Costumes are an extremely part of the superhero formula. Marvel and DC Comics have been able to grab the attention of readers with colorful, flashy costumes. A great character needs a great costume to succeed. Look at all of the great characters who have appeared over the decades; the costume is one of the most important parts of the formula. Not every costume needs to be amazing right away, but they all need something memorable, something that can be turned into something even better. Costume changes are just as important as starting with a great costume, as they are able to take everything that the original costumes did well and make them even better. However, sometimes, costume changes do the opposite.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Over the years, we’ve gotten some horrible costume changes. These costume changes are sometimes so bad that they make no sense for the character whatsoever. In fact, some costume changes have completely ruined some iconic characters. These ten costume changes are horrible, and they’ve damaged the characters immensely.
10) “Steampunk” Iron Man
Iron Man is known for his great armor upgrades, but not everything goes the way it should. Iron Man’s armor is one of the most technologically advanced pieces of equipment in comics, and usually, when he changes armor, it makes the armor look more advanced. Until 2024, that is. The newest Iron Man series debuted a new suit of armor that had heavy steampunk leanings, which doesn’t really make any sense for Iron Man as a character. Iron Man isn’t a cosplayer who decided to do steampunk armor; he’s a superhero who makes armor that looks like it’s on the bleeding edge of technology. This armor is the opposite of that, and will always be one of the weird anachronisms of Iron Man’s existence.
9) Cyborg Brainiac
Brainiac is a Coluan cyborg known for his intelligence. His original costume was a masterpiece of simplicity, and it fit the character. Then, for some reason, they decided to make him a cyborg. This just didn’t fit at all. Brainiac is a character known for outsmarting his enemies, and cyborg bodies like this one are usually used by characters who are more physical. There’s nothing wrong with making Brainiac a more physical character — I love the Gary Frank Brainiac redesign of the late ’00s — but a completely robotic Brainiac takes away a lot of what made the character so great.
8) ’80s Black Canary
DC has given readers some bad costumes, but one of the worst is easily Black Canary’s ’80s costume. This costume replaced the classic Black Canary costume that fans loved for years to make it more “modern”. However, it never really fit Black Canary as a character. Black Canary is a character who is all about hand-to-hand combat; she needs something that allows her a full range of movement. This costume just didn’t fit that all, trading utility for design choices. It’s an abomination for a character whose best costumes are just a jacket, a unitard, and fishnets.
7) Golden Age Sandman’s Superhero Suit
The Justice Society was DC’s first superteam, combining the best characters of the publisher’s early days. Almost all of them had traditional superhero costumes, except the Sandman, who wore his fedora, gas mask, trench coat, and suit. It was unique and fit the character, who was a pulp noir-influenced superhero. However, as the more traditional type of superhero got more popular and noir characters fell from public esteem, they changed Sandman’s costume into something that looked like every other superhero costume out there. It completely misses the point of the character, and is easily the biggest mistake in the character’s history.
6) Shirtless ’90s Thor
The ’90s weren’t the best time for costumes. Every decade saw publishers modernizing their costumes, but the edgy ’90s aesthetic was terrible looking even back then. Thor got one bad, midriff-baring costume in the ’90s, but it got even worse before the cancellation of Thor because of “Heroes Reborn”. Thor started going shirtless before “Onslaught”, and it just didn’t work. Thor may be a god, but he’s also a warrior. His costumes should have an armored feel to them. However, this costume, if it can even be called that, is just so bad. I hated Thor’s top in the ’90s as well, but taking it away just for him to be shirtless doesn’t really fit at all.
5) Armored Captain America
The ’90s were a decade of ups and downs for Captain America fans, with a lot of the first few years of the decade being downs. Captain America’s exoskeletal armor is one of those. Now, there was a story reason for him wearing the armor — his super soldier serum gave out on him, and he still wants to fight evil. However, Captain America wearing armor doesn’t really fit who Captain America is as a character. The whole situation was a dumb idea from the beginning, and the armor is one of those things that Cap fans try to forget ever happened.
4) Bestial Wolverine
Wolverine has had a lot of great costumes over the decades, and there are a lot of opinions on which ones are the best. Some people like the blue and yellow, some people like the orange and brown, and some people like the black and grey. However, most Wolverine fans can agree that the worst Wolverine costumes come from his bestial period. Instead of getting a new costume, they just took old Wolverine costumes, like the blue and yellow or the blue and yellow X-Men costume, put a bunch of holes in them, and then topped it off with a bandana mask. There are lots of fans who hate Wolverine’s bestial phase for a variety of reasons (I’m not one of them, but I get why people hate it), but maybe if the costume wasn’t so lazy, fans wouldn’t hate it so much.
3) Wally West Rebirth Costume
Wally West is the best Flash, but former DC head honcho Dan DiDio didn’t like him. Wally was left entirely out of the New 52 DC Multiverse, and eventually, fan outrage was enough to bring Wally back. Wally reappeared in DC Rebirth #1, but he was wearing his old Kid Flash costume. His next appearance was in Titans Rebirth #1, and instead of wearing the Kid Flash costume, he wore this red and silver costume. This isn’t a terrible costume, but it’s just a recolor of the original Kid Flash costume. It was DiDio’s subtle way of showing that Wally wasn’t the real Flash anymore, and that makes it extremely disrespectful to fans of the greatest Flash of them all.
2) Mod Wonder Woman
Mod Wonder Woman is a very interesting time in Wonder Woman’s history. DC decided to take away her powers and costumes – possibly because of the popularity of mod female spies like Emma Peel – and put Wonder Woman into mod costumes. The whole thing was a weird change, and it never really felt like a Wonder Woman idea. I’m not saying all of Wonder Woman’s mod costumes look terrible, but the whole idea of a powerless mod Wonder Woman ruined Wonder Woman for a time. There’s a reason that DC has never really returned to that plot.
1) Superman’s New 52 Armor
The New 52 is full of bad superhero costumes, but the worst for me is the New 52 Superman armor. It’s not because it looks terrible — it’s just kind of visually underwhelming, honestly — but because there’s no reason for Superman to wear armor. Superman is a hero known for his invulnerability, and he can take damage that would destroy most other heroes. Ergo, Superman wearing armor of any kind defeats the purpose of his invulnerability. The costume was sold to readers as an important part of Superman’s Kryptonian heritage, but it just never really worked. If you want to see a good New 52 Superman costume, it’s the t-shirt and jeans combo that he would wear at the time, occasionally, because the armor ain’t it.
What do you think? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image via THQ Nordic -
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
