Thor: Ragnarok to Bring Flamboyance to Marvel Costumes

By Shrey Sankalp

Let's be real here - we all love Marvel movies, don't we? They're bright, fun, have cool costumes are just generally pleasing enough to serve as a perfect pick-me-up.
Of course, the films aren't perfect themselves. Beneath their shiny costumes, they do have some minor flaws which can be easily overlooked, but today we're going to call out one of them: the overall aesthetic, and its implication on Marvel costumes.

For all the grief DC's films get, there are two aspects that deserve high praise, and they are the aesthetic and the costume. Sure, DC's movies have a primary palette that favors blacks, deep grays and deep blues, but it adds a heightened contrast to everything that truly shines mixed with colors wherever they appear.
Of course, most of those colors make an appearance on DC costumes, which deserve to be lauded for their bold, subversive takes on classic DC costumes, and their propensity to run riot with the designs and colors.

When we talk about Marvel, the same cannot be said (with the partial exception of Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy, which we'll get to shortly) about either the visuals or Marvel costumes.
Now, to be fair, this isn't so much a flaw as an intentional design choice, but Marvel views its heroes through an overtly human and realistic lens, and in its quest to make them as believable and close to real life as possible, it often starts by tossing out the colorful and over the top costumes, and replacing them with more 'real world' costumes.
With characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow, it's understandable. With Iron Man, it's justifiable (sure, the colors of the Iron Man costume are way more muted than in the comics, but okay). With Captain America, it's welcome (because let's be real, the flat textureless Avengers costume might be comic book accurate, but the darker armored costume of the recent films makes more sense realistically).
But with Thor? It's inexcusable.

Marvel - Thor's new costume is a definite looker.

The movies might not make it seem like it, but in Marvel comics, Thor is as outre a property as either Doctor Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy, with its flamboyant visuals, innovative costumes and generally bonkers aesthetic.
But when it comes to the movies, while both Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange got a property with visuals and costumes that are a perfect companion to the ones on the page, Thor seems to have gotten the short end of the stick up until now.

Marvel - This is what we're all waiting for, to be honest.

Thor does feature a vivid aesthetic and Thor costumes sure look nice, but come on, they are far too realistic! This is a Norse God we're talking about, add some unnecessary but totally cool-looking flourishes to the world and the costumes, Marvel!
And guess what? They did.
When Kenneth Branagh helmed Thor in 2011, he established a very Shakespearean aesthetic for the costumes and the world, one that was clearly rooted in theater, and by the time either of the Avengers or the Alan Taylor directed Thor: The Dark World rolled around, the filmmakers simply went with the Branagh aesthetic.
Change comes in the form of Taika Waititi, who was hired to direct Thor: Ragnarok under what seems like Marvel's scheme of roping in budding visionary directors and letting them loose.
Taika Waititi's films have a very fun and colorful vibe to them, and while we're still a few days (or weeks, you never know) from witnessing a full trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, from the official stills released so far and the set photos doing the rounds, his aesthetic can clearly be seen at work.

Marvel - Ah Loki, ever so classy.

Thor has received a new haircut, and to go with it, a more battle-like armor that pays a stunning homage to gladiator costumes of yore, complete with the battle ax and whatnot. Hulk is reported to have undergone similar costume changes where he usual Hulk costume that comprises of stretchy (or torn) purple pants is given a pass for a glorious Planet Hulk inspired helmet and armor costume that looks brilliant in the displayed props so far. Loki and Doctor Strange seem to retain their existing costumes with minor tweaks here and there, but seeing how they are already some of the flashiest and most colorful costumes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I don't see too many fans complaining.

Marvel - A costume fit for a hard rock band's frontman.

But these were established characters with existing costumes! Taika Waititi seems to have reserved the best for the characters he is introducing with the film.
Two time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett joins the cast as presumably the main villain Hela, and she's been given a costume that is - truly forgive me for the awful pun that's about to ensue - hella dope. With the generous helping of eyeshadow, carefully careless hair and the over the top textured flourishes on her costume, she looks less like a Marvel villain, and more of a Marilyn Manson accomplice.
And it's glorious.

Marvel - Valkyrie sure has an interesting look to her.

The same goes for Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie. With a few Tron-like flourishes here and there and a costume that looks generally like something out of Kamen Rider, Waititin sure is pushing the envelope of how outrageously colorful costumes can be.
And that's before we even get to Jeff Goldblum's character, whose costume does the impossible by outdoing any of the aforementioned costumes when it comes to being over the top! With blue face paint, blue eye shadow and a generous abundance of red blue and gold in his costume, he has the style to put Guardians of the Galaxy's The Collector (played by a wonderfully over the top Benecio del Toro) to shame!

Marvel - Ah, Jeff Goldblum. What a treasure.

Waititi and Marvel promised to deliver a qurikily funny film with Ragnarok, and again, while we're yet to see any official footage from the film so far, the images and the costumes are promising to deliver on it.
For all intents and purposes, we can consider Ragnarok to be the shifting point for Marvel's aesthetic and their quest to find realism in costumes, because this isn't just one instance of it happening, there's been a trail leading up to this point.
Marvel experimented with costumes and the general aesthetic with Guardians of the Galaxy, and finding a favorable response from the audiences there, they stepped up their game by including more and more over the top elements in following films, capped of with Doctor Strange.
Its success is heartening, for it gives Ragnarok free reign to do its own thing, and once it's successful, other Marvel films will follow suit when it comes to the visuals and costumes, and with Infinity War looming on the horizon, there's no way that's a bad thing.
As always Wonder Costumes will be by your side.