Friday, March 18, 2011

Here's what the new television Wonder Woman will be wearing

Today on DC's The Source blog they posted a photo of actress Adrianne Palicki, the star of the forthcoming live-action Wonder Woman TV show, wearing the new Wonder Woman costume. Go take a look, if you haven't seen it already. Overall, I like it a lot, and am actually kind of surprised at how nicely it turned out.

Some thoughts:

—I really, really like the boots. Wonder Woman's boots are always red, so light blue is a surprising choice for the boots, which kind of makes them exciting, like seeing Superman in a blue cape or something.

—The light blue pants also look infinitely better than the black pants of the current, new-look comic book Wonder Woman costume. (Actually, everything about this is better than the new comic book Wonder Woman costume, especially the lack of jacket, and the boots over the pants, rather than some sort of weird footsies). I was sort of confused by the choice of pants over star-spangled shorts or panties simply because stars-on-her-butt are Wonder Woman's visual signature (especially on television).

After looking at the picture a few times now, however, I note there seem to be a stripe of stars along the side of the pant legs, or at least the right side. I'm not sure if I like that or not, as there's something sort of Evel Kneivel about that element of the costume, but it does keep some visual continuity to the original TV costume (and the original comic book costumes, of course).

—The eagle and star on the chest, the tiara and especially the bracelets all look super cool.

—I'm not crazy about the belt, which looks a little too much like a big, bold tiara or crown atop her pelvis.

—Note the little snap button on her lasso-holder, like the one that Terry and Rachel Dodson gave Wonder Woman when they tweaked the costume for the 2006 relaunch.

—I kinda hope they do something with special effects and the lariat, as the plain old gold rope looks kinda weird as is. Like, maybe something you'd find at Jo-Ann Fabrics.

—This Wonder Woman's breasts sure are out there, aren't they? I'm not sure how else they could really play her breasts, since her costume is essentially a corset—and here it actually looks like it fits and works like a real corset too (Er, in my limited experience with corsets, anyway). It's hard to say if that element of the costume is going to prove too silly from a single photo, and I guess much will depend on how it looks in movement, in a setting, on film and so forth, but here in this single, static image, it looks a lot like the comic book Wonder Woman's chest translated into live-action and that, of course, looks a tad silly.

—I'm completely unfamiliar with this actress, but she doesn't look like the Wonder Woman I would have cast if I were in charge of such things. I think I'd want someone more ethnically equivocal, with darker skin and a more unusual, exotic facial features. But she looks pretty good in the costume, and I can certainly see going for a paler, whiter Wonder Woman (In some versions of her story, she's like a magical golem, a living statue, and thus the more she resembles an ancient classical statue, the more appropriate, I suppose).

—I don't really like the make-up they have her wearing. I'm not a big fan of make-up in general, and I have a hard time imagining Wonder Woman taking much time to put on bright red lipstick or pluck her eyebrows and use an eyelash curler. But she always has super-red lips in the comics, so I guess translating it to live action might necessitate such glossy red lipstick.

—My first reaction to seeing this costume was that it basically looked like an ad for one of those sassy or sexy superheroine Halloween costumes. I'm not sure how fair it is to judge the costume by this image though, as it looks pretty rushed, and maybe not the ideal one with which to introduce the new Wonder Woman to the world at large with.

—Wait, I think I like one aspect of the current comic book costume, the one with the jacket and the black tights, better than this TV costume's. The belt. The Jim Lee-designed costume has a pretty alright belt, and a better belt than the costume Palicki's rocking does.

5 comments:

Diabolu Frank said...

Aside from also wanting a non-white actress, I pretty violently disagree with every positive thing you said. Usually not the case, but certainly so this time.

LC Douglass said...

Don't like this pic. She doesn't look like a princess. On the DC boards we were talking about Titans casting for a live movie. Look at
Jessica Lowndes as Donna
http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/990/990278/jessica-lowndes-20090603023932733.jpg

Or Taylor Cole as Donna
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/204/503563108_8c7a847224_z.jpg?zz=1

To me, Lowndes looks more eternal and classical and closer to what an actress cast as Diana should also look like. Taylor Cole looks more generically American.

Thomas said...

Sadly, your next to last paragraph hit the nail on the head for me. The costume looks like Ms. Palicki just grabbed an over-the-counter Halloween vinyl costume and over-accessorized it with the first fifteen things she grabbed from the nearest Hot Super Topic...

Ryan said...

I usually agree with you, but here I'm also in the "pretty violently disagree" camp. The vinyl/plastic/heels/makeup look, as well as the actress' vacant expression, all screams "over-the-counter costume from a Halloween shop or even a sex shop," not "warrior from an ancient Greece-like culture." I was really hoping for more of an armor-type look, even something along these lines: http://fanartexhibit.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/character-design-wonder-woman/

I guess that concept wouldn't fit in with this new series, but then I've yet to hear anything about this new series that sounds at all promising.

Eyz said...

"My first reaction to seeing this costume was that it basically looked like an ad for one of those sassy or sexy superheroine Halloween costumes. "

Exactly!