Warner Bros. has released an image of Henry Cavill in his costume for the new Superman adaptation, Man of Steel.
The image is encouraging. Other than the collar, this costume closely resembles Superman’s new costume which we will start seeing when the new Superman comics begin this fall as part of DC’s New 52.
This combined with the knowledge that the upcoming movie will be based mostly on the newest Superman origin story, Superman: Birthright (which DC has already said will remain as Superman’s Canon origin throughout the New 52 lines – Adventure Comics #1 will pick up after the events of Birthright) means that there is some hope that DC is starting to pay attention to the Canon of their films.
Of course it could just be that director Zack Snyder is a particular fan of the current Canon, and wants to preserve it somewhat himself, but one can hope that, even if that is the case, future directors will take a cue from Snyder and do the same preservation. Of course, we already know that none of the actors for Man of Steel are signed up to play parts in the Justice League film which doesn’t bode well for continuity.
It seems silly but the costume designs can sometimes make or break a superhero adventure, so it’s a bold, confident move for Warner Bros. to release this image now. If fans reacted negatively to this first look at the new character, it could have forever tainted everyone’s opinion of the film. This recently happened with the Wonder Woman TV series, for example.
The photos of the actress in costume which got leaked to the public were disastrous. The series got laughed off track in a day, and no amount of damage control or proposed changes were able to bring it back.
In the end, it didn’t get chosen by any of the major networks – not to say, of course, that this one costume reveal was the only factor in the show’s failure, but I can’t imagine that all the negative publicity the show was getting online due to the silly costume didn’t play some factor in the minds of the decision makers.
Luckily this image is not campy or silly. There’s no bright red codpiece here or vestigial, molded man-nipples; it’s a costume that manages to look classic Superman, while still reflecting the design of the modern version of the character.
Man of Steel is slated to hit theaters in 2013.
