Iconic Outfit / Comic Books

Iconic Outfit in Comic Books.

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• This is the reason why superhero characters wear brightly colored spandex. Also why most older characters are still wearing the same outfit they did decades earlier. The one time Superman had his outfit changed in canon is one of the most maligned moments of the 90s. And Superman's outfit was originally designed simply to be colorful and easy to draw, because comics had very limited printing capabilities in the 1940s. Whenever the comics change a character's look significantly, it likely won't stick to merchandising or adaptations. To wit; grey Hulk, Spider-Man and his black outfit, and Wolverine and his bone claws. Later costume changes tend to be only minor alterations over the classic costumes, such as getting rid of the trunks-over-pants (Superman and Batman, in fact, were the last to wear them, until the New 52 reboot in 2011 — and even then, Superman's trunks were brought back on DC Rebirth, because they were just that iconic) or giving them a more "sports-like" design (think sharkskin swimming suits).
• Archie Comics:
  • Jughead's hat. It's The Artifact from an early 20th century style where boys would tear up old fedoras and wear them, however it has become entirely associated with Jughead. Attempts to modernize the hat or remove it have failed.
  • Archie is associated with a sweater (usually with an "R" on it) and a bow-tie. He hasn't worn it in decades but it's his go-to "retro" outfit in most artwork.
• Batman's silhouette is so iconic he has a villain whose goal in life is just to steal his cowl. The fight for Batman's successor was even called Battle for the Cowl, and the Cowl is considered a metonynm for Batman.
  • Batman's outfit is continually tweaked as this infographic shows nicely◊; the key is that the outline is identical.
  • Scans_Daily has concluded that Russian fur cap that Batman wears in Superman: Red Son is most likely the awesomest article of clothing in fiction. It's okay if you want to touch it. That is the natural response to a hat so sexy.◊
  • Cassandra Cain's stitched-up version of the cowl is so distinctive that it was brought back in 2016, a decade after she'd stopped being Batgirl, for her reintroduction into the Bat-Family, despite the fact that it actually originated during Helena Bertinelli's brief time as Batgirl.
  • The Batman Beyond outfit is also considered one of the best versions of the costume ever, especially for its streamlined futuristic aesthetic that still incorporates the classic silhouette, while ditching the cape and underpants, with a retractable gliding cape, rocket boots and other gimmicks. Most notably it allows Batman to hang upside down like a bat, and it's the most bat-looking of his outfits.
  • Batman's Rogues Gallery has the market cornered on this trope. The Joker's purple tuxedo, The Riddler's green outfit with the question marks and bowler hat, Catwoman's catsuit, The Penguin's High-Class Glass and umbrellas... the list goes on. Speaking of The Joker, his Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist attire from The Killing Joke, despite being seen in just a few panels of an one-shot story, is still being referenced every now and then to this day.
  • The Riddler actually has two iconic outfits: the suit and bowler hat, and the tights. It depends on whether the portrayal is homaging Frank Gorshin or not.
  • Two-Face plays with this a bit, since he doesn't so much have an iconic outfit as an iconic style. In pretty much every depiction, to represent his fractured psyche and to match his half-ruined looks he'll usually wear a mismatched suit which is essentially two halves of different suits sown together in the middle to form one. Thanks to Depending on the Artist, this might be simply two different colours, such as the Scarface (1983)-inspired half-white, half-black appearance of the BtAS version or his golden-age half-orange, half-purple suit, or two different styles or fashions, such as half-pinstripe, half-checkered, or a suit where one half is well-maintained and the other half damaged such as the Dark Knight version. In extreme cases, you might get something like the Batman Forever version, which is half-normal suit, half-Fashion-Victim Villain.
  • Black Mask's outfit has varied over the years. He was initially portrayed with a brown suit with black stripes and matching fedora, and his mask more closely resembled that of a human face. Once his mask got burned to his face, he was portrayed with a Skull for a Head, and he started wearing black suits instead. While Batman: Arkham Origins wasn't his first appearance with a white suit (that was The Batman), it certainly popularized the design, and was the one most frequently used in subsequent media.
