The Worst New Superhero Costumes of the 90s
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- Image Comics' popularity in the 90s really hurt Marvel and DC throughout the decade. Marvel and DC were lacking in top tier artistic talent and they both kept trying to redesign their characters to chase popular trends. It didn't work well.
This episode takes a look at many of these short-lived looks and looks for common techniques to figure out where things went wrong.
/ comictropes
Daredevil's blind, I don't think he knows how any of his suits look like good or bad
Maybe someone slipped that bad outfit into his rotation as a prank? :)
How does he know his costume is red? If I were his villian, I'd fuck with him a lot. "CURSE YOUR NAVY BLUE HIDE, DAREDEVIL!" or; "You're not as stealthy as you think with all the pink tie-dye."
I guess even villains are not evil enough to mind f the blind guy. :) That or maybe he has everything tagged in brail or something.
Daredevil can feel the heat given off of certain colors, depending on the amount of light they reflect.
Yeah, because that makes total sense. :)
“Not looking any deeper than surface level”
Honestly with some early Image books like Youngblood and the like, there wasn’t much else than surface level.
Youngblood. SPEAKING of terrible design.
I was thinking the same thing - if that was the wrong lesson to take, what was the right one? There wasn't any other one so far as I can tell.
@@puckerings Probably the auteur attitude beneath the style. Metal Gear Solid games are stupid, for instance, but there's an ernestness that is very endearing. However, a 'quirky' game like Sunset Overdrive doing something similar feels patronizing, I guess.
Similar thing with Youngblood. A group of hip new characters that the creator honestly thought were cool feels endearing even if the stories were pretty dreadful. But, Captain America becoming a badass edgelord feels very insincere.
I still love Badrock to this day. Dude is literally a teenager in a giant stone body, doesn't take anything seriously (even when he really should), has a great relationship with his still very much alive parents. He's a fun, if not especially deep, contrast to the grim 'n' gritty Wolverine clones Liefeld liked to churn out by the dozens.
@@puckerings also I feel like most of Image founders had great sense of visuals and designs...sure stories are garbage but they knew how to create appealing looking characters. Jim Lee's books had cool spaceships and stuff, which is also talent, designing something even super minute. I feel like that kind of skill is pretty hard, you can't just hire random guy and say "hey design something like that"
I think the Azreal batman was intentionally designed to be bad. It supposed to parody the trends of grim and gritty if I'm remembering correctly an interview with Denny Oneil
You are.
so both Azrael and Lobo were parodies of their times?
@@GenericProtagonist118 To be fair, even if they chased a trend or two, overall, DC showed a lot of contempt for the 90's-early 2000's ''Dark, gritty and extreme'' wave of comics, just look at Kingdom Come, What´s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way? and of course, Knightfall.
Yuup
Grim and gritty literally describe batman
Ahh yes, Cool Mint Superman vs. Cinnamon Fresh Superman...
Try Cherry or ===NEW=== Blue Raspberry Pepsi!
Don't forget 10,000 power lemony zest Superman!
I like the Electric Blue Superman suit!
@@doriangreen3231 It was, in fairness, a pretty cool outfit.
I just found a lot of the late '90's *NEWER! BIGGER! AND NOW WITH MORE POCKETS!* character re-inventions really unnecessary and over the top.
Sidenote, is your name a Squirrel Girl reference? Because if so that's awesome.
Cool mint was always my favorite
for all the bad the looks for the 90s costumes were, i'm actually really in love with the bomber jacket look and the wonder biker look.
Exactly it’s just soo good
They're no less practical than capes.
Scarlet Witch shortened her jacket and kept it for the films.
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs well if you notice the capes are for character who want to be a entity or a symbol of hope. Having a cape makes them seem more like a that symbol as it gives off a royal look. You can see who want to be symbols of hope than the ones who don’t. Wonder woman wants to help not really inspire anyone and Aquaman is already a king so he doesn’t need to look royal. Flash wants to save people not inspire anyone also and green arrow wants to protect people. Only really batman and Superman want to be hope and become a entity
Same. I wish it was treated like an elseworld wonder woman
"This is War Machine. Seriously."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
I liked the armor, not so much looks wise, but story wise and with Dan Abnett had worked the conclusion of those Eidolon living armors into his cosmic run.
AzBat was cleverly done because the armour evolved over the story arc. As Jean Paul gradually turned mad the armour got more extreme, to the point where Bruce defeats him via forcing him to lose the costume. He's 'saved' through abandoning it. Nice and symbolic. I do have a real soft spot for Knightfall though, because it's what got me reading comics.
Chris Clairmont talks about this time in interviews. He decided to leave X-Men when basically he would send the script to the artists, who would then ignore it and send him back the artwork and tell him to write something that matched the artwork. The artists were basically saying "I drew something I think is cool, now make a story for it". Editorial supported the artists and basically it was the artists creating the story and not the writers.
so…the 60s Marvel all over again, instead of the 70s and 80s Marvel where writers were king instead
Isn't this how Stan Lee did most of his work? That was his preferred way to write.
I think this is also why the VAST majority of comics are truly TERRIBLE stories.
@@zero11010 I think that changed in the 80's, when it was the writers (like Clairmont, Alan Moore and Frank Miller) and not the artists that were the superstars of the comic world. Going into the 90's, you started seeing the artists become the main superstars again (Like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld) and the focus switched back to style over substance.
@@TheSuperhomosapienYeah, but that's what the market wants. You see that in comics to day. You see that in movies today.
