Evil Costume Switches in Comic Books.
- All Fall Down: Pronto gets one of these in his new identity as the Modern Prometheus.
- AXIS: As part of the event, several characters get new costumes after the Inversion causes their
Character Alignment to change to an opposite of what they normally are. Scarlet Witch sports a darker variation of her red outfit, while Iron Man gets a new suit of all-silver armor. Meanwhile, several villains undergo a Good Costume Switch. - Batman:
- It was more Anti-Hero Costume Switch, but during Knightfall, when Azrael donned the mantle of the Batman, he started out wearing the classic suit. The warning signs of Azrael's unfitness to wear the costume of Batman came when he decided to switch the normal gloves for clawed gauntlets that fired shuriken, then ditched the classic costume all together for a blade-sporting armor (and, briefly, a utility belt on his leg in addition to the normal one). By the time the story ended, he'd altered the armor as he went more and more off the deep end, with the Batman-blue being replaced by Azrael-red as a result of his own actions (namely, firing off a flamethrower after being soaked in diesel).
- Omega, the Big Bad of Batman: Last Knight on Earth is revealed to be the original Bruce Wayne, having become a Fallen Hero after being tortured and traded in the traditional Batsuits for a suit with a face-concealing mask and invoking Red and Black and Evil All Over.
- Daredevil: When Daredevil finally snaps in Shadowland, he begins wearing an all-new black costume with longer horns, red lining, and wrist blades. When Spider-Man shows up to call him out on the whole psychosis thing, he lampshades this whole trope. Subverted in Daredevil Issue 598: DD sports the black costume again, but he's not evil, he's wanted because Mayor Fisk is evil.
- Fantastic Four:
- At one point, Susan Storm was Brainwashed and Crazy, courtesy of Psycho-man and Hate-Monger, which prompted her to start calling herself Malice, Mistress of Hate, use her force-field powers in new and unpleasant ways, and walk around in a black leather dominatrix outfit covered in spikes
◊. This was also an episode of the animated series. She mopped the floor with the three members pretty easily, too. - During a period when the Fantastic Four were made to be Darker and Edgier, she wore a stripperiffic costume complete with a bare midriff and a Cleavage Window shaped like a 4 as a way to show how much grittier she had become. This was given a swift Retcon, explaining that it was the evil Malice personality trying to come back via her subconscious. Thankfully, she went back to a more modest look.
- At one point, Susan Storm was Brainwashed and Crazy, courtesy of Psycho-man and Hate-Monger, which prompted her to start calling herself Malice, Mistress of Hate, use her force-field powers in new and unpleasant ways, and walk around in a black leather dominatrix outfit covered in spikes
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: In the third issue of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors, it's revealed Maggie from Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is either Brainwashed and Crazy or simply The Mole (her Face–Heel Turn has yet to be adequately explained). After revealing her true colors, she lets her hair down, loses the glasses, and trades in her power suit for a tight, black, biker-esque leather outfit that's pretty much the definition of Navel-Deep Neckline. Also, she gets twin gloves like her father's, though they have fingers tipped with razor blades instead of knives.
- Green Lantern:
- Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, and everybody else Parallax has possessed gets armor reminiscent of both their costume and the entity's natural form.
- Every dead character who returns as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night gets an evil version of their old costume.
- Injustice: Gods Among Us: Those that are part of Superman's Regime change their costumes accordingly. Some, like Superman, are subtle. Some, like Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, are massive (GL's case is that he lost his Green Lantern Power Ring and switched up for a Sinestro Corps ring.)
- Irredeemable: The Plutonian changes his costume after his Face–Heel Turn from a white suit with a red cape to a red suit with no cape.
- Iron Fist: During the final few issues of Power Man And Iron Fist, Iron Fist switched to a red variant of his classic costume after his guilt over accidentally causing K'un-Lun's near destruction temporarily turned him evil. The red costume made a comeback in a later Black Panther storyline where Iron Fist was corrupted by Chiantang and forced to fight the Panther.
- New Warriors: Speedball post-Civil War (2006) dropped his bright orange, yellow, and blue spandex in favor of a new name, "Penance", and an accompanying outfit that was black and red with metal armor and spikes. LOTS of spikes. On the INSIDE. Which served a dual purpose: he needs to feel pain in order to activate his incredibly destructive powers, and when he found the guy who really blew up Stamford, he put the costume on him.
- Nightwing:
- During his fake Face–Heel Turn, he wore a red and black costume instead of his typical blue and black one. No one was fooled for a second.
- And an evil future Nightwing, called Deathwing, initially wore a pointier version of the disco costume, before switching for a costume that includes shoulder spikes, a plunging neckline, and a nipple ring. Although it was eventually revealed that he was just some guy with Fake Memories.
- The red and black came back for Nightwing (New 52), with the idea to have all the former Robins in red. Fans were initially not happy, citing that he either looks like his evil self or Terry from Batman Beyond. After implementation, it's gradually settled to more of a Broken Base.
