Best/Worst "Upgraded" Costumes

Let's face it, kiddies: When a series is a Long Runner, characters are gonna gain new and exciting outfits after a while. Sometimes, this attire looks pretty impressive.

Other times, you find yourself wondering what the artist was smoking, and why didn't he share it with with the rest of the class?

For instance, I happen to like this◊ outfit of Bishop's. It's pretty straightforward, and one look at it lets you know that he's a former soldier/law enforcement type.

On the other hand, this◊ (I'm guessing) Ted Turner^note due to the color scheme-created outfit makes me laugh my head off. Granted, A) It was designed by a 13-year-old girl, and B) it only appeared once, but still . . .

So, anyway, what do you consider some of the best and worst "updated" outfits? Bear in mind: It has to be a character who's gone through several changes, not just "The same costume, but a different color" nonsense. As a result, probably a majority of the outfits will be from the X Men series. Make sure you give a semi-plausible reason for your like or dislike.

Cosmic Boy from LegionOfSuperheroes,◊ in his black 'outfit' that not only seemed to leave a giant fleshy 'T' in the middle of his chest, but also made him look like one of the Village People. It has 70's written all over it, but goes one step further into pure audacity. Just goes to show that, in regards to Cosmic's original (and later,) costume(s), Real Men Wear Pink.

edited 27th Oct '13 8:32:12 PM by kkhohoho

I absolutely adore the current Captain Marvel uniform◊. I think it's far and away the best looks Carol's ever had.

First off, it looks like a uniform. As a retired Air Force Colonel, it makes sense for her to wear a uniform. It also has a bit of a flight suit look, which makes sense for a pilot. So it makes sense for the character. More sense than a swimsuit and thigh-high boots ever did. The starburst also seems like a better symbol for the space-loving Carol than a lightning bolt did.

But there's also the colour scheme. Black is fine. You'll never look bad in black. But the blue and red is just a much more striking combination. Black will seldom make a person look twice. Blue and red will. The red offsets the blue really well.

The uniform makes her look strong and authoritative while also retaining a sense of approachability. It is, in every way, better than any costume she's ever had. It's the perfect look for her, and it's just a fantastic design in general. I love it so much.

Much agreement on Carol's costume.

Nightwing moving from the disco collar to the blue and yellow costume, and then again to the blue and black costume. Pretty steady progression to superior costumes until he found one that fit. (I personally think the current black and red look is just different for the sake of difference, and neither better nor worse.)

Iron Man's Extremis armor is still one of his best armors, if only because it was the first armor that consistently looked mechanical rather than like spandex.

Monica Rambeau's new Spectrum costume is much better than her previous outfits. Her original was very firmly 80's, the second one looked deliberately bad due to Nextwave's whole deal and stuck around far too long. Although it's accompanied by a dreadful hairstyle change...

The Ben Reilly Spider-Man costume is an interesting case of reinventing the wheel and somehow coming up with something just as good.

The only thing I didn't like about the Spider-Ben costume is the split boots. I really like the the glove design where it was red on the thumb , forefinger, and pinkie mostly because it caught your eye (which is somewhat similar to the costumes for Kaine, Miles, and Ultimate!Jess).

i really liked Spidey's Ends of the Earth◊ and Future Foundation◊ costumes. you'd think a majorly white outfit wouldn't fit the webhead, but i think it's pulled off nicely.

edited 27th Oct '13 9:28:30 PM by crimsonstorm15

Let's see... for one of the worst, I'd say Black Canary's outfit during the JLI years.

For the best, I'd say the Robin outfit. The revised version of Dick's costume in the New 52 is a bit garish, but almost anything is better than the tightie-greenies that pre-reboot Dick & Jason wore as Robin.

Yeah, Spidey's FF outfit is just plain cool.

Thor's worst was probably this 90s monstrosity◊, but his current outfit◊ looks practical (with the armor), while still being faithful to Jack Kirby's original design.

Thanos, Valkyrie, and Carol Danvers all benefited from gaining pants.

Doctor Strange getting a mask has gone down as being a terrible idea. Strange was awesome because he wasn't a traditional super hero. His current outfit is pretty cool as well. I also dug how Marcos Martin updated his classic costume by switching out the black tights for slacks and dress shoes. It's a small change, but it works better.

Iron Man's nose was the greatest costume change ever. It inspired terror in his enemies!

Speaking of the JLI, I always hated Power Girl's yellow and white costume from that era, that made her look like a lumpy, part-peeled banana.

