Apparently, DC Live-Action TV Series Are Committed To Aggressively Horrible & Laughable Costumes

You’re not going to find much love for the DC live-action TV series around these parts. For that matter, you won’t find much love for the Marvel live-action TV series either (despite “Daredevil” Season 3 being pretty good). But when you take a look at DC’s slate of TV series, one thing just sticks out like a sore thumb. No, it’s not the wooden acting and terrible melodrama. Worse than that— it’s the costumes. And while there are a couple great superhero outfits on display in a few DC series (most notably worn by Supergirl, Flash, and Green Arrow, in that order), most of the costumes on display look like cheap cosplay attempts at your regional comic convention.

Normally, we’d look past such things, as this is TV, which has a noticeably lower budget than the big-screen counterparts. But after seeing three of the most recent costumes that were unveiled on various DC TV series, we can’t remain silent any longer.

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Last night, Fox officially released the first look at Shane West (the early-2000s hunk best known for “A Walk to Remember”) as the new villain in “Gotham” known as Bane. Now, film fans will recognize Bane as the Tom Hardy character from “The Dark Knight Rises,” which, despite its negative (and perhaps unfair) comparison to the far superior “The Dark Knight,” is still a decent watch. Before that, Bane also appeared in the absolutely dreadful “Batman & Robin” in 1997. But the Bane that will be stalking “Gotham” this fall is so terrible looking that it’s should be a crime to subject your eyes to this torture.

West’s Bane looks like Darth Vader meets Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Cobra Commander in the first “G.I. Joe” live-action film. But even that comparison sets you up for disappointment, as the truth is Bane looks worse than you could have ever imagined. And to make matters worse, the producers completely threw out the look of the character from the comic books, alienating fans in the process. As has been proven before, comic book fans will look past a terrible costume if it at least resembles the source material. It’s not like Bane has some overly-complicated comic book costume, either. The basic idea is that he is supposed to look a bit steroid-y with a face mask. That’s all. Yet, the Bane “Gotham” fans will see on TV is truly one of the worst comic book costumes of all time.

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This Bane revelation comes on the heels of two other terrible costume debuts for the DC live-action TV series. The first was the reveal of what Lobo will look like in the Syfy series “Krypton.” (Don’t be worried that you didn’t know that it existed, you aren’t alone.) “Krypton” tells the story of Superman’s grandfather on the doomed planet. Fun concept, for sure, but the series received mixed reviews and the debut picture of Lobo just ensures that I won’t be wasting my time on what must be garbage.

Lobo was always intended to look a little silly. Brought into the world as a meta-commentary on the dark, grim, violent comics of the ‘80s, over time fans turned Lobo into the very thing he was supposed to parody, embracing all of his satirical elements as sincere. And this live-action rendition of the character is just wrong on every level. Unlike Bane’s design, which ventured far off the comic book path, Lobo’s design is ripped from the pages. He has long, dreadlocked hair, white skin with black makeup (scars?) around his red eyes. But the most egregious mistakes are his clothing. We’re not sure where an alien comes across a denim vest and jeans in the vast darkness of space, but apparently, Lobo is that mystery shop’s best customer. And to really just add insult to injury, he sports a skull codpiece. Ugh.

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And lastly, let’s take a look at Ruby Rose’s Batwoman costume. The character is slated to make her debut in the upcoming CW Arrowverse “Elseworlds” crossover before spinning off into her own series. That is, if people can get past this terrible costume.

For the most part, Rose’s Batwoman look is comics-accurate. However, that’s not always a good thing (see Captain America’s threads in the first “Avengers”). The actress wears what is obviously a budget Batman costume, but with a new belt that hangs over her hips because you know, women only like belts that sag a little over their hips. Double ugh.

The worst parts are the wig and cape, however. The cape looks flimsy and extraneous. Capes are difficult to make work in live-action, but CW has already done it well with Supergirl. But with Batwoman, her cape just looks like a cheap cotton sheet with no real function. The wig, while a comic book staple, looks silly in live-action and again, doesn’t make much sense. Sure, it can help disguise Rose, but it doesn’t make logical sense that a crimefighter will add hair to her head that could potentially be a hindrance.

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These three costumes just further show that minus a select few mentioned above, DC just doesn’t know how to dress its superheroes for TV. Here are a few other names that should send shivers down the spines of anyone who enjoys quality costuming: Red Tornado, The Atom, Bruce Wayne’s Pre-Batman “Gotham” look, Hawkman & Hawkgirl, and literally every superhero that appeared on “Smallville.” That doesn’t even take into consideration anything that came before 2000.

Sometimes you can look past bad acting. There are times when you can make it through a storyline that’s a boring slog. But when you have to take these superheroes seriously and root for them to win, they at least need to look the part. Until then, we’re just not going to be able to take your shows seriously, DC.