Favorite "Captain America" Design by Steve Gordon

[Spider-Man]

As we know Steve Gordon designed Captain America for both X-Men: Evolution and The Ultimate Avengers so this has given us the chance to look at two versions he's done of the same character. So look at the two images below and decide which you like best and why.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/Stu/gordoncap2.jpg
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3211/1437/1600/smallCap5.jpg

http://marvel.toonzone.net/Stu/gordoncap1.jpg
http://www.stevenegordon.com/sketchbook/images/sketchbook_28p.jpg

[R-Taco]

I'd say the X-Men: Evolution design. The higher cheekbones make his face look more, well, handsome, and the wings add a bit more to his "American Icon" look.

[Crash]

The Evolution design. ...Cap really does belong to another era. The idealized 'Greatest Generation' personified. Updating his costume to make it nice and sleek might make sense storywise...But the classic outfit just more suited to him. It just feels right.

[JesseCuster]

Definitely the X-Men:Evo design, but the Ultimate Avenger design is a little more functional and goes along with the Ultimates comic a lot better, though.

[BCVM22]

Technically, Steve Gordon didn't design the "Ultimate Avengers" Cap; Bryan Hitch did when he first drew him for The Ultimates. The UA design is an adaptation of Hitch's design for animation, much like the designs for the original X-Men animated series were adapted from Jim Lee's X-Men designs of the time.

[screw on head]

I really enjoy the Ultimate look myself. It's tough to choose between them, but I can't help but favor the sleek Ultimate design a bit more, but not by all that much. There's nothing wrong with the classic look. I enjoy the little details on the Ultimate design a lot though, like the seams and threads that run along it, they add a little something extra to it without getting in the way. This is all in terms of Steve's style of course.

[BCVM22]

Both costumes have different merits. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby designed Captain America with the sensibilities of the era in mind: Superheroes should be bright and colorful, and the star-and-stripes motif lent itself to that effectively.

Bryan Hitch's Ultimates redesign is what the Cap costume would look like if designed by a military mind. It keeps the predominant blue of the original costume, albeit dulled, but otherwise is made to military specifications: The wing-tipped cowl is replaced by a sturdier armored hood, and the rest of the costume is revised in basically the same way, in that it serves a triple-purpose of a military uniform, an armored suit, and the uniform of man who is supposed to be, literally, the Super Soldier.

The original costume would be out of place in the sensibilities of the Ultimate Universe, where Cap is more a public face and an officer of the United States military than a superhero, but at the same time, the Ultimate costume just wouldn't quite suit the Captain America of 616 continuty, who is indeed a superhero (with military ties and responsibilities, of course), and the superhero whom most others take their lead from.

[Stu]

I think The Ultimate suit is much sharper. Whilst I thought Cap's appearance in Operation Rebirth looked stunning, I'm personally really digging this Ultimate look. I don't think the above sketch really does it justice, so here's a shot from the movie.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/avengers/media/gallery/01.jpg

I think that's beautiful. The costume, the suit, it's simply a great looking version of Cap. I especially like the black outline around the star and the lack of wings, a nice touch.

[Desifoxy]

Yes, ultimate one is more detailed. Its superior to evo design in everywhere! I mean, his gloves, that "A" logo, and even his eyes (that aree blue in ultimate version)!

[JLU Dude]

Part of me does like the Ultimate design, but I also like the Classic look. However, I do like a lot of modern comic takes where Cap does have the multi-pounched belt and the helmet-ish look of John Cassidy's Cap, but I digress.:) But, I'll go with classic.

[krankyboy]

Like some other people here, I like the new design to an extent. But honestly, I still have to give the nod to the original costume. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, and I've always felt Captain America worked best in WWII (Bucky and all). :)

[ShadowDemon]

I'll go with the "classic" Cap, simply because I HATE the changes in characterization that the writers made (esp to Cap) for Ultimates.

[Spider-Man]

I'll go with the "classic" Cap, simply because I HATE the changes in characterization that the writers made (esp to Cap) for Ultimates.
I just read The Ultimates and they kept him pretty dead on - he's a patriot fighting for his country. They didn't give him some of the lesser traits that they stuck some of the other characters with.

I think the design for Ultimate Avengers is a bit better because he looks more built and more rugged. The classic look is great but he seems a bit small in that design. I like the look they gave the Ultimate Avengers suit. Both are great mind you but I think the one from Ultimate Avengers slightly edges out the design from X-Men: Evolution.

[ShadowDemon]

I just read The Ultimates and they kept him pretty dead on - he's a patriot fighting for his country. They didn't give him some of the lesser traits that they stuck some of the other characters with.

Captain America would NEVER kick a down man in the face like UltCap did to Bruce after he de-Hulked...ESPECIALLY after promising him he'd help him. Then to go on to refer him essentially as "trash"....:mad:

[screw on head]

Anyone interested in reading Steve Gordon's thoughts on the matter can do so here (http://stevenegordon.blogspot.com/). Steve offers some insight into what went into designing the outfit for Evolution, which is pretty interesting reading. Gotta admit that WWII outfit isn't bad either!

[Spider-Man]

Gotta admit that WWII outfit isn't bad either!
I actually really like that look. I understand the symbolism of Captain America wearing the traditional suit during war time. But I liked the idea of there being a more "realistic" version that would eventually give birth to the classic suit we know today. Gordon has a great sketch here (http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3211/1437/1600/WW2cappose005small.jpg) of the "realistic" suit that Hitch did for The Ultimates.