- In Nightwing (Rebirth) he goes back to the blue-and-black ... and a variant of the red-and-black costume is worn by the Rebirth incarnation of Deathwing.
- The Outsiders: Looker was known, among other things, for having a spectacularly ugly costume. When she became a vampire, that pink, black, white, and powder blue eyesore was mercifully dropped, and she now wears a surprisingly more sensible black Badass Longcoat in most continuities.
- Shazam!:
- Mary Marvel was traditionally treated as the "kid sister" of the super-hero community and wore a white tunic-and-skirt combo. When she lost her powers, hijacked Black Adam's, and went evil, she traded in her traditional costume for a black, body-hugging number with a mini-can-that-even-count-as-a-skirt. Note that the trope image is not this costume. Mary once ran into a kinky evil twin in an alternate universe, which was Played for Laughs.
- Later, when she goes full-on evil (actually possessed by Desaad) in Final Crisis, she trades the black miniskirt for an even trashier latex outfit◊. This one comes complete with thigh-high boots, a cleavage window, and a shaved head (except for a pair of pink pigtails).
- In Justice Society of America, she gives Billy the same powers, and he becomes Captain-Marvel-As-Biker-Punk. See it here◊.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Fiona Fox originally wore a one-piece yellow and white jumpsuit. After her Face–Heel Turn, she traded it in for a black pants/tank top ensemble with fingerless gloves. She also either tied up or cut her hair - either way, it's considerably shorter as a villain than as a Freedom Fighter. Funnily enough, she kept the cute yellow bow that had been coming and going from her hair for the new getup.
- Spider-Man:
- When Peter first found his black costume during the Secret Wars (1984), it just gave him unlimited web-shooters. It was later retconned into granting the wearer superhuman strength and agility. Eventually, Spidey discovered that it was the cause of his fatigue, taking his body out at night while he was sleeping. Reed Richards figured out that the suit was actually a symbiote trying to permanently bond with him. His rejection hurt it and it tried to fight back. After he got rid of it, it found Eddie Brock, turning him into Venom and giving them both the means to fight Spider-Man. In a way, Spider-Man's black costume is an inversion: the costume turned him evil (or just amplified his aggression to feed off his adrenaline, depending on the explanation).note
- Done again when Otto Octavius steals Peter's body and becomes the Superior Spider-Man. He replaces all of the blue coloring on the classic costume with black, and adds claws to the hands and feet. After he seemingly purges the rest of Peter's soul from his body, he modifies the costume again, ditching the original look altogether for a more sinister look, complete with four waldoes that, in a way, mimic his old tentacles.
- Ai Apaec, the impostor Spider-Man from the Dark Avengers (succeeding Mac Gargan in the role), wears a black Spidey outfit inspired by the original symbiote costume. For some reason, it turns his normal form (giant spider from the waist down) into a six-armed human body.
- At the beginning of the All-New Marvel NOW! Amazing Spider-Man, Black Cat switches out the white in her costume for black and added a lot of metal belts (or something), and is acting as the Woman Scorned to Spidey for what Doc did to her as the Superior Spider-Man.
- A partial occasion of this is Rose and Thorn, a DC Comics character with a dual personality. Rose wore modest outfits, and her alter ego Thorn, if not evil, was definitely more mischievous and dark. She, of course, wore the quasi-Stripperiffic outfit.
- Star Wars:
- In the Dark Empire comics taking place after the movies, Luke Skywalker undergoes Sith apprenticeship in order to explore the Dark Side as well as convert other dark-siders over to his side and sabotage the newly revived Emperor's plans. Naturally, the Emperor takes it upon himself to make a "better", more Darth Vader-like artificial hand for Luke, and he gets an ominous-looking cape and glowing eyes. His costume is very Vaderesque.
- Star Wars Infinities, the Expanded Universe's What If? series, has Darth Vader, after going through the same betray-the-Emperor-to-save-his-child thing as in the movie, survives, possibly because Leia was there too. At the very end of the comic, we see him again, as one of the good guys... in a costume basically identical to the old one, just white and with a little more cloth, a little less armor. Considering how little space was left, this might just have been shorthand for "Hey, Vader's part of the Rebellion now!" since readers might not have known otherwise. The costume is memetic now and has its own action figure.
- Supergirl:
- Post-Crisis Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, did this several times.
- The first time was in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), when she is captured by Darkseid and turned into one of his Furies. This was very brief, but during that time she wore, essentially, skintight red-and-black pants and a black bra.
- The second time was when she was hit with black kryptonite in Supergirl (2005): Girl Power, causing an evil duplicate to suddenly emerge from her body... already wearing a black version of her normal costume. This trope was also lampshaded an issue later, when evil Supergirl switched her costume with the original's at superspeed, in an attempt to fool Batman and Superman as to who was the evil clone. The black costume returned in a later Justice League of America storyline where a battle with the Omega Man accidentally reawakened the Dark Supergirl persona within her.
- Death & the Family: When Kara becomes possessed by the evil spirits of Silver Banshee's Clan, her Supergirl suit transforms into a sinister, tattered, white-and-black version. To drive the point home, her hair becomes black and white and her face chalk white.
