If you’ve visited any number of comics websites, blogs and forums since noon yesterday, you’ve undoubtedly read reactions to Alex Ross’ new costume design for Captain America, which will debut in Issue 34.
Responses seem to run the gamut from “Awesome!” to “Cap doesn’t use a gun! A gun!” (Heavy on the latter.) My reaction? “Boy, he’s shiny — Citizen Steel shiny.” That’s about it.
But on Wired‘s Underwire blog, Adam Rogers sees something else, something … familiar:
Check out this design Ross did years ago. They look sorta the same, no? I mean, obviously, different design motifs and colors, but…full mask, triangular design coming to the navel, and then black pants? Yes, I get that the triangle over Cap’s pupik is supposed to evoke his original shield, which was not round but … er … shield-shaped. But still: samey samey, right?
I draw no conclusion from this. Artists re-use thematic elements all the time, and this Spidey never got used. Still, I can’t help but feel that the new Cap-suit is a modernization nobody asked for (except Marvel, obviously), and one that’ll be abandoned to nearly as great fanfare as it was adopted. See, for example, Spidey’s black costume, Spidey’s Iron Spider costume, and Spidey’s black costume again.
Related: Newsarama talks to Alex Ross and Ed Brubaker about the redesign
October 12th, 2007 at 11:17 am
I’m pretty sure several Newsarama posters pointed this out almost immediately. It was pretty obvious.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Awful. Alex Ross can draw, but I don’t think he’s a good designer.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:29 am
I think his designs for a lot of Kingdom Come characters (the background characters) was good, but yeah, his X-Men, Spidey and Cap are lacking something.
October 12th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Spider-man’s black costume was awesome.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
This was a toy a few years before the first Spider-Man movie came out. I always figured it would be the design for the movie if they ever wanted to make the costume MORE EXTREME. And also lousy.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I like the Cap design , I’m afraid. And I ways thought Red and Black suited Spidey more that read and blue. I’ve seen rust red spiders and black ones. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blue one. Could be wrong…
October 12th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
The toy actually came out a few years after the movie, it was only two or three years ago.
October 13th, 2007 at 3:28 am
The gun would make perfect sense if Winter Soldier/Bucky were the new Cap, since he’s been known to use one lately…
October 13th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Oh now I’ve got that Julie Brown song in my head… lol I guess that dates me as a Gen X 80′s guy, don’t it?
October 15th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Ha! That Spider-Man costume’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the new Cap. I love Alex Ross, but this didn’t work the first time. No reason to bring it back.