It's no secret: the Avengers you see in the movies have received some... updated costumes. But just how much have the Avengers of today changed from the Avengers of last century's comic books?
Take a look through this list to see how Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow have changed over the years.
Iron Man
Iron Man isn't really limited to one costume or suit. In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark has created some 40 odd suits, all with slightly different designs.
Here's some of those suits:
These are, essentially, specialized armors, designed to fight in certain environments. And they all look freaking awesome. But how do they compare to the old suits from the comic books?
Iron Man has changed over the years. The later Iron Man costumes in the comics looked more.... metallic (read: realistic). But of course, there were many different suits in the comics as well. Take a look at all of them below:
Thor
Thor is a Norse god turned superhero. And if there is one thing they keep to the original myth, it's Thor's hammer. Ironically, Thor in the movies is overdressed compared to his comic book counterpart. Take a look:
Movie Thor:
Comic Thor (1998):
Quite a different look! The most obvious distinction is, of course, the headgear. The winged helmet was probably the first to go. And then there's the male tights... no tights for the modern Thor. Sadly, also to go is the bare arms. I would have liked to see more of this...
I see no problem with skimpy costumes for women (as is highly prevalent in comics) if the same standard is applied to men! But a more conservative approach was taken for the modern movies.
Here's another old comic Thor:
The Incredible Hulk
The Hulk's costume doesn't really have a lot of room to change. He turns green, and sheds all clothes except a ragged pair of pants. Why do the pants bottoms get ripped and not the waistband? Who knows - this is a comic book character, not reality.
The Hulk has three modern incarnations - one from the Avengers movies, The Incredible Hulk from 2008, and Hulk from 2003. See how the movie Hulk has evolved:
2003
2008
2012
Not too different, right? Except, of course, losing the bright purple color of the pants. However, that bright purple color was due to the Hulk's look in the comics. Take a look:
Captain America
Oh, Captain America. Mr. Red-White-and-Blue, with a star to boot. First off there's the 1940s style suit from the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger.
Then there's the modern take on the suit for the 2012 movie The Avengers.
The key difference here is that all of those extraneous brown straps were taken out of the picture. And his abs look more like a candy striped thing - not sure why they decided to add that third red stripe. The colors are a lot brighter in this new costume. But you know what's even brighter, with even more candy striped abs? The costume in the comics, of course.
And don't forget to notice the wings on his helmet... which they cleverly decided to paint on instead for the movies.
And that iconic circular shield? Not always so circular.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye hasn't had his own movie in this rendition of the Marvel universe, which is a real shame. Jeremy Renner's brooding face deserves it's own story. Because of this, there aren't multiple versions of his costume. Here it is in the movies:
And here's Hawkeye in the comics:
Very different! Probably the most dramatic change out of all of them. But wait. There's another Hawkeye... Ultimate Hawkeye.
Obviously they figured this version was a bit more workable than the others. Less in-your-face color clash and medieval vibe, more super-spy, dark, mysterious and deadly.
Black Widow
At last, we have the sole woman in the modern lineup of Avengers. Black Widow - a deadly martial artist who loves her skintight black suit. And fitting into that suit isn't as easy as it looks - just ask Scarlett Johansson what she had to give up in order to make that suit look so good. Here it is:
And an earlier version:
The only obvious change here is that her belt buckle was made red - more of a homage to her "Black Widow" name.
What about in the comics?
Well for one, her zipper is pulled down a lot lower in the comics (what did you expect?).
She also had some gold accents they ignored for the movies - and I rather like the all black theme for our assassin.
What do you think? Did Joss Whedon do a good job being faithful to the original comics? Anything you wish had been differently for the movies?