Posted: 20 January 2018 at 3:07am | IP Logged | 2
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If you look closely, there are other tweaks and the news stories call this a redesigned costume. Jim Lee changed the belt buckle (it's TWO ovals now!), his wrists/cuffs (two v's there now), and the boot tops (the v's at the top are raised now). So, it's not a return to the classic costume, it's just a return of the trunks--because the last Jim Lee-designed costume didn't look quite right (and neither does this one).
I've come to realize that there are some comic book artists that are great designers and there are others that are great RE-designers! Jim Lee is a great designer (his WILDCATS are other Wildstorm characters had great looks), but he's really not a good re-designer (his new costumes for established characters are not that great--especially giving all the New 52 big guns mandarin collars and confusing armor lines).
Jack Kirby and Dave Cockrum are the best designers, while Dave Cockrum and Neal Adams are the best re-designers. Adams' re-designs for the Angel and Green Arrow are beautiful (as are his early tweaks to Batman), but his original designs for Havok, the Living Monolith, Ms. Mystic, etc. are hard to get right by other artists (he, of course, can make anything look great). Cockrum gave us wonderful re-designs for Ms. Marvel, Jean Grey/Phoenix, and a number of Legionnaires, but he also created new characters that looked awesome from the get-go--Nightcrawler, El Aguila, etc. George Perez is a wonderful artist and his designs for the new members of the New Teen Titans or a number of Avengers villains, etc. were iconic, but a lot of his re-designs were downright awful--his Wonder Man was garish, his gypsy/belly dancer version of the Scarlet Witch was ridiculous, and don't even get me started on Troia (possibly the worst costume in modern times).
Anyhow, my point is--I wish somebody would tell Jim Lee (who is a great artist and story teller) that he's just not that good at tweaking these icons and maybe he should leave the re-designs to someone else. (But thank goodness the mandarin collar is gone and there are no useless buckles and pouches!)
Edited by Eric Jansen on 20 January 2018 at 3:13am
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