Finally made it to the movies, the other day, to see the
new Star Wars flick and I have to say I enjoyed it a great
deal. One of the most striking things about it was the
appearance of Darth Maul, probably the most
malevolent-looking villain to appear on the silver screen in
ages. Of course, this got me to thinking about villains, and
how they tend to drive the story. Also, the villains,
generally have the most interesting and striking costumes.
Except in comics.
In comics, the heroes have cool-looking, colorful outfits,
while most villains have costumes that look thrown together
by the artist in a rush to get the book out on schedule.
I decided to work on a couple of truly despicable villains
who've been burdened with horrible costumes over the years.
Starting with the Red Skull, who began his career as a bell
boy in a Berlin hotel. Hitler boasted to his friends that he
could make even this humble bell-boy into a great Nazi. He
took the boy under his vulture-wing and turned him into the
symbol of Nazi terror, wearing a blood-red skull mask. His
"costume" consisted of a grey-green coverall and short black
boots. Some have dressed him up in Nazi uniforms, over the
years, in various colors. Lately he has worn hideous gold
armor and had god-like powers.
As if he needed such powers to be a great enough menace to
warrant Captain America's attention. Red Skull is the living
embodiment of the evil that is Nazism. He is a vessel of
hatred, devoid of even an iota of virtue. Rather than
attempt to reinvent the character, I chose to bring him back
to his essence. For his uniform, I chose the more modern
equivalent of the uniform he wore in his earlier
incarnation. Based on East German Army officer's uniform in
color and style, stripped of insignia, except for a red
skull with sword and thunderbolt crossed behind it. Also
shown is his original head mask, in the close-up.
About twenty years ago, DC Comics decided to team up two of
their more popular heroes in a single treasury edition
comic. Written by Gerry Conway and pencilled by Jose Luis
Garci-Lopez, they gave us Superman vs. Wonder Woman. Set
during the Second World War, the villains of the piece were
created for the project and later appeared in All-Star
Squadron, within a few years. One was the terribly
stereotyped Sumo, the Japanese villain, the second was the
super-Nazi called Baron Blitzkrieg. For the purposes of this
piece, I'm only dealing with Blitzkrieg, but Sumo could
probably use a good tailor, as well.
Baron Blitzkrieg, we are told in a one-page origin, was a
high ranking Nazi whose face was scarred with a thrown
bottle of acid. To compensate him for his loss, Hitler
ordered his scientists to use experimental drugs to enhance
the Baron's physical prowess to the point where he was
actually able to stand up to Superman, for awhile.
Unfortunately, his costume must've been supplied by Hermann
Göring, infamous for his "decorative" collection of
non-standard uniforms. Blitzkrieg's costume consisted of a
gold face mask and body suit, with magenta boots, gloves and
cape. For my purposes, gold and magenta simply won't do.
Red, white, and black were Nazi colors. Any symbol of Nazism
should reflect those colors, especially given the propaganda
value of such an individual. I changed the styling up,
somewhat, to give him a much more sinister look. The walking
stick comes from a German general of the period, I just
thought it looked good with the character, as he's supposed
to be an aristocrat.
Okay, that's all for now. Let me know what you think.
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