10) The Rocketeer
All those movies focusing on pulp fiction heroes in the 1990s actually adapted their star’s costumes to the screen very faithfully – The Shadow had his hat and scarf combo, Dick Tracy kept his yellow suit and even The Phantom squeezed Billy Zane into a purple unitard.
Our favourite of these, though, is The Rocketeer. Partly because it’s the most elegant outfit – with its brown leather jacket and art deco helmet – but also because not one element of it is altered from the original comic book creation by Dave Stevens.
The look – particularly that helmet – is integral to the character’s appeal, so hopefully the recently announced reboot will keep it intact as well.
9) Ghost Rider (Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance)
Nicolas Cage might have been ill-cast as Johnny Blaze in the Ghost Rider movies, but the visual realization of the character was much better handled… at least in one of the films.
In 2007’s Ghost Rider, Johnny’s hellish form is far too clean and adorned with too many chains and spikes to really work. In the 2012 sequel, Spirit of Vengeance, however, the look is much improved. Gone are most of the spikes and the leather jacket is suitably fire-damaged and worn. Most effectively, the skull is no longer gleaming white but blackened by the flames, as per the depiction of the character in the comics.
If only the rest of the film had such a dedication to detail and reverence to the material it might have been a whole lot better.