Marvel Comics is known for amazing stories, tales that modernized and expanded on the superhero. An extremely important part of their success has been the art. Comics are an artistic medium and without top notch imagery, even the best stories will flounder. Marvel hasn’t had that problem, with some of the greatest comic artists of all time creating heroes and villains for the House of Ideas. Legendary artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Sal and John Buscema, John Romita Sr., and many more gave these characters some amazing costumes, and the artists who followed them have often tried to put their own stamp on history by giving them new ones.
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Sometimes, these costumes are bad and the heroes go back to their original looks. Other times, though, these costumes look great and they stay around. Some heroes are luckier than others, in that all of their costumes are great. These ten Marvel heroes have always had great costumes, with nary a bad look in their closet.
10) Hank Pym
Hank Pym is one of Silver Age Marvel’s most important characters, and he’s always been one of the publisher’s best-dressed. The Ant-Man costume? Peak. The Giant-Man costume? Peak. Goliath? Peak. Yellowjacket? Peak. Seriously, Pym has never had a bad costume. It’s kind of hard to believe but if you go out and look at his history, it’s just knock out costume after knock out costume. Even when he was just wearing coveralls and going by his civilian name, he still looked great. That’s just how Hank rolls.
9) Deadpool
Deadpool has become a Marvel legend, and his look has been a big part of that. He was designed by Rob Liefeld in the early ’90s, when eye-catching art was the rule of the day. Fans loved the Merc with a Mouth’s look, and over the years his costume has changed very little. Artists have found a way to make his full body suit expressive, helping his comedy along, and he always looks tough. Looking cool has always been his stock in trade and for him business is always booming.
8) Steve Rogers
Captain America is Marvel’s most storied soldier, having battled the forces of evil for decades. He’s the best of the best and his costume has always been one of the best parts of his adventures. Cap’s costume has rarely changed over the years, mostly just getting modernized or, as happened after the success of the movies, MCU-ized. On top of that, he’s worn the Nomad costume, which is old school but still cool, and the Captain costume, a modification on his normal look. Even the Cap armor isn’t even that bad. Just like when he thrown his shield, Cap’s looks don’t miss.
7) Storm
Storm is one of the greatest mutants of all time, and has built up quite a reputation of greatness. She’s one of the most powerful beings on the planet, comes from a magical bloodline that stretches back to the gods, is one of the X-Men’s greatest leaders, and is the most regal person you can think of. On top of all that, as if she couldn’t get any more perfect, she’s also never had a bad costume. Even the ones that people don’t like that much, like the mid to late ’90s purple one, the Claremont 2000 one, and the X-Treme one, are still awesome. She’s always one of the best looking heroes anywhere she goes.
6) Jean Grey
Jean Grey was the first woman in the X-Men, and has since become the team’s patron saint, especially of fashion. She kicked things off in the awesome blue and yellow X-Men costumes, went to the green miniskirt/gold mask combo, then the Phoenix costumes, and then her string of awesome X-Factor Marvel Girl costumes. There’s the Jim Lee ’90s costume, the Claremont 2000 Phoenix, the New X-Men leathers, a couple of ’90s reduxs using the basic design of the Lee, and a few new Phoenix suits, all of which look fantastic. It’s great suits all the way down for Jeannie.
5) Cyclops
Cyclops is the X-Men’s greatest leader and the Captain America of the mutants. He’s a great hero, an amazing tactician who punches way, way above his weight level, and cat nip for telepaths. He has so many gifts, and on top of that, Cyclops also has amazing costumes. He has had so many iconic looks over the years; there’s the second costume (to the left of the Lee in the above picture), the Jim Lee, the New X-Men leathers, the Astonishing, the blue and white X-Factor costume (among his other great X-Factor costumes), the Utopia era, and just so many more. Cyclops always hits the mark, especially when it comes to superhero fashion.
4) Wolverine
Wolverine is the best there is at what he does and what he does is wear awesome costumes. The blue and yellow is iconic, the brown and orange is perfect, the New X-Men leathers are flawless, the Astonishing is great, the X-Force one is better than you can imagine, the Krakoa brown and yellow is gorgeous, and the new yellow and blue is a bit too nostalgic but not horrible. His Horseman of Death costume was peak, the Fang costume was cool, even the Soteira costume from the abysmal Return of Wolverine was great. Wolverine has amazing taste in costumes, and he looks great when he’s killing the bad guys.
3) Iron Man
Iron Man is known for his stellar armor. Tony Stark made the armored hero as we know it popular and he did so by having a succession of the best armors you can imagine. There are few heroes out there who have had his luck with changing costumes, and he just keeps impressing. Not every suit of Iron Man armor can be the Extremis or the Mark IV or the Silver Centurion or the Hulkbuster or any of the other favorites, but they are all great. Yes, even the teen Tony one.
2) Sam Wilson
Sam Wilson began his superhero career as the Falcon, and was given an awesome Jack Kirby-designed costume. It would get even better when the colors were changed to red and white, and since then, he’s never had a bad costume as either the Falcon or Captain America. His Cap costumes are especially good; they feel like a Captain America costume, but not like one that Steve would wear. His costumes are so great that the real question is whether he should have the goatee or not, because we already know his costumes are going to look great.
1) Spider-Man
Spider-Man is one of those heroes who had such a perfect costume right away that it took years before anyone even thought of changing it. The closest we had for ages was that time he wore a Fantastic Four costume and a paper bag over his head. The symbiote costume was spectacular, the Iron Spider is so much cooler than it gets credit for, and the 21st century costumes, like the Big Time one, the Future Foundation one, and several others were great. Superior Spider-Man? Great, even if it was Otto and not Peter. Spider-Man has a terrible personal life, but at least he looks cool (also, Miles Morales has amazing costume as well).
What Marvel heroes do you think have flawless costumes? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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Courtesy of Shueisha / Kadokawa / Square Enix / Shogakukan
