Chronologies of design: Iron Man, Superman's shield, Wolverine, Dr. Who

January 6, 2014 7:54 PM

HalloweenCostumes.com sells, well, costumes. But they also have made some interesting infographics over the years. The first few were what you'd expect, Halloween statistics (direct link to the long, long image), but later they got into the "evolution" of super hero designs, costumes and logos, from Iron Man's suit (image link), Superman's shield (image link), Wolverine's costume/image (image link), the look and some facts about Doctor Who (image link), and even a character map of interactions in Alice in Wonderland (image link).

They're not the first to do any of these sorts of chronologies of character design, but their formatting is more standardized than other versions, such as this more complete evolution of Superman's shield (image link) featuring clipped images from the comics, cartoons and live-action versions, the Iron Man Armory - Visual Guide (Volume I) (image link) and Volume II (image link) and IGN's overview of Iron Man's many armors, plus IGN's overview of Wolverine's various looks, both in non-chronological order.

posted by filthy light thief (27 comments total)

Whoa, check out that arm hair growth on Wolverine, ha.
posted by buzzman at 8:01 PM on January 6, 2014

My god... I never realized how dorky Wolverine... oh my.
posted by gwint at 8:01 PM on January 6, 2014

If you're looking for standardized drawings of Doctor Who, I'm still a huge fan of this animated GIF of the succession of the 11 Doctors running, forever (original Spanish post), which is sharper than this amusing, but blurry, animation.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:03 PM on January 6, 2014

The first thing that caught my eye was Sexy Duck Dynasty costume ideas.
Now this is how you do an interesting business website.
posted by Mezentian at 8:25 PM on January 6, 2014

If Zombies Cared: Prominent Zombies Debate the Tissues [Infographic] Sure, if might be linkbait, but it's linkbait they put work into.
posted by Mezentian at 8:35 PM on January 6, 2014

I was going to say "Yeah, they should totally do a sexy Uncle Si, hah, that would be a challenge/ terrible." And lo, it was done. I give them points for reading my mind, or something.

I was hesitant to link to the main site, but their logo is at the bottom of all their graphics, which get re-hosted and embedded everywhere else. Looking for other people's efforts to do these same "evolution" charts is tricky, because such re-hosted material is a the top of my Google results.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:37 PM on January 6, 2014

The last two Iron Man movie armors on there never really looked good to me. Especially the busy look of 3, but I don't like the gold that runs up the shoulders and down the torso of 2. There's a newer armor in the comics that they don't have here where it took the gold + glowy lights overload of Iron Man 2 and went even further overboard with it too, bleh. I mean, I love the old-school all-gold armor, but when it's red and gold mixed the torso looks best with gold only as a highlight, not a main feature.

Of the more recent armors (post-War Machine, the last good one for a looong stretch), the one they call Proto-Extremis from around the time of Avengers Disassembled is probably my favorite - the Extremis armor's great, but I think it lost something in streamlining, especially the forearms and shoulders. But both Proto-Extremis and Extremis win hands down in the just-this-side-of-hilarious thigh-high boots department and I love them both for it. Those are straight up armor versions of Ms. Marvel boots.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:41 PM on January 6, 2014

Ooh, and they don't have it on the infographic, but the first Ultimate Iron Man armor was fantastic. I loved that redesign.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:44 PM on January 6, 2014

They don't have Iron Man's current armour from the comics either, whatever that looks like these days. Personally, I prefer the Spacelord-esque one.
posted by Mezentian at 8:48 PM on January 6, 2014

Ooh, and they don't have it on the infographic, but the first Ultimate Iron Man armor was fantastic. I loved that redesign.

It looks like Samus Aran in her armor from Metroid. Or maybe it's the other way around.

I saw the Iron Man Extremis armor a few years ago, and thought it was really rad and well-drawn. I don't see too many character designs in comic books that actually look good.
posted by Redfield at 8:54 PM on January 6, 2014

The current armor is one of the "odd" ones.

I'm a big fan of the Avengers "battle of New York" version, as movie armors go. Bulky enough to look beefy without tipping into Hulkbuster, good lines, and it more or less mimics the classic color scheme.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:58 PM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Extremis drawn by its creator, Adi Granov, is a beautiful design. I just don't think anybody else was able to do it as much justice as he did.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:59 PM on January 6, 2014

Part of what I find appealing is the shading and coloring. Was never a fan of red and yellow together, though.

I used to be a huge Green Lantern fan and now I'm reminded of Iron Lantern from Amalgam. Green and black, now that's a color combination I can get behind.
posted by Redfield at 9:16 PM on January 6, 2014

Oh hey, that business is based near me, and I know a lot of people who work there. Like, good friends who I've played Dungeons & Dragons with and who also play in local bands. (Although, none of the people who made those charts, it seems.)

