I was actually thinking about this while watching The Death Of “Superman Lives.” My memory may be off here, but the only woman I can recall appearing in the documentary was costume designer Colleen Atwood. She had a lot of interesting things to share from a technical standpoint about her version of the redesigned costume, but what ultimately stayed with me was all the commentary from the male interviewees about how terrible Superman’s original costume was. They all wanted to “take him out of the undies” or “get him out of that ballet outfit.”

Advertisement

It just all struck me as rather homophobic and misogynist. None of these men gave any insight as to what they would consider a better design, they just didn’t like Superman’s uniform because it highlights his crotch, essentially. Personally, I think that removing the red shorts draws even more attention to the area. The red actually serves to break up that expanse of expressionless blue, it defines his form and gives him an iconic look. But I also don’t think there’s anything distasteful about the traditionally ideal male physique. I like the circus strongman and traditional boxer look.

Advertisement

For these women characters to be redesigned, I can actually see how some people might object to that as being too concerned with updating appearances. If Batman gets to wear his outfit for 70 years, how come Captain Marvel has to go through these iterations? But in a lot of cases, yeah, the redesigns are affording a level of thoughtfulness and I’d say even dignity to a lot of these characters.