Costume Drama

After a couple of years as the undisputed champion of ‘character most bafflingly lacking their own comic’, Ms America Chavez finally has a solo title. With the second issue about to land, it’s a good time to look at one of the very best things about the character: her costume design.

It's obviously not the most disappointing thing about the series, but when it was confirmed that Netflix's Iron Fist show wouldn't feature the character's classic duds, my heart sank. Partly because it meant more screen time for Danny's civilian look (best summed up as "rich white kid who won't stop telling you how he really discovered himself on his gap year in Asia"), but mostly because the Iron Fist costume is a design classic.

Welcome to Costume Drama, where we turn a critical eye toward superhero outfits and evaluate both the aesthetics and the social issues that often underlie them. For this installment I'm looking at five characters who've been redesigned as a group more than perhaps any other team: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel and Beast, the original founding members of the X-Men. In particular, I want to look at the costumes that the teenage versions of these characters have worn since they traveled to the present in Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen's All-New X-Men.

Welcome to Costume Drama, a recurring feature where we turn a critical eye toward superhero outfits and evaluate both the aesthetics and the social issues that often underlie them. For this installment we're looking at one my favorite designs from the 1980s: the black costume Steve Rogers wore as "the Captain." As far as my research can determine, the costume was designed by Tom Morgan, who drew its first on-panel appearance in Captain America #337, although it obviously owes a lot to Simon and Kirby's Captain America design. Cover artist Mike Zeck also paid homage to Kirby with a cover based on Avengers #4. The storyline that introduced the costume, and this role for Steve Rogers, was by longtime Captain America writer Mark Gruenwald.

Welcome to Costume Drama, a new feature where we turn a critical eye toward superhero outfits and evaluate both the aesthetics and the social issues that often underlie them. For this first installment we're looking at a costume created by Jack Kirby, and still in use with only minor tweaks today: T'Challa's Black Panther suit.