Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion costumes - rants!

What I don't get is why so there is so much opposition to guys with sleeveless shirts.

I don't get it, either MLLASH. Women's navels and bare legs are everywhere, but a little male forearm shows itself and it's the end of the world.

It still makes me laugh that the closest thing to a male exhibitionist costume-wise in Threeboot was the guy who wasn't supposed to be a guy.

Me three Lash! I think the sleeve-less arms are a hot new look for the guys.

Though I don't think the T&A of the Legion girls is that extreme at the moment I definitely do think there's a double standard when it comes to what guys and girls can wear in comics.

Just look at Rokk and Imra's 70s outfits. People think of Imra's barely-there costume as a classic while Rokk's barely-there outfit is an abomination in most people's eyes. Both are pretty awesome costumes IMO.

I'd like to see the guys showing at least as much skin as the girls in the future to even things up a bit. Colossal Boy most definitely couldn't pull off the shorts look back in the 70s but I think a few of the other guys could.

And if Tyroc doesn't come back wearing next to nothing it will be a travesty!

re: Polar Boy's hair, I think it's the way it's drawn....when Giffen exposed his hair and we saw that it was all spikey, I kind of took that to be like it was normal hair that was covered in sleety snow.

Every artist from Frank on though seems to be drawing it as a distinct collection of huge ice crystals, and the effect kind of looks (to me at least) like something ripped off of Dragonball-Z.

In other costume-judging news, not that she's done much, but I don't like the way Vi seems to have been girlied-up again. I actually really liked her harsh look after the whole Yera thing, and it's not like it made her unattractive. Every woman doesn't need to look like she's one of Britney's backup dancers...

and the last bit I will chuck in for now is that while I get that it's very expected by now for Shady to be wearing next to nothing, I actually really liked her black bodysuit with the gold bracers from the 80's. I thought it made her look really classy.

Oh no wait, the last bit is...totally agree on Mon-El's reversed Superman togs. It is lazy to the max, and it makes my eyes vomit every time I look at it.

Okay, I will really shut up now (for a bit).

Loved her new short-haired look (and Laurel Kents, and a few other short-haired Legion-adjacent femmes). Why they took that away and made it much uglier and gave it to Imra, I'll never understand!

I liked Kitson's interpretation of Imra, with her hair just casually pinned out of her way, and looking unkempt, suggesting that, as a telepath, she didn't give a rat's bum about physical appearance or makeup or hairstylists, and was more impressed by the 'appearance' of someone's *mind* than how many hours they put in front of the mirror.

I kinda like that idea, that different Legionnaires, from different worlds, might have very different standards of beauty, and that Imra, from a world where the body is but a shell to carry the mind around, the beauty of someone's mind would be paramount, while their body would be just the packaging that carries the good stuff around. Under this sort of assumption, judging someone as attractive by the appearance of their body (or their hair, makeup, etc.) would be like declaring a novel a masterpiece because it has a shiny cover.

That sort of costume (and Imra's uniform-looking outfit) really made sense when costumes are increasingly being referred to as having armor like properties (like the X-Men's costumes, or the Shooterboot Legion outfits) to dampen incoming kinetic impact or diffuse energy attacks.

Putting sensible energy-absorbent/impact-dispersing cloth on Imra or Shady's classic bikini costumes would just mean that after the grenade went off, there'd be a pair of boobies, a crotch and some feet left on the ground...

On the other hand, Shady does look darn good in tiny little strips of cloth and metal. Making some kludgy half-arsed decision that her darkness generating powers help to protect her against energy attacks (by absorbing / negating energy striking her flesh) might be a suitable 'excuse' for her dressing like Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars.

Imra's got no excuse. Tinya is pretty much impervious to harm. Laurel Kent has an excuse to wander around in butt-floss. Dawnstar's body is more or less invulnerable to the heat and friction of lightspeed acceleration, which probably means she doesn't have a glass jaw. But Imra should dress in something that helps protect her not-invulnerable Titanian hide!

I much preferred Mon-El's loose-fitting outfit. Element Lad and Lightning Lad can and do look fine in skin-tight one-piece outfits that leave little to the imagination, but Mon-El's always been a classic in a roomier less in-your-face outfit.

