The Batsuit

Superhobo

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Here's the problem I see in a lot of fan suits, as well as West's suit from the old sixties show, and the reason that a lot of people don't think the comic's suit could work on screen (I'm of the minority opinion that it could, if you couldn't guess).

Well, first, let's get something out of the way: the complaint that the comics Batsuit is unrealistic, and unfeasible. This isn't true, actually, if we look at both the character and examine the suit itself.

Batman is, basically, a master of stealth and almost every form of fighting style. The complaint is that he'd get shot on his first night out. Two things: one, well, see above. He wouldn't be getting shot because they wouldn't be getting the chance. And, two, on the off-change that he did get shot, it's good for drama. And, it's not like he doesn't wear armor.

The suit itself is composed of basically firefighting materials. Everything on the suit exists in real life, and is used in various tactical situations. The top, for example, is this:

ua.5511.blk.full.jpg


Under Armour COLDGEAR Tactical wear. Extremely insulated, form fitting, so on and so on. The legs are no different, and composed of the same materials:

ua.5550.blk.full.jpg


Next, we have the ever harped on trunks. These are actually used in real life, and they're basically what you'd think: Kevlar crotch protection -

Groin%20Protector.JPG


Having established all this, let's get back to the original problem. The problem with most fan suits is this: they use basic spandex, and this is what destroys the whole illusion.

Batman doesn't look like this:
Contemplation.jpg


The suit isn't supposed to be all shiny, made of spandex. Period-o. It's supposed to be a dull gray in colour, and so on.

Batman looks like this:
costumetights1.jpg



Albeit with a "crotch protector."

Or, this.

Or this:
PICT4493.jpg

(Although this guy isn't my ideal build for Bats, the costume is great, 'cept for the cowl.)



To a lesser extent, I'm alright with some shininess in a suit, if it's done well, to represent the earlier true tights-and-trunks pulp original Batman, like this:

kmd_suit.jpg





Now, having said all this, don't let it be thought I don't like the movie suits. I do, the '89 and Begins suits particularly. But, I just keep waitin,' for the comic costume to be done on screen, to get the Superman or Spider-man treatment.

Thoughts?
 
Here's a particularly good suit I've found, that could work on screen with some small adjustments (tone the belt down, stuff like that):

batman%7E6.jpg


7.20batman.jpg



Similarly, here's some examples to show what doesn't work:

'Classic' Fatman
a77c.jpg


'Retro' Batman (the unholy spawn of Jim Aparo and Shumacher)
11%7E17.jpg


A molded muscle suit (Tim Sale/Jim Lee comes to life)
DSCF0995.jpg
 
Yeah I always figured it was like an underarmour top, meh doesn't bother me, the whole argument, the suit is explained countless times in both the comics and the movies. We only have this debate because Burton changed the suit in B89.
 
Yeah I always figured it was like an underarmour top, meh doesn't bother me, the whole argument, the suit is explained countless times in both the comics and the movies. We only have this debate because Burton changed the suit in B89.

Who's the more foolish,The fool, or the fool who follows him?
 
Schumacher foolish? NEVAH!

I suppose, but I think the armour works well, especially in BB and TDK, my only wish is that they explained the suit more in B89 or any of the following films. It may as well have parachuted into the BatCave for all we know.

Its like a best of both worlds, in the comics we have the material, and in the movies, armour. But I know a lot of people want to see a material costume in films.

Maybe one day we'll get it...
 
I suppose, but I think the armour works well, especially in BB and TDK,

I don't know about TDK, but it worked very well in BB.

That said, it worked as fine in every one of the previous movies with the mere exception of the ice-suit.

my only wish is that they explained the suit more in B89 or any of the following films. It may as well have parachuted into the BatCave for all we know.

I doubt. Things don't parachute into caves (or houses for that matter). Therefore I doubt people would have thought that or any other theory close to that.

