3. Costumes
This directly ties into realism, but I've made it a separate category due to its importance. Realism is nice because it modernizes the plot and characters, bridges the Comic Con fanbase into general, movie-going audiences. It's the pepper and croutons in our superhero clam chowder. Nailing the costumes though is not optional. They must be handled with utmost care. If necessary, set aside 25% of the movie's entire budget just to get the right designer. If you fail, your hero is going to look like the baton twirler for the Rainbow Parade, high-stepping through Gotham. Superheroes have traditionally worn very form fitting outfits, to highlight their musculature and manliness or, in the case of females, add a new entry to every kid's spank bank. While that looks cool in drawings, in real life it looks ... well ... stupid. Somehow Christopher Reeve pulled it off. The sky blue spandex with a red Speedo. Hell, it was the 80s. Maybe it was all the cocaine. With the Internet, people (like me) are going to be far more discerning of their hero's crime fighting wardrobe. The X-Men again had the right tone. They just abandoned it altogether until they flew the Lockheed Martin and passed them off as black flight suits. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) made an appropriate self-deprecating comment, queuing the audience in on the moment, and earning a good laugh. Spiderman did fine, as well, by transforming his outfit into something more like ribbed underarmor rather than spandex. Also, his mask is easy because it completely covers his face, so you don't have the weird
mask eyes or
white eyes problem. Or you could be like Batman and wear a shit ton of eye liner.
Thor tried for exotic armor, but it looked more like costume jewelry.
The Green Lantern used CGI, but even that couldn't make a plucked, space chicken look cool.
Elektra and
Catwoman both tried for the oddly unattractive, deviant sex fetish ensembles. Again, spend as much as you must ... but you HAVE to get the costumes right.
