John Byrne gets cheeky with Aurora...

[iskander]

One of Byrne's best costume re-designs ( and he has had some truly god awul ones)












Oh no's...

Comments

[crinos]

Yeah, I actually read this one the other day. Gilded Lilly is into some kinky shit I tell you what.

I mean look, she's going to pour rose petals into the molten gold when Sasquatch busted in.

[halloweenjack]

You just know that she's got the Peggy Lee on the hi-fi and is wearing the same perfume that her dead mother favored.

[iskander]

Peggy Lee ?

[halloweenjack]

Fever.

[myst22]

LOL, yeah tell me about it! It looked like Gilded Lily was going to have her kinky way with Aurora before Sasquatch barged in (thankfully for Autora's sake).

BTW, Lilly was last seen in AF Annual 1(?). I wish Marvel would bring her back from the dead...

[icon_uk]

I must confess I never liked that Aurora costume, it lacked the simplicity of the black and white number, was just too busy, and the earrings and the hair were just godawful 80's IMHO.

[halloweenjack]

Yeah, some of that really doesn't age well, but I'll give Byrne this: at least he was paying attention, a little, to what people were wearing and how they were styling their hair. I was reminded of this when I got the Nova first series compilation; the artists on the series were (in order) John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Carmine Infantino, and as much as I admire their oldskool artist chops, either teenagers at high schools in Queens dressed a lot more conservatively than they did at high schools in Chicago (where I was in high school at that same time), or they really needed to step outside their studios once in a while.

[icon_uk]

I think artist pretty much have to skew conservatice because conservative fashions have staying power.

Pre-crisis Clark Kent was a complete square because he always wore a neatly parted hairstyle, dark blue single breasted suit, white shirt and tie, but the thing is that is a viable look at any point over the past 80 years, and so the look doesn't date.

Compare with the post Crisis attempts to have Clark dress in a more fashionable manner (Or the long haired look), and it just dates horribly.

Timing doesn't help, with Dick Grayson only getting a rat-tail/ponytail thing about two years after they were already out of fashion.

[halloweenjack]

At least with Clark, it's sort of part of his character. (If someone hasn't done this already, it would be fun to have an alien who comes to Earth arrive dressed in fashions decades out of date, because their look is based on the early TV transmissions and they haven't quite caught up.) Your comment about Nightwing makes me wonder if part of it doesn't have to do with the merchandise--the action figures and so on--and a historical reluctance to have to revise those too often, although certainly lately there seems to be more of a push for toy companies to stay more in tune with current versions of the characters, keeping up with miniseries/crossover events and so on.

[lynxara]

Recognizability is a big factor, too. It's a marketing risk to change a widely recognized character appearance into something different, purely because your less savvy consumers may no longer be able to recognize the brand.

I think this alone has saved Superman's costume from being radically changed over the years. Nightwing's outfit hasn't changed all that much in terms of basic lines or colors, it just got updated every so often like Batman's.

[insectposse]

it didn't save it from this change, unfortunately: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2nr1npv&s=4

[lynxara]

Eh, that was planned to be temporary from the start.

[halloweenjack]

Also, as kind of a follow-up to what I said above, at least Sal Buscema (in his work on Spider-Girl) seems to be drawing more up-to-date fashions on the teenagers in that book, although actual teenagers (or parents of same) may disagree with me on the contemporaneity of the clothes.

[skalja]

Ron Frenz, not Buscema. Buscema's the inker. I agree with you, though, it's nice the way he'll tweak May and co's look to stay up to date. A couple of years ago one of her standard outdoors outfits was a red puffy coat and bootcut jeans -- now the jeans are straightleg and she's wearing boots over them.

[jkcarrier]

Is being "dated" really a problem, though? I think it's cool to look back through old comics and see the contemporary references to fashion, politics, etc. As you say, Clark Kent should always be a little old-fashioned, because that's his personality. But Lois Lane should always be dressed in whatever smart, professional women are wearing at the time, whether that's a pillbox hat in the '50s, shoulderpads in the '80s, etc. etc.

[icon_uk]

Is being "dated" really a problem, though?

Ask anyone who hated Superman Blue: Electric Boogaloo so much! :)

[skalja]

Personally, I love it when artists draw characters in genuinely contemporary fashions, but far too often they're the trendy fashions of two or three years ago, which makes them dated the moment the comic is published.

