One of the most eccentric and fascinating characters out of the animated film The Incredibles is definitely Edna Mode, the fashion designer creating costumes for the superhero community. A crossover between Q, James Bond's gadget supplier, and famous Hollywood costume designer Edith Head (not to mention a certain je ne sais quoi that may have been derived from Comme des Garçons's Rei Kawakubo...), Edna combines a visually striking appearance with functionality, trying to come up with protective and practical clothes (that's why she refuses to design super suits with capes, considering the various accidents they caused to superheroes...).
Edna immediately comes to mind when reading the new fashion-centered comic series "Heroine Chic". Currently debuting on the LINE Webtoon website and mobile app, the free digital comics platform, the comic was written by David Tischman.
The series - divided in 26 chapters that will be released weekly over the course of six months - follows the vicissitudes of 23-year-old Zoe Porter, a young Parsons School of Design graduate working for an Edna Mode-like character, Dyna Cuff, "the Mary Quant of superhero costumes", while dreaming of launching her own superhero fashion label.
Created to appeal to female readers and illustrated by Hong Kong-based artist Audrey Mok, the comic is supposed to combine a positive moral attitude with issues such as forging one's identity (or secret identity...) via fashion.
While the connection between fashion and comics and fashion and superheroes are definitely not new (remember the Met Museum's exhibition "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy"?), this is Tischman's first foray into the world of fashion: having written for series such as Star Trek, American Century and Teen Wolf, he decided to focus on this topic after seeing walking around New York people dressed in futuristic and superhero-like sports clothing.
Tischman's background research for this comic was done via fashion magazines and websites, and he also tried to introduce references to new and hip designers and brands (apparently the villains' boots we will see in later installments are inspired by the footwear seen on the Hood by Air runway...).
So far, the three first installments show the story has potential, but there are things that need to be honed a bit, including the superficial dialogue (though the image format and brief dialogues make it a perfect read on smartphones) and a rather strong derivation from DC Comics, not to mention the layout with words highlighted in bold (a rather annoying feature...) and an excessive use of censored swearwords (meaning that you get an uncanny amount of X's...).As the story develops, we will maybe discover if the superhero who rescued Zoe's stolen tote will ever get his dated suit revamped by her. In the meantime, let's hope that the attention will soon be re-shifted on the costumes as narrative devices, since so far they were used to create, reveal or obscure an identity for Dyna Cuff's clients.
The comic could also prove interesting to analyse the conflict between superbodies and fashion bodies (strong and athletic VS emaciated and anorexic), so let's hope it will do so, otherwise it will prove Scott Bukatman's right when he states in his essay "A Song of the Urban Superhero", "superheroes don't wear costumes in order to fight crime, but they fight crime in order to wear the costumes".
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