Let's be honest. The 80s was a rough time, fashion-wise. And no one was spared.
5. Hal Jordan (Green Lantern)
A lot of people in the 1980s and 1990s thought that Hal Jordan was boring and stuffy. Drawing him with a sweater tied around his shoulders did not help Hal's image problems.
4. Jack Ryder's Production Assistant
No, that's not a ponytail, that's a mullet. A big ol' bushy mullet.
3. Michael Jon Carter (Booster Gold)
Plaid shirt, light blue tie, bright blue blazer and brown pants. It's really no wonder that Booster and Beetle could never get any dates.
2. Maxwell Lord
Was Maxwell Lord's greatest crime murdering Ted Kord or was it this ensemble?
1. Black Canary
Dinah's fashion problems were doubly bad because this isn't her civilian outfit, this is her costume. She wore it all the time and in every issue.I think my favorite part is that way the black chest insignia extends to mimic shoulder pads.
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*Straightens ascot and fluffs mullet* I don’t see the problem. These ladies and gents are lookin’ fly. I’m Audi 5000.
There are definitely some questionable decisions going on here.
Query: who is the artist for the first panel?
That Black Canary costume is the ONLY one on her I have ever liked and that is respectable. Her normal costumes offends me, and I’m a man, so I can’t imagine how a woman feels. She dresses in such a terrible way in her normal costume that her friends should have told her years ago to go where some clothes. The fact that Clark, Bruce, and her own husband Ollie stand around and don’t tell her to put some pants on is astounding to me. It is why I don’t buy any justice league or book she is in, in that costume.
The Maxwell Lord outfit looks like a suit that Two-Face would wear. What makes the Black Canary panel even worse is that Guy Gardener is in it. I never liked his GL outfit or his bowl cut.
If I still had hair, I’d grow a mullet.
@OhCaroline – it looks like Bart Sears, who did the Justice League Europe series.
Wot? No Ice? Furry boots like she’d hacked the back paws off a polar bear and a t-shirt so cropped off it nearly covered her breasts?
However, my favourite Power Girl costume came from her Giffen-era JLE appearences.
I can totally remember that suit fabric that Maxwell Lord is rocking…but i’m kinda bummed you didn’t find any Miami Vice outfits. =)
The Mullet can save comics. The world needs a mullet man.
Excluding some music, the 80’s are years I like to forget ever existed.
There is a picture of me when I was four with a pretty long mullet. It was bitchin’. Though I am pretty sure my parents only gave me that hair cut in order to black mail me in the future.
Ugh that Black Canary costume, one of the worst costumes for any character, in any medium, in history. Smallville’s version is better then that!
With a headline like that, was there ever any doubt what #1 was going to be? Thank God Black Canary eventually came to her senses.
The only thing that would make Hal’s panel better would be if he said "allowed….Nay, Encouraged"
@OhCaroline @dan – this crime against fashion is made worse by the fact that it was perpetrated by the great Kevin Maguire. He’s responisble for all of these drawings (he is innocent of designing that horrible Black Canary costume though).
Though they can be faulted for perpetuating it, the real criminals involved in the Black Canary Costume Debacle are the writer and artist of her arc in Action Comics Weekly, which is when that costume was first perpetrated.
RE: Canary’s threads — looks more like a Black "Hawk" costume then a Black Canary costume.
I think Black Canary never really had a real personality. She never seemed to be important, just teh blonde chick with the JLA. I remember for years, she would never use her powers (or couldn’t, due to being tortured) and that was always frustrating to me.
Fashion or no, those pencils are gorgeous.
heh, poor Ted and Michael always looked ridiculous out of costume. Booster’s popped collar would be number 6 on the list.
I’m not sure that that (admittedly hideous) blue suit was the worst thing Max wore back in the day…
The more I think about it, I think its awesome that these pages are so dated. Comics are a great time capsule, and reading through a vintage comic looking at fashion, words, slang and even the ads, you can learn A LOT about what life in America was like at any given time.
Are we sure that’s Maguire art in the first panel?
@ohcaroline: Yes. It’s all Maguire art.
That was my impression as well. This might have come up in conversation at a recent convention.
@WilliamKScurryJr: Totally agree Kevin Maquire’s artwork is superb. Very few in this industry have nailed the subtleties of facial expressions and body language as well as he has.
I’m not done investigating this. Next con, I’m going to ask Giffen and/or DeMatteis if that sweater was in the script.
I kinda like Lord’s look. It is loud, but I think that works for a power suit wearing kind of guy who is managing super heroes.
But who made Hal a Yuppie? He was living out of his car 5 years earlier and was an Air Force brat. That does not say Yuppie to me.
@ohcaroline – he still has great hair though!
See, I have this whole theory about how Hal is supposed to represent the traditional, old-school Young Republican brand of conservatism, and Guy represents the brasher types who were becoming ascendant during the Reagan Era. And the sweater is an important part of that theory. Kevin Maguire had no idea what I was talking about, though to be fair if some random person started quizzing me about something I drew in 1987, I wouldn’t do any better.
(I am mostly joking about this. I think.)
danny mcbride has the same mullet….
and maybe so do i
….as soon as I opened this article, saw Hal, I chuckled
@ohcaroline: I think you’ve nailed the Hal/Guy dynamic perfectly.
@Diabhol Hey, even if it isn’t what the creative team was thinking, I’ve thought about it enough for all of them!