While many fans have embraced the Man of Steel's costume in DC Studios' Superman after seeing recent set photos, the same can't exactly be said for those worn by Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner/Green Lantern and Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl.
The first superhero we caught sight of on set alongside the Man of Steel was Mister Terrific. Like the reboot's title character, it looked like he'd stepped straight from the pages of the comic books, making it hard to complain.
Oddly, both Green Lantern and Hawkgirl are decked out in the same leather gear as Mister Terrific, right down to their jackets. At first glance, it suggests Superman has a serious problem with costume design, prompting concerns the DCU will be inhabited by superheroes all wearing basically the same basic suit design. Pretty uninspired, right?
In reality, there's likely a very good reason for this.
We first spotted the Lordtech logo on Mister Terrific's chest; its presence made sense in a lot of ways, especially if we were picking up with Michael Holt at an early stage of his career (before he breaks free from Lord and launches his own company, for example). However, we've since seen that logo on Green Lantern and Hawkgirl's suit, essentially confirming they all work for Lord and are part of the same team.
Looking at the comics and, more specifically an era we know James Gunn is a fan of, common sense says they're part of the Maxwell Lord-funded Justice League International introduced by J. M. DeMatteis, John Ostrander, and Keith Giffen. Sean Gunn is playing that character and James has previously said he intends to portray him as morally ambiguous rather than a full-blown bad guy.
With that in mind, we believe the DCU will initially consist of superheroes controlled or funded by the government or private corporations. When Superman comes along, he breaks the mould, no doubt explaining why we've seen A.R.G.U.S.' Rick Flag Sr., The Engineer, and Ultraman detaining the Man of Tomorrow.
Lord's corporate heroes and all dressed in white, the villains we've seen wear black, and Superman stands tall in red, blue, and yellow. This feels like a deliberate stylistic choice on Gunn's part and we believe the Kryptonian will inspire his fellow heroes to do their own thing and - if we're lucky - later don comic-accurate costumes which aren't approved by a PR team.
That's a lot of story to squeeze into Superman, but as disappointing as these suits may be at first glance, we're confident they're part of Gunn's long-term DCU plans and a small part of a much bigger story he intends to tell over the next decade. Lord forcing these on the heroes makes more sense than Guy choosing to don a leather jacket when his ring can make any costume he likes, anyway!
Plus, Superman inspiring his fellow heroes definitely isn't something we'll complain about...