For those of us who lamented the radio silence that followed Justice League Mortal‘s cancellation about a decade ago, the past week or two have come as a real treat. In short, we’ve finally seen what DJ Cotrona looked like when wearing his Superman costume and some concept art hinting at how Armie Hammer’s Batman may have appeared.
Unfortunately, in the Dark Knight’s case, his hideous-looking armor-over-pajamas motif inspired the most “WTF” reactions from readers on social media that I’d seen in some time. Really, I don’t know what the designers were thinking with that one. That getup would fly in an anime, sure, but not in a live action tentpole.
Still, it’s important to note that we did consider the possibility of it not being the final design, which Hammer himself affirmed soon after. And, with that, a couple alternate designs have now been declassified thanks to the folks over at DC Films Hub, both of which can be viewed in the accompanying gallery.
To be honest, the first exhibit also rubs me the wrong way. Well, that is unless it’s something that would’ve been worn for one scene like, say, Batman doing a high altitude jump from the Batwing. It’s also hard not to think of Rob Liefeld after laying my eyes on all of those pouches, for it looks like something he’d have drawn up.
The second design shown, however, is much more to my liking. As you can see, it’s a much more traditional look, keeping with the Caped Crusader’s comic book appearance in recent decades. Regardless, I don’t think this or any of those we’ve seen thus far were the final design because Hammer has stated for years that his costume wasn’t too dissimilar to what Christian Bale ended up wearing in The Dark Knight.
As always, hope springs eternal, because there exists a very real possibility that shots of Hammer decked out in full Batman regalia from Justice League Mortal could hit the web any day now. That said, keep checking back as we’ll be sure to have those for you if indeed they do surface.