The Fast And The Furious movies aren't known for their amazing stories. It's a group of international thieves and spies ... who are totally trained .... because of their history street racing and fixing up cars a little bit.
People buy into what looks good and the story barely matters. This is VERY apparent in how comics are made, too.
The only reason batman does as well as he does as a hero is because of poor writing and popularity. Right? Spiderman is a street level nobody. But, when earth needs to put together the most powerful beings ... somehow spiderman gets brought along? He's not the smartest, the fastest, the strongest .. he's just not that special ... oh but he's popular and sells comics ... so when the Infinity Gauntlet story happens ... include him as someone to confront a cosmic level threat.
Its the so called Marvel Method, it had issues.
Knightfall was excellent for its commentary on the "extreme" trend of the time, and its introduction of Bane.
guinnes4life I agree with you that I think that Knightfall and Batman Beyond comic stories were the best written Batman comic stories.
@@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr Knight Fall is shit. They lead up to Batman breaking it's spine is so weak it's hilarious my biggest problem with the story.
Samuel Raji wow you have the wrong opinion
@@wyattjenkinson450 Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion-even if it's the wrong opinion and a poorly worded and near unintelligible one with bad grammar. I personally loved the Knightfall story line but the important thing to remember is that while Image Comics had just exploded onto the scene not too long before, it was still very much a bleak and uncertain time in the comic book industry. DC had just killed off Superman the year before and people can tend to forget that the reason why DC killed Superman off in the first place was because of lagging sales and that the Death Of Superman story-line was a gimmick and publicity stunt to drum up sales, as everyone, even my 10 year old self, knew that there was no way that DC would permanently kill off it's flagship character and arguably, the most popular Super Hero in the world. There were all sorts of awful trends like splash pages, variant/ foil/ hologram covers and one bad story line and unnecessary change of some kind to characters after the next from Marvel and DC.
There were so many other things going wrong in the landscape of the comic industry at that time, the fact that there were so many horrible new Super Hero costumes introduced throughout that decade just seems like it was part and parcel of everything else that was going wrong at the time. I very clearly and vividly remember at one point reading the wretched Clone Saga from the Spider-Man books in the mid 1990s as well as the Onslaught and subsequent Heroes Reborn story line and some of the other stuff coming out from Marvel and DC in the 1990s and honestly believing that I was witnessing the end of Marvel Comics(seeing as Marvel went bankrupt in the 1990s, I'm sure they thought that the end was upon them as well). I said that I liked Knightfall but the reality is that it was every bit as much a gimmick and publicity stunt as The Death Of Superman was. It wasn't all bad in comics at the time in the 1990s but it's for good reason that the 1990s is widely considered to be the worst period in the long history of comics.
J R and yet todays comics make the 90’s look like a veritable golden age.
I remember a comic with Kitty Pryde being involved with the Guardians of the Galaxy. At one point she was dressed in a way the closely resembled Star Lord. While talking with him she goes on to mock herself in saying that she hasn't ever been able to put together a "look". Was amazingly funny to hear a character talk about not being able to figure out a wardrobe that would become iconic to her that she also liked.
Azbat shouldn't be on this list. The whole point of the entire story was that the classic Batman was better. Their feud ends with Azrael literally losing the fight BECAUSE of his bulky costume with built in night vision.
AzBat was intended to be a take-that from DC to the fanboiz screaming for a darker, edgier Batman. But DC was hedging their bets; if AzBat had taken off, they would have gone with it. The sad thing is that in other comic channels where the average age is considerably younger than here, AzBat is super-popular. They're celebrating his return to the comics completely without irony.
Which explains why this is just about the only comic channel I follow any more.
Good point and that suit wasn't that bad at all. When I was a kid I loved it. Whys it on the list?
You loved it _because_ you were a kid. It's what an 11 year old thinks is "s00per k00l d00d!!!11". Which was the point.
Azbat's costume was actually cool, depending on the artist who drew it. Mike Manley did it great.
Azrael's costume could look awesome at times. The armor looked bulky and impractical. during Knightfall. The Azrael suit looked much better as Jean Paul Valley trimmed down the costume after Knightfall.
Will say this: Boob Window Sue Storm is one of the designs I'm thinking of turning into a swimsuit.
And doesn't Power Girl have a boob window on her costume where the S would be on Superman's and Supergirl's. In one comic she even makes an innuendo by saying "Fill my hole Superman."
Xehanort10 yeah, she’s had that since her creation
various reasons have been given for it, but the two most popular for her are that she’s proud of her body and wants to show off, or that she just doesn’t know what to put on it, because even though Superman’s her family, she doesn’t want to be in his shadow.
I feel that's what they were going for
I liked when they added pouches that seemed practical. Not the super over exaggerated pouches, just the realistic ones.
Talon Stephensen I don't know, excessive pouches beats dull 'realistic' costumes or what barely qualifies for one that's common these days. Least a lot of the bad 90's costumes were interesting to look at visually.
That's probably how it came about, but it doesn't make sense for every character that don't carry lots of stuff around
Batmans utility belt comes to mind, after that they tended to get stupid.
That's thanks to Art Adams and Longshot. He's kind of patient zero for many aspects of the 90s style; Liefeld in particular was very inspired by his work.
