I'm not sure why patterns on super-hero capes went out of fashion after WWII. But I feel pretty sure I can understand why star-shaped masks didn't catch on, as you can clearly see from Captain Courageous:
It looks like Aquaman is playing a practical joke on him by commanding one of his undersea friends to give him a wet, sloppy French kiss. You should love your allies, but don't, you know, "love" your allies, Captain.
The patterned cape seems off-putting to modern sensibilities since you hardly ever see them any more. I suspect part of the reason is that they're simply too busy, taking attention away from the main figure. But also, I bet they're really hard to draw properly, considering how much capes get whipped around. You'll notice in this illustration how stiff it looks, partly out of the necessity to keep the stars all aligned.
The mask ultimately is what dooms this ensemble, however. I don't care what a big fan of Starro you are, you can't go out in your fan boy cosplay headgear, folks. Especially when you're beating up Nazis -- this ain't Dragon*Con, folks!
On the upside, at least he had the good sense to wear BODY ARMOR!
Mask doesn’t do anything for me at all. But, the cape is a cool idea, true it would be hard to draw some times but it gives flare to the outfit. The body armor is cool too, but it is a little pointy in bad spot, it could turn a he to a she real quick like.
A note about the fanboy issue, new show coming out that is called “Comic Book Boys” I believe. And after see the preview of it, the fingers started pointing, for some unknown reason my wife said “hey that’s you”.
This really seems like they were scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and come up with another Captain America. It’s funny how virtually the same elements mixed one way is one of the greatest superheroes even, and mixed another way is this dud.
He needs to merge his cape with V-Man’s. It will have both stars and stripes and it won’t be this limp, lifeless piece of cloth. Well, he has part of is outfit(the armor)pointing at his crotch, and there’s also a buiding helping him in that, “you must stare at my crotch” thing that a lot of these guys have going on with them.
Jeff kind of hit the only “acceptable” reason for this mask – Starro has taken control of your mind, and things are going very bad for you. Otherwise, ditch the giant star mask for something less ostentatious.
What’s he staring at? Starro is right. He looks stooooooned.
Not to give aid and comfort to the enemy, but shoot at his knees!
We now return to our regular scheduled willing suspension of disbelief.
A slip of the knife can make your best friend your wife…
Patterned capes are good for coronations but bad for superheroing. They’re just too busy. not to mention a pain to draw.
Jeff, thought you’d like to know that you’ll soon get to hate Rov Liefeld’s (my computer won’t even let me write his name) art even more since he’ll be writing and drawing Deathstroke a few issues from now.
Captain Courageous sounds like the mascot for a junior high anti drug program
I tried a redesign:
Basically I made the mask flat and turned the gloves and boots into more armour. Though I kept the cape.
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/026/4/1/captain_corageous_by_frevoli-d4nngpp.png
Plus he’s public domain, so it’s all good
Masking the mask: nice sense of irony!
I wonder if I should give another round of my “female makeovers” to this guy and V-Man. Remember: what’s lame on a guy is often tasteful on a pretty girl….
I don’t think the mask is so bad.
Heck, DC’s Evil Star makes it work for him.