Fashion Show: Costume for Green Lantern Unveiled. Also: Thor

Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer

It’s not what I expected. And that’s a good thing.

 Maybe other geeks could have predicted the neon-stillsuit unveiled by Entertainment Weekly this morning, but when I thought about what a cinematic Green Lantern costume would look like, I suspected that they would happily draw on the character’s history as an intergalactic cop and make it a simple uniform.

High-rez images:

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Although I’ll reserve judgment until I see the suit in motion at Comic-Con’s Hall H, I appreciate that the filmmakers and designers are trying to out-think us here. Green Lantern’s new costume looks organic, strange and most important – alien. There’s no escaping the terrestrial trappings of the ring and the mask, but the suit itself looks like a piece of alien technology, which it is.

My hope is that the GL tech depicted in the movie will adapt to whatever lifeform takes it on. Let me explain: One of the quaint quirks of the GL universe is how (for a long time) all corps members wore rings, even if they were giant, sentient amoebas. It stands to reason that the Oans would adapt their tech to accommodate non-humanoid species. I hope we see such a portrayal in the movie, including GL uniforms that echo the interior biology of the wearer in the same way that Jordan’s appears to.

My only beef: I’m surprised the mask is so low-tech. It doesn’t look any better than Robin’s mask in Batman Forever.

I also wanted to briefly touch on the first full look we got at the three primary Asgardians in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Thor. Take a look:

You know what strikes me first about this image? The expression of utter delight on Anthony Hopkins’ face. Odin’s a great part for him, and I hope he plays the hell out of it.

But let’s talk about the costumes: We got a look at them in motion in a brief behind-the-scenes video from Entertainment Tonight, and I thought they looked great. In addition, fellow geek and longtime anime expert Taliesin Jaffe pointed out that the costumes look very much like classic Jack Kirby.

We’ll see how they play onscreen. Full disclosure: I’m more confident in Thor being a good movie than I am Green Lantern, mainly because – for my money, in terms of quality – Marvel has had a slightly stronger track record than DC at the movies over the last 10 years.