The comments in Mr. Gordon's blog that really surprised me was his original plans for the X-Men: Evolution version of Captain America. Here's an excerpt from his blog entry:


My original plan was to design Cap in a somewhat more realistic fashion and less like a comic super-hero. In my original roughs I had removed the wings from his head and even the "A" from his forehead and added a Sam-Brown type of gunbelt and removed the rollover from his boots. My producer, Boyd Kirkland, thought this was too big of a departure for the audience (and for him too) and I ended up keeping the wings, the "A" and the typical Cap boots. The only real modifications that I made was to give him the belt (minus the gun, of course) and change his sleeves to be more reminiscent of Wolverine's.

I'm glad Mr. Kirkland stepped in here and I do have to agree with him. I understand what Gordon was going for because it does make sense. The world of X-Men: Evolution seemed to be more grounded in reality despite and wouldn't be a place we we'd see regular superheroes stop by. I actually believe I read that quote from one of the show creators and that's why we didn't really see any Marvel heroes in the show.

As for the suit itself it would have been surprising to see Captain America even without the trademark "A." His suit can be a bit goofy and sometimes the "A" and the "wings" just look downright silly but when they're handled right they just work and I'm glad they weren't removed for the X-Men: Evolution episode. It's interesting to get an idea of the thought process an artist goes through and how it's not as simple as it looks. There are reasons why costumes are altered and that can be for the tone the show is striving for or what works best for the series. I understand why changes need to be made at times.

But they made the right choice for X-Men: Evolution even if his design does stick out in the show (which may have been the intent). Just look how cool he looks in these images from the "Operation: Rebirth" episode:


http://x-men.toonzone.net/gallery/images/24-10.jpg
http://x-men.toonzone.net/gallery/images/24-10.jpg

http://captain-america.us/articles/wolverine/images/captainamerica.jpg
http://captain-america.us/articles/wolverine/images/captainamerica_wallpaper.jpg


I think Gordon made the right decision for both X-Men: Evolution and Ultimate Avengers. And we should be thankful we completely avoided that terrible Captain America's battle armor suit (http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/05/armor-never-cool.html) from the 1990s!

[Shantosh9500]

The Evo design. As they always say you can't beat the classics.

[Desmodus]

Maybe it's just me, but when I saw Ultimate Cap I immediately missed the wings. He just looks like something is missing. Hey, you don't have to have them sticking out, but atleast have them painted on the side of the mask or something. I want the wings =(

[Spider-Man]

Maybe it's just me, but when I saw Ultimate Cap I immediately missed the wings. He just looks like something is missing. Hey, you don't have to have them sticking out, but atleast have them painted on the side of the mask or something. I want the wings =( I do miss the wings too but I also don't mind the "Ultimates" costume and the different era the costume was created in. Yes Captain's original costume has held the test of time and will continue to do so but his costume has been a classic for almost seventy years and there's no reason to change it. However if his character was introduced today there wouldn't be wings there and I think that's the principle behind the "Ultimates" designs. It's changing the environment they were creating in resulting in a few changes. Cap's regular costume is timeless I agree but The Ultimates doesn't exist in the same timeframe the original did and have a whole set of different circumstances resulting in a different costume which I still think is an excellent costume. Both his design and character had to adapt and it's a jarring change for both of them to go through but they've been done justice I believe.

[ifthismeansevos]

Ok, Between the Evo version and the Ultimate version I go easily with the evo version but in the open sequence Cap uses a very nice uniform maybe better than the Evo's one. I can't take a decition between both of the WWII uniforms.

[Bones Justice]

I like the EVO / "classic" uniform best. I grew up reading Captain America and the Falcon so that's just how Cap should look.

I like the World War II design second best. I think it would make sense that he would carry more than just his shield and the shirt on his back during the war.

Still, the Ultimates design is not bad. It's good, even, it's just gonna take some getting used to. I will agree that the missing wings stood out right away though oddly enough, I did not notice them missing on the DVD cover until after I saw the movie. I guess it's just the posed angle. I think the emblems on the shoulder make the costume look a little too "busy" in that NASCAR way but they don't really bother me. At least they left the shield correct. You could do just about any kind of star-spangled look as long as you don't mess with the shield.

Speaking of which, the only re-design in Ultimate Avengers that really bothered me was Mjolnir's. Why oh why? It's not even so much about going against the classic design. It just looks stupid, in my opinion. There are plenty of other hammer designs that at least would look like a hammer.

[Crossdive]

X-Evo, in the long run is far better, IMHO. The Ultimate Avengers design is still very cool, but I like things to be a little more like the classic comics, so I would take Evo's.

[cheeno]

Well I actually admire both the costumes but I'll have to go for the " Avengers" style cuz we got to see it coloured while in X-M:E it was black and white most of the time so I couldn't really make out.Besides that, the Avengers costume designing was a bit more cooler than the X-M:E

[ifthismeansevos]

Wel technically it was in different tones of brown in the flashbacks. Sepia is the way it's named in spanish. I insist the WWII uniform of the Avengers movie was the most realistic IMO the best. I really issed the wings in the design (And I love the Thor without wings why? I don't really know)