Black Bolt’s Costume Change: A Necessary Evolution
The entertainment world is buzzing with the revelation that Black Bolt, the central hero of Marvel’s upcoming Inhumans TV series, will not don his iconic costume from the comics. Instead, what we’ve seen in the trailers is what we’ll get in the show, and fans are, unsurprisingly, up in arms about this.
Personally, I never expected the series to feature a comic-perfect version of Black Bolt’s costume. While it looks fantastic on the page – dark, striking, and full of flair – it would be an absolute disaster if made for a real actor to wear in the real world.
Why Skin-Tight Costumes Don’t Work in Live Action
Skin-tight costumes have never translated well to live action. While they allow artists to showcase superheroes’ exaggerated musculature and Herculean features, they cannot possibly work the same way in the real world. We’re talking skin-tight latex here: think Ben Affleck’s Daredevil getup, not Charlie Cox’s.
In fact, one of the biggest challenges in bringing superheroes to life on the big screen was figuring out how to make them look good in a three-dimensional space. We’ve all seen the infamous nipples on the Bat-suit and what power armor looks like without CGI touch-ups (Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin). Just looking back on the likes of Captain America, Ant-Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the entire spectrum of current-era movie superheroes, it’s clear that tactical, real-world redesigns of comic characters’ costumes are necessary to make them look like they belong in the same world that we occupy.
Embracing the Essence of Black Bolt’s Costume
Sometimes that means liberally interpreting what a character wears and giving them only the broad strokes of their outfit. What we’ve seen of Black Bolt is about as close to the page as I would think they could get. His outfit is a slim, fitting cut with bolt-like flourishes on the outside. It’s not a perfect translation of the costume, granted, but I don’t see them making it look both good and accurate any other way.
Do people really want to see Anson Mount in a skin-tight black onesie with armpit wings and a tuning fork on his head? I don’t care how good it looks in the comics; that kind of outfit has no place in either movies or on television. What he has looks fine and calls back to that basic design people are evidently so in love with.
Future Costume Tweaks Are Still Possible
Don’t worry, though. If necessary, they can tweak Black Bolt’s costume in season 2. The important thing is to remember that sometimes, changes are necessary to bring our beloved comic book characters to life in a way that works for live-action adaptations. Embrace the evolution and enjoy the show.
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