present somewhere on her costume, although you have to squint to see them. And the lasso is present. Wow, my “good list” is gonna be a little shorter than the “bad list.”
The Bad:
The bracelets are too big. The smaller ones make it seem like she has more skill dodging bullets.
The scalloping. Why? Why? Just why? It’s too fussy and adds nothing.
The shield and sword. I said it before, I’ll say it again. People just look psychotic wielding a sword. Especially superheroes.
The cape. I’m in the middle on that.
The boots. Once again, too fussy and not very functional. And they do look a little like hooker boots.
The crotchflap. What is that god awful accordion-style skirt? It looks like big blue movie curtains wrestling a dust muffler.
Don’t get me wrong. I get it. They were going for authenticity, but I think what makes DC’s characters so great is the fact that they look like superheroes.
TV’s Flash and Supergirl are more faithful to the comics, and they both look amazing. Diana was here 100 years ago and was savvy enough to dress like an aristocrat at swanky parties. She’d also know what a modern superhero should look like. Wouldn’t she? I just think her looking more warrior princess takes a little a way from who she is.
That said, I like the comic version much more than I do the movie version, and we can only hope she’ll get a wardrobe change sooner than later, because it may be more “authentic” but certainly less fashion forward.
Next Week: Wonder Woman #1 review!
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