Whatever Happened to Golden/Silver Age Costume Parts?

Thanks.

It helped a lot that my early interest in comics developed into an appreciation of film and then film history; a lot of people born in the last forty years wouldn't have even seen the old Republic movie serials, but I was not only lucky enough to track them down, but also actually watch them on my local community television station, including the original Captain Marvel serials, and even a jetpack-style hero in a sub-par one called 'G-Men'.

I always found it interesting that the 1950's had the longest standing influence in comics, right up until DC did their first Crisis series in 1983. But the art influence still had a distinctive Retro Sci-Fi look to it. It's only really been since comic book movies (and arguably as late as the first X-Men film) that the looks of the characters adapted to the cultural influences around it; just look at the last Batman film before the current Nolan trilogy and it's deeply clinging to decades-old looks.

I rather suspect that we'll come full circle and comic book characters will go back to simplistic designs; the recent Tron sequel was all about art deco design with neons and sleek lines which are taken right from the 1930's and 50's.


S.

My personal wish is that they'd take a "Tour through the ages" approach to Super-hero costume. Every other pack would be a Different age starting from Pulp ON through the modern age and even into "Real Life Superheroes" and Toku heroes. The ones in between would be various other genres.

To turn sideways a little . . . we could always do like the Huns, and go and stage a hostile take-over of that other super hero MMO and sack their costume department. It may be a less than stellar game, but they do have style.

And now, to wash the filth from my hands for even typing that.

I'm REALLY late to this whole discussion, and missed the oft referred-to original thread, but I just want add my voice in support of a golden age pack, a silver age pack, and a modern (movie-style) pack. There's enough material (heh) to do three whole distinct packs and I'd buy them all.

I'd be pretty happy if we even got just one of the above sometime this year. Here's hoping...

Whatever Happened to Golden/Silver Age Costume Parts?

Zwil may not have been able to tell us anything, but I think some of that discussion ended up here.


*tips hat devward*

The new bodysuit is a good step in the right direction - we're getting closer to some new classic superhero costume parts.

having left for a year and come back it's been my impression that the devs have, if anything gone a bit overboard in "listening to the community" and "giving it what it wants".

The thing is, a community this diverse wants a BUNCH of totally different things, so they find themselves having to prioritize.

To that end, when I look at our costume creator, what do I see?

A HUGE back catalog of stuff that works really, really well for creating silver age looks. And I'm a guy who loves that sleek patterened tights w/cape Silver Age look and would really like MOAR of it.

But it's something the game already does well.
So my guess is it's been bumped down the priority list so they can cover *other* stuff 'the community' wants that isn't as well represented in the current system.


As for Golden Age, yeah that could use more work. But the recent Retro SF Pack was a big step in the right direction.

I don't think it's fair to give the devs guff on this topic- they've been adding TONS of great new stuff to the costume editor lately, and if they haven't gotten around to this or that community request yet I'm betting they will eventually.

I hope we have some updated skin tights, with seams and some definition, like the AWESOME upcoming new tights sets.

Agreed on this. I know this is where David Nakayama was heading in his concepts of base tights designs that you then could do whatever you wanted with. It speaks more to layering than anything else, at least as he spoke about it.

I particularly like the designs being offered with these Bodysuit designs, and with luck that's going to be a design ethic that continues into the future. If it's not a specifically themed set, it'd be nice to work with a creator that has your 'Base' layer (such as these bodysuit designs) that you can then build upon. It's kinda sorta how Champions does layering, but they have a significantly more flexible base creator to work from.

I would like to think that we could see an upgrading or overhauling to the costume creator to allow this also. But I'm very pleased in the meantime that there's an understanding of costumes being more than just patterns and colors. Texturing particularly is going to be key to getting any Golden or Silver Age themed costume parts right and this is a step in the right direction.


S.