Righhhttttt. I loved all that shit
Apart from the jacket, I actually really liked Scarlet Witch's new outfit for the Crossing. I actually preferred it to her original design which always looked stupid to me. Maybe it was the head thing she always wore, and the rest was kind of generic. But the outfit she had in the crossing actually looked mystical like a sorceress which fitted her.
It's funny they deleted her head thing when so many characters were getting kickboxing guards in the 90s.
1:23 Just as an aside, Image was being true to its name in being just as shallow. It's why several of the founders wound up going back to the majors starting with the misbegotten Heroes Reborn series by Liefeld and Lee. Or does no one else note the irony of Jim Lee now being in the upper echelons of DC Entertainment all these years later?
Wait a minute... you're going to criticize character's clothing... in THAT shirt?
Yeah that shirt IS remarkably strange...my attention was wandering and I wondered WHERE the HELL I would wear a shirt like that---bowling? Goose-stepping down the street in Camden, New Jersey? As a psycho DENTIST?
I'm just sitting over here wondering where I can get a shirt like that. Looks very comfortable.
It makes me think of a flight attendant, a golfing field and a traffic police officer.
@@mslightbulb It makes me think of a little girl in a pink dress, sticking a hot dog, through a donut.
Sam Brown have you ever been to Camden? You would get beat up and not even mugged for wearing that shit in Camden. I live in Jersey and that town is ROUGH!
Everyone looks like 90s Gambit or Havoc lol
Kebim TheAccess Or Rogue. All of those were Jim Lee designs before he left for Image. Take a look at that "The Crossing" cover and then at something like WildCATs or Stormwatch #1s because that's what they were going for.
Expect Thor that looks he is cosplaying jojos
dude.... dude.... dude.
Looked like Scarlet Witch raided Gambit's wardrobe.
Evil Ironman, sounds exactly the same as Hydra Cap' America. Marvel never learn.
Ikr
Hydra Cap made sense and wasn't terrible.
sitevil rogers is actually pretty cool.
@@milliondollarmistake I actually really enjoyed that story
History doesn't repeat itself, it often rhymes.
That "what were they thinking?!" reminded me of the AVGN.
Azreal Batman’s first costume was badass. It was also obvious Bruce was set up to re find himself. People don’t like writing about Bruce’s mistakes and fallibility and knightfall was actually a good story to show his having to fix a problem he created. He made a bad decision and had to deal with it.
"Knightfall" was just another one of DC's cash grabs - like "Crisis for Infinite Cash," uh, "On Inifinite Earths," "the Death of Superman," "Hush," and "New 52." They set up some continuity-shaking event, have it run in a dozen titles for a year (making you go broke trying to keep up with the story) and finally end it with everything back to where it was before the 'big event.' What? Why, yes, I don't like DC's editorial approach. How could you tell?
Jim O'Donnelly, how the hell do you manage reading comics in general then? 90% of comic book companies have the same approach my guy.
@@jimodonnelly7762 none of those events/sagas that you mentioned can be called cash-grab, don't use a word when you don't get it's meaning.
All of those had a reason, mostly of the events of DC is to fix/re-arrange the universe/timeline.
I remember this era and it really pushed me out of comics for a very long time. Looking back and hearing the behind the scenes decisions that fueled it, I can understand it better. I always wondered what the deal with Guy Gardner was and had NO idea it was MMPR related.
I don't get how it is, they don't shape shift right?
can you do a best 90's redesigns? (Tim Drake's Robin pre-crisis suit, Kyle Rayner Green Lantern and Scarlet Spider as examples?)
I would'n count skarlet spider as a redesign since he is a different character than spiderman
@Char Aznable you misspelled dick grayson
@@fransandersson4717 Dick is a better character. Tim is the best Robin.
Spider man 2099! Easily my favourite costume ever.
@@kevintanza6968 well tim is actually the weirdo one. I prefer Damian Wayne.
"Electric Blue" Superman, kinda worked because they didn't fully re-imagine his silhouette. Characters having that defined silhouette helps add that familiarity to the reader. Also the fact that, as you stated, had him trying to get use to his new powers was also refreshing with the new look. The fact that he's in a legit "new skin" and that he wasn't use to it didn't make it feel as jarring as say, what they did for Guy Gardener or Wondy.
I actually like the daredevil armor look. I think seemed pretty cool, but perhaps on another hero it would have been better received.
it also reminds me of Netflix Daredevil
I think it looks like a Captain America suit.
Or with better colors.
It was awfu just like netflix season one daredevil
Captain America's regular outfit is armor, artists just tend to draw it as if it were skin-tight cloth. Daredevil's armor wasn't a bad suit, it just didn't fit Daredevil. Wonder Woman's outfit wasn't bad, it just looked more like casual wear, or (again) the outfit of another character. Wonder Woman's classic outfit is honestly pretty terrible and only gets a pass because of nostalgia; it would be met with derision if it were first given to a character from the 80s onward. And it wasn't even that Marvel and DC shallowly copied the Image artists; the Image artists were mostly pretty shallow themselves.
Yeah ive always thought wonderwomans look was stupid, but tbh idk what you could do about it, its pretty iconic/stuck to the characters visual identity
The scales have really been deemphasized sadly. And eventually deleted. A lot of work to draw.
"Knightfall"
"Knightquest"
"Knightsend"
And the build up for the story is fantastic. I got so many image comics from the 90s. Savage Dragon. Union. Supreme. Warblade. Pitt. Spawn. Stormwatch. Loved image in the 90s.
Image comics was nothing but big fights page after page.