I'm convinced most people - like me - saw Batman being shot in the fisrt scene and logically deduced the armour was for protection without the need of a whole scene with a monologue about it. And being Wayne a billionaire, getting the armour built wasn't much of a trouble.
 
I'm convinced most people - like me - saw Batman being shot in the fisrt scene and logically deduced the armour was for protection without the need of a whole scene with a monologue about it. And being Wayne a billionaire, getting the armour built wasn't much of a trouble.

I guess no one wants to draw their own conclusions anymore, and they refuse to think anything unless the filmmaker spells it out for them, but yeah. I got that immediately, and the film didn't even have to tell me.

I like it when a film doesn't treat me like I'm stupid.
 
Meow kittycat, put those claws away.

IMO, some of the more satisfying elements of BB is the explanations for different things. It's not about whether he needed armour, it's how he went about procuring it and designing it himself.

Like in BR, he just has a row of suits... Where'd they come from? Did he make them himself? It's just a loose end i'd always found rather bugged me...
 
IMO, some of the more satisfying elements of BB is the explanations for different things.

As long as they're needed it's ok I guess.

But the first Batman scene in B89 explained everything in the best way cionematography can: by the mix of its expressive devices and not merely by words.

The problem with BB is that Nolan and Goyer thought words were the only way to explain things, ignoring the richness of cinema. Goyer was desperate about underline every single thing, turning many of BB scenes boring, repetitive and a poor sample of what movies can do. Not to mention that, as Doc says, treated audiences as 4 y.o. kids. And I'm sure 4 y.o. kids have the ability to understand in the first 60 seconds of film that BB was about fear, before Goyer repeated that word 70 times.

The same, most of us got that - seeing the thing going on between Bruce Wayne and his fear for bats - he decided to be Batman to spread his own fear long before the Bruce-Alfred scene where they verbally explain what the movie had already done for 60 minutes by then.

For that matter, we never saw a scene with Bruce Wayne spraying the Tumbler black, so are we supposed to be in the dark and assume the Tumbler got black by itself?

It's not about whether he needed armour, it's how he went about procuring it and designing it himself.

Like in BR, he just has a row of suits... Where'd they come from? Did he make them himself? It's just a loose end i'd always found rather bugged me...

Bruce Wayne's a millionaire, he has the resources.

It was nice they explained he got his suit and toys from Wayne enterprises but then again they never explained certain things coming from that fact. Sure, we know Lucius Fox knows Bruce Wayne is Batman - because he knows right? I mean, we didn't have a scene where Fox verbally explains "Yes I know Bruce Wayne is Batman" but we got, thanks God, hints enough without words - but what about those dozens of people involved in the Tumbler construction? How about when the Tumbler was on Tv for everyone to see? Are we suppose to believe they didn't recognize the military car they built themselves?

Or what about Commissioner Loeb - high authority in Gotham City - being anti-Batman, and Batman putting in danger dozens of policemen's lives with the Tumbler - at least to the poublic eye - and yet Jim Gordon takes the liberty of calling Batman publicly with a bat-signal? Not to mention we don't know who and how that bat-signal was built while Batman being considered illegal by many important people.

No, as movies, B89 and BR didn't specially lack of explanations.
 
Jeez, you know sometimes you guys can be real asses when someone expresses their opinion. I said I liked that bit in BB, yes to me it worked, I wanted it explained in words. You guys go off and tear me a new one, lecturing me in all the ways that I was wrong to even consider the explanation a good thing...
 
Jeez, you know sometimes you guys can be real asses when someone expresses their opinion. I said I liked that bit in BB, yes to me it worked, I wanted it explained in words. You guys go off and tear me a new one, lecturing me in all the ways that I was wrong to even consider the explanation a good thing...

You're the one who's taking it wrong. We're not lecturing you at all. We know that's your opinion. We're just saying how we disagree with it.

Jeez, you think what we're doing is bad? Try going actually going against the grain, like, I dunno, saying you don't like Heath Ledger as the Joker. You'll find it's much worse than just being disagreed with.
 
