199 words about Zack Snyder's Justice League's bad guy's outfit
It clinks, snaps, shimmers, and cuts. Purring in spikes, it bristles and curls to match its environment, this flayed skin of some magnificent cyber-leopard from across space. There are four hours and six acts (and an epilogue!) in Zack Snyder’s epic reclamation of the beleaguered Justice League, but the only thing that shouldn’t be missed—at least if you’re not among those of us already, inexplicably loyal to Snyder’s grand, hypermasculine oeuvre—is this shiny full-body armor of moving scales donned by Steppenwolf, the film’s central (sub)villain. Made of nestled spikes that snap open and shut as the creature moves in ways that seem not random or strategic but organic, this suit is new to the “Snyder Cut” and reveals an attention to detail lacking in Whedon’s original Josstice League (2017). Yes, this shivering second skin protects Steppenwolf from an array of arrows, diversely colored magic projectiles, sundry ballistics, etc.—but isn’t it cute, too, when he meets his master, Darkseid, and his suit instinctively retracts in abeyance like a nervous foreskin to reveal Steppenwolf’s naked, hideous torso beneath. If you looked like a cross between Quasimodo and a hammerhead shark, you’d want a sharp-spined suit of your own.