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I made a short list of what I think are examples of the most influential costume designs in comics. Partly, this is inspired by my disdain for much of Hollywood pointlessly, in my opinion, redesigning superhero costumes for movies. As you might guess, I was disappointed in the costuming choices for Batman Begins and Superman Returns. I had hoped that Batman Begins might move away from the Amazing Latexman look. Independent film shorts like Batman: Dead End have shown, quite effectively, how the costume can work on film while remaining truer to the comic book vision. As for Superman Returns, the idea that Superman would wear his emblem imprinted on every piece of his costume is ludicrous to me. For Superman, the costume is a symbol that says, "Hi, you may not know me, and I can't exactly show you my American Express card, but you can trust me." Now, I'm not saying there's no room for artistic license when translating a comic costume to film and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man is an excellent compromise. It remains faithful to the comics while adding touches that look great on film. I will say that I agree with Bryan Singer's choices for the X-Men films, as most of the X-Men costumes are too ludicrous to survive the translation to live action. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing Halle Berry in the original Storm costume, though she doesn't really have the figure to pull it off. So, first we start with the classics, the icons of the golden age whose costumes influence design to this day, Superman and Batman. As with most superhero costumes, these outfits are inspired by circus acrobat costumes. Superman set the standard, with his clean lines and bold primary colors. Batman is the prototype "creature of the night" superhero.
 Also from the Golden Age, we have the prototype for patriot superheroes, Captain America. His costume is simple and functional, though I'd armor the belly as well as the upper torso. The cuffed boots give him a touch of the swashbuckler. The original "kite" shield was too cumbersome and they swapped it for the distinctive, aerodynamic "disc"shield, giving Cap a bit of a ranged attack, as well as an indestructible defense. There's simply no room for improvement with Captain America, as far as I am concerned. Properly constructed, this costume could easily make the transition from page to film and appear faithful to the comic book design as look good "live".
 Very few female characters made my list, mostly because good costume design for women has a distinct "fashion" element to it. The womens' costumes become dated very quickly. Take Rogue's "I Love the 80s" jacket-over-spandex with "leg warmers" (her boots) and the big, streaky hair. Wonder Woman's costume has followed fashion over the decades, but has stabilized in the last 20 years or so. There are a few classics, costumes that, while out of style in the broadest sense, still work for the character. One such is Black Canary's classic bodice and fishnets. They tried to put her in an 80s style spandex suit, but thankfully, this was short lived.
 The last Golden Age character we'll mention here is the original Captain Marvel. He had a costume design that was too good to die, despite the homogenization of the design into typical comic book "tights" for many, many years. His classic style jacket and his short cape make him stand out. I've seen this costume made and it can work very well in real life.
 Costume design changed, somewhat, with the advent of the Silver Age, with costumes becoming "sleeker" and the designs a bit more complex. The first hero of the Silver Age, Barry Allen "The Flash", typifies this style. His costume is so sleek, you have to have superspeed to even put it on...no zippers, you see. Later, Green Lantern would introduce a different styling that inspired many costumes in the Silver Age and later, as well as the Silver Age Atom's simple, almost generic costume.
 One of the most innovative and downright creepy designs of the Silver Age is Steve Ditko's Spider-Man costume. The costume conceals everything about Spidey except his gender. It is a clean, symmetrical design that has been borrowed time and time again, with the web lines scrubbed off. Spidey's costume is an early example of what I call "wrap-around" designs. These are costumes with design elements that are not limited to the front of the costume.
 As the 60s ended, newer artists brought fresh designs to comics. Neal Adams introduced a couple of costumes during his run on X-Men that influence artists to this day. One, the unrelieved black bodysuit of Havok I haven't included, because the headpiece of that suit dates it. The other, however, is a style that has inspired more than one of my own designs, the blue and white Angel costume. With it's vertical divisions, lack of trunks, belt or obvious closures, it is a departure from traditional comic book costume design that set a trend for a couple of decades. You can see its influence in the designs of Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Bill Willingham and others. Oh, and just a note, the red-white-gold version of this suit sucks. Blue and white, lose the halo and it's perfection.
 I've already mentioned a few characters who share a common artistic source, the Silver Age Green Lantern and Atom both sport designs by the inimitable Gil Kane. Another Kane design that stands the test of time is the red-and-black Captain Mar-Vell costume. This design melds elements of classic comic book costume design with modern elements, like the heavily stylized cutaway mask and the starburst chest emblem.
 I mentions Dave Cockrum a bit ago and I feel the need to include a couple of his designs here, as well. First, we have another female character whose costume has become one of the icons of Marvel Comics. However, if you look at Dave's history, you can see the elements of this costume appearing in several earlier costume designs. Dave has a fondness for the pointed thigh boots and opera gloves, as well as the tied sash in place of a belt. All these elements appeared in other costumes and were combined to perfection in the Phoenix costume. I prefer it in gold and white, but Marvel vetoed that color scheme. Even in green and gold, it's not too shabby.
 As it was the Imperial Guard story that got me started, I thought I'd include one whose costume I have always liked and I think needs no refinement (except, possibly, reworking the leggings to lose the shorts). Fortunately, Marvel let the black and white color scheme stand with this one, so we have a sharp, clean look to a character whose name strikes like a blunt instrument, Smasher. I know one of the reasons I like Smasher is, he's based on Ultra Boy, my favorite Legionnaire. It's interesting that elements of Smasher's costume design have found their way into Ultra Boy's costume design and elements of Ultra Boy's powers have been transferred to Smasher.
 The late 70s and early 80s were a time for innovative designs and the next character is a perfect example of innovative design using simple elements. Patriotic characters have been a staple of comics since the Golden Age and a staple of propaganda for even longer. Usually they're dressed in a costume based on some period of their ethnic or cultural history. Captain Britain's first costume sported the rampant lion and Union Jack, for instance. John Byrne's solution to the problem of creating a patriotic superhero for Canada is one of the most elegant and striking designs ever to appear in comics. Using Canada's flag as a wrap-around costume design produces a visually interesting asymmetrical costume that works so well it that I think it will be around for a long time. I prefer the name Vindicator over Guardian, because it's just a more interesting sounding word than Guardian. Just my preference.
 This last character brings us back to the beginning of the Silver Age, but I'm looking at the modern interpretation of the classic design. Based on Gil Kane's revised Green Lantern uniform, Hal Jordan's current costume is one of the best designs I've seen in years. By terminating the green at the waist, it eliminates the lingering underwear-over-pants look of the earlier design.
 I'm sure I could think of other examples, but these will do, for now. All these designs have, at one time or other, influenced my own designs. Sometimes inspiring new costumes, other times showing me what I want to avoid in a particular character.
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