The Gender of Costumes

Costumes can be a contentious issue among superhero fans Costumes can be a contentious issue among superhero fans. Some argue however that the whole genre is fantasy, so superheroes should be able to wear just about anything and everything — and that usually involves sexualizing the female characters. Others argue that costumes should be wholly practical, even if that means making them sexless and ugly. I fall somewhere in the middle: give me pretty but practical.

Therefore, my favorite costumes are those that make me go "oohhh!" but which also take into account the unique personalities, abilities, and responsibilities of each character. Take the uniforms worn by DC's Green Lantern Corps. Every uniform bears the GL logo. And each uniform is predominantly green, of one shade or another. Beyond that, though, every uniform is different; the Power Ring creates a uniform uniquely expressive of its bearer's personality.* Hal Jordan looks like a military space cop. Guy Gardner's uniform has a rakish, almost buffonish, jacket with a high collar. Arisia's uniform is elfin and sexy. Mogo's uniform — uh, well, Mogo is a planet, so its uniform is just a big logo made out of flora and rock formations.

The Centurions of the Nova Corps, Marvel's equivalent of the Green Lantern Corps, take a slightly different approach. While that organization's brilliant gold and blue uniform takes into account variations by species, the uniforms are by and large indistinguishable. The helmets serve to hide (and protect) virtually the entire head and face. While sex is sometimes obvious, that isn't always the case (Fraktur looks like a gargoyle and Qubit is a synthetic organism that exists entirely inside a helmet). This consistency in appearance serves to simultaneously strip the Centurions of some of their outward individuality (and therefore personality and sexuality), while also reinforcing the corps as the Centurions' primary source of identity.