Agreed. Also, the one they gave Doctor Light. Yuck.

i think I enjoy the Young Justice designs of Hawkgirl and Hawkwoman more than any design I've ever seen of theirs in the comics. And as much as a I loathe Ultimate Cap as a character, I think his design was a good modernization of Captain America.

Also, the Steve Rogers Super Soldier suit.

edited 28th Oct '13 10:41:48 AM by comicwriter

Nightwing's current costume is a poor attempt at D Ccomics trying to be gritty. I'm still thinking of a good upgraded costume. It's most likely Marvel which for me has the better ones.

I do have to admit, I'm a fan of Nightwing's blue & black number (the "Ninja Suit", as I like to nickname it).

Speaking of Captain Marvel, Gil Kane's redesign for Mar-Vell deserves a place in the Hall o' Best Upgrades. My nominee for one of the all-time worst would be Wesley Dodds's temporary downgrade to yellow/purple leotards as the Sandman.

edited 29th Oct '13 5:42:59 PM by Jhimmibhob

Yeah, his original Kree uniform, with the planet on his chest, was pretty dumb. The red and blue works a lot better on him and Carol.

Best: I'm surprised no one's listed the black Spider-Man suit from Secret Wars. Classic. Also, Miles Morales' costume did a pretty good job of establishing him as unique from Ultimate Peter. I really like Thor's metal sleeves, too, there never seemed to be a very good reason for him to just go bare armed. Wasp has had a ton of new costumes over the years, but let's be honest, they're all an improvement over the pointy head.

Hmmm: I'm not sure how I feel about the FF costumes. Obviously some are terrible, like Sue's cleavage window in the shape of a 4 from the 90s, but I can't really decide if I like the blue and black or the blue and white better.

Worst: Black Knight's 90s redesign with a leather jacket. He had a leather jacket on top of his armor. I heard he's still wearing it, so apparently it's got a certain amount of 90s charm. I never liked Steve Rogers' costume when he became US Agent. Black doesn't work for Cap.

Not a fan of the new Electro costume (at least "new" as it was in 2011. Not sure if they changed it back). Haven't actually read any Spider-Man since then (for unrelated reasons).

edited 28th Oct '13 3:54:42 PM by supergod

as far as "upgraded" costumes go, i have nothing but love for the Batsuit◊ from Batman Beyond. that was the coolest costume ever to me as a kid.

I'm kind of sad that it's missing a cape, but I actually really like that suit, and Mc Ginnis in general. It was kind of funny to have a Batman who was a lot like Spider-Man.

It's been a few years since they made this change, but I thought the minor change to Hal Jordan's Green Lantern uniform was a definite improvement. The green on his torso now stops at the waist. On the other hand, the seams and shoulder pads they added with the New 52 weren't needed at all, but they don't take too much away from the costume. They just add a little clutter.

I sort of dig Batman from DC One Million◊ Maybe it's coz I can sort of see the mouthless cowl and featureless white eyes help make batman seem more inhuman to the eyes of regular criminals.

JP Valley Batman◊ is easily in the run for worst.

edited 29th Oct '13 2:02:20 PM by CobraPrime

I gotta back Captain Marvel's costume upgrade too. She's military. She should have a military-esque uniform. She should absolutely not be fighting crime in a swimsuit.

My only complaint with the Ends of the Earth Spider-Man costume was the boots. Spidey's palms and the soles of his feet should be, if not uncovered, then covered by a very thin fabric. He's not sticking to any walls through those boots.

A decision was made at the beginning of his existence as a character that Spider-Man's stickiness can work through spandex - in fairness, early comics didn't think too hard on the logistics of their superpowers - and that's more or less grandfathered in, which justifies him having a full-body costume without exposed palms or soles - which would make more sense logistically, but be harder to draw well without looking like a silly costume. But there's been a thing lately of putting rubber shoe soles on Spider-Man's feet. Ends of the Earth did it, the Amazing film did it, and Superior did it.

Being able to stick to things by his hands and feet is very spiderlike, but when you cover those up, the power changes; I've never heard of spiders being capable of localized gravity manipulation.

apparently, Spidey's wall-crawling ability has been explained as:

So, in other words, it has nothing to do with spiders at all, and has more in common with Kitty Pryde's phasing ability than anything else?

Yeah, I think I prefer the "sticky little spider fingers" explanation better.

Cant we just say "BECAUSE SCIENCE!" and accept it