Now THAT'S a Costume

I'm a comics fan, and my two favorite heroes have always been Superman and Iron Man, for completely different reasons. Supes because of his invulnerability, those iconic primary colors and his embodiment of both might and right... and Iron Man because the dude's an alcoholic and a regular joe (well, as much as a billionaire industrialist can be a regular joe) who builds himself his own freakin' superpowers. Totally different heroes, each representing a different type of wish fulfillment.

After the debacle that was last year's wretched "Superman Returns" costume... egads, could they have gotten a costume more wrong? Burnt umber instead of red, ugly pattern on the suit, teeny-tiny "S," obviously fake muscles and a rubber cape... I was a bit worried as to how director Jon Favreau's big screen version of Tony Stark's masterpiece of engineering would fare.

Let us know take a moment to bow down at the altar of Jon Favreau and designer Stan Winston. BEHOLD.


Everything about it is perfect. It's a fantastic amalgam of the Sean Chen/Patrick Zircher and Ari Granov Iron Man designs with a hat tip to the original '60s design by reverting back to the circular chest plate repulsor beam (never liked when the switch to the Superman emblem shape) and also incorporating some hinges to make the suit look as if it could actually work.

Winston hit a home run here. I can't wait for this movie! IRON MAN stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow and hits theaters summer '08.

Read the article at Entertainment Weekly HERE!

--Jim Cirile