Per an excellent suggestion by Rebis in another thread:
So you love/hate the new costume designs in the New 52? How would you have gone about changing them? Put yourself in the shoes of Jim Lee (minus the self-editorial power) - and you've just gotten the boom that all current design is out the door to make way for 52 new titles that will shake the very foundation of the DCU. It's only you to design the way characters both familiar and brand new are going to look. So get your pencil out and show us how you'd have done it!
Let's set a few boundaries:
1) No Going Back: You can certainly use elements of the old style, but no direct copies. If you're gonna bring the red trunks outside Superman's outfit, you better have a unique way of showing it.
2) Only established characters that are confirmed as part of the New 52 as it stands today (8/13/12). Sorry guys, Stephanie Brown and Ted Kord do not exist (yet) in the DCU as it stands. :(
3) Don't worry if you can't draw - show the suggestion of what you're imagining. Most fashion design is built on the "suggestion" of how the fabric and outfit will flow. You don't have to be Rembrandt, in other words.
4) Not a contest. Submit when you feel like it.
5) No being a jerkass when criticizing other's submissions. :)
6) Have fun!
Thanks again to Rebis for the cool idea. We've been griping and praising the New 52 fashions on here like we're Tim Gunn...so let's put our pencils where our mouths are. :)
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Based it off some outfit I saw a marching band using during a parade a while back. Rather than deal with capes, 1/2 the uniform was a banner of sorts draped over the shoulder of the marchers. Looked really cool and provided a cross between the skirt and/or the cape look.
Superman: forget the armor concept, the gratuitous lines, the collar, and the over stylized belt. Maybe add trunk lines? even keeping the new color scheme this would make it so much more appealing imo. Oh and make him look like an adult.
Cyborg: slim down and dial back the design and he would be fine.
The biggest problem with all the redesigns is that theyre all so over-designed.
Wonder Woman: long pants, darker tones of blue and red. Keep the accessories (bracelets and tiara) gold and lose the choker and arm bands. I would also dig seeing them use the Kingdom come or DCUOnline model (from the CG intro short).
Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash Etc: dial the detail back a touch and fight the urge to add impractical flourishes... and draw them like grown ups. Not everything needs to appear embossed, layered or 3D or have something hanging off it and not everyone needs to look 19 years old.
Nightwing:
In this design, I decided to take elements from the original Nightwing (Superman when he was in Kandor), Red Robin (pre-reboot/relaunch/whatever), and Dick Grayson's fairly recent costume.
A couple of others...
Supergirl:
I don't have anything against the new costume, and, in full disclosure, I designed this look a while back. I wanted something that showed a Legion of Super Heroes influence, I wanted to get rid of the skirt (skirts on flying characters are just dumb to me), and I wanted to pull some elements from my favorite previous design of Supergirl (the hotpants era).
Superboy:
Again, I don't have anything against the current costume, I was just going for something a little different. Again, a bit of LoSH influence, but also elements from the electric blue Superman containment suit (because, hey, Superboy was brewed in a lab, and it all ties into a sci-fi sorta feel).
Oh, and if the blue was a problem, I also did this:
Those are what I've done so far. I'll keep thinking. (Hope you folks don't mind the microheroes. Quick and easy to do these, easy to change out aspects.)