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dio-03 — My Take On The DC Relaunches
Published: 2011-06-11 22:03:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 15593; Favourites: 375; Downloads: 264
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With all the hubbub and complaints about the DC relaunches I was seeing all these designs that frankly just weren’t aesthetically pleasing to me. they had some cool things i guess. but too much of it just looked like bad 90s EXTREME designs. shoulder pads, collars, chokers for the ladies etc. etc.So as an exercise in design, I took it upon myself to imagine Some designs for a JLA team that A: I’d read and B: would provide a fresh new look to the characters while really highlighting the things that make these characters quintessential. So in essence, I didn’t want to completely overhaul Superman or the rest of the JLA i just wanted them to look a bit more fresh. (i’m sure DC was trying this too, but its hard to make something look fresh when its being designed by 40 or 50 year olds.)
Now for some quick comments:
Batman: I didn’t want to fix what wasn’t broken and i’m going to admit that the gloves were a completely arbitrary change. I made sure he looked padded, armored and ready to fight at any moment. this is my happy medium between current and year100 batman.
Wonder Woman: I wanted her to be regal again. No chokers. I don’t get why DC insisted on making her more streetwise or whatever it is they did to her in the past year. My Wonder Woman is Greek, or inspired my Greek clothing. Everything about her should look more like that of a warrior.
Superman: This is someone who just DOESN’T need kneepads. what’s he going to break? other than that i feel like there was a classy-ness that was missing to him and red for his belt was just a bad idea.
Cyborg: A blend between the animated series design and his more current get up from flashpoint. i don’t enjoy bulky characters so i wanted to keep his silhouette as human as possible. I took some liberties but those were my own choices.
Aquaman: A blend of the current Aquaman and a design i had done for him previously. I insist that aquaman should have bare feet since i’m sure its just annoying for him to swim any other way. Other than that. Slight trim there and a snip here. Removed that weird collar they gave him.
Flash: Nothing really to fix except I’ve never enjoyed the concept of his costume magically coming out of a ring and and wrapping itself around him. I wanted him to wear something that looked wearable. something that breathed and shoes that could hold the use he gives them.
Green Lantern: Don’t ask me why but i just don’t like his white gloves. they throw me off. Jim Lee gave him these weird shoulder things that i immediately removed from my design. I removed his boots and gave him a more smooth look. black all the way down to the feet and some padding for protection in the soles.
I’d love to hear what you all think of the designs and hopefully by next week i’ll have my take on more of DC’s revamped and relaunched characters.
-Daniel Irizarri Oquendo
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Comments: 56
I really love that you gave Batman purple gloves. They're awesome, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
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hahahah finally, one in defense of purple gloves. : )
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Nice designs! 
BATMAN: The purple gloves don't work for me. Other than that, can't go wrong with a classic.
WONDER WOMAN: This design I love. It makes Diana look more like an Amazon warrior rather than a super model wearing a fancy swimsuit. The only thing I'd change is the shorts underneath her "Xena" skirt. I'd make the "Xena" skirt a bit longer and the shorts a bit shorter so that the Xena skirt overlaps the shorts. Overall, excellent design.
SUPERMAN: No. Superman looks more like he's wearing a variation of his costume from medieval times. The classic costume all the way for me.
CYBORG: Am I only one who thinks Cyborg is better off in the Titans rather than the JLA? At any rate, your design is great for Cyborg as well. No complaints.
AQUAMAN: Get rid of the double yellow belt and make it just one strip instead of two and this design is great! Love it.
FLASH: Excellent design, can't go wrong here.
GREEN LANTERN: I'm with you on your thoughts about Hal's white gloves and those weird shoulder things. But the short green gloves don't work for me. Speaking for myself, I would have personally given Hal green bracers with black gloves. Anyways, overall, a superior design to what's currently in the comics.