I enjoyed stormwatch,spawn and a few others but preferred the wildstorm universe with stormwatch ,Wildcats,gen13 and my favourite the Authority,also loved the admittedly strange wildstorm/DC crossover and the earlier JLA,Wildcats one,also one of the relatively few who enjoyed worlds end
@@andreworr4307 WildStorm was the best Image universe. It's a shame Jim Lee sold it to DC.
Savage Dragon #11-58 is my favorite comics run of all time.
I don't know anything about comics, but there's just a happiness I get from seeing someone with the passion to enjoy and explore that whole culture. I'm an anime person and wish I had the time for comics, but these little insights are wonderful!
Imagine if civilization collapsed, comics were forgotten until people in the future discovered a warehouse full of early nineties Image comics? What would they think of us? Perhaps they would think we died out because of an evolutionary predilection for women with waists so thin they were no longer able to bear children?
Jeremy Cline Not to mention women must have been constantly falling over due to being top heavy.
If they saw the 90s comics they would think we are awesome and sweet.
Mark J Well, too each his own. There was so some good stuff in the 90s and some... not so good.
+True Fan Forum It was definately better than now.
+Mark J ...it sounds like I was being harsh but I was just making fun of the cliched early nineties stuff. As time goes by I'm discovering more and more good stuff like Peter David's lengthy runs on several titles. Wish I had known about stuff like that back in the day but the Liefeld era turned me off so much I was out of comics for a while.
Oh HI! You caught me going through some of your old videos that, somehow, I missed. You are one of my favorite comic UA-camrs.
Wolverine mutating like that was caused by Cable’s son (Tyler) and not Magneto.
That's what I was going to say.
He ignores a lot of context just to bash things. Yes there were horrible decisions with a lot of these costumes. However he just blames one thing ignores the stories and context on things.
No, the art style was just shit. And Cable has a son? That's news on me.
He even made appearance in the X-men the animated series. He isn't that unknown of a character.
Yes. And he gradually de-mutated to a point where he looked normal for a long time with the bone claws, before getting his adamantium back.
The irony is that image was founded on a lot of flash over substance. When the others chased that trend it lead right into the comics crash. I'm not just pulling that from hindsight. I remember my brother, a huge comic book guy at this time period, complaining about the story lines coming out of marvel by the same guys that would start image. They were all stylish artists but mediocre, at best, writers.
I also love Electric Blue Superman
I believe it was kind of an homage to one period when Superman had a lot of WEIRD extra powers early silver age no one remembers outside Grant Morrison.
The 90's was a great time for a lot of things, not comic books. So much horrible art and storylines at this time.
14 year old me loved boob window invisible woman. 16 year old me thinks it's impractical.
16 year old me wonders why Power Girl still has hers and is sad that it has become a signature of the character. I guess when your boobs are bulletproof it doesn’t matter.
Carlos D Rodriguez This was actually explained some years ago with the story "Power Struggle" where Power Girl talks about how she doesn't have an insignia on her chest like Superman or Supergirl do because she still needs to figure out more about herself and find something that fits her beyond the "s".
Problem with that is nobody ever bothered trying to figure out something interesting to replace the boob window... until some genius(es) decided to put the super "s" there instead -- because so much for PG's sincere explanation of why that *wouldn't* work for her.
Nothing about superheroes has any resemblance to reality. They are about psychology at best.
+Carlos D Rodriguez She always had it, and boob windows are sweet. Who doesn't love the idea of stripper Super-Girl. If she still has it, it means DC hasn't been fully taken over by puritanical culture warriors. The super stripper thing goes back to the begining with The Phantom Lady or earlier, and it really took off in the 70s when even some of the male heroes looked like strippers. Comics were an awesome trash entertainment media for men. I wish it still was. Anyway, a man jumping around in skintight red and blue tights in the 30s is definately a sexual statement.
Mark J ultimate universe
I have a soft spot for Armor Spidey literally just because as a kid I got a toy of him and a solid metal slammer (from when the Pogs craze happened). I remember losing my mind watching the Spiderman 90s cartoon and there was an episode regarding other universes so i got to see Armor Spidey for real!
About the Dr Fate costume: Wearing armor on only one arm is actually a thing that was done in history. A swordsman would wear it on the arm he didn't wield his sword with (so in most cases the person wields the sword in their right hand and has armor on the left arm and shoulder.) This keeps the sword arm lighter and more maneuverable, not wasting energy/strength moving armor, but protects the side that is easier to attack and somewhat allows you to use that arm as a shield. It's not really a thing the large famous armies used, but was fairly common for more individual fighters like gladiators. Still a terrible costume of course, but that one critique I disagree with. I kinda dig the sword in one hand armor on the other arm setup's look and function when it's actually a cool sword and armor. Looked like he only had armor on the shoulder and like cloth or something around the arm. That's pretty useless... Although there's the old "magic" excuse haha!
I was thinking that too. The one-side armor thing was common in specific classes of Roman gladiators. Different classes wore different types of armor according to their weapon of choice. Long-reach fighters hardly wore any armor at all so the fights would be balanced out. Even looking at medieval armor you can see how it was composed of different parts to suit different combat situations. Just comparing jousting armor to infantry armor is enough to make it clear it didn't all look symetric.
No. There are some examples of gladiators wearing odd armour variants, but in medieval europe wearing armour on only one arm is a hollywood invention.
@@kristianfagerstrom7011 There is HEAVIER armor on one side but that's usually like an extra jousting shoulder.
