Note: The artist of last month’s winter X-Men piece is back with a cohesive redesign of DC’s Justice League. George Kambadais has taken DC’s premiere super-team and turned them from an informal grouping of solo heroes to a unified force for good (and for fashion). Go after the jump to see detailed close-ups of each character. – Chris A.
Note: For an artist working full-time in super-hero comics, sometimes when you have some free time you want to experiment. Wonder Woman artist Cliff Chiang did just that a few years back with a series of illustrations imagining a band of Japanese superheroes inspired by the heroes of the Justice League. In what Chiang describes as a mix of DC, old school anime and kaiju, this take was almost greenlit by DC a years ago. Just imagine. – Chris A.
Today we turn our attention to the key artist that’s made Project: Rooftop possible — our co-founder Dean Trippe. Dean contributed to the site both in reviews and with his own art, and we’re highlighting his contributions over the years. – Chris A.
Note: There have been a swath of fresh new faces drawing comics in recent years, and one of the ones that have piqued my interest most is Paulo Siqueira with his work on Amazing Spider-Man. For fun, Siqueira is developing his own take on DC’s Justice League which has had some phenomenal entries. The Brazilian artist is only half-way done but I couldn’t wait in showing the P:R readers. – Chris A.
Note: After Superman and Wonder Woman popped up as two of Diaz’s “5 Essential Character Redesigns” post, he went and tackled the entire Justice League in one fell swoop.Not only does Diaz redesign their costume, but also injects some new characters into their garb with stories to match. Head over to Aaron’s site for the story behind the designs. – Chris A.
Note: After wowing people with his new take on Marvel’s New Mutants, Daniel Govar is back and taking on DC’s original super-hero team, the Justice Society of America. Govar is no stranger to DC having won the Zuda competition with his webcomic series Azure, but today’s illustrations see him take that style to DC’s old-school heroes. – Chris A.
Green Lantern – I went back and forth on eliminating his cape entirely, and finally settled on keeping it as that and the red on green are what are most identifiable to me. I wanted his high collar to be part of his top, as opposed to his cape to modernize his look. Making the pants tan and making the boots match his belt and cape seemed to make his costume feel more natural to me.
Flash – Not wanting to stray too far in his design, I thought sliming his helm and making his costume more of a running suit – complete with running shoes seemed right. The metallic shiny finish to his suit was also something inspired by track athletes and the Roman god Mercury, from which Flash’s helm is derived. Additionally – I always saw Flash with a runners physique – not so bulky as he’s typically depicted – more of a distance runner.
Dr. Midnite – Going for a falconer’s look, but less medieval, I wanted his costume’s cut to have more graceful features. Also, I felt his moon motif should be more subtle – killing the symbol on his forehead. Aside from that I didn’t want to change his colors much, just tone them down a bit.
Dr Fate – I chose the spiral pattern as a motif throughout his outfit (a repeating pattern in nature), and thought of his costume as being something that grew over him once the helm was worn. I put a little more detail into the shape of the helmet, and wanted the cloak to be slightly more regal, with the two split pieces coming over his pectorals.
Hourman – I confess to not knowing much about him before researching the character for this piece. After reading about him – I couldn’t shake the thought of him being this uber parkour runner, popping a pill to increase his abilities for an hour at a time. That being the case I did lose his cape, but went with a hoodie, running shoes, and fingerless gloves. I also would put a stopwatch on one arm under the hoodie so he knows when his time’s up – his trademark hourglass turning into a logo.
Note: One look at the P:R submission file will tell you everyone’s thinking about the DC heroes and their costumes as of late. Thomas Perkins just sent over some new takes on the Golden Age versions of DC’s The Flash and Green Lantern, straight from his sketchbook! – Chris A.
Note: Comic fans have been blasted with volley after volley of revamped characters and titles coming out from DC over the past few weeks. After taking a bit to catch our breath, the P:R team is here to give their own take of the costume redesigns coming from Jim Lee, Cully Hamner and the DC artists. There’s so much to go over we’re doing it in three parts — stay tuned for Part 2 on Wednesday and Part 3 on Friday. – Chris A.
