Good Costume/Bad Costume

[dochermes]

This are perhaps more arbitrary than usual. But, remember our motto, "What the heck."

GOOD COSTUME J'Onn J'onzz, Manhunter From Mars

Comments

[skjam]

The best part of J'onn's early costume is that it isn't a costume. That's Martian street clothes, the equivalent of an Earthling of the time fighting crime in a suit and tie. Police detective John Jones' outfit, that was the Martian Manhunter's costume.

[dochermes]

Oh, that's a great point. All these years, that never occurred to me! Whenever we saw other Martians, they were wearing the same sort of outfit. The 1950's blue suit with the narrow tie was the costume and disguise.

...I love that thought.

[full_metal_ox]

A lot of the problem with Mr. Terrific's costume, I think, is that its various elements don't particularly sync; the tunic and wide cinch belt, for example, could be perfectly acceptable parts of a period concept, with buccaneer boots (instead of what appear to be sneakers with cuff socks) and a plumed hat--particularly if the belt carried a sword.

And I agree with you that the "FAIR PLAY" badge plunks the whole ensemble firmly into TICK territory.

[anonymous]

Later, they made Mr. Terriffic's gloves and boots also red. That's the version I like.
This one is okay, but it's too busy with the yellow gloves and black boots.

There are some great later stories where the writer had fun with Mr. Terrific being a genius and they'd have him stopping villains death rays by dropping a quarter in just the right spot.

The second Mr. Terrific took some getting used to, but the character was soon well written, that I forgave the only okay costume.
He did have these cool baseball sized sphere bots that he'd use that were pretty cool.

[dochermes]

I haven't seen the later Mr Terrific stories but they sound like they could be fun. He was a character that could get away with implausible stunts because it was part of the premise.

I read some of the second Mr Terrific stories in the JSA comics, and he seemed okay but he did get lost in the mob. As I remember, he didn't show up on video, which is a form of invisibility appropriate in today's cam-monitored world.