Friday, May 16, 2008

My New Favorite Superhero Costume

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Most Excellent Superbat!


Yes, it's ugly as hell.

And I know it's ugly as hell. It's a ridiculous amalgamation of Superman's and Batman's costumes by a Japanese superhero. But look at that yellow.

In the margins of the Final Crisis Sketchbook, there's a note from artist J.G. Jones explaining that the shapes are the shapes used in the negative space in Superman's stylized "S" design. But it doesn't explicitly state why they're used.

He's Japanese. The S has no literal meaning for him. It's just a shape. The space around it are just shapes. And to those hero-worshipping kids (and perhaps much of the DCU's Japan), those are the shapes that symbolize Superman.

And as butt-ugly as it is, the solid thinking underpinning this costume impresses the hell out of me.

Rob

1 comment:

Jeff said...

Wow. I hadn't seen that one yet. That's...I get the feeling only Morrison could have said, "Here's a new character!" without the editors screeching it to a halt.

You know they're rolling their eyes, though.