What can be more iconic than the super-suit of one of the world’s favorite heroes? Marvel has a massive cast of heroes and villains, and though they may not always look exactly like they did on the page, they stay recognizable and famous. However, the MCU has moved away from traditional spandex and toward a smaller more technologically advanced solution. MCU heroes love nanites, but they’re getting old.
Many Marvel characters areentirely dependent on their suit. Iron Man might still be a lot of things without the suit, but he’s only combat-ready within it. The importance of the hero’s look can’t be overstated, but it’s about more than form and function.
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How do Marvel Heroes' Suits Work?
Generally, there are go-to ways for Marvel heroes to suit up. The first is the classic donning of a physical suit. Spider-Man’s original suit and his upgraded Stark suit work this way, as do the more modern combatgear of Hawkeye or Black Widow. Some characters don their costumes through some form of magic. Thor calls his armor down as a bolt of lightning, while Doctor Strange waves his hands to mystically summon forth his robes. Finally, the more technologically savvy characters have their getup on them at all times, in the form of a tiny capsule of nanomachines.
The first to use this tech was Black Panther, with his enhanced Panther Habit.Shuri’s mastery of scienceallowed her to craft a version of the iconic armor that could be automatically activated and stored inside a necklace. Iron Man embraced the same concept for his Mark L armor, which debuted inInfinity War. He went on to give Spider-Man a new suit that embraced the same technology. In fact, at the end ofNo Way Home, he got nanotechnology integrated into his newest suit. Though not technically nanites, Ant-Man’s newest suit uses a similar method of automatically fitting itself to the user’s body. The overwhelming majority of Marvel heroes now use something other than zippers and buttons to don their costumes. The problem isn’t nanomachines, it’s the fact that almost every character isclothed in a CGI mess, rather than anything real.
Why Do Marvel Heroes Use Nanomachines?
Both inside and outside the narrative, it makes a lot of sense to use nanites. If a person could choose to carry around everything they need to do their superhero work in a tiny capsule or a full-size suitcase, they’d pick the small one every time.The Panther Habit reactsinstantaneously to danger, allowing its wearer to always be prepared for anything. It’s fine for a heightened comic book world to develop advanced technology, and this type of invention feels very appropriate. It even makes perfect sense that the invention would occur to multiple geniuses. However, the creative professionals at Marvel also have a strong case for preferring the technological suit over a tactile one.
Marvel has been using CGI to put their actors in fake suits since the earliest days of the franchise. The earlyIron Manmoviesput Robert Downey Jr. and his co-stars in motion-capture suits before layering the effects over their bodies. Though a lot of it was achieved with computers, the first few films had a ton of focus on Tony’s suits unfolding and forming around him. Ditto Spider-Man, who frequently finds himself having to change clothes quickly. Those moments are the main reason he has to keep putting on old-fashioned suits. One of the big concerns with masked characters is the fact that the big movie stars that portray them will be hidden for a substantial chunk of the film. Nanomachines and magic costumes solve so many problems for filmmakers, but they also take some things away from the film.
The visual effects of nanite suits or magical quick changing vary. Some look good, and others look terrible. The fact that almost every line of dialogue in a modern superhero movie is accompanied by the effect of the character’s mask receding has gradually become annoying. It’s a solution to a problem, but it’s often fairly naked in its intentions. The nanomachines allow the CGI artists to simply pop suits on and off of their characters. They recede from the actors' faces to let them deliver their lines, they make sense within the narrative, and they only look bad some of the time. Marvel’s mistreatment oftheir visual effects professionalsmakes it easier to push any possible aspect of the presentation onto their department.
Nanomachine costumes remove some of the tactile elements of the hero’s costume, but there are some examples of classic suits. It’s a logical elevation of one ofthe franchise’s key elements, but it also loses some of what makes superheroes so special. Everyone loves watching their favorite hero suit up, and even if it makes more sense, it gets boring watching them become their alter ego in a flash of CGI.
