Cap: Back in Black

April 4th, 2014, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, duuuude.  Yeah, if you haven't picked up on it yet, I'm a big fan of Steve Rogers.  In 2011, I was the First Avenger for Halloween, and for our Halloween Laser Tag game.  The next year I did his Avengers variant.  Now usually I get to work on a Halloween costume in September as that holiday approaches, but when The Avengers movie came out, I wore my Captian America: The First Avenger costume to opening night and got quite a few compliments on it (as well as a few photos with fans).  It was neat feeling like a superstar and, although Captain America is using both this new S.H.I.E.L.D. issue uniform for most of the movie, he is also shown wearing his World War II era costume, too.  I could get away with just wearing my old costume again, but I'd still make this one for a couple of reasons.

The first being... well, you guys know I'm a completionist.  It'd be wrong to have just the two costumes and not bother with the third.  Also, this new costume is based off of probably my favorite comic-book variation.  Steve Rogers, when he was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. initially, had a costume almost identical to what we see in the movie trailers for The Winter Soldier.  It's not nearly as "Star Spangled" as his normal geddups and is just a little more practical.  He still uses the iconic shield to look 'Muricah enough for fans.

Also, if this is to be a costume to be used eventually for our Halloween Laser Tag game, it'll be a little more stealth than wearing a flag on my torso.  The Dark Blue/Black covers much of the uniform, the dark brown leather straps are just as dark, and the silver Stars and Stripes contrast enough to bring some "pop" to an admittedly darker setup than Cap is usually known for.

The trouble with building a costume BEFORE the movie is out is trying to find enough shots that give clues and cues as to what features this uniform has.  To the left, you can clearly see how this costume (seen in "Heroic Age" and "Super Soldier" comics) is pretty darned close to the 2014 Movie version except that the red stripe along the side of the pants has been left out.  The Star in the middle as well as the logos on his shoulders are slightly different too, but clearly based off of this version.  However, all the details in the movie version are lost in this more form-fitting spandex-esque version seen in the comics, so I'll have to rely on the screenshots from the movie to see those.

In my "Avengers" costume, I made it lightweight enough to use easily for indoor use, whereas the First Avenger version was full-on leather and quite heavy and hot to wear.  I wished I had taken more time to get as detailed with the Avengers version as I had the WW2 version, so I'm hoping this costume will find a good middleground.  While the costume preparation is mostly for the upcoming movie, I'm certainly planning ahead for our Annual Halloween Laser Tag game 10 months from now.  I'd also like to do a costume Nerf game as well, so making a costume that is indoor and outdoor friendly that won't get in my way is going to be the challenge here.  I've thought about using a Dark Blue/Navy Combat Shirt as the basis for the upper portion.  The nice part about using that is it's actual function in a laser tag or Nerf game.  Breathable, easy storage, and it's already got the "Tacti-cool" look we see in the costume.  The gloves, tactical belt, and boots I can actually reuse from the First Avenger costume (as well as the iconic shield), so it's nice to already have some items on-hand.

I've still got plenty of time before the movie, and TONS of time before Halloween, so we'll see if something significant can come together.  Who knows, maybe at an upcoming indoor or outdoor game I can test out some components of it to make sure it can hold up!

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