I liked it because it felt *old-fashioned,* and, since Mon-El is 1000 years behind the times, I kinda liked that he wasn't running around in a spandex union suit like the 'cool kids.'
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I'm kinda not loving the Timber Wolf / Ayla reunion, because it feels like it's somehow unacceptable for a Legion lady to be un-paired-up with someone. Violet still seems to be single, and Projectra is single, again, thanks to the re-killing-off of Karate Kid, but I've always felt like it was perfectly fine for Sun Boy or Chameleon Boy to be single (or even big ol' sluts, in Dirk's case), but unacceptable for a Legion lady to not have a boyfriend for any length of time, even if the relationship is one that's pretty much impossible (Drake and Dawny, Blok and Mysa). Dream Girl was partnered off before she even joined the team, and Projectra may as well have been, as Shooter seemed to have her and Val in mind as a couple when he introduced them.

Even relatively new characters, like Gazelle, aren't in the comic for one issue before their are signs that they are going to be hooked up (with Invisible Lyle, in her case).

I have this sneaking suspicion that the only reason Brin and Ayla are a couple again is to negate any possibility that a fan will see that Violet and Ayla are both 'single,' and suggest that it's because they are a couple.

Less 'character development for Brin and Ayla' and more 'eliminate any possibility that fans will think that Salu and Ayla are a couple!'

I think Rokk, Imra and Dawnstar look great.
I like the facial hair on Brin, but I really haven't paid much attention to his outfit.
Nothing can match Cockrum's design for Lightning Lad, although I'm absolutely lovin' his hair!
I don't mind Shady's bikini, just because it shows off her incredibly beautiful blue skin!
The stilleto's must go, though.
Lydda's faboo in skintight black, I suppose the hooter-holes are a bit of overkill.
Cham looks fine.
Brainy just needs to remove the coat once in a while.
Gim and Ayla look fine to me.
I love, love, love Wildfire's transparent containment suit.
I gotta double-check all the others to comment on them.

Set wrote:

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...I liked it because it felt *old-fashioned,* and, since Mon-El is 1000 years behind the times, I kinda liked that he wasn't running around in a spandex union suit like the 'cool kids.'...

Looking back over some old scans online, though, it's obvious that a lot of artists drew the costume almost as a leotard that bagged at the wrists and shins, anyway. Some of them did the same thing to Brainy. A lot of artists just can't/won't break the habit of avoiding drapery.

In that light, it doesn't matter so much to me whether the old look comes back or not.

Maybe Tharrians were bald all along. On a hot planet, going without hair might actually be more comfortable.

Not completely true.

Violet's costume was downright conservative (and her best to date IMHO). And Phantom Girl only showed a bit of skin via the peepholes on her sleeves and chest. Dream Girl and Light Lass really didn't show any more (or less) skin in the 70s than in the 60s. Imra's was quite a departure, but it was kinda cool to see a fan-designed outfit. Shady's was skimpier under Cockrum, but really shrunk when Grell drew it.

I don't think it was the amount of skin as much as the unique design sense that really caught on with the fans.

Too many of these for one reason. Just as there were too many bare midriffs in Kitson's designs.

I can live with the hair, but the Cockrum design should never have been changed -- sacrilege on Frank's part!

Brin's outfit is a POS (piece of ....). They should either redesign it or bring back the 70s version -- or even the Steve Lightle version from the 80s.

I always thought the Lightle version was a step backward

I did think the spiked belt was a bit much...

I think all of Brin's costumes have been great. And (other than Furball and Threeboot) they've all been so similar to each other that I can't see how someone could passionately like one of them while disliking another.

And are the short sleeves really that prevalent on this team? How many guys have them? Brin, Garth, Jacques, Jo... is that it? 4 out of about 18-20 guys on this team. That doesn't seem like a glut to me.

And if short-sleeves make them look a little different to most of the other super-heroes you see in comics then all the better IMO. The Legionnaires should look a little different. They're 10 centuries in the future and the more futuristic and progressive and interesting their costumes look the better I can buy that concept.

I believe that was Perez' design. Lightle's came right after and rocked!!

