Cloneborne Hero Costume Quality (Patreon)

So just want to talk about some of the worldbuilding for some under-the-hood parts this story, which will be implied in a couple of chapters but I'm unlikely to be able to spell out explicitly in-story.

Superhero costume quality.

In my mind, there should be a huge gap in costume quality between various heroes magical girls violent vigilantes. If you don't have a lot of disposable income (like a millionaire or... oh, a youtuber with a lot of sponsors with MrBeast production values) or aren't a Symbol and can magic up your costume from nothing, the costume quality is closer to the outfit Tobey Maguire Spider-man wore to that wrestling event in the first movie, the non-Stark suit Tom Holland wore at the end of Homecoming, The Crawler from MHA: Vigilantes, or most of the Marvel Netflix series (Luke Cage's 'costume' was a hoodie with bullet holes in it). Superhero outfits on the quality of the CW Arrowverse suits are going to be very rare on the ground, because materials the 'average' heroes magical girls violent vigilantes are working with will likely be off-the-rack stuff, or at best cheap Temu 'cosplay' knockoffs if they get famous enough.

Even those skilled enough to make their own outfits will be contending with materials, because materials colorful and of high enough quality for a good cosplay outfit would not be durable enough to take the kind of beating you see in... oh, let's say a Netflix hallway oner. Not more than once or twice, anyway. However, the materials that would be durable enough for multiple uses, like denim, would need a lot of layers to be protective enough, and anyone who's tried to take storebought jeans and shorten the hem themselves knows how much of a pain it can be, even with a sewing machine.

Which is not to say people don't do it, but after the first couple of fights, their costumes are going to be very worn and stained, and depending on the dyes the colors will likely start to fade quickly if they try to get out every bloodstain. The costume meta will likely quickly move on to each hero having some kind of distinctive color combination that they can put together with off-the-rack clothes; having a simple costume that's all off-the-rack (Young Justice Superboy); buying hardwearing stuff from suppliers like firefighting equipment, mechanic's overalls, maybe surplus fatigues, and personalizing it as much as possible (The Punisher); not bothering with a costume at all and just wearing a mask, or even a motorcycle helmet (the Grue look/true urban ninja/organized crime/domestic terrorist meta).

This isn't even getting into seasonal and climate considerations. A superhero who's active in the dead of winter will have completely different clothing considerations than someone in the tropics during the rainy season, when it can be scorching one moment, coming down like a flood the next, then five minutes later it's scorching sunny again, but now with added humidity (looks out window).

This will probably go some ways into dividing heroes magical girls violent vigilantes into haves and have-nots, measured in costume material quality and cleanliness. However, it could also divide them into so-called 'real' heroes magical girls violent vigilantes, who actually go around and doing things that get their clothes dirty, and those who are 'frauds' and just want to look good and be famous, who might looks suspiciously clean at all times.

What do you guys think?

PS: Also, regarding where Kaede and the Outguard are on this list:

• Mortal, Nightmare: rich fuckers, so they have no problems having CW-quality clothes. Mortal is in public enough doing Superman-type stuff than no one can accuse her of just looking pretty, and they attribute her clean clothes to one of her inscrutable powers. Nightmare gets more accusations of being a fraud, but it's a whole thing because people argue about how black is easier to keep clean, and that's why it's always in style.

• Xynodob, Poise, Stardancer: Their costumes come from their magic, so it always looks good. There are few Poise sightings, but when there are he's always doing something heroic, so he beats the allegations, and Stardancer... well, very few people want to accuse a little girl that she should 'do more' so her costume looks more worked in. Xynodob also wears black, and people argue its easier to keep a coat clean, and it's supposed to take the hits for your clothes.

• Corona: I've done my best to make it clear her clothes are off the rack. A helmet that looks like a baseball cap is an actual thing, my brother ordered one and it's what gave me the idea.

• Bloody Mary: Yeah... I'll admit, I'm just sneaking her in, but if you somehow put together a leather coat, and pseudo-Victorian cosplay out of sufficiently hardwearing material, it should last a while.