The CW Releases First Look At Mon-El’s Costume

 
The CW has released a first-look photo of Mon-El (Chris Wood) in his Legionnaire outfit. The suit, and the Legion, will debut in next week’s mid-season premiere of Supergirl.

I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed in the design. This may be a running theme while the Legion visits Supergirl, but Mon-El and the team of future teenage superheroes are the reasons I started reading comics; so this is a little bit personal for me. In the case of Mon-El’s Legion uniform, there’s very little of his classic design to be seen here. The brass bolts above the empty S-Shield suggest the bolts which fastened his blue cape, just as the red outlines suggest the primary color of his original look, a version of which can be seen below:

In more recent times, Mon-El was seen wearing a Superman style costume with his red/blue color scheme and the S-Shield printed on the left side of his chest; making the empty S-Shield on the live-action costume at least somewhat accurate. The switch to black as the primary color, meanwhile, suggests a certain embarrassment over Mon-El’s traditional costume and a desire to give the Legion an early 2000s X-Men look.
Also, as Legion fans will notice, the Legionnaire belt is missing in favor of just the flight ring.
Hopefully, there is a story point to the changes. As Mon-El and Imra (Amy Jackson) mentioned in the mid-season finale, the 31st Century is a rough place, so the black costumes — and the possible switch to something more individualized — may be part of the progression of the Legion from rag-tag rebels to a fully formed Legion of Superheroes.
Or, maybe, that’s just wishful thinking from an old-time Legion fan and this look is here to stay.
Supergirl returns January 15th on The CW.
(h/t: EW)