Vito: I don’t wholesale hate it. I’ve grown to accept, if not like, Wonder Woman’s current look. Batman will always look like Batman if he has that cowl and cape and a bat symbol of some sort on his chest. GL, Aquaman and Flash all look recognizable. What I don’t like: Cyborg looks too bulky. I have this character that is essentially a geomorph and he uses plates of stone/rock as armor, much the way that Cyborg has metal and technology as his armor. My biggest hurdle was, “How do I make him look like he won’t fall over?” We fixed and tweeked it, and my character looks fine now, but Cyborg is still too top heavy. He wouldn’t be running, as he is in this image; he’d faceplant.
And Superman…I’m just. I’ll say that I love the traditional classic Superman costume and leave it at that.
Jon: I never understand why so many designers always seem to want to make Superman’s costume look more formal. The way it looks traditionally – the exposed neck, the t-shirt cut on his shirt and the shirt-sleeve cuffs – are important to the character, because they visually acknowledge Superman’s connection with the common man.
The high collar, sleeker body and cuff-highlights admittedly make Superman look more authoritative, like a police officer or a military figure – really, it’s not a bad design in general, but just not for what Superman is supposed to represent. If you acknowledge that there’s a persistent societal conflict between the powers-that-be and the hoi polloi, then the look of Superman’s costume here puts him firmly on the side of The Man, which is not where he’s supposed to be…
Jess: With the exception of Wonder Woman and Cyborg (and I totally agree with you on the latter, Vito), these redesigns mainly seem to consist of taking the classic costumes and making them busier. But strong, clean lines are what made those costumes classic and those characters iconic. These redesigns are just confusing.
Wonder Woman here is actively infuriating to me, and just goes to show how pants or lack of pants isn’t the problem for her. Her choker is clearly supposed to evoke the collar of all the male heroes, but it just begs the question of why she doesn’t get a collar, and a proper shirt, instead of breasts that have such little support from her clothes I’m getting sympathy pains looking at her. If she’s supposed to match the guys, give her the same amount of coverage. If she’s not, let her look like she’s looked for three quarters of a century.
Joel: There’s a story-reason why everyone has the same collar, right? There has to be. Otherwise, it seems to point to a lack of… consideration which would be odd for such valuable properties. I agree with the general consensus that most of these are pretty much the same old thing, only busier, with Flash and Cyborg suffering the worst.
As part of an evolution, Wonder Woman’s costume is a positive step. It’s shares the the same urge towards the contemporary as the previous attempt at a redesign, but is more streamlined. But there’s too many metal accouterments, and they are too pointy. This is something I’ve seen on a lot of Project:Rooftop submissions, lately: putting big, pointing ornaments made out of shiny, rigid metal on parts of peoples bodies that need to flex and move. And I don’t get the appeal. Do lots of comics artists own stock in the company that makes those little round band-aids?
Chris: I can’t un-see the unified collars now that it’s been brought up here. I assume this is all Jim Lee at work here redesigning the costumes. Wonder Woman stands out as the best of the bunch here, but the others seem like an overcomplication of the classic designs. I wonder how long it takes before these revisions fall by the wayside as the designs go into usage across the line.
Jess: Is it just me or does Booster look like he really, really liked Tron and adjusted his costume accordingly? I’ve always thought that Booster’s costume, both with the collar and without, was perfect for his flashy personality while still being really simple and clean. This seems too busy to me, though I suppose it works for the more serious direction they’re trying to take the character in. That mask is gonna lead to some wicked tan lines, though.
Vixen’s another one where I thought her costume worked really well, so I’m wary about changes, though it’s hard to see the full costume here. I actually like Ice’s new costume a lot, but that redesign is from Generation Lost and not the reboot (and could stand to lose the fur belt). And I love, love, love that when given the option, DC redesigned old stalwarts like Superman and the Flash, then apparently looked at Guy Gardner’s baffling turtleneck/vest/moonboots ensemble and went, “Perfect. Don’t change a thing.”
Vito: I’m not sure why they changed Booster’s current costume (basically, the same without the disco collar). It’s certainly not the oddest of choices in the redesigns, just slightly unnecessary.
Joel: Re: Booster: It’s busier, but most of it looks like it could work. I’m perplexed by the open forehead, though. I have a feeling that’s going to screw up a lot of artists’ attempts to get Booster to emote. And is he wearing a skin-tight suit with sleeve cuffs? That looks okay in this pose, but I’m skeptical about how it will play out in a standing pose.
