The record-breaking trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day gave Marvel Cinematic Universe fans a first look at the bold new vision of the Wall-Crawler that we’re getting with director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi). Among the many things spotted by Easter egg-hunting fans were the distinct changes to the costume of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, the biggest one being the fact that the Spider-Man costume Holland wears is almost entirely practical, without needing CGI touches and “enhancements” to give it all the authentic comic book details.
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So far, the footage from Brand New Day makes it seem like close-up, or still movement shots of Holland in costume indeed look more “real” and natural when the fabric stretches or bunches with movement. The same goes for the decals and finer details of the webbed design patterns, which all look better when sewn into actual fabric.
Spider-Man’s New Costume Has a Purpose Behind The Look
As many MCU fans point out, Spider-Man’s new status quo in Brand New Day (a lonely young adult trying ot make his way in the world, four years after Spider-Man: No Way Home) makes the costume change necessary. Peter doesn’t have access to Tony Stark’s resources anymore, meaning all the fancy high-tech suits that Spider-Man wore in the Home trilogy are no longer in play. The practical suit in Brand New Day looks like a conceivable concept for a suit that Peter would be able to design and build himself, using the meager resources available to him. And that connection, between the suit and the character’s arc, is something that more MCU projects need to consider.
When the MCU started to take shape back in 2008 with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, the franchise had the good fortune of initially avoiding the costume problem. Both Iron Man and Hulk were characters that were realized onscreen through mostly CGI effects; it wasn’t until Thor or Captain America: The First Avenger (both in 2011) that Marvel Studios really had to contend with making live-action actors look like their colorful comic book counterparts. Moreover, the 2000s Marvel superhero films that were released before the MCU were often criticized for either looking like cosplay (Fox’s Fantastic Four movies) or deviating so far from the source material (X-Men 2000) because they were afraid to embrace the colorful and potentially silly adaptations of the comic costumes. When the MCU began, bigger, better things were expected – but the franchise didn’t always get it right.
MCU Phase One is now infamous for costumes like Chris Evans’ Captain America suit from The First Avenger, which many fans thought missed the mark. It wasn’t until Phase Two, and films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that Marvel Studios’ costuming department started to really make authentic-dressed comic characters look worthy of a blockbuster movie screen. However, the studio also started to veer, slowly but surely, into using CGI to make many of the character costumes work onscreen. By Phase Four, after Avengers: Endgame, even Chris Hemsworth’s Thor had gone from having a practical suit to a costume with a CGI helmet (that looked terrible).
New characters like Moon Knight similarly suffered from overuse of CGI in his costume, while Spider-Man: No Way Home showed a marked difference between the more practical look of Sam Raimi’s Doc Ock (Spider-Man 2), and the CGI antics we saw in No Way Home. DC and Warner Bros. have been no strangers to that same trend: the DCEU franchise started with Henry Cavill’s Superman brandishing a CGI cape, and slowly but surely let the trickle of digital “enhancements” grow over time (as has been the style of director Zack Snyder).
It’s Time For Practical Costumes To Have Their Day
Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn’t just rolling a new costume off of the Marvel Studios conveyor belt: it’s presenting a suit that reflects where the character currently i in his arc, and what he’s capable of making. There are many other characters in both the MCU and the DCU that could benefit from having more consideration put into that costume-character connection. For some characters (street level, or of limited means), practical is the best way to go (see: Daredevil: Born Again).
In general, film technology and costuming have gotten to the point where even characters like Iron Man could be realized through much more practical costuming on a stunt actor, rather than the CGI version. And for all the great things said about CGI Ben Grimm in Fantastic Four: First Steps, Michael Chiklis’ prosthetic version from the 2005 F4 films gets just as much love. With cosplayers and costume designers all coming up with bold new innovations by the day. Supergirl is one upcoming film that also looks to be leaning into the return to practical, with Millie Alcock’s Supergirl suit and Jason Momoa’s costume and makeup as alien bounty hunter Lobo both looking like the best that practical designs can offer.
The biggest question, however, is how Marvel is approaching Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom look in Avengers: Doomsday, with rumors of a practical suit of armor and mask getting fans excited. Doomsday will at least bring the superhero movie genre full circle, with the X-Men characters finally getting practical, comic-accurate costumes, after Deadpool & Wolverine initially got that ball rolling with Hugh Jackman’s comic-accurate Wolverine suit.
Maybe Spider-Man: Brand New Day will start that wave when it’s released on July 31st.