Yeah, Perez had the spiky belt with a wolfshead buckle -- and top that opened down to the navel. It was an okay outfit, but I didn't like when the restored Brin's face to looking normal.

The Giffen bland orange/grey pajamas outfit followed that. Didn't like it.

Lightle's design showed a bit more imagination.

The Gary Frank design uses too many Silver Age elements that were better left to the 1960s.

My personal opinion is that the only really terrible change with Franks new costumes is the sleeveless look on some of the guys. This looks really ridiculous.

As for the girls, they dressed very sexily for decades, since Cockrum and Grell. Of course, this might not make much sense in a story technical way, but come on - those are superheroines, and they are supposed to be sexy by default Phantom Girl looks good, Shady looks good (never was a fan of her but I dig her new bikini), Jeckie looks good now her mask is off - the only female costumes I do not really like are Aylas (somehow, she has no look at all in this) and Dawnstars (the bolero jacket is not my cup of tea).

I can imagine that if there would have been an Internet back then when Imra started to wear her pink bikini, there would have been a heated debate about it. Nowadays, it's a classic. And anyway, the only thing more common in the Legion than constant reboots is constant change of costumes - so if you don't like one, hey, don't bother, there are pretty good chances it will be gone this time next year ;

Back in the day, between the bikini and the hair, she looked like the poster of Farrah Fawcett on my wall, which was cool. (30ish years later, wow, that's not a great picture!)

Nowadays, I've played enough superhero games that I can't imagine a non-invulnerable character wearing anything that doesn't protect them from bullets... I'm cool with Supergirl and Laurel Kent (or even Phantom Girl, who is effectively 'invulnerable,' or Dawnstar who has been described by writers who don't seem to know any better as having an 'invulnerable body' as shorthand for her ability to withstand pretty much any environment or acceleration) wearing some funky stuff, and, by this stage, I'm pretty much used to Shady wearing impractical outfits (maybe her ability to negate light gives her some low-level protection against energy in general? Maybe Talokkians are thick-skinned, from their harsh desert-world? I'm willing to concede a certain level of practicality for hawtness!).

But Saturn Girl doesn't only look better, IMO, in a full uniform (one that gives off both an authoritarian and perhaps even subtly intimidating 'Psi Corps' vibe), it just makes sense for her to dress intelligently, since she's one of the smartest and most serious (and experienced) Legionnaires.

Even if Lu, Violet, Imra, Ayla, etc. dress sensibly, the Legion has plenty of femmes whose powers can protect them, capable of providing the fan service, while not looking like the noob who brought a knife to a gun-fight.

Same applies for the dudes. Blok can let it all hang out in his blue trunks of space, while Cosmic Boy should keep his Dr Frankenfurter stuff in the closet.

(Now I want to see a picture of Kid Quantum II, complete with 'big hair' dressed up as Magenta, alongside Cos-as-Frankenfurter... The Rokky Horror Legion Show!)

Over at the DC Board, a few people commenting on the first issue were displeased with the outfits.

I didn't expect these to change in the first issue. And I think DC might be wise to job the designs out to someone known for costume design (though no one comes to mind at the moment). Or maybe have a fan contest!

I hope that if new uniforms are introudced, they're done slowly -- not all at once.

technically they don't need clothes at all as the flight rings offer enough environmental protection to survive in space.

The Legion of Super-Streakers!

Join Tellus and Cham in the great nudist revolution!

How about a combination of both,I give you the perfect Timber Wolf

I should probably let you guys now, for future reference, when I start writing comics Garth WILL be wearing the Gary Frank costume.

Good call Ken .... I was actually thinking "Darkstar" but said "Manhunter" in my post about Tyroc's costume ... my bad. I'm glad we agree that he looks ridiculous. Maybe his comment about his transuit means that costume is just a temp and we can expect to see a better one than that. I have to say it IS good to see him in action again though!

So Mon and Shady split up ... huh! That makes me sad. Well I'm sure we'll get a better explanation this issue as to why Shady "dumped" him. I bet its only a temporary situation though.

Costumes come and go in the Legion,like traffic,If it was up to me I'd had them stop with the Classic Cockrum duds,with a few exceptions.

Glad to have Tyroc back though,even if he looks like Ferrin Colos.