I threw up all the pics of Steve Rogers in his Cap costume across all the movies we have of him so far.
a. That Avengers costume is the absolute worst of all of them. If Coulson had any input on that design, bless you sir but you should never be allowed to design anything for Steve to wear ever again. I could swear there was more coherent meta on this somewhere else, but just from my own perspective, it renders Steve as the most “cartoon-ish” of all the Avengers and it just looks jarring when everything and everyone else looks solidly real – even Loki with his ridiculous horned helmet.
b. Seriously, it says something about that terrible, cheesetastic costume that Steve actually looks more convincing in his soldier’s leather jacket and the silly sweater from the USO stage show.
c. The Age of Ultron costume and the CATFA ones are both practical and kickass and if I remember correctly, Steve actually collaborated with Howard in this costume’s design. I can totally imagine that in-universe, Steve combined the elements of his old and the CATWS uniform and collaborated with Tony to produce this final look.
d. Yeah I’m biased but my favorite is still the CATWS stealth suit. 😀
The reason why Steve’s Avengers uniform reads as “the most ‘cartoon-ish’” is because it is. As theonlycheeseleft pointed out in an excellent meta-post, Coulson, inspired by his WW2 propaganda trading cards, made the uniform match Steve’s USO costume instead of the Howard Stark-designed uniform Steve wore in Europe—and Steve’s USO costume was of course a nod to the original Captain America comics:
Stark, being a weapons-manufacturer, made Steve a soldier’s uniform suitable for missions behind enemy lines (and took Steve’s own wishes into account), whereas Coulson focused on aesthetics (and never bothered to ask Steve what he’d prefer to wear). Steve’s Avengers uniform has that sleak superhero-spandex look but is actually next to useless in combat, offering little protection and no webbing to carry extra gear apart from the Rob Liefeld-esque proliferation of tiny belt pouches. The thigh zippers would be inaccessible if Steve chose to carry a sidearm as he did in CA:TFA, and the uniform doesn’t even come with a harness for Steve’s shield, which means that he doesn’t have the shield with him when Loki’s minions attack the helicarrier in The Avengers—a serious oversight corrected in CA:TWS, where Steve carries his shield on his back even inside the Triskelion.
The issues with Steve’s Avengers uniform are most clearly demonstrated when we see it for the first time in the S.H.I.E.L.D. armoury. Note that every other set of gear in the room is black-on-black, whereas Steve’s uniform stands out like a star-spangled peacock:
If S.H.I.E.L.D. just wanted Steve’s abilities as a supersoldier they’d have given him a standardised uniform, same as Natasha and Clint, who both wear black while working for S.H.I.E.L.D. However, judging by the fact that Coulson’s design doesn’t take into account Steve’s need for additional gear to do any real fighting or his well-established preference for carrying the shield on his back—suggesting Coulson ignored footage from Steve’s actual SSR missions and focused exclusively on his propaganda reels—S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new old uniform design is entirely intentional.
The reason why Steve’s Avengers uniform looks jarring and unreal to you is because it’s deliberately designed to render him into a living (two-dimensional) propaganda poster. It’s not a uniform for guerilla fighting behind enemy lines; it’s for looking good on TV. Why? My guess is Fury knew what was coming—a confirmation of alien life, alien power, that S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn’t hush up—and wanted to avoid global mass-panic by putting Steve on a stage in front of a news camera and showing the public that we’ll win this war; look, we have a supersoldier who can punch Hitler’s Loki’s lights out. Just like back in 1942.
Everyone please read these amazing, amazing additions to my uniform meta of yore.
I am currently flabbergasted that there was no shield harness on the Avengers uniform. I did not even realize that, good god. Try being more non-functional.
