Who’s afraid of the green-eyed monster? I think all of us should be! Most probably there are many characters that come to mind when you think of green colour. For me it almost always is Hulk… or Sheldon holding his Green Lantern lantern. Colour is actaully one of the most prominent distinctive features of superheroes… and villains alike. And yes, they make the characters look cool, scary, or weird, but they also carry a certain degree of symbolism that is appealing to our subconscious. That’s why we may favour one character over another. Kinky as it sounds, it’s the colour of their stretchy pants! That may explain my unyealding love for Batman – with his back outfit and all-round gadgets. Black stands for sophistication, elegance, depth, and style – soooo me! But also mystery, anger, anonimity, mourning, and detachment. It seemed a perfect choice for a character with such back story and moral composition. Green – of course – has it’s own set of associated qualities. We’ll find nature, growth, generosity, safety, and harmony on one end (e.g. Yoda) and envy, misfortune, and jealousy on the other.
If you’re interested to learn more about the symbolism of colours in superheroes, I recommend you visit http://comicsalliance.com/superhero-color-theory-primary-heroes/
and http://comicsalliance.com/superhero-color-theory-part-ii-secondary-characters/
It really is an interesting topic to study. You know what else is an interesting topic? That’s right – colour idioms!
Let’s begin with the dark side of the colour palette.
So things can be pitch black (= extremely black… remember Riddick?); a.k.a. as black as coal, as black as night, and – my personal favourite – as black as a stack of black cats.
You or your company can be in the black, which means successful and bringing in a lot of profit. However, if you operate on a black market (= doing illegal or shady business), you are more likely to get a black eye (= a bruise around your eye).
If someone accuses or criticises you for something that they actually do themselves (bloody hypocrite!), it’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
You can get grey hair if you get scared out of your wits, like me watching Stranger things… for the first time. My grey matter (= brains, intelligence) was relentlessly working, trying to figure out the real source of 11’s power. Surely, saying that her past under daddy’s supervision was something of a grey area (= unclear, vague), would be a huge understatement.
Blue is often used in idioms to mean something of superior quality.
Blue bloods, for example, are people from nobility, aristocracy, coming from a wealthy family. A blue-eyed boy is a person favoured by someone of higher authority; this discription is typically used as a critical comment, though. While Men in Black keep aliens from commiting crimes against humans, men (or boys) in blue (= the police) keep humans from commiting crimes against humans.
You can feel blue (= down, sad, depressed) when you have to wait for what feels like eternity for the next season of Westworld. It’s ok, if it happens once in a blue moon (= rarely). But every time you find a new gripping series?! That’s just ridiculous…
I’m sure we’ll all agree that the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence). So there’s no need to get green with envy over your mate’s new Klingon Bat’leth 1:1 Scale Prop Replica… he must have pawned it for one of his favourite Aliens Facehugger Prop Replicas.
If your favourite sandwich guy doesn’t come to the office, you brown bag it (= take your own lunch to work). Of course, giving away your lunch to your superior who failed to bring their lunch that day or didn’t get the memo about the absence of the sandwich guy, would certainly make you a brown-noser (= a suck-up, toady, kiss-ass / ass-licker, bootlicker, you name it…) …but we don’t want to be that person.
If you go nuts on the new LEGO Hobbit series, you’re very likely to be in the red (= in debt, bankrupt). And we all know how much red tape (= bureaucracy, official forms and routines) it involves to apply for a bank loan… to be able to buy MORE!!! Sure, they are quite willing to roll out the red carpet for you (= welcome and entertain you in an impressive style) when you come to borrow money. However, you’d better catch the red-eye (= a night flight) to some remote post-Soviet state when they come to collect their interest.
I watched The Fifth Element again not so long ago and this time Ruby Rhod caught my attention… could be his screaming outfit or just, well, his screaming! I couldn’t think of a more yellow-bellied (= cowardly) character. Luckily, Jack Beresfort could. And I refer you to his article on SCREENRANT https://screenrant.com/biggest-cowards-sci-fi-movie-characters-scared-worst/ for more Sci-Fi cowards. When Rhod comes to mind now, all I can think of is a yellow dog (= an unreliable, despicable person).
If your mate asks you how they look, when they dress up as Mr Penguin to a white tie affair / event (= a party with a very strict formal dress code) and look a pillock, you might tell them a white lie (= a harmless lie about something unimportant) so that they won’t have to change (again!) and you won’t be late for the party. However, if – for obvious reasons – they do decide to change, you might simply raise a white flag (= give up), sit down, put your feet up, and wait patiently for this white elephant (= a seemingly valuable possession which is simply not worth the upkeep).
No orange colour idioms that I found relevant… I can’t even remember any significant character that wears or is orange. Perhaps you could help?