Welcome to the 31st Century
May. 2nd, 2006 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athelind
Courtesy of the Superman Homepage.
There's a lot of whining on the forums, of course -- "It doesn't look like Timm! It looks too cartoony! What was wrong with the '90s X-Men cartoons? It's new and scary and different!" **Addendum!
Thankfully, they're far enough along in production that this won't turn into another Loonatics.
I think it looks great. It reminds me more of Star Wars: Clone Wars than anything else, and if Clone Wars taught us anything, it was that
Elements that particularly stand out, from left to right:
- Phantom Girl's khol eyeliner: just enough to be a little "spooky", without going full "I room with Raven and write bad poetry" goth.
- PG's little ghost-face chest logo. A vast improvement over the great big "P" she wore in the '60s, or the Interlac equivalent she wore in the '80s.
- Brainiac 5's purple eyes, and the Diniverse Brainiac Pawnshop Discs on his head and chest.
- Brainy's general design and demeanor. He's smaller than anyone else, and possibly younger, but carries himself with a cool confidence. If that 'tude carries over to the script, we may finally see a "boy genius" character in animation who's not a pathetic loser outcast.
- Saturn Girl's arched eyebrows and high forehead. Combined with her general demeanor, she looks like a telepath.
- SG's shoulder pads, hinting that her costume may be lightly armored. Yes! Armor the ego pansy! The Champions player in me approves.
- That kid in the middle. He looks right. Like he's exactly where he belongs. He actually conveys more of the character's iconic charisma than the Timm design of his adult self. There's a quiet confidence to him, but -- maybe it's just me -- there's a hint of barely-suppressed "This is so cool! I'm in the future! Having adventures in space!" just under the surface.
- Adding the Legion Belt Buckle to that classic costume works.
- Garth? Anakin and Harry called. They want their scar back.
- Seriously, though. Lightning Lad looks solid. The guy you want at your back. The Trusted Lieutenant.
- Timber Wolf... well, he looks a little confused and lost.
Over all, I'm looking forward to it. It should keep me at least as happy as the uneven first season of Justice League.
*(Honestly, that's a lesson that real animation fans learned more than half a century ago: stylized characters look more "real" when animated than realistically-proportioned ones do. Welcome to Uncanny Valley.)
**Note to Self: Oh, my LiveJournal is a "forum", too, isn't it? Eesh.
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Perhaps it's just me, but...
Date: 2006-05-02 05:41 pm (UTC)Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...
Date: 2006-05-02 05:45 pm (UTC)I didn't really notice the necks until you said that.
NOW I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE! AAAAAUUUUUGH!!!
Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...
Date: 2006-05-02 05:47 pm (UTC)Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...
Date: 2006-05-02 05:51 pm (UTC)And another thing!
Date: 2006-05-02 05:53 pm (UTC)At this point, I just don't like the picture, so I'm going out of my way to find things to snark about.
Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...
Date: 2006-05-02 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 06:26 pm (UTC)I can't think of any that would be fun to animate. By comparison I look at Teen Titans, and those designs look like fun to animate (not that anyone gets to animate on that show who isn't working for a Korean sweatshop, but hey).
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 07:18 pm (UTC)And I agree with your assesment of the kid in the middle. He does look like he's having so much fun he can barely contain himself. Which is awesome if that's actually part of the character.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 09:02 pm (UTC)Where are the heroes I remember from Adventure comics? (#305 in particular?)
And that eye scar? Drip in the JACK comic has two and he's no hero....
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 09:36 pm (UTC)Timber Wolf's head, though? Eh? I mean, sure, he's an alien, and they're not always supposed to be visually appealing, but... Eh?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:02 pm (UTC)I think it would be really cool if they go with the current backstory -- and instead of The Kid In The Middle having implausible costumed adventures in his tiny hometown, he's just a farmboy who's not quite sure what to do with his Special Talents.
That adds a whole new level to that ever-so-sublte hint of bubbling excitement and enthusiasm.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:10 pm (UTC)And I agree with the backstory. That would be so cool to show him in a light other then perfectness. Even he was a teenager once you know.
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Date: 2006-05-02 10:10 pm (UTC)Thanks for pointing that out; now that I know that people with facial scars are likely to be violent, murdering, sadistic rapists, I can shun them, or even stare openly at their hideously maimed visages. Now I don't have to practice Not Staring at that lady with the birthmark I keep running into in the laundromat.
I hear all dragons are cruel, marauding monsters, too.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:20 pm (UTC)bunchlegion of "heroes" all whining, "Not in the FACE! Not in the FACE!"no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:31 pm (UTC)They just don't all share the same physical model anymore, unlike their Swan/Schaffenburger-drawn progenitors -- or, in fact, the Bruce Timm-designed protagonists of JLU. Personally, I like the fact that the physical design of each of them says so much about their personality. Brainiac 5, for example LOOKS the way Brainy always has ACTED.
Timber Wolf's design, alas, suggests that poor Brin may not be the brightest LED on the chip -- but, then, was he ever?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 10:01 pm (UTC)