October 02,2010 … I just finished watching the “Shield” episode of SMALLVILLE and I’m left deeply disturbed.
During the episode, Clark (Tom Welling) get impetus to redesign his black costume and appears in the episode’s final minutes in a new version of his “BLUR” costume.
Well … It’s not much to look at to be honest. It’s a silly looking red jacket over a worn looking blue t-shirt. It looks like he’s wearing jeans with this “costume” too.
I’m bummed.
For years I didn’t really follow Smallville because I felt it was embarrassed by it’s comic book lineage. The original producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar mandated a “No-Flights, No Tights” rule for the show, shamelessly baiting fan boys, goading them to follow the program with the promise that Clark Kent would don the classic Superman costume in the final moments of the final season of Smallville.
Well, it looks like new show runners Kelly Souders , Brian Peterson and Tom Welling intend to keep that mandate even though the events depicted in the last three seasons would logically lead to Kent donning the costume at the beginning of the 10th season.
But Noooo, the audience gets more bread crumbs thrown in it’s face with a silly looking red pleather jacket emblazoned with the Superman shield.
It looks damn stupid.
I truly believe that Tom Welling would actually be embarrassed to be seen in the classic costume.
Whatever.
This particular episode got me to thinking about all the times the fan boy audience has been gypped costume wise by Hollywood.
Speaking of “Superman” the most recent bastardization that comes to mind was the near destruction of the franchise intended by Tim Burton’s God affirming aborted Superman project “Superman Reborn”.
Tim Burton secured Nicolas Cage as a possible Superman and stated his intention to make the hero a "Beautiful Freak".
Reported Concept art for “Superman Reborn”
Thank God Burton wasn’t allowed to actually film this movie. The fan boy fallout would still be raining nuclear comic book movie winter even now.
The epiphany that hit me in the face after watching the show was that the show runners and the parent studio simply don’t believe in these characters.
I really hate to go there but look at what Bryan Singer & co. came up with for the X-Men franchise, a property he admitted knowing nothing about when he took the job.
You mean this is the “BEST” Singer could come up with for one of the landmark MARVEL properties? The X-Trilogy tends to polarize a lot of people either for or against but fact is … THESE COSTUMES SUCK!
I TIRED OF APOLOGISTS EXPLAINING THESE HORRIBLE COSTUMES AWAY AS A NECCESARY EVIL TO GET THESE COMIC BOOK MOVIES MADE!!!
Sometimes, just sometimes … I’d rather not see these stilted, jadedly designed ripoffs that pose as comic book movies. Mathew Vaughn’s Nostradamus like prophecy of the END of Comic Book Movies can come true for all I care.
(Especially when I think about TRASH like IRONMAN 2)
I wrote an article on this site called 10x10 which singled out 10 directors that couldn’t get arrested in this town. The SUITS continually make seriously “questionable” calls on who get’s to direct these projects.
I’m not trying to figure it out any more because I understand it. It’s their ball and they can do whatever they like with it. Take this editorial as a rant if you like, but this is still AMERICA and I can speak my mind freely. All the fan boys want is some DECENT entertainment.
Dedicated to Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster.