Top 5: Design Elements Added to Make Comic Characters More Edgy

5. Tattoos

You want to show mom and dad that their rules aren’t for you anymore? Get some ink. Whether you’re looking for a movie deal, and want to go the Blade route, or you’re part of some terrible futuristic concentration camp for mutants, tattoos, especially on the face and head will give comic characters exactly the edge they might might lacking. Or you could just add the Rachel Summers “penis with wings” design on the back.

 

4. Armor

It’s tough out there. In a cruel world, a hero needs more than just stretchy fabric. A hero needs a tough layer to protect them. It says that he’s not your daddy’s hero in a squeaky clean world. Captain America knew it. Daredevil knew it. Even the Punisher knew it, and he was pretty tough to begin with. Winter is coming.

 

3. Hood

Mike Grell knew it when he put a hood on Queen in the 80s, and almost 3 decades later, DC remembered when they put one on Shazam. If you’ve ever spent any time in the UK, you would know that the hooded teenager is the most frightening thing on earth, according to the news and much needed legislation. When a character needs more edge, ensconce their faces in shade.

 

2. Jacket

Bro, your “rules” don’t apply. This jacket says all you need to know about your stupid status quo. The jacket can be used to mixed results, and doesn’t often last forever, but nothing signals that it’s the end of the Reagan era, and I’m not buttoning a damn thing in quite the same way. Just ask Animal Man, Superboy, or for some reason Wonder Woman more recently. Push up the sleeves if you dare.

 

1. Black Costume

When you’ve absolutely got to let everyone know about that new chip on your shoulder, the best way to go is to lose all the color in your clothes. Spider-Man did it. X-Force did it recently, plus they added red eyes. Like a lonely kid, who needs to say to the world, “don’t talk to me anyone,” while looking sullen, the black costume tells everyone you mean business, and that business ain’t kids stuff.

Comments

  1. Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? COMBINE THEM ALL!

  2. Great article and by the way, most teenagers in the UK only wear hoods as a self defence measure. Also it’s constantly rainy so you need to protect your Brylcreem slathered hair.
    hehehe…’Penis with wings’

  3. “Put a bird on it!”

  4. Where do high collars and excessive piping fit in?

  5. Avatar photo Mickey">Mickey (@GeeksOfChrist) says:

    The jacket added to a superhero costume really makes them look like kids on Halloween.

    • If anything a jacket says, “Hey, I fly around but it get’s cold up here!” If they just wore normal clothing instead of skin tight spandex they wouldn’t need the jacket.

      I’m surprised the female hero’s aren’t in a jacket one issue and then out of it for the next one…. that and leg warmers, why no super heroine leg warmers?

    • Ice had some for a LONG TIME.

  6. On hood’s and the UK:

    “Why’s he covering his face?”
    “Maybe ‘cus he’s fuck-ugly.”

  7. When does one add pouches?

  8. In the 90’s style you would also add pouches, massive bandoliers and oversized automatic weapons. The full-on Cable treatment.

  9. Even Soundwave went the black costume route when Galvatron rebuilt him as Soundblaster/New Soundwave.

  10. I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I loved the Taskmaster costume redesign by Alvin Lee, hoodie and all.

  11. I always dug Superboy’s leather jacket. Probably because I was in middle school at the time.

  12. Isn’t Cap’s default costume made of chain mail, which is armour anyway. Maybe that entry should be Power Armor!

    • Mail isn’t armor as I understand it. Mail goes under plate, which is armor.

      I’ve been reading a lot of Song of Ice and Fire lately. There is a lot of description of these things.

    • I will now expect a Westeros joke in every Top 5 list now…

    • It’s difficult to resist, but I’m a professional.

      (Flanagan wore grey denim pants, a blue flannel shirt, and brown leather boots sewn with a mock toe, and no other adornments, his glasses reflecting in the morning light.)

    • @josh–not to split hairs, but Chain Mail is most usually classified as a form of armor. It is just an earlier, weaker form. Plate armor was introduced as more advanced “technology”.

    • You’re being a huge nerd.

    • *sigh* a curse i suppose!

    • a way less technical justification of mail as armor: i once knew a guy who made his own mail. when he showed it to me and my friends one late drunken night, no one said “dude, it’s just mail. that’s not real armor.” we instead started devise elaborate ways we could test its ability to protect him from things we wanted to throw at him. hence, armor.

      his nickname was chainsaw. that was a good year, as i recall.

  13. Really fun piece, Josh! And so true.

  14. Hilarious choice of cover for #2. I would never have guessed where you were going without caption. “Soar gleefully through the sky with a flock of flamingos? Okay, *I* think that’s cool, but I’m probably the only one.”

    • Actually, AnimalMan’s jacket made sense in that he used it to have somewhere to carry money (spare change to buy food, make calls at phone booths). This was before the ubiquitous cell phone was in effect… Okay, I’ll stop.

  15. so if you want to be edgy, just copy everything from the mad max movies.
    putting that into my netflix instant que….NOW!
    penis with wings…fuckn’ hilarious

  16. I always found it hilarious (and sad) that the 90’s Captain america looks like the Tick

  17. How did that hideous tattoo on Rachel Summers get past the editor, asst. editor, inker, & the colorist? Back in the 90s, when Simon Bisley made a penis on Lobo’s arm he got in some serious trouble. Times have changed.

  18. No reference to the 90’s leather? Morrison’s New X-Men look like something out of a fetish mag 😛

  19. Great now I can’t look at that tattoo without thinking it’s a penis with wings!

  20. what about spikes and chains?
    or did spawn ruin that for everyone?
    we’re talkn’ about more current devices of edginess, uh?

  21. I’m scarred for life after seeing this horrible, horrendous, atrocious Captain America cover… Thank you very much, iFanboy, I might never sleep again! 0_o

  22. When I first saw the Animal Man image, I thought that you were going to take a swipe at his Walkman, which in hindsight is both still cool, and a little “hey look I’m hip” (not that Morrison would ever pander to trends :)).

  23. I never noticed the frog in that Animal Man image before.

  24. Am I the only one that likes Daredevil’s armor in a non-ironic way?

    I’m sure it was stupid to have but the design is kinda cool…

    • I loved Daredevils armor but only when certain artists drew it. Mark Bagley made it look awesome in Amazing Spider-man for a few issues

  25. I’m trying to think of a character that used all of these elements and the closest I can think of is movie Blade and like every no-name mutant in X3. Tats, jacket and black color scheme.

  26. Animal Man might want to put the jacket back on. Being shirtless all the time could get a little cold. Oh and is that just his costume now? Being shirtless? Cause that’s pretty damn edgy

  27. I think guns should be first – but these are all cool traits from the Iron Age/Dark Age/Image Age.

    Actually, the costumes in 1,2, and 3 are all great. 4 and 5, not so much. Especially that Cap crap armor. He looks like a fatty.

  28. I can’t believe I own that issue of Captain America and got it in a Marvel mail subscription envelope that I signed up for through my school’s Magazine Drive. You heard me.

  29. Also the Avengers ALLL HAD TO WEAR OFFICIAL BROWN LEATHER JACKETS at one point.

    Black Knight just kept his the longest. Dude has no other modern apparel.

  30. Shouldn’t armor be #1 because it literally makes characters more edgy? I assume these lists are intended to prompt lots and lots of nit-picking, of course.

  31. How about a bionic eye? those were all the rage in the X-books in the 90s

  32. HAHA! Great article Josh!
    Made me laugh out loud in class!

  33. I know some of these make characters more modern/edgy, but in some cases, it messes with a character’s legendary look. On Wonder Woman, black, skin-tight pants and black jacket made her look more modern (not to mention sexy as hell, but I digress), but it changed her appearance too much. Zatanna’s New 52 look works for her, but me personally, I miss the skimpy fishnet outfit look.