I actually liked Daredevil and Thor’s costumes. Thor’s latest look as Galactus’ herald is a nod to that costume from the 90’s.
And i still didnt liked it . I liked the design in war of the realms now he's just super saiyan thor although story seems good
the hair..why not just hand a villain your15 foot long pony tail, and say "Here! use this to kill me!"
The only thing I liked about it was the chain on Mjolnir. Normally I'm a fan of big pauldrons too (Samus, Space Marines, etc) but here it's just weird.
I love your insight into Knightfall, but I personally think a more interesting meta-commentary would have to be the death of Superman.
My thoughts on Death of Superman:
Doomsday represents Image Comics. He looks like an Image character with all of the bulging muscles, unnecessary spikes, and perpetual scowl. He's cruel, and drives a hero to kill.
Superman represents what comics used to be; the ideal superhero saving the day and willing to give his life for a cause.
And the members of the Justice League are used as plot devices to explain what's happening in the comic industry:
Guy Gardener is being changed to be more edgy (which started in the 80s)
Unique and deep characters who weren't edgy enough were thrown aside by the edgier characters (look at how Ted Kord was taken out by Doomsday almost instantly)
The only characters who weren't instantly defeated by Doomsday were Bloodwynd, Maxima, and Booster Gold. Bloodwynd and Maxima are the "edgy" characters in the Justice League at the time and Booster Gold, who was created by Dan Jurgens, the author of The Death of Superman, almost existed as Dan Jurgens's voice in this comic series.
The meta-commentary also continued with Funeral for a Friend and Reign of the Supermen, but it was lost with the Return of Superman.
Anyway, just some thoughts, lol.
All the 90s costumes basically look like heavy metal album covers.
Azrael Batman and Daredevil had great costumes in the 90s. And i liked Electro Superman too
Those costumes were ALL bad ass...I would really love to know what the pinnacle of costume changes actually were to anyone who thought those designs were shit.
I liked Azreal's older blue and grey suit, but later versions were awful.
I personally loved the look of supes in the black/silver outfit after his return from death. Brief, but very nice looking, and logically Kryptonian.
Azrael was great. Me and my bro as kids loved it. As someone else said bat writers were making a great point w azrael
12:00 That just looks like Terry McGinnis. Tony Stark should not look like Terry McGinnis.
in that Tony’s defense, it was a younger version of him
All of this was the result of the rise of rockstar artists. Once upon a time, writers were the ones who called the shots while artists were largely regarded as interchangable. Then came McFarlane and Lee and Liefeld. I remember seeing an infuriating interview on _Prisoners of Gravity_ with McFarlane where he visibly sneered and said people don't buy comics for the stupid stories, they buy comics to see his artwork.
Once the artists started calling the shots, everyone got stiletto heels and boob windows and pouches and spikes and mullets. They were the ones who kicked off the Dork Age, aided and abetted by the Marvel zombies who would buy five issues of every comic with a variant foil cover on speculation. When the bubble burst and the adenoidal polybag speculators realized their 50 copies of X-Treme X-Pulsive X-People #1 was never going to be worth more than the cover price, the whole industry collapsed, Marvel went bankrupt, and comic lines imploded across the board.
the dork age. that is sadly a hilariously fitting play on words.
NoJusticeNoPeace Artists have always had a say in the comics. After all, they are the ones creating the visuals. Look at how much impact Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, orFrank Millar had. Their artwork helped to define comics and various characters. But you are right about the rock star part. I think some artists wanted a new level of attention and notoriety they didn't have before. Now while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it led to a sort of "look at me, look at me, aren't I great" that overshadowed their work and led to some bad decisions. Artists should get attention for their work, but some took it too far.
The best selling comic in the world for the past decade is writer by the artist
Davi Lopes X-MEN #1 by Jim Lee.
Davi Lopes Ah. Well, it probably the fact that Jim took over the books as writer when Chris left after whatever bs had happened that made me think that.
I think the most disturbing part about that man menacingly pointing a pistol at me isn’t that his finger is on the trigger ready to blow me away, but the fact that he is using a high point
Don't Pause to look up Tarot,
Don't Pause to look up Tarot,
Damnit
That Rob Liefeld Cpt.America poster on the wall in the background always cracked me up because of how huge and inacurate the chest always looked. Anyone remember his Cable with all the guns and like 8 bandoliers?
90's were hella edgy.
And hella weird.
It was the attitude era
I feel like this is an art challenge waiting to happen: redraw the comic costumes of the 90s that you think are terrible!
Good idea. Challenge accepted!
Chris, no one can ever claim that you ain't heavily invested in your work, that shirt on the topic of worst costumes ever, my word! Lol....
Not gonna lie, I'm a 90's kid, I love this trash. I love the extreme outfits and pointless pouches. I like the insane, Liefeld-style anatomy. And hell, I STILL wear bomber jackets. I don't care it it's bad, it's my childhood and I love it all.
I kind of like Azreal's suit. It's the perfect mirrior of Batman. It's very loud and mechanical, the very opposite of Bruce's suit. And I completely agree with the Superman design.
3:24 I think it makes sense in theory to make Captain America wear armor. His most famous equipment is a shield, so when people think of Captain America, they think of defense, so Captain America is a "defensive character". At least that's how I think of it, So having him wear armor is just an extension of him being a "defensive character."
That Tony Stark sleeper storyline sounds eerily similar... What do you think Cap?
