The Brave or the Bold: Masks!



Martinex1:  Happy Saturday all!  I hope your week was pleasant and productive and your weekend is full of fun and relaxation.


It would be hard to count how many times on this blog (or on other comic related sites) there have been discussions around comic book costumes.  Surely we have ranked and filed a few costumes ourselves.  But today I want to focus just on the masks that the heroes wear.  That piece is so integral to how we perceive the character and there are such wide ranging options and artistic designs. Let's compare and contrast this comic book contrivance.


What was the original purpose of the mask?   Surely it went hand in hand with vigilante sensibilities and secret identities.  But it is interesting to see that throughout the ages, there are wide ranges in the styles.


Here are a few categories to get you thinking:


The Full Mask:  Definitely for the private hero, it limits any possibility of identification.   And it muffles the voice.  The likes of Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Black Panther, Doctor Spectrum, and Deadpool employ these masks.  Not too many females characters wear the full mask!

 

The Three-Quarter's Mask:  Head covered - yep!  Ears out -maybe!  Mouth and chin exposed - you betcha! It has no breathing interference and still good identification coverage.  The athletic heroes often gravitate to this style.   Think in terms of Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Hawkeye, and even Wolverine.

 

 

The Shampoo Mask:  This is a variation on the above option.  The hero let's the hair fly free.  We see the locks of Captain Mar-Vell.  Spider-Woman and some other female characters frequently apply this look. Captain Britain has a variance in which the lower part is a full mask, but he cannot resist sharing his fine head of hair.

 

 

The Domino Mask:   You are not fooling anybody!  Robin, I am looking at you!  What is that thing?  How does it stay on?  And most importantly, how can we suspend disbelief enough to buy into that disguise? 

The Headband or Tiara:  These are less masks than accessories.  I guess they just look cool.   I put Scarlet Witch, Luke Cage and even the Angel in this category.

The "No" Mask:  The confidence of these characters must be off the charts.   Surely, not everybody can be distracted by Superman's single curl. Reed Richards, Wasp, Valkyrie, and Starfox all refuse to hide their faces.

The "No" Mask (but my nature helps):  Some heroes however may have attributes that help the disguise.   The Hulk for one never looks like mild Bruce Banner.   The Thing, Human Torch, Beast, and Iceman also use their transformation to set them apart.

Added Accessories:  And don't forget about goggles and antennae like those Yellowjacket wore.   Or the helmets of Ant-Man, Thor, Iron Man, the Black Knight,  and Dr. Doom.

Take a look at these corner boxes and handbook pages to assess the various masks and lack of masks of some of our favorite heroes.

 

 

 

 

 

So what is your favorite mask type?  Or lack thereof?   Can you think of types that I did not address?  Do you think about the characters in terms of their facial disguise?  How well has the cinema adopted masks into the real world?  What character wears the best mask?  Who has the worst?  How do you define that?  Is the secret identity that important or is the trope dead?  


Don't mask your intentions... tell us what you think?  Cheers!