It's pretty much every kid's dream to one day be a superhero.
This college student is making this dream a reality for those who practice martial arts by creating a real-life Batsuit that can be worn as protection when in combat.
Jackson Gordon, an industrial design student at the Philadelphia University, debuted his Batsuit at the Maryland anime convention Katsucon. The Batman-inspired suit can take a pretty good beating, withstanding punches, baseball bats and even machetes—of course all tested out by Gordon.
No stranger to creating the iconic costume, Gordon previously designed a Batsuit that focused on aesthetics. This time he was looking to create a suit that would function in real-life scenarios.
Gordon, a black belt in Kung Fu, wanted to design a suit that could protect a fighter during battle while still providing flexibility for movement. "If this were to inhibit my movement, it would be completely useless," Gordon says.
So he started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money he would need "to create a real world equivalent of a batsuit that would provide significant protection and be accurate to the character."
He successfully raised $1,255 for the project, completing the suit in just two months.
The most impressive part of the 25-pound Batsuit is the helmet, which was also the most expensive and hardest part of the costume to create. The helmet, which features pointed ears just like the suit Ben Affleck wears in the upcoming Batman v. Superman movie, was made from fragile plastic to make the silicone mold, plus more plastic to make it durable.
Now that the Batsuit is complete and functions the way Gordon planned for a good fight, he is currently thinking of his next project.
"One of the things about the design process that my teacher tells us over and over again that I've learned in my own process but now is more so even true, is that designing is never finished—you either run out of time or you run out of money," Gordon says. "So I finished this project last week, and all this week when I'm done my homework I'm sitting in my dorm like, 'What do I do with my life?'"
We're sure it's only a matter of time before he starts creating other real-life comic book costumes, but in the meantime we would love to see this available for retail for when Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters.
Check out this video of Gordon taking a few punches while wearing the suit back in its prototype days.
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[PHOTO CREDIT: Warner Bros.]
