I've seen some bad costume designs in my day. But the new costume for Noh-Varr, the new Captain Marvel*, as debuted in Dork Avengers Annual #1, is extra-special bad, I think:
No, this isn't some Sin City-style black and white & red comic. This is seriously what Marvel has the new Captain Marvel wearing. Let's take another look:
Man, as bad as Mar-Vell's original costume was, at least that had some color in it (albeit an icky green). But this? Maybe Marvel's running low on colored ink?
I'm not sure who designed this costume...Bendis wrote the issue, Chris Bachalo penciled it, Tim Townsend "with Jaime Medoza and Al Vey" inked it, and Antonio Fabela & Bachalo colored it. But no one takes credit for the new, hideous costume. No big surprise there...
*Noh-Varr is never referred to as Captain Marvel in the actual story. But in the issue's text piece**, Bendis continually refers to him as Captain Marvel...so Noh-Varr becomes the 5th person to use that name in Marvel history, and the third within the past 5 years. Got to maintain that damned trademark, after all...
**By the way, thank you, Marvel. The "text piece" in the issue is a verbatim reprint of a 4-month old interview with Bendis on CBR that anyone could read for free on-line. Thanks, Marvel--that "added value" really justifies the $4.99 price point...
No, this isn't some Sin City-style black and white & red comic. This is seriously what Marvel has the new Captain Marvel wearing. Let's take another look:
Man, as bad as Mar-Vell's original costume was, at least that had some color in it (albeit an icky green). But this? Maybe Marvel's running low on colored ink?I'm not sure who designed this costume...Bendis wrote the issue, Chris Bachalo penciled it, Tim Townsend "with Jaime Medoza and Al Vey" inked it, and Antonio Fabela & Bachalo colored it. But no one takes credit for the new, hideous costume. No big surprise there...
*Noh-Varr is never referred to as Captain Marvel in the actual story. But in the issue's text piece**, Bendis continually refers to him as Captain Marvel...so Noh-Varr becomes the 5th person to use that name in Marvel history, and the third within the past 5 years. Got to maintain that damned trademark, after all...
**By the way, thank you, Marvel. The "text piece" in the issue is a verbatim reprint of a 4-month old interview with Bendis on CBR that anyone could read for free on-line. Thanks, Marvel--that "added value" really justifies the $4.99 price point...
5 comments:
I remember sitting with JG Jones in a pub as he had his sketchbook out and we were kibbitzing designs for Noh-Varr 10+ years ago. JG's finished design was great, how ridiculous to scrap it for this. What a disaster.
Okay, it is not a great costume design, but your main complaint is that it is mainly in black and white? When I look at it, I recall that Marvel had so many great black-and-white costume designs - Havok's old costume, the Punisher's, the matching costumes of Aurora and Northstar, the second Captain Marvel's (Monica Rambeau's), Spider-Man's black costume (a design also used by the second Spider-Woman, Venom, and lately Spider-Girl) - and this is the best they could come up with?
Black & white is not my sole complaint (while we're discussing it, doesn't it look like a bad knock-off of Flag Smasher's costume?). I didn't have time for a long post, and perhaps I over-focused on that.
Then again, given the grim, dour and flat state of coloring in Marvel books these days, it is germane to ask if black & white is an appropriate choice, especially for a character bearing the "flagship" name. Take a look at those panels (the only two you see him in full costume in the book): the color scheme has him practically vanishing against the washed out gray backgrounds...I suspect that if he ever got his own book and ever appeared in anything besides splash panels, we'd feel like we were playing "Where's Noh-Varr?"
Well, black goes with everything, and so to some extent does black and white.
For me the fact that the character in question has "Marvel" as part of his code name really makes no difference. I like Monica Rambeau's black-and-whites, and Ms. Marvel also looks great in mainly black with a little yellow and red, so black and white with a little red could also work. The problem with Noh-Varr's duds is that the design is too complicated with all these little black bits and white bits arranged in a complex pattern that does not gel into something recognizable and memorable (unlike e.g. the also quite complex design of the white spider on Spidey's black costume). Plus you got the horizontal rings on the legs and the parallel lines on the wrists and other unnecessary stuff. It does manage to reproduce the worst features of Captain Ultra's costume in black and white.
It reminds me of Mr. Monster's costume only sans color...oh wait sometimes Mr. Monster was black and white I think.
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