You’ve probably already seen the image to the right already, which DC released at San Diego, revealing a couple of characters who will be appearing in James Robinson and Mark Bagley’s upcoming run on Justice League of America. Between Donna Troy on the right and Dick “Batman” Grayson is Mon-El, who’s been keeping the Superman monthly comic warm for Superman while the Man of Steel’s off starring in World of New Krypton.
As you can see, Mon’s got a new, more Superman-like costume, complete with an S-shield and belt to hold up the underpants he is now wearing over his tights. (Will he be changing his name to SuperMon? I hope he’s changing his name to SuperMon…!)
Here’s another look at his new costume, which Alex Segura posted on DC’s The Source blog last weekend:
I like it. You know who it reminds me of?
The guy below in a cape that isn’t Superman:
That’s right, the guy in red, better known as Player 2 in Taito’s 1988 Superman arcade game. I wasted plenty of quarters on that game in my misspent youth, which I don’t actually recall being all that fun beyond the fact that it was a typical side-scrolling punch-up in which you could fly. But I was always fascinated with Player 2, who was a red-costumed Superman.
Who the heck was that? From far away and if you squint, he looked vaguely like Captain Marvel, although he’s wearing an “S” rather than a lightning bolt, and this was a good decade and a half before I read that imaginary story with Superman-Red and Superman-Blue.
The game made no mention nor offered any explanation for why there were two Supermen, and the bizarre mystery presented so matter-of-factly used to fire my eleven-year-old imagination.
Perhaps we’ve finally got an answer! That second Superman was Mon-El, wearing his filling-in-for-Superman work clothes to help Supes punch out robots or rescue Polly from that giant gorilla at the construction site or whatever the objective of that game was.
Yeah, I know Mon-El’s—I mean, SuperMon’s new costume has blue in it, rather than gray, but Player 2 Superman’s cape and undies could look blue-ish, depending on the quality of the monitor…
…so I’m going to go with that. Player 2 Superman was Mon-El all along.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Silly boy – he’s Superman-Red.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Looks uninspired and stupid.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Mon-El’s had a number of nifty costumes over the years. Why not go with a modified version of one of those designs?
And I’ve said this elsewhere but even the design they’ve given him would be 150% improved if they used the proper colors for the S-Shield.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:34 am
It’s very mundane and pedestrian about it.
It’s like someone’s first stab at a Superman costume which was then thrown away.
I agree with MikeT – “uninspiring”, an adjective which should not be associated with Superman.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I don’t know about stupid, but it’s certainly uninspired. In fact, it’s downright generic.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I would rather they have used a symbol unique to Mon-El or Daxim. This design makes him seem too much like Superman-light. I think a different symbol similarly placed, would work better.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
GOOD ANSWER haha! I had always thought Player 2 was Shazam as well. Guess we learn something new everyday.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Personaaly, I think the new costume looks like a merging of Mon-El’s cape, one of Supergirl’s emblems, ans the outfit of Halk-Kar (Superman’s “big brother” and Mon-El’s “prototype”).
January 17th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
The old forget, the young don’t know. – German Proverb