Up, up, take it away...

Yeah...

...okay, so Brian Singer (X2: X-Men United, X-Men, "The Usual Suspects") is directing the new Superman movie due out summer of 2006. If you didn't know about this one, hey consider yourself trendy and up to date.

Either way, I enjoyed the X-Men movies. Really I did. I thought that he did as good a job as could be expected considering he was trying to breathe life into characters who are established within a literature form that provides the author with, not only the time, but the freedom to expand and challenge. He also had to do this for each character, in a matter of like 45 seconds to a minute in the film -- or the whole thing would just be scene after scene, introducing a mutant and showing off their power.

Oh wait...yeah, that was X-Men the movie.

Now seriously, I do like Brian Singer. Even if he isn't a comic fan persay, and that might be a good thing for fresh perspective, he is a talented writer/director with an eye for grasping whats important and tossing whats not. Take the X-Men uniforms for example. In the comics, Wolverine has had a few costume changes here and there.



And of course, these have been debated among comic fans for ages. Most people agree Wolvie is too cool for a costume and only puts the damn thing on when he has to be chummy chummy with the X-men. Whatever. The problem for Brian Singer when he does the movie however, is that he has to make a suit for the guy to wear, and the yellow and blue tights look rediculious on a three dimensional figure...

So anyway,they end up with Wolverine in this dark leather look, that easily translates onto film without while still being a uniform.



In the end it worked visually and Singer scored a lot of praise for the change. In fact, the movie has spawned a number of comic titles with the X-Men in the movie uniforms now.

Every person I know who has seen the new Superman suit however, seems to say the same thing I do. The blue looks fine, the belt isn't a big deal, the actor looks okay, but what's up with the maroon cape and boots? And what is up with the small "S" shield on the chest? Singer gave an interview where he said that he wanted to keep things "classic" and that these were intentional changes. They tossed the "loud primary colors" in favor of the "darkened" hues added by costume designer Louise Mingenbach.

Yeah...they did that once for a Superman movie. It was designied to illustrate when Superman was sick.

I'm sorry Brian Singer, your last X-Men movie might have grossed well over 400 million, but this is about as close to rubber nipples on the Batman suit as it gets. Maybe you should have paid a little closer attention to Alex Ross' version. Everyone agrees that Ross' Man of Steel is current and very cool...all without having to be "dark".