Example: many artists at the Big Two are still constantly drawing female characters n everyday casual clothing that bares their midriffs, even though hip-, butt-, or thigh length tops -- either layered under shorter shirts or more recently, as single voluminous layers -- have been the norm for years now.

[wizardru]

I don't think it is. Comics aren't generally written/drawn for the ages, they're of the moment...just like TV, Movies and Music. Sure, it leads to some funny cultural comparisons when you look at Spiderman from 1975 and compare him to Spiderman in 2005...but so what? Perhaps it dates it...but shouldn't it be dated? Why do we expect a piece of pop culture from the past to match the present?

One of the things that truly set Marvel apart in the beginning was their effort to put their comics 'in the world', so to speak. The FF met the Beatles in 1964, for example. Captain America freaked out a little when he went to see Star Wars in the theater. Spidey made references to Annie Hall and SNL. It made them just a little bit more 'real'.

DCs attempts at modernization came off a little weirder, IMHO...like making Clark a TV news anchor, for example.

[perletwo]

... I was of two minds on it. I didn't find it attractive - yellow's just not J-M's color IMO - but it was polished and not slutty and kind of cutting-edge for the day. And it absolutely worked in dramatic terms, as a shocking break from her twinship with J-P and her Prim Spinster Schoolmarm J-M alternate personality. So, had to give it points for that.

Plus, there was nothing about it that couldn't be un-done by time and a good stylist later. Aurora was so in flux as a character at that point I wouldn't have been surprised to see her show up in male drag as yet another personality emerged in an issue or two.

[halloweenjack]

United States of Jeanne-Marie?

[salamangkiero]

As long as she doesn't give Crazy Jane a run for the money, it's fine.

[jlroberson]

I would agree. The original is a simple and tasteful, AND sexy, classic. I thought of it more as her outfit than Northstar's, but I always found her more interesting than him as well.

[halloweenjack]

Walter's got a hell of a nerve getting on Jeanne-Marie's case, given that he basically gets away with walking around with his dick hanging out on account of his long, luxurious pubes.

Also, that poor lady, not knowing that Northstar plays for the home team.

[iskander]

Did the Hulk ever punch him in the jewels ?

[jlroberson]

He should. "What did Hulk make go pop? Hulk not like funny noise! STOP SCREAMING, HAIRY ORANGE MAN!"

[protogarrett]

Oh wow, Gilded Lily. That was one messed up villain. I mean honestly, who has a segway for a body?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Lily

[iskander]

Did she ever appear again ?

[jlroberson]

Arnim Zola is almost there.

[seriousfic]

Now that I am no longer a team with Northstar, I see no reason to continue to dress like him.

And yet, ironically enough, Jean-Paul is wearing the exact same thing.

[proteus_lives]

I've always liked short hair on women.

[iskander]

Win!

[yaseen101]

Me too.

[iskander]

Another win...

[yaseen101]

Damn! What's her name?

[selke]

*drools*

[cleome45]

Bleah. Never liked this costume. :(

[northstarfan]

I thought some aspects of this costume worked, but I never really met a pair of half-sleeves that I liked.

Regardless, tho', I do still love Byrne's old art.

[iskander]

One must have good "sholder action" to pull off half sleves.:)

[skalja]

Many people consider elbow-length one of the most flattering sleeve lengths for women, actually.

[iskander]

yes. the sholder action is what keeps it interesting...

[selke]

Oh god, it's Kate Gosselin.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Aurora is quite an interesting character, really. I mean, you don't really come across that many characters who are so flirtatious in comics - at least, not ones being portrayed sympathetically. And then, of course, there's the fact that she's, y'know, CRAZY - it makes for an interesting mixture.

[phosfate]

It's better than the cut he gave Sue Storm, but not by much.

Well..

[steverodgers5]

"One of Byrne's best costume re-designs ( and he has had some truly god awful ones)"

It's not one of my favourites as I quite liked the original suit, but I don't hate it.

I would however take issue with too many criticisms of Byrnes redesigns though, as I think a lot of them worked really well.

I absolutely love his Black/Navy Blue and white Fantastic Four outfits, and really wish they'd stuck with them.

And I will never, ever, understand Joe Q's seemingly irrational hatred of Logan wearing Byrnes's Brown and tan outfit. I mean why in god's name would someone like Wolverine ever go about in bright yellow spandex?!? For such a would be stealthy guy, that's never made any sense to me. Still don't understand the in story reasons for him going yellow again in the 90es, and I don't think I ever will..

[janegray]

I've always loved that costume so much :D