• Cerebus the Aardvark's black vest and necklace of gold medallions. As such, it's a pretty powerful sign that Nothing Is the Same Anymore when he starts wearing a fancy suit in "High Society" after getting involved in politics, and later switches to white priest's vestments in "Church & State" after getting elected Pope of the Western Church.
• Conan the Barbarian can't be illustrated without the furry loincloth. You can give him a BFS, long black hair, and otherwise make him a Walking Shirtless Scene, but he's still not Conan without a furry loincloth. Note that neither the original Conan pulp stories by Robert E. Howard nor the first Arnold movie nor even the Frank Frazetta paintings had him looking like this very often; the look mostly comes from Marvel Comics, and the second Arnold movie bowed to this.
• Cosmic Boy has gone through a lot of costumes but variations on his Silver Age look — lilac/pink bodysuit with black down the sides, a tall band collar, convex shoulder bands, with four beveled metal medallions on the chest — are the most prevalent and show up in all animated adaptations. Usually the underwear on the outside is left out.
• Deadpool has his iconic black and red outfit. So iconic that it has little to no alterations when it appears in movies, cartoons or video games.
• That one time Deadpool wore Marvel Girl's outfit. Because it was burned into the eyes of readers (you can't unsee it, even if you've never seen it!), but still remembered (though the panties turn up again later).
• Doom Patrol: Robotman's apparel in Grant Morrison's run of wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket with shoulder pads proved to be so prominent that he was depicted dressed that way in Gerard Way's run, the live-action TV adaptation and the Max revival of Young Justice (2010).
• Fantastic Four:
  • The Four's blue spandex suits. Even if the gloves, collars, boots, and belts might alternate between white and black, all you need to signify Marvel's First Family are the blue suits.
  • Doctor Doom's Powered Armor. Especially iconic since it's the only thing that he wears.
• All the Green Lanterns have their Green Lantern Corps uniforms, but Hal Jordan also has his brown pilot jacket. He's almost never seen without it.
• Gwen Stacy's headband. The black headband has become such an iconic symbol that it's appeared in movies, cartoons, and even Gwen's long-lost daughter Sarah was given one to remind us she looks exactly like Gwen.
  • The outfit Gwen Stacy died in: Long green coat, black boots, shirt and a purple skirt. So iconic The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actually pretty faithfully translated that outfit on to the screen and as soon as that photo linked everyone who knew anything about the character figured out the Foregone Conclusion.
  • Mary Jane Watson has a slew of iconic outfits over the years (listed on her own page), but what people remember are from her first introduction: the sleeveless black tank top and tight blue jeans and white jacket (which she carries and later wears in he follow-up issue). Later reprints and redesigns have made the pants beige in color or purple, which is what Joe Quesada assumed at the end of One More Day.
• In Hellblazer, John Constantine has been wearing the same trenchcoat for years, complete with a tie and a cigarette. A lot of others tried to copy his look.
• The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk's most usual clothing, purple pants (that resist everything!).
• Iron Man has an iconic color scheme. His armor changes every few years, but with a few notable exceptions (the Silver Centurion, War Machine and Marvel NOW! armors), it's always red and yellow/gold ever since the late 60s. The helmet is also very consistent with its stylized eyes and mouth, with the Modular Armor being one of the few without a mouth.
• Justice Society of America: Stargirl's braces. She got them all the way back in Issue 2 of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., and even though she later got "invisible" braces, she still has them. Their possible removal was a central plot point in the last issue Geoff Johns wrote in the 2007-2011 run.
• Lucky Luke wears a white cowboy hat, a yellow shirt, a red scarf around his neck, a black jacket, denim pants, and brown boots.
• In Noob, Castorga enforces this for Mist, who has come out of a ten-year retirement and hence has very outdated equipment. He gets upgrade items for Mist's equipment instead of entirely new stuff because he's counting on the moral boosting aspect of her return and is afraid people who remember her won't recognize her in another outfit.
• The Punisher: Frank Castle's white skull t-shirt is about as close to a uniform he has. It was considered one of the highlights of the second season of the Daredevil series when, in the final episode, he showed up with his iconic skull shirt.
• Delirium has a bunch of different hairstyles in The Sandman, but what the fandom thinks of when they picture Delirium's hair is a style with multicolored flowing locks on one side of her head and a buzzcut on the other side (she appeared to have that hairstyle in her first major appearance, but closer inspection reveals the long part to be more like a mohawk that doesn't stick up. Which is why it keeps changing sides).