Nah whatever man, you guys aren't just giving me your opinion, you're forcing it on me, as if it's the only way to think. I post that I find the the explanation in BB satisfying and I get told how I am wrong, it's implied that i'm stupid and that I don't understand cinema.... It's not just you, it happens a lot on the Hype! It's a shame...
 
Nah whatever man, you guys aren't just giving me your opinion, you're forcing it on me, as if it's the only way to think. I post that I find the the explanation in BB satisfying and I get told how I am wrong, it's implied that i'm stupid and that I don't understand cinema.... It's not just you, it happens a lot on the Hype! It's a shame...

:whatever: You need to drop the attitude.
 
Maybe you need to drop yours?
 
Back on the topic; I think that if the gray wasn't too bright, the comic book costume would work on screen. But I'm happy with the all-black. I just wish they'd move away from the armored look and go back to plain musculature.
 
Ditto - I agree, I think the old 60's show shoed that the fabric suit can be done, after all West didn't even have that good of a physique. Out of curiosity, has the armour suit ever been used in the comics. Outside of the movie adaptions that is...
 
Ditto - I agree, I think the old 60's show shoed that the fabric suit can be done, after all West didn't even have that good of a physique. Out of curiosity, has the armour suit ever been used in the comics. Outside of the movie adaptions that is...

He used one armored suit that I know of, in the first Batman Vs. Predator crossover. But I dobut that's in-continuity.

It's funny though, I find West had a better physique than a lot of people remember. A lot of people get this idea into their heads that he had a beer-gut. He just didn't have a six-pack, he didn't have enough of a gut that it would hang over his belt.
 
Yeah he was built, but by today's standards he was not as physically well built or well defined as that skintight suit would need. He was just a wall of muscle as I remember, much like the wrestlers of the 80's.

A lot of rugby players wear them skintight tops in the UK, me included, and they make even the smallest person (again, me :)) look well defined. I alwsy figured that that material was what he was wearing... Or something similar...

Don't think Predator is in continuity, but then, what is now-a-days!
 
It's funny though, I find West had a better physique than a lot of people remember. A lot of people get this idea into their heads that he had a beer-gut. He just didn't have a six-pack, he didn't have enough of a gut that it would hang over his belt.

Of course he had and I think he had a better than the physique of 90% of all normal people today.

Say what you want about the old show but at least Batman & Robin looked like Batman & Robin and Batman was a good detective (an aspect they often forget today when they take the Batman-the-ultimative-ninja-fighter-approach) and skilled guy. I even liked that Batman lost so much fights. That happened a lot in the old comics, even in the 70s, but he always got out, using his brain and tricks. :word:
 
Yeah he was built, but by today's standards he was not as physically well built or well defined as that skintight suit would need. He was just a wall of muscle as I remember, much like the wrestlers of the 80's.

I think it was functional. Why should Batman look like a fashion model or a bodybuilder :huh:
 
He doesn't need to look that way, but he needs the muscles for the power and strength. By definition, that means he's gonna look big.

Meh, doesn't matter, I don't think Keaton particuarly thought 'hey i gotta get into shape' or anything, my guess is, thats just his natural physique. Like I said, in the show he's just solid muscle, not really defined. In the comics he always has superb definition, something that those skintight under-armour suits highlight and accentuate.
 
If done right, with a right actor and good lighting it could work, as seen in Sandy Collera's fan films, like the 'Dead End'

http://www.revolutionsf.com/images/layout/20030804/batrain.jpg

http://www.starland.com/news/2003/images/030724badbat.jpg

http://www.superherohype.com/images/fanfilm/wfshh_suprbat.jpg

But in movies, I do prefer the dark rubber suits with body armor. It's more realistic, that batsy is kind of a modern knight, who takes ever precaution to protect his health and stay in the shadows. Hence the dark suit and body armor ;)
 
Yeah I was gonna say about those films, the suit works well, but I think it needs to be a tad darker for the stealth aspect.
 

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