- In Adventure Comics #313: The Condemned Legionnaires (1963), Supergirl was exposed to a piece of red kryptonite that created Satan Girl, who likewise wore a black outfit. Her version had a cowl and no S-symbol because her identity was originally a mystery.
- In Red Daughter of Krypton Kara flies off the handle and becomes a Red Lantern (Red Lanterns are berserk anti-heroes at best, and evil jerkasses at worst). She starts wearing a red-and-black version of her costume, complete with a red domino mask and a different Chest Insignia.
- Post-Crisis Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, did this several times.
- Superman: Cyborg Superman from the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc in 1993, who was already evil, ended up dropping all pretense of being Superman in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey when he commandeered an Apokoliptian robotic body and refashioned it for his use to terrorize the planet Apokolips.
- Teen Titans: when Raven had a Face–Heel Turn due to Trigon's influence, she started wearing a bikini under her cloak. She then implanted demonic souls into several Titans, including Changeling (Beast Boy), who wore a version of his red-and-white costume in red-and-black, and Deathwing, who started wearing a red shirt and a leather vest with even more spikes.
- What's New? with Phil and Dixie: Phil Foglio's comic has Dixie undergoing a literal lampshaded costume switch, complete with expanded breasts.
- X-Men:
- During Inferno (1988), Madelyne Pryor, having just undergone a Face–Heel Turn (into her own Stripperiffic costume) and now calling herself the Goblin Queen, brainwashed Havok into becoming her Goblin Prince. His duties included wearing this costume◊. According to X-writers at the time, this particular ensemble was supposed to symbolize the evil in his soul. Basically it was made by throwing razor-sharp glass at his normal costume until it looked suitably evil.
- After being branded as terrorists and fugitives in the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men, Cyclops, Emma Frost and Illyana Rasputin wore black outfits. Cyke's visor is basically a big 'X' across his head since he's trying to start a revolution and is basically using the X-Men's X as a gang sign. Magneto, after a long stint as an anti-hero, started wearing white but switched to black at the start of his ongoing. He went back to wearing white during the 2019 relaunch, where he is once again allied with the X-Men.
- Emma previously switched to a black costume during her brief stint as a member of Norman Osborn's Dark X-Men during the Utopia crossover with Dark Avengers.
- The Marvel comic New Mutants had a cover depicting the team as evil/good variations. In a time-slipped story, two NMs see the others as future villains possessed by Amahl Farouk or members of the Hellfire Club. Basically, 1980s colored punk hairstyles, leather and denim cut-offs, chains, tattoos, and smoking. However, when girl-werewolf Wolfsbane reverts to her human shape, she is wearing a rather nice green evening gown.
- In The Dark Phoenix Saga, Jean Grey's switch to Dark Phoenix was marked by her green costume turning red. There are subtler changes in the Phoenix's costume that have been ignored in later Phoenix stories: when she first gets her powers, the phoenix symbol on the costume's black neckpiece is small. By the time she starts acting Anti-Hero-ish and being unapologetic about it, the phoenix symbol fills the neckpiece. When Wyngarde's mind control pushes her over the edge and the red suit debuts, the neckpiece is gone, the phoenix symbol now being so large that it covers her torso — a continuation of the idea that the symbol's growth means an increase in how much Jean is Not Herself. Later artists forget, and though Dark Phoenix's symbol is always torso-covering, the good Phoenix's chest symbol always fills the neckpiece. Amusingly, a later host of the Phoenix, Rachel Summers, once showed up in the red costume, immediately alarming her teammates until she explained that she just didn't like green.
- Whenever Apocalypse transforms an existing character into one of his Horsemen, he usually gives them a Darker and Edgier makeover to complement their new alignment. Examples include replacing Angel's amputated wings with metallic blades and giving him a skull mask after turning him into Death, causing Sunfire's entire body to become covered in atomic flames after making him into Famine, and dressing The Incredible Hulk in a suit of spiky armor and a black mask after turning him into War. When Gambit was made into Death, not only does his hair turn white and his skin blue-black (say it with me: Uhhh!), but he finally gets the memo that black cloaks are cooler and wears a black bondage cloak instead of his usual, shabby trenchcoat.
- During Inferno (1988), Madelyne Pryor, having just undergone a Face–Heel Turn (into her own Stripperiffic costume) and now calling herself the Goblin Queen, brainwashed Havok into becoming her Goblin Prince. His duties included wearing this costume
- Yamara: Happens instantaneously to Fea, when Dark Natasha sneaks up behind the heroes and slip a Helm of Opposite Alignment over her head. Next panel, Fea's gone from ditzy faerie to black-clad biker chick, complete with viper tattoo.
- Fea's toad familiar tries to do a costume switch of his own, with sharp false teeth and a spiked leather collar but is told by Fea not to be ridiculous.
- Young Justice: One storyline involved time changing so the YJ team lacked the three founders and was much more Chaotic Neutral. Arrowette wore exactly the costume from the page quote.