Hahaha, thanks a lot for a wonderful video. The Guy Gardner idea sounded interesting on paper if he was actually like a ranger with the powers and I'm psyched for Cobra Convergence.
The Guy Gardner Arc was very fun, if slightly nonsensical. If you can find it in the back issue bins, it is worth a read.
Dear god The Crossing was bad. And Insay this as someone who thought Force Works had SOME pote tial even if mishandled. Mainly since I really like USAgent.
picking up wizard and toyfare back during this time was amazing.
For a second I thought you were going to trash Kyler Rayner's outfit. It is ridiculously 90stastic, but it's a fine design. Better than anything they've given to Rayner after that (Jim Lee's redisign from the early 2000s, ION, the Countdown redesign, etc.) I'll agree that electric Superman isn't a bad design per se... just not for Superman. Hook-hand Aquaman, not bad, I can see why fans may prefer the original look, but 90s Aquaman was the just right amount of "badass".
90s DC had other good designs: Tim Drake Robin may be technically from the 80s, but I'll count him as a 90s staple, and it's the best Robin design ever. Impulse. Mid-90s Nightwing! Superboy was silly, but cool. Simon Bisley's Lobo makeover. Wally West retouches to the Flash costume.
Good opinions
Yeah, I liked blue/red superman, too. Your assessment of Invisible Woman and Avengers was most on point. Also, I liked Azbats, but what about Batman's suddenly 20 foot long cape mirroring Spawn's enormous cape?
I started writing and realized this is a 4 year old comment, but what's a trip down memory lane? 😅
I just read through Knightfall and kept my momentum going to run from there all the way up to Brubakers batman. That cape is doing everything but looking practical & Batman looks like a straight up Burton character which is ironic that Burton didn't even come close to that look with him. I finally came across an artist give him normal proportions after what seemed like looking at the costume through Bruce's eyes and the fear he was trying to instill in his mind.
Arguably Marvel's FOUNDATION as a company was chasing trends.
Chasing trends in the 1940s (which gave us the likes of Captain America and Patsy Walker, both incredibly derivative AND incredibly successful).
Chasing trends in the 1950s (which gave us heaps of westerns, romance comics and monster comics)
Chasing trends in the 1960s (which gave us the ENTIRE 'Marvel Age of Comics' which was so successful you had a cycle of Marvel CHASING THEIR OWN TAIL, giving us characters like Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four, and their derivatives like Daredevil and the X-men).
Chasing trends in the 1970s (which gave us Marvel's horror cycle, their magazines, characters like Luke Cage (blacksploitation), Shang Chi and Iron Fist (Kung Fu, and led to the beginning of Marvel's LICENSED comics cashing in on the likes of Star Wars and Conan and quickly after that whatever the fuck else they could get their hands on)
I'll stop there... but the point is... comics are a quick-turnaround, low cost enterprise. They are MADE to chase trends. It can get out of hand -- but usually it was actually a really SUCCESSFUL model for comics. I think you really hit the nail on the head that the problem, the REAL problem, was that Marvel (and DC to an extent too) had their artist base smashed by the 1990s boom which saw a lot of great or popular artists jump ship.
Right, chasing the trend isn't the end of the argument I was presenting. Instead, it was chasing a trend without a passionate writer or talented artist to pull it off. And even some of what I listed was successful. Batman, Wolverine, Aquaman. Those all did well.
I actually liked wolverines feral look initially. It got ridiculous once they started making him look like a mutated offspring of a troll that skull fucked arse face from preacher.
+kyriss12 The Ben Reilly Spider-Man and costume was kind of cool, especially the costume.
The "trend" they are currently chasing might actually be their downfall: Trying to cater to left populists who complain a lot about comics, _but don't actually read any,_ while increasingly alienating, if not insulting their real customer base.
+RokuroCarisu I think Disney wants to alienate the fans and put comic ships out of business. They are already licensing characters out to IDW.
No adamantium Wolverine was very traumatic for me. I loved the Onslaught saga back in the day, but couldn't stand Wolverine being in that animalistic state during the events.
P.s.: you forgot to mention Spiderman's Identity Crisis.
"Cybercat
CY-bercat
Why am I fighting you?"
The thing is, that they brought it on themselves by screwing over all their top talent, which caused them to leave in the first place.
I feel like they redeemed the Batman armor idea a little bit when they had commissioner Gordon wear a different version of it.
I just randomly discovered your channel yesterday. Great stuff, you’ve got a new subscriber!
The DCEU reminds me of 90s comic books on the big screen.
In general, I do agree with most of your appreciations here. However, in my opinion, most changes to DC's characters were not just an answer to the visuals of IMAGE, but rather a reaction to what readers demanded at the time: darker, ruthless, even sexier, anti-heroes. I wouldn't add Batman's Knightfall and WW's Contest to this list, because in my opinion they were rather attempts to revitalise their longest running characters, just like the Death of Superman and Emerald Twilight were. And regarding the latter, I believe it was one the best stories ever told on the fall of a hero, because you could understand Jordan's motivation and even relate to it.
So I have to ask the question then of how people felt about Kitty Pride's image irregularity? From what I recall she went through enough costumes to open a store.
I have never had a definite image of Kitty Pride because of that. Even her face features kept changing from artist to artist.
Booster Gold's original suit had been destroyed in the battle against Doomsday. The suit he wore after was made by Blue Beetle, so that Booster could still do the crime-fighty-thingy.