• Shazam!:
  • Captain Marvel's outfit is red, with a lightning bolt on the chest, gold sash, and a distinctive short cape (white with gold trim) worn over the left shoulder; the visible flap and buttons disappeared after The Golden Age of Comic Books, and the New 52 added a hood, but it's mostly remained unchanged for 70 years. Interestingly, his civilian form, Billy Batson, has this too, — he's one of the few comic book characters who still has a Limited Wardrobe (sometimes justified by his lack of money), and even in adaptations he almost always wears some variant of a red shirt/sweater/jacket (sometimes with yellow embellishments) and blue jeans, which comes off as Morphic Resonance.
  • His teammates, Mary and Freddy, have almost identical outfits. Mary's has a skirt and short sleeves, though; while it was originally red, she later switched to white. (Red is more iconic, but surprisingly white is also popular.) Freddy's costume is just Billy's, except blue and with a red cape. Mary's cape is more "traditional" than Billy's, while Freddy's seems to be Depending on the Artist.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Antoine's blue soldier uniform with gold trim, red cuffs and two buttons paired with red boots. The only arc he doesn't wear it is on his honeymoon. The reboot ditches the uniform so he fits in better with the SEGA cast, but it's so well known that most fan artists continue to draw it.
    • Knuckle’s hat from the OVA was carried over to the Alternate Timeline story Mobius: 25 Years Later, where it's finally complemented with a form-fitting gray sleeveless jumpsuit (with his trademark white chest swoosh on the front), "Crocodile" Dundee-esque leather vest, cowboy belt, and brown leather boots. It's become an Iconic Outfit of its own. It appeared briefly in the regular timeline too, as a piece of clothing once worn by an ancestor of his. According to one letters page, the reason he never wears it is so it won't get damaged.
  • Amy in Sonic the Comic has an Unlimited Wardrobe however fanart most commonly has her wearing a sweatshirt with a heart on it and a green skirt. Amy actually owns many sweatshirts with different designs on them in canon.
• Spider-Man has two iconic outfits — the classic red and blue tights and the symbiote/black costume. Immediately after getting rid of the black suit, Spidey was temporarily costumeless and had to borrow one of Human Torch's old uniforms, which lacked a mask so he also wore a paper bag over his head. While only appearing for the one issue, the Bombastic Bagman costume has never been forgotten. It frequently shows up as an unlockable alternate outfit in Spider-Man games and is even occasionally alluded to in the comics themselves.
• Supergirl's costume has an iconic, easily and instantly recognizable look: Superman's costume minus the pants plus a blue or — usually — red skirt. She has worn many different outfits since The Supergirl From Krypton (1959) in the late 1950's, but most of them are variations of her first gendered costume. Her most famous and most popular uniforms are: Original◊, "Hot pants"◊, "Headband"◊, Supergirl Matrix◊ and Post Crisis Supergirl Kara◊.
• Superman wears the most iconic super-hero costume, but Clark Kent also has a trademark look. Whenever a story is not specifically grounded in the present day (think Batman the Animated Series) Clark is usually seen wearing the fedora that used to be a standard part of his outfit in the 40's and 50's. Jimmy Olsen often wears a sweater vest and a bow tie.
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have their masks, belts, and elbow/knee pads. It's especially iconic because that's the only thing they wear.
• Due to a strict Limited Wardrobe policy, heroes of classical Franco-Belgian Comics have iconic outfits:
  • In Tintin: Tintin's white shirt, sky-blue sweater, brown plus fours and white socks (and trenchcoat for cold and wet weather); other main characters have unforgettable outfits: Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Thompson and Thomson... The orange spacesuits they wear in Explorers On The Moon are also iconic.
  • Spirou's red bellhop uniform.
  • The Smurfs' white hat and pants... and blue skin, even if the last one is not an outfit.
  • Lucky Luke's white cowboy hat, yellow shirt, black vest, red bandana, blue pants and brown boots.
• In Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem wears a black jacket over a bare chest exposing his tattoos, black pants, black boots and his signature asymmetrical sunglasses. He's almost never seen wearing anything else, but he does seem to like going naked.
