Clothes maketh the Spider-man...

What's the hardest thing about making a superhero film? Is it casting the right actors for the role? Is it getting the villains and the story both accurate and logical (alright to a point)? How about the special effects, both practical and computer-generated. Can you get them looking realistic and amazing? It could be all these things and more, but what I'm curious about is the costume. Yes, there's a small part of me that's always been fascinated with what superheroes would look like in real life. Obviously spandex and skin-tight colourful costumes works in the comics, but there's something odd about it in real-life.

With the upcoming reboot of Spider-Man in the works, this picture was released:

Now, let's compare it to this one:

While there is nothing wrong with the one from the Sam Raimi films, I like it. It's got everything in the right place, the webs, the mask the red and blue colour scheme., There was always something which bothered me a lot about it. It was too clean. Too factory-ready, if you will. While it looked good, and accurate (a rarity in superhero film adaptations), it didn't look true to the comics. The origin of the costume is that Peter made it shortly after he got his powers for a wrestling match. Not wanting to be recognised, he designed and made the garish costume so that no-one would think it was him under there. So, what have learned from that little tale? What was the keyword? Home-Made. Now again, while I have nothing against the Raimi costume, it didn't feel home-made. And that kind of spoiled it a bit for me.

This new one feels a lot more real. Whilst still having the sleekness of both the Raimi costume and the comic, it feels like it could have been hobbled together by Peter in his spare time! Yes, there's a couple of little differences in the design and the spider-emblem's a bit lopsided but it looks like it was made by hand rather than cut of with a laser. And that I like a lot! It shows it's more than just something the producer's thought looked cool. From this picture alone, I've got a bit of faith in the final product. Of course, that could all go south if the mask doesn't match up...