The last costume redesign I liked was Thor’s. It was his costume with a medieval flair. Why did they think pants and a jacket would be good? The battle skirt was fine.

It’s a look designed to be taken seriously as a warrior, Uh…No. Give her some armor or kevlar and then we’ll talk. She looks like she’s running off to brunch or a sample sale downtown.

Seriously DC. Just accept that you’re the Boy Scouts of the comic publishing world and EMBRACE it. Let Vertigo and Dark Horse be edgy. Let Marvel be the hot dumb cheerleader/jocks and just be your Boy Scout self. People will always love Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman. It’s the nostalgia thing.

While mostly being a DC guy, I understand your preference for Marvel along those lines. Just realize the uberpowerful Superman you’re talking about isn’t the only Superman. That’s the Silver Age version. Several creative teams have tried to bring him into the modern age, only to have the people who follow drag him back. So we keep winding up with a Superman who speaks to the daydreams of a previous generation, not ours.

If you look at Supes as he was originally formed, his origins are based in a yearning for regular people to have someone super-powerful who will stick up for them. He was born out of the depression after all. At that point people felt bullied by a world out of their control. The last time I checked, we’re in a similar place now. Instead of clinging to the earlier version of the character, they should bring him back to a more human level and address these feelings in a modern context. I think there’s been no better opportunity for the character since the days he was first created in. DC is blowing it.

Some writers make progress with Superman every now and then, but I personally don’t find much to be excited about when I consider the past 40 years or so.

Wonder Woman has also been hard to successfully portray. I’m very skeptical about JMS doing well on either of these books, and a costume redesign isn’t making me any more optimistic.

I personally enjoyed the Crisis books and Blackest Night far more than any big storylines from Marvel in the past 5 years. I found them self-indulgent, uneven, and poorly scripted (but that’s Bendis in a nutshell, for me).

FYI, I’m dropping whatever Supes books JMS is taking over, and have no intention of picking up WW. Very bad move, DC…

And age isn’t an issue if you have the right creators. If we’re talking hokey-ness potential, is there any greater example than Captain America? That’s been one of the best books on the market for a while now. And hey, he’s not the same charater anymore either.

The problem at DC seems to be lack of focus and getting down to the core of the characters. As much fun as Morrison’s Batman can be, I don’t know if it helps in this regard. Superman is a mess. And Wonder Woman has never been an easy character to get a handle on. She may be the toughest character to write in all of superhero comics.

I’d argue that Superman is at a point where he could be more relevant than ever. But achieving that would mean letting go of things the current teams don’t want to.