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Hi there. Since you asked for comments, I would allow myself to give my opinion on your designs, but unfortunately, I don't find them good. I think most of the time you mixed personal taste with a design precise idea, and doing so not going to the end of it. For instance batman's gloves. My taste is: I love them! Always like the purple bob Kane's gloves, but if I follow your idea about a practical uniform, it seems weird. Black not-so-loose gloves would work better.
It is the same with your GL, you say Superman does not need kneepads (I agree of course) but why would GL need protection on his soles?!? That bugs me completely. I find it cool to have black legs and the green part of the feet reduced to a minimum, but why protection? That seems off and not necessary to me (indeed like the unnecessary Jim Lee's shoulder pads you were talking about). The loose gloves bother me especially since everything else on the uniform is so skin-tight.
I like your WWoman, she simple but neat
I dig your Aquaman. But like most of your designs I hate the colors. But if I try to imagine it with less flat colors I must say the belt is original, makes me wonder what a atlantean outfit would be, and I dig the barefeet. My choice would have been to lower the pants more, like in the YJ cartoon, but the main idea is a good one for a swimming man, I think. The high collar is in fact something I like and that I find logical on Jim Lee's Aquaman because it gives some authority to the character, Aquaman or any character, any person, and I think it suits a king. That said, the golden collar can contribute to this idea so I think yours could work too.
Overallmy main concern is about Superman. I don not want to sound overprotective nor geek nor traditionalist, but I think your idea is terrible, both from a personal taste and from a "design" point of view. I won't extand my personal taste sinceit's only very diminishing, but from a design point of view I think you missed the point. The red being different on boots and on the cape bugs me a bit, maybe you wanted to make a difference in the textures but the symbol could have been like the boots then. the "jacket" is just awkward and badly used, it is the only "funky" element that reminds of Krypton and it gives the impression to me to come out of nowhere. What bugsme the most is the middlepart. Like almost everyone else you took the "trunks" away, yet neglected the visual importance of them. To me the "trunks" are something that should never be taken out, I don't find them disturbing, and I would nor won't apply any rationnal explanation to their presence, but even without this, the red in the middle breaks the blue. The red belt from Jim Lee is for me the best part of his redesign, and having just a yellow belt or a pale blue jacket is definitively not a good choice in your design IMO. Even more when you said you were heading toward keeping what makes the characters "quintessential". Following this, I think you miss the point completely for Superman.
I hope my comments won't hurt you in any ways, since it is naturally not my intent! You seemed to care about what people could give you, and I thought my comment would be pertinent. Nice work overall, it'sobvious the work has been thought through
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Got a chuckle out of the callback to Classic Batman's purple gloves. Nice.
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yeah, people didn't seem to like that decision : /
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Love the return of WW's "warrior sandals" and Aquaman's bare feet.
In the Flash's defense, it didn't magically wrap around him. It just expanded to normal size on contact with air, and then he spent a leisurely 0.001 seconds to put it on and straighten out all the wrinkles. 
Love the look of Superman's costume... like his father Jor-El's Silver Age look, but without the tiara.
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I wonder if panties and undies are going to be off fashioned to asume other styes, maybe more realistic... I totally like your Wonder Woman.
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thanks! She was one of the more universally liked ones.
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Actually if comics were to take into account the cultural impact of having say: Superman flying around, it would be more realistic to see metropolis streets full of people wearing their undies over their pants and capes. Fashion always follows personalities and not the other way around.
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thank you very much! I'd enjoy doing some revisions on these at some point, but i like them too.
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These are pretty cool, I dig them all except Superman and Aquaman. Then again, Superman just always looks too weird to me when people stray too much from his normal look. Aquaman is cool except for that weird gold midsection thing, which I don't get, and seems kinda just as superfluous to me as kneepads on reboot Superman. That's just my 2 cents. Overall though, ALL of these are better than what DC has done. They should just NOT put Jim Lee in charge of design ever again, haha.
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i totally agree on the Jim Lee thing. as for the Aquaman, i fixed up his belt for my second take (the groupshot) if you ever want to give that a look.
