Tuesday, September 16, 2014

In Which We Focus Far Too Much on Trunks

By the time I got to Batman #6, I was noticing something interesting.  Well, I had also noticed that every encounter with the Joker ended with the Joker falling into the ocean in some form or another, but that's just how they rolled back in the day.  No, what really caught my eye was this:


And then again, in the next story:



Egad.  Do you think that was going to be Batman's catch phrase?  I realize that, with the advent of Robin, they were moving away from the darker aspects of the character, but.... no.  Clearly, that didn't survive the tides of time, but I'm hoping it ends sooner rather than later.  If I'm going to put that behind me, I really need to see Batman boxing:


Ah... much better.

While I'm cringing, let's just cover a couple of other things that make me wince.  Like this guy, from Golden Age Captain America Comics #8:


So, Father Time was thinking he'd just throw on a cloak, some boots and a pair of red trunks and... he'd just stop there.  Half-naked guy with a scythe?  That sounds like the CMNS Costume Hall of Shame (tm!) to me!

Speaking of trunks, I don't think modern costumes have them much these days, do they?  They never really bothered me as long as they weren't the only thing the guy was wearing (See, e.g., Father Time, supra).  But watching a guy put them on shows me just how silly wearing trunks is:


This is Deathstroke the Terminator, by the way.  He's DC's answer to the Punisher.

Now brace yourself:


Oh, no.  NO NO NO NO NO!


Yeah, that's just wrong.  We don't need to see people getting into costumes, ever.  It's not pretty.

So, I was finishing up a look at the introduction of Killer Croc in Detective Comics, and it was actually a pretty good story.  Half of Batman's foes get involved and, unbeknownst to me, we had the first appearance in there of Jason Todd.  Yes, that Jason Todd, although he was much more likable than the twerp we voted to kill off back in the 80's.

And here was his original Robin costume:


For some reason, this sailed right past me back in the day.  They must not have stuck with this look for long. When I first saw Jason Todd, he was annoying me in the original suit, looking like Dick Grayson but talking like a jerk.  I was glad when they killed him off.  GLAD, I say!

Although, to be fair, I never heard Jason Todd say, "Greetings, and salutations and such!"

See you tomorrow!

1 comment:

Allan Bush said...

Thanks for the Greetings, and salutations and such!