Wow! The 90's in comics was a crazy time ,didn't know Image had an influence on the big 2.
The image of the 90s was not the image of today that's for sure.
Alan YaKnow it was still a great era for it though
Alan YaKnow I’ll take the Image titles of today Saga, Wytches, Black Science, Monstress and some others.
I was never into the Spawn & Youngblood titles of the 90’s
although I’ve always been sympathetic to creator’s rights.
chau5, my favorite comics made by Image has always been Spawn and The Walking Dead comic series.
Light Yagami The Maxx from the 1990’s was my favorite Image title at that time,
These days my favorite Image books are probably Saga, Papergirls, Wytches & Monstress.
This is the first episode I ever saw. I've been hooked ever since. Through your ups and downs, I'm a huge fan.
I'm here for the corny, yet hilarious, openings.
Wasn't Valleys armored Batman a sort of meta commentary on what was going on in comics at the time? The man was a violent psychopath, dished out disproportionate violence, left a criminal to die resulting in a hostage dying, and wore a crazy armored suit.
As Daredevil has sensory powers, an armored outfit makes sense. Additionally, the idea of something like samurai-armor sort of makes sense, given his martial arts background.
As a comic book fan growing up in the 90s the was when I really got into comics. I had a part time job which allowed me to buy my own comics, a majority of my friends were also into comics DC, marvel, image, etc. I do remember a plentiful source of bad costumes on both sides. I always thought it was just the changing of the times and the powers at be trying to catch up with a growing up audience. Le sigh
I like costumes & art of the 90s. It just seems like they pictured the future to be if the 80s fashion & style continued uninterrupted
Diana's 90s outfit was goofy as hell....but DAMN it was hot.
7:40 When Diana became the comic booky version of CHARLIE'S ANGELS! 😉
What the hell is this madness behind you? I know this is an old video, but JESUS that collection of artwork! :)
Another great episode, love the content mate, keep it up!
I need to find the issues of Batman from the 90's, but YES, you are right on the money! In one of the letters to the editor, the editors responded that indeed, Jean-Paul Valley was a Batman they put in place to contrast with Bruce. The idea of 'giving the fans what they wanted... a Batman who might kill', was in the works for a while. And the purpose was exactly as you stated: when compared to the original, the new version fell very short. (I wish to God more people took that lesson to heart!) I didn't originally like Knightfall... I thought Bane was gimmicky, I didn't like Jean-Paul, (though I DID like some of the upgrades to the Batsuit: gliding wings has become a staple in Batman comics ever since, even though Batman Returns doesn't get the credit it deserves for using the idea on the big screen), and I really hated that we were getting a darker, edgier Batman who used "The System" instead of good ol' fashioned hard work.
Despite what I thought at the time, now the work is certainly a milestone in Batman comics, for better or for worse. Honestly? I'd love to see the Batsuit redesigned with more armor in it... just not the horrendous style from the 90's! Despite all the hell I give them for Az-Bats, I did love a faster, more fluid, gliding, armored batsuit. I still think the base ideas were good, and it's one of the reasons I enjoyed Batman Beyond as a TV show and the Arkham series of games so much for giving us tastes of these elements.
The Black Knight had always dressed like a medieval knight but during this period he started wearing a leather bomber jacket and using a lightsaber instead of a magic sword. I guess he was wearing the jacket to match his buddy Hercules.
Everyone on the Avengers started wearing those jackets. Crystal, Black Knight... I think they were copying Rogue. Which was designed by Jim Lee, who soon co-founded Image. It was just chasing that one design element without considering if it made sense for the character.
+ComicTropes I never made the Rogue connection. Good point. Now that was an awesome Rogue. I took it for granted at the time. Black Canary might be the original biker jacket stripper hero babe.
Don't forget Jim Lee also redesigned Wonder Woman for that overblown but ultimately pointless 600 issue renumbering ark written by J Micheal Strazinsky, and lo and behold he draw her in a jacket. Not another bomber type but a black leather one, he's a good artist but really no creative vision for design.
+theblocksays I like that costume, though she doesn't really look like wonder woman in it.
I think that trend was all over the place, after Jim Lee did it with Cyclops and Rogue, almost every character started wearing jackets over their costume for a time. Hell even the Scarlet Spider had a hoodie over the tights
There is always balance in clothing or armor design. Many of these artists were not trained in design. Its relatively easy to copy an established suit, but very hard to design a new, balanced, applicable suit to fit the character and abilities.
Didn't Hawkman go through something like this, where he had to wear cybernetic wings instead of his normal ones?
oh god, Hawkmam went through a lot. He's been a reincarnated Egyptian, etc...you're referring to either his alien cop phase or his hi-tech crime fighter phase
To be fair, the Armored Captain America run was done due to Mark Gruenwald learning he had a congenital heart defect. Cap was allowed to 'die' as a respect to Gruenwald actually knowing he didn't have much longer to live himself. Gruenwald did have his silly moments, But he was the main reason for the Marvel Handbook that was actually used to help with storyline continuity. Something lacking from most comics these days
I'd forgotten so many of those costume atrocities.Thanks for dredging those up. No really.... thanks. Anyhoo I can't wait for your Cobra Convergence video.
DRESS shop. She ran a dress shop. Black Canary ran a flower shop.
