*Sigh* Not here, too....
People, the pic is desaturated. Routh's skin tone is completely off. And the reds are a lot brighter in other versions of the pic.
http://tinypic.com/4lilox
This is much more accurate to the color scheme.
As for the tweaks to the design...it's still Superman, the design is still pretty much the same, what's the big deal? A belt buckle change, raised emblem, and tweaked costume tones are not going to hurt the look, and they don't. I appreciate where you are coming from King. I really do.
I know you deal with alot of negativity on a regular basis given the boards that you travel. But I'm sorry, I have to disagree.
The look *is* hurt. The suit looks cheap and design wise a real step down from the Reeve suit even in spite of the advanced materials. Like I said before, it looks like a average joe in a Halloween costume. Wheras with Reeve, it looked like he walked off the comic page and into our realm.
Obviously a big part of that was the man himself. I don't deny that Brandon Routh has the look and even the build. But Reeve was also helped through a very well done and mindful costuming (not to mention his hair as well).
Are these ultimately just tweaks to the iconic look? Sure.
The \S/ on Reeves costume not having the knob at the end. That's a tweak.
Dean Cain having a darker shade of blue for his body suit. That's a tweak.
Alex Ross giving Superman a wider collar with the cape attached just at the very ends of it rather that the square Roman cape look that is often depicted. That's a tweak.
Black belt with a silver or ice-blue buckle. That's a tweak.
But that doesn't really do anything to excuse them from an arguement about wether or not these "tweaks" work or don't. I agree they are using the iconic look, but all the "tweaks" that they have come up with work against the look.
When dealing with a simple and iconic design like Supermans though, every detail counts because theres nothing to fall back on. Even something like the length of the cape or what shades of the classic colors can make a difference. If tweaks didn't make a difference, Superman would still have Roman sandals on and his \S/ would just be all yellow.
Is the \S/ on the belt as bad as say, Dean Cains kindergarden art-project buckle? Maybe not, but it still doesn't work. It's redudant. I don't know maybe it's too make up for how small the sheild is on his chest.
The very friggin least they could've done is gotten his hair right, had the sheild be a bolder size and given him a cloth cape. The thing is so heavy it can't even billow out behind him. It's like he has a tarp on his back.