While I probably wouldn't call it a "dream job", working with Halloween costumes is apparently pretty awesome.
posted by Woodroar at 10:04 PM on January 6, 2014

Ooh, and they don't have it on the infographic, but the first Ultimate Iron Man armor was fantastic.

I dunno, that picture shows a really narrow waist in that armor- is Tony wearing a corset under that thing?

Of course it's amusing how much the movie Iron Man is informed by the Ultimates version. Thank goodness Captain America didn't go the same path.
posted by happyroach at 11:57 PM on January 6, 2014

Of course it's amusing how much the movie Iron Man is informed by the Ultimates version. Thank goodness Captain America didn't go the same path.

If I know my Ultimates (and I don't), isn't Ultimate Steve more like USAgent?
posted by Mezentian at 12:25 AM on January 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Classic Yellow I

'Nuff said.
posted by mikelieman at 4:03 AM on January 7, 2014

Obligatory video [NSFW, language]
posted by pxe2000 at 5:06 AM on January 7, 2014

"I just saw an infographic about Wolverine in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks."

This was already mentioned, but just in case this wasn't obvious to some, these types of infographics are designed to generate traffic and increase search engine rankings via "backlinks" (aka "linkbait") for the site/blog/etc. that created them. They're very effective (especially when done well, as shown here). Just a bit of info so you are aware of what is being linked to. (They would rather you linked to their embed page rather than directly to the image itself, for example.)

More info, if interested:

SEO Guide to Creating Viral Linkbait and Infographics

Infographic Marketing

How to Get Backlinks With Guestographics

How to Get More Backlinks From Infographics

Seeding Your Infographic for the Most Views and Backlinks
posted by jca at 6:43 AM on January 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

Boy, 1988 through 2000 was a rough time, sartorially speaking, for Wolverine. Then again, it was pretty rough for everyone.

Somebody needs to bring back the truly classic brown costume for good. (Though most of the ones after the 90s are alright, too.)
posted by entropicamericana at 7:43 AM on January 7, 2014

If I know my Ultimates (and I don't), isn't Ultimate Steve more like USAgent?

Pretty much. Post 9/11, Mark Millar thought it would be funny to turn Cap into an arrogant Fox News Republican, complete with lazy French-surrender jokes.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:19 AM on January 7, 2014

Whoa, check out that arm hair growth on Wolverine, ha.

My god... I never realized how dorky Wolverine... oh my.

Boy, 1988 through 2000 was a rough time, sartorially speaking, for Wolverine.

Yeah, the arm hair isn't the only thing that seems to appear and disappear on Wolverine. Some of these images indicate significantly less dork than others.

Oh well, animals lack attributes, as we all know.
 
posted by Herodios at 8:30 AM on January 7, 2014

I know, who ever heard of a young man from 1940's Brooklyn having less than sterling liberal credentials?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:31 AM on January 7, 2014

My favorite — and it still boggles me how it's not more popular — is the Mark II movie armor. The armor he wore before giving it a coat of paint. It's a slick silvery look, and — for the love of Pete — it looks like IRON. Iron's not red (yeah yeah rust, but you know what I mean) or golden; it's grey. Iron Man should be this big grey metal badass, not Hollywood Shinypants.
posted by grubi at 8:45 AM on January 7, 2014

It's not so much that he has to be a card-carrying liberal who hates all racism and supports every economic and social plan FDR had, but if he's going to be a conservative he'd be a 1940s conservative, which has a whole different set of connotations. Plus the easy French joke is way out of character for somebody who personally fought next to the French Resistance.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:46 AM on January 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Did Ultimate Cap fight with the French resistance? I can't recall anything in Ultimates continuity that says he did.

Wikipedia notes:

Anti-French sentiment was common enough among the GIs that at the end of 1945 that the U.S. military authorities thought it necessary to distribute to them the explanatory (conciliatory) booklet "112 Gripes about the French" a year or so after their arrival in France. Charles de Gaulle in particular inspired great irritation with his declaration that Paris had been "liberated by her own people, with the help of the armies of France, with the help and support of the whole of France, that is to say of fighting France, that is to say of the true France, the eternal France," with no mention of either the Allied invasion or the Vichy French military contribution to the Axis' cause, was to be a long-term source of annoyance.[15]

Ultimate Cap got me into 616 Cap, because although Ultimate Cap could be a jerk with problematic attitudes, he was a more plausible and human character than the Captain America I grew up with in the 80s. Then I discovered Brubaker's run, and I became a fan of the ol' Winghead.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:32 AM on January 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've kept stats on Halloween costumes at my house since 2005. Here is a link to this years report, which also has links to all the past years.
posted by Argyle at 8:18 PM on January 7, 2014