Why the costume?

So you might be wondering at this point why I chose those elements of the costume what is with the guy cut-off on the bottom there? The bottom half of the image would normally be sent as a separate file from the main "frankensteined" image. It is to show the artist how to give the costume some depth. At this point most artists can easily do spandex but to really make it look like real material you have to go the extra step. So Catman will have tiger stripes that are raised up like the designs of Bianchi's X-Men.
Check out an example here:
http://colossuscollection.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/astonishingxmensketchbookco.jpg
Catman's costume will have a zipper directly down the middle, as I explained it to my wife, so we can get a bit of beefcake and he can show off the chest. :)
So body in the picture will be the same, with the black gloves but with tiger stripes that more closely match the mask. I liked Alex Ross's Cat-Man design because it actually looks like a cat.
But one thing I find absolutely ridiculous is the cape. It works for a Bat-Man, but a cat should be smooth, efficient and streamlined. The cape had to go. The mane was something I'd wanted to for a character for a while. Only two characters besides Sabretooth were ever really able to pull off a mane, one was Kraven the Hunter, the other was the Creeper (sort of). Since neither character is around anymore, I figured it would be a nice touch.
Last but not least the knives. This was the last minute impulse, I was originally going to go with a more cat-like dark metal claw hand that could retract the blades like a real cat. But at the last minute I thought why not just use knives? Otherwise he would have looked too much like Sabretooth. Tomorrow I will put up a proper write-up of the characters history.