Rocket Red looks like he might have made pretty decent upgrade, though. Wish I could see the gloves and boots.
Jon: None of these are particularly offensive or impressive, although Booster’s gauntlet might get unwieldy rather quickly. I always thought the point of the Rocket Red armor was that it looked clunky and retro, but the new streamlined look is pretty nice. I wish everyone had their heads raised, though, so we could see if they’ve got those collars…
Vito: While I don’t hate it (it certainly falls in line with who and what Hawkman is), he reminds me too much of the Teen Titan, Golden Eagle (Charlie Parker).
Jon: I can’t even make heads or tails of this thing. I can’t parse how that shoulder thing works at all, or what’s going on with the knee – I’d need to see this one more straightforward.
Joel: I can’t see enough of this to really say anything about it other than to voice a bit of skepticism all the spikeyness.
Note: Hot on the heels of DC’s own redesign of their flagship team, P:R regular Daniel Irizarri has brought his own ideas to the Justice League. Irizarri takes the Jim Lee designs and pushes them one step further, giving them a stylish symmetry and classic look. – Chris A.
Daniel Irizarri:
With all the hubbub and complaints about the DC relaunches I was seeing all these designs that frankly just weren’t aesthetically pleasing to me. they had some cool things i guess. but too much of it just looked like bad 90s EXTREME designs. shoulder pads, collars, chokers for the ladies etc. etc.
So as an exercise in design, I took it upon myself to imagine Some designs for a JLA team that A: I’d read and B: would provide a fresh new look to the characters while really highlighting the things that make these characters quintessential. So in essence, I didn’t want to completely overhaul Superman or the rest of the JLA, I just wanted them to look a bit more fresh. (i’m sure DC was trying this too, but its hard to make something look fresh when its being designed by 40 or 50 year olds.)
This is someone who just DOESN’T need kneepads. What’s he going to break? Other than that i feel like there was a classy-ness that was missing to him and red for his belt was just a bad idea.
I didn’t want to fix what wasn’t broken and I’m going to admit that the gloves were a completely arbitrary change. I made sure he looked padded, armored and ready to fight at any moment. this is my happy medium between current and Year 100 Batman.
I wanted her to be regal again. No chokers. I don’t get why DC insisted on making her more streetwise or whatever it is they did to her in the past year. My Wonder Woman is Greek, or inspired my Greek clothing. Everything about her should look more like that of a warrior.
Don’t ask me why but I just don’t like his white gloves; they throw me off. Jim Lee gave him these weird shoulder things that I immediately removed from my design. I removed his boots and gave him a more smooth look. black all the way down to the feet and some padding for protection in the soles.
Nothing really to fix except I’ve never enjoyed the concept of his costume magically coming out of a ring and and wrapping itself around him. I wanted him to wear something that looked wearable. something that breathed and shoes that could hold the use he gives them.
A blend between the animated series design and his more current get up from Flashpoint. I don’t enjoy bulky characters so I wanted to keep his silhouette as human as possible. I took some liberties but those were my own choices.
A blend of the current Aquaman and a designI had done for him previously. I insist that Aquaman should have bare feet since I’m sure its just annoying for him to swim any other way. Other than that, a slight trim there and a snip here. Removed that weird collar they gave him.
Note: P:R Reader and artist Karl Savage sent in this inspired mashup of PIXAR’s Incredibles with DC’s Justice League of America. Look at the bottom of the post for a surprise guest! – Chris A.
Karl described the origins of this mash-up, saying:
Doing a sketch a day, I was just supposed to be drawing the Justice League of America. But after I drew Freakazoid! two weeks ago in that Incredibles costume, I decided I would do this ‘What If…’
What if the JLA joined the Incredibles? Namely, what would it look like trying to wrangle all the JLAers into a specific uniform costume template, like the Incredibles or the Fantastic Four wear?
I tried to include aspects of their individual costumes that are integral to the characters. Batman still needs his cape, cowl and belt. Green Lantern’s ring can only create a black, green and white uniform for the wearer. Plastic Man also has color restrictions. Martian Manhunter doesn’t need a mask because he’s a big green Martian, Wonder Woman needs her bracelets and tiara, etc.
It was a great deal of fun.
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