I grew up reading 90s comics, so I never noticed anything wrong with them. In the last two years, I read through Stan Lee's entire run of Spider-Man along with the Roger Stern era and then moved on to the Michelinie run by McFarlane and Larsen. I also did the same with Chris Claremont's run of X-Men through the 90s Age of Apocalypse story. Holy christ, how did I manage to stay into comics when I was a kid? When I reached the Larsen/Jim Lee stuff for Spider-Man and X-Men, the writing took a major nosedive and outside of a few specific series like Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run and part of JMS' Spider-Man run, I don't think comics ever came back. X-Men got even worse when they threw away the costumes and replaced them with the movie looks. Spider-Man has been on another decline ever since One More Day. DC's quality fluctuates between stories and is now going to get worse since they hired Bendis. Marvel never recovered.
Daredevil's blind; he probably still thinks his costume is yellow and red.
everybody wearing those member's only jackets was dumb.
The Jean Paul Valley storyline and costume was meant to acknowledge the trend at the time and how ridiculous it was
Lol oh man. Got to love(hate) the 90's! I grew up in it and stopped reading comic books once I got to to college!
Sadly, "armoring up" has come back in a big way, especially in live-action movies. I really wish that trend would go away again.
this is probibally why most of immages characters have been forgotten about exept for spawn
Ah yes, Knightfall. Where everyones' favorite crime fighter gets bested by a drug addict in a gimp mask and shortly after is replaced with the neverending Batman toyline in comic form.
Aquaman straight up improved looks wise in the nineties, the beard fits him so well, and c'mon a pirate hook for the king of the seas is genius, and they explained why he got it.
I do also like Wonder Woman's look to a degree because Diana just comes across as the kind of person who would just not care. Like, "screw you mom I am going to beat up bad guys whether you like it or not." And let's be real, her normal costume is ridiculous, but extrordinarily iconic so it works. Plus Artemis was using the original costume so it's not like they threw it out.
You made a very good point about electric blue superman, it can be seen as break from normal stuff to permit new ideas because they went all in with a new look and powers, AND the costume doesn't even look that terrible.
Daredevil could have looked worse, and of anyone mentioned in the armor section it does probably make the most sense for him.
It's also weird how an accessory can work so well for one character, and poorly for another. Image Rouge from X-men TAS without her jacket, whereas it does feel out of place on Black Widow.
Also strange is how some characters just weren't changed in appearance at all in the nineties. Robin (Tim Drake) got to keep his pants that were such an improvement over previous Robin costumes, the Flash never changes, Nightcrawler has been like the only X-man to almost never change his costume, (I think there was only one period in the 2000s when he did and now he is back in the cool one), and then there are updates that just worked and basically stuck like Shadowcat adopting X-men blue and yellow, dropping the green, baggy sleeves look (I think that was during an artist shift but I'm not sure)
I find the nineties such an interesting time to analyze in comics, and I love making fun of all the pouches, mullets, and especially Clark Kent's ponytail.
Comics were fun and written for the mainstream in the 90s. Diana's biker outfit was awesome, much better than the Taliban designed thing that they put her in a few years ago that the SJW media pundit politburo loved so much. You're right Diana wouldn't give a shit. She's a pre Christian warrior tribes woman from a tropical island where marriage does not exist. The stripper biker look is actually more in character than her patriotic for America one piece. (I think the great Robin redesign was done by Neal Adams.)
Mark J What "SJW" costume, do you mean the ones with pants?
+Excellsion The 2012 one where she has two layers of clothing on and shoulder pads and wrist knives. It's fucking awful, but the SJWs who colonized my entertainment claimed to love it. The 90s stripper biker look is actually more in character, but I'll be honest, I like to see women in is a few clothes as possible.
Excellsion see, pants and jackets equals the SJW agenda. This guy is a real...well...he's nuts.
@@mightybaloo1880 wonder woman's pants look is really cute and seems slightly more practical
"Judging community plants". You, sir, are hilarious! 😂
Do worst 90s comics!
Frank Bowman No they weren't. The ones you know of were bad. But there were a lot of very good comics from the 90's. Read more comics, then open your mouth.
Mighty Baloo name some good ones for those of us that didn't see any good ones in the 90's....if they really were good, we can look them up in trade paperback format now...
I loved the Onslaught event. Marvel needs to create more uber villains.
I LOVED the 90's comics!
Whether you want to agree or not, on whats good and whats bad. Here's a list of books from the 90s that seem to be very important..
New Mutants #98 2/91
Uncanny X-men #266 8/90
Amazing Spider-man #361 4/92
New Mutants #87 3/90
Infinity Gauntlet #1 7/91
Batman Adventures #12 9/93
Amazing Spider-man #362 5/92
Venom Lethal Protector #1 9/93
Uncanny X-men #282 11/91
I could go on and on. But truthfully I have been in discussions with people on how they hate 90s comics, and that's okay! Peeps have there opinion. But as an ex comic shop helper/employee, those 90s keys don't stay on the shelf. Oh and don't forget that Deadpool was born in the 90s kids! We all know how everybody likes that waste!
Invisible Woman was under the influence of a teenage personality named Horndog.
Most outfits were pretty Metal. I didn't mind them at all.
Agreed!
"In the distant past of the Iron Age of Heroes, one's metal was tested and endeavors judged by one simple measure: Pouches!" - Champions Online; description of its Iron Age costume set
Expected from someone who still uses "Metal" as an adjective...
MrBrowser - Wish I had better taste.
No one ever mentions that the Setinels said Wolverine wasn't a mutant, they just grabbed him anyway since he wasnt a normal human and was hanging out with a bunch of mutants.