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Having designed such films as Deadpool 2 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Parts 1 and 2, Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller, better known as simply as "Kurt and Bart" are no strangers to superhuman efforts. "We've been working togeth- er for nearly forty years," notes the Bart half of the dynamic duo. "There are other design teams out there," Kurt continues, "but my impression is that they have a very separate division of labor. We may have different opin- ions, but we share a similar sensibility. There are things Bart does that I don't and vice versa. I always tell people that we cover a lot of ground. We can be at second unit and first unit at the same time establishing things." The titular character in Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) begins the film im- prisoned for millennium. To convey the drama, Kurt and Bart used dimensional silk screening to give the impression that the pattern was not just on the textile, but etched in stone. "We worked closely with Tom Meyer, the production designer. We all agreed that there was this ancient Sumerian cuneiform text on every- thing—a kind of first written language. We really wanted that to be on his suit, tell- ing his story. On top of that print there is a web pattern that was the wizard's spell, encasing him." The character emerges as if burnt to a cinder and slowly returns to perfect form. The costume grows increas- ingly brilliant as the film progresses. "By the end we see him in his full black and gold. It was amazing to see that final iter- ation," Bart enthuses. Other characters are treated with similar attention to detail and gravitas. Hawk- man (Aldis Hodge) wears a costume that can change at the character's whim. "We thought about not just nanotechnology," Kurt says, "but how different shapes could generate, which led to an origami artist named Daniel V. Lee to explain the Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam and Aldis Hodge as Hawkman. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures. 50 THE COSTUME DESIGNER | WINTER 2023