• The Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta. It's even used in Anonymous-based protests. Possibly subverted in that the mask is Older Than Steam.
• Watchmen:
  • If an iconic outfit can be extended to other people, fanart of Silhouette shows her as pretty fond of nurses, probably because the girl she kisses in the movie is a nurse.
  • The canonical iconic outfit of Watchmen is Dr Manhattan's lack thereof.
  • Rorschach's mask is his face.
  • This goes more for the film than for the comic, but Adrian Veidt's delicious purple blazer so qualifies. He's dressed very innocuously most of the time, and the jacket's not exactly odd for the 80s, but when you think of Adrian Veidt, you probably think of him in that blazer. God, so purple.
• Wolverine has two outfits that are used with almost equal prominence: he started in yellow and blue, moved to a brown and tan outfit, then returned to the yellow and blue because Jim Lee liked the look. The yellow and blue is slightly more prominent currently, but brown and tan has been used on occasion nevertheless. Another iconic feature for all his costumes is the distinctive brow extensions of their cowls; even in silhouette they're instantly recognizable.
  • And when he's not sporting either of these costumes, Wolvie's likely to sport a white tanktop, an outfit which was a Canon Immigrant from the X-Men Film Series.
• Wonder Woman with her corset and star spangled panties. Her original costume had loose mid-thigh shorts (sometimes mistaken for a skirt) and DC has tried to give her pants on at least a couple of occasions. Never sticks.
• The X-Men are invariably remembered, redrawn, and cosplayed in their 90's era Jim Lee outfits, particularly Cyclops's blue-and-yellow chest belt and his Underwear of Power, Rogue's yellow-and-green bodysuit with headband and bomber jacket, Psylocke's Leotard of Power, Storm's white uniform◊, and Jubilee's bright yellow trench coat and pink sunglasses. That the X-Men wore these during the height of their popularity (plus the '90s cartoon and Marvel vs. Capcom games) probably has something to do with it. Only Psylocke's bathing suit has survived to the present day. Also, considering that she only wore it for two issues, the costume that Rogue fashioned for herself in the Savage Land from the tattered pieces of an old costume and a yellow T-shirt (Uncanny X-Men #269 and 274, again drawn by Jim Lee) is still insanely popular among cosplayers, fan-artists and people asking for sketches at comic conventions.
  • Storm also has her fan-beloved 80's leather outfit and mohawk◊, with the mohawk eventually making a comeback when Brian Wood took over the book in 2013, as well as. In addition to frequently showing up as an alternate costume in video games (such as Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance), the mohawk look has also been used for action figures and statues. The mohawk was even used in X-Men: Apocalypse, which had the advantage of being an 80's Period Piece.
  • For Storm it's ironic — for the overwhelming majority of her history she has worn black, with this◊ being the look she keeps coming back to. The height of the series' popularity happened to come in the few years she wore white.
  • For Jean Grey, it's the Phoenix outfit - partly because many forget she actually exists outside the Phoenix Saga and partly because X-Men change their outfits often and Jean's have little in common - nothing like how Cyke's got the visor and always wears blue or Colossus's consistent red-and-yellow that would make for an idea of What A Jean Grey Costume Should Look Like. The Phoenix outfit is the costume that is uniquely Jean and has a very important meaning. She even wore the outfit for a while during the 90s when not in Phoenix mode. Right behind it is the Dark Phoenix outfit - when Phoenix Turns Red, start running.
• Young Avengers:
  • Wiccan, his cape and his (no longer worn) winged head piece.◊ Everyone remembers the cape. Everyone remembers that time Wiccan worn the cape over his civilians. The Young Avengers el-jay comm has declared Wiccan/Cape to be canon and the comm's unanimously accepted OTP.
  • Kate Bishop's "original" outfit consisting of a torn purple bridesmaid dress, Black Widow's belt, Mockingbird's mask, and the original Hawkeye's bow — ah remembered well. (This also led to her initially being referred to as "Hawkingbird") Although the second run's purple body suit with hip panels has become Kate's go-to costume (which artist David Aja noted as becoming standard in spite of being used in a single issue of the Hawkeye (2012) comic).
• Zatanna's tuxedo shirt, coat, tails, top hat, fishnets and thigh-high hooker boots.

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