Yearly Archives: 2008

Costumes shouldn't be wallpaper

In my drawing frenzy yesterday, I missed "Bad Costume Day" here at HeroMachine, but I'm not one to let an opportunity for mockery pass me by. Luckily today's example of Fashion Failure is really, really bad to make up for it.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us count the ways Captain Boomerang's outfit sucks:

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  1. The pattern. You should never look like you're wearing Grandma's wallpaper pattern, and yet Captain Boomerang has fallen into that very trap. I bet if you got up close the boomerangs on the tunic would actually be white foil. Hideous.
  2. The hat. Oh Great God in Heaven, the hat. What kind of crazy super-glue or adamantium hairpins is he using to keep that itty-bitty cap on his bald head? Double-sided tape, maybe? Look, I mean no disrespect to the millions of past and present military folks who have worn just such headwear, but they were ordered to do it. I bet not more than three of them in all of recorded history got out of the service and thought "The gas in the trenches was horrible, but at least I get to wear this nifty pygmie-sized bag on my head forever now!"
  3. The hair. The cap is made worse when you look at his hair. Or lack thereof. I myself am follicle-challenged, but you don't see me rushing out to the haberdasher to purchase a cap in the exact shape of my bald spot, cut in such a way to accentuate the wild, curly mane of fringe-fur I still manage to sprout.
  4. The scarf. I've mentioned this before, but that thing is like a mutant killer python just waiting to suck Captain Boomerang into the nearest jet engine. I'd put the over-under on how many times he's gotten yanked back into a spiral of death via revolving door at an even twenty. It does match the sporty sash he's got going on there, which I suppose is ... "good"? At first I thought maybe they were actually one long strip of cloth, and if you yanked on the scarf end you'd be giving him a power-wedgie. I still hope that's true, because I think the Flash using that technique to foil a crime would be Awesome.
  5. The dress. I'm all for cross-dressers' rights, but look, dude's in a mini-skirt. At least he has the decency to cover up the down-unders with a black leotard, but have some decency, man! Yes, yes, I know that's probably a tunic, but no one in the Twentieth Centry was wearing tunics while there were lots and lots of men wearing dresses, so I'm going with the odds on this. Emphasis on "odd".
  6. The shin guards. It's like they started designing this from the top down, and by the time they got to the feet they were almost out of ways to humiliate this poor bastard. "How," they thought, "can we make our intended audience of Americans hate this guy any more than they already do from the rest of this ludicrous outfit? Well, let's see, Americans also hate ... hmm ... let's see ... I got it! They hate soccer! He's from Australia, give him shin guards!" I'd finish with "Then they all went out and got drunk", but it's pretty obvious they did that before they started designing this costume.

Aside from the bad hair, bad hat, bad dress, bad shin guards, bad hair, and bad scarf, of course, you have to admire the pluckiness of a guy who goes after the Fastest Man Alive with a muscle-powered weapon. Ignore the fact that your opponent can, you know, outrun sound, you're gonna nail him with a hand-flung piece of wood. Right.

But then, we already knew he was brave, because he showed up in that costume. Next to that kind of courage, battling the Flash is nothing.

Random Panel: "As a baby wields a butterknife"? Really?

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Combat mini figure 2

Which do you like better, the first proposed new HM-mini body template, or this one:

figuretemplate4.png

This one has more "attitude", I think. The first is workable, but it looks more like an avatar screen in a game or something, I suspect this one might make for better actual character images. The angle's from just below waist-level, which might be different enough to cause some problems.

I don't know, what do you all think?

UPDATE: With thanks to commenter TheNate and John, here's an updated version with the right foot pointed in a more solid direction, and the right hand no longer stapled to the buttocks.

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Random Panel: How to tell you're in a bad hospital

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Caption Contest 30: Monkeys and clowns

In honor of the upcoming US Presidential election, I present you with a Caption Contest featuring screaming chimpanzees and gun-wielding clowns. Enjoy!

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I look forward to the inspired submissions sure to come in on this one! The author of the best caption will receive a free custom black and white illustration by yours truly of whatever you like (within reason). The rules are:

  1. Keep it PG-13 rated, appropriate for a broadcast television show.
  2. No more than three entries per person.
  3. Leave your entry in the comments to this post.

Good luck, everyone!

Patriot Contest Winner!

I am pleased to announce that the winner of the Patriot Contest is ... Brittanica, by Kaldath!

Brittanica

Kaldath wins a custom color illustration of Brittanica, which hopefully we'll start on asap.

Thanks to everyone who entered and voted, and I apologize for the three-day outage which restricted the number of ballots that could be cast. I'll be posting a regular caption contest here in a couple of hours, so stay tuned.

And congratulations to Kaldath!

Random Panel: Why does he have to pee on the computer for two months again?

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Is Superman brave?

It's easy to get caught up in Superman's many physical powers. He's got them all -- strength, speed, invulnerability, vision powers, super-cold breath, you name it and he's there.

But what's always set him apart from any other character is his unwavering sense of personal honor and his code of conduct. Mirroring his physical prowess, he has all of the great virtues -- humility, compassion, sincerity, honesty, you name it and he's there. More than the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, it's Superman's ability to hew to his own high standards that inspires.

It must be tempting, for this son of an alien world, to look down on us mere mortals. And yet he yearns, more than anything, for the same things the least among us does. To be loved. To be human. To be accepted.

He has these enormous powers, and uses them for good. But is that bravery? Or does the fact that he can't really be hurt sever the very basis of bravery? Cowardice is a refusal to act out of fear for your own safety. But if you are always safe, can cowardice even be a consideration?

On the other hand, how many of us, given those powers, would be as willing to get up every day and fight the latest Lex Luthor-inspired giant robot rampaging through the city, even if we knew we couldn't be hurt?

In many ways Superman really is the best symbol of 20th Century America, or at least how most Americans want to view themselves. As a mighty nation, impervious to all harm (physical or otherwise), willing to come to the defense of the defenseless, bringing hope and freedom to people desperate for its taste.

I can't help but wonder, though, how much of that integrity and compassion exists only because of that sense of invulnerability? If he were deeply, grievously hurt, as America was on 9/11, how would he react? Would the code against killing, the honor of steel, withstand the enormous pressure of a wounded pride and heavy heart?

I like to think he would. Even if he went off the deep end, I hope he'd come back to what really makes him a hero. Not his muscles, but his heart. Not his powers, but his ideals. Because really, that's what makes him super.

Random Panel: Scenes from my performance review

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Poll Position: Where the heart is

This week's Poll Position question is:

{democracy:51}

I'll run down the options after the jump.

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