Freedom Reborn

A bit late this week, but I guess we're moving onto the Titans. This is Arsenal's new design:
(http://i.imgur.com/0dxsGWM.jpg)

Dislike.
Just seems too busy and lacking a central design element to pull it together. "A mess" keeps coming to mind. I'm not completely against the hat - and I give them credit for sticking to it - but it doesn't really work here.

That said I'd like to see some other artists' renditions of it. Brett Booth is a bit of a sketchy, detail heavy artist. This might look better under a cleaner artist.

Dislike.

Shouldn't someone named "Arsenal" actually have an Arsenal? I don't see any weapon variety here. And no, generic pouches don't count.

Why the hat?

Dislike.

I too don't mind the hat, as it adds a bit of personality, but the rest of this thing is a mess.  We got shoulder straps, arm straps, body straps, belt with "garter strap" boots and a random leg pouch  which make for a busy, all-over-the-place design

Meh.

I think the biggest sin is that this feels less like a costume and more like "Random red/black athletic wear Roy found at dick's sporting goods"

1: Yeah, it's pretty stupid looking.  If this were his first outing as a hero and he cobbled this together himself, okay, but they seem to have skipped the part where he made himself a real costume.  The baseball cap is just incredibly stupid.  All this costume is missing is an unnecessary leather jacket to help it scream 'I AM COOL AND EDGY!  LOOK AT MY TATTOOS AND YOUTHFUL CLOTHES!  LIKE ME!  LIKE ME!!!'

Like so many recent costumes, this looks like something designed by someone who knew they would never have to draw it in a comic for extended periods of time.

Years and years and years ago, I saw someone comment (Esposito?) that if, when they created him, they had really thought about how much trouble it would be to draw all that webbing on Spiderman, they would have never put it on there. I believe the leotard and tights look for super heroes evolved for a reason, or several of them anyway (again I've seen something like this in an article sometime in the past). They made the character distinctive in a market that, in the '40s, was pretty crowded, they were "brandable" before the concept existed, and they were easy to draw over and over again for page after page after page (often by different people from one panel to the next). Complex elements (superman's sandals, his scalloped "badge" S-shield, The Flash's leg stripe-lightning bolts, Green Lantern's emblem, boots, and shirt, Wonder Woman's culottes, Captain Marvel's shirt) evolved pretty quickly into something simple and quickly rendered. Some complex elements, I guess those that were considered integral to the character (most of the rest of Wonder woman's costume) were retained despite the trouble.  Many of those elements (WW's chest emblem) have been simplified over the years; I notice that they have been playing with Batman's costume over the past few years, and perhaps the black suit Spiderman costume was originally a way to get rid of the blankety-blank webbing.

I have no idea why they went to Wonder Woman having sandals instead of boots, even those simplistic sandals Andru and Esposito drew for her. And I believe the only reason Batman went from normal wrist length gloves to gauntlets to finned gauntlets is because they looked cool.

Quote from: Tomato on July 26, 2017, 01:51:57 PM
I think the biggest sin is that this feels less like a costume and more like "Random red/black athletic wear Roy found at dick's sporting goods"

Nice, that pretty much nails it.

Meh. Looks more like a 90's design than anything else really.

Hate the hat.

Ha, that sounds about right, DG.  I've heard artists talk about that sort of thing before.  I can only imagine....

C6, didn't you know, the 90s are back at DC Comics.  :P

Quote from: BentonGrey on July 29, 2017, 10:06:46 PM
C6, didn't you know, the 90s are back at DC Comics.  :P

I disagree. See, much as DC may have partaken in the 90s nonsense, the late 90s was an amazing time for DC comics. JLA was off doing groundbreaking stories like Tower of Babel, JSA was at the top of their game, Titans was exploring the adult lives of the former Teen Titans, the Batman books had Cataclysm, Flash had "The Return of Barry Allen"... Mid-Late 90s DC is some of the best comics I've seen from the company. No, DC comic right now is MARVEL from the 90s, swamped with EVENT books and beating dead horses over and over again hoping people will start caring.

...how else are you going to make glue without beating dead horses?!?