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thanks! its one of my preferred designs.
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Yeah, a lot of people weren't too happy with the new designs. I agree, they need to get some younger talent in there.
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see the thing is, they have a TON of young artist with great design sense working over there but they just want to go with what they think is a sure bet, with out even testing their designs on youth or target audiences.
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thanks, man! much appreciated. i think these are getting featured in Project: Rooftop tomorrow, if you follow the site at all.
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I dont think Ive heard of it, whats the deal there?
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Only thing I don't like is Batman's gloves. He hides gadgets in those things!
The Wonderwoman looks good though! Totally much better than what Jim Lee did to her.
I'm honestly against massive re-designs or too much diversion from classics, but your version look simple enough, not insanely 90s-detailed which were recently spawned by DC and made people cry.
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I think if the gloves and the boots matched that would be one hell of a batman. As it is, the gloves make him look like a fighter, but the boots are a little more heavy duty military. I think simpler boots would make this a much stronger design (and I get the Bob Kane throwback, but I feel like the purple just clashes...)
That Wonder Woman is amazing! I don't know how I feel about the shorts under the skirt, but everything else is perfect. I feel like it actually makes sense for the character and her heritage. But shouldn't she be taller? I always thought she was huge, but maybe not.
I see what you are going for with Superman and I like the idea, but the pants don't work for me for some reason. I don't know if they need to be a different color for it to work or what. I do like the boots and the cape though.
Cyborg is cool. I wish he had his arm cannon though. I realize that he probably doesn't have it all the time, but I think it shows off his techno side a bit more visually. This almost just looks like armor rather than being a part of him.
All I will say about the others is that I like Aquaman's pants and Flash's boots (I love when he is drawn with really durable looking boots).
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thanks for the feedback! i've actually applied a lot of what you and others have said. Hopefully tomorrow i'll be uploading another piece with all the fixes. : )
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The lines on Batman's suit along with the partial muscle definition make him look like he's in leather armor, is that what's going on here? I'm not convinced that Batman would be flexible enough to kick in those knee high boots and I think he might trip on a cape long enough to trail on the ground. I don't mind changes to the gloves, but why make them flare out so far?
Your Wonder Woman is exactly what she should be and never is.
I am not a fan of what you've done with Superman. The shirt not being tucked in and the belt being above it look strange to me. It looks like he is wearing blue underwear over blue pants, which is possibly just an error or the angle he's at. The redeeming feature, I find, is the cape connecting to the crest, which I think is a good look.
On Aquaman, what is wrapped around his midsection and would it impede movement? This is just a general question with most Aquaman designs, but why does he need scale mail if his skin is resistant to bullets and would he not wear armor that was more aerodynamic (aquadynamic?) if he did want to wear armor? The barefoot thing makes a lot of sense.
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thanks for all the feedback! I appreciate the opinion, all the points you made were valid ones. as for batman's costume, i saw it as armor plated cloth. as in, cloth with interlocking metal plates underneath it that allowed for more flexability. The gloves were an attempt to get back to batman's more pulp routes kinda like his original gloves, but its been the one thing most people haven't liked.
as for the superman,i guess subconciously it was a mix of [link] and the regular costume, plus somethings i added, the connecting of the cape to the crest, which i hadn't seen been done before much, shockingly.
as for the aquaman, again your points are totally valid. Honestly i didn't want to do any extreme change so it was just so light tweeks to the original design. i'm probably heading back to the drawing board with some of these characters. and yes, definitely aquaman.
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That is one GREAT Superman- i just can't get behind the new designs, or really ANY Jim Lee design. This is some really cool work, bud.
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thanks, man! i think out of the bunch, the superman might be the one that works best.
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Great !
All kidding aside, awesome job man !
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thanks, man. i think they still need work but they're not too far off. : )
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Solid.
I kinda like the suit-jacket thing going on with Supes.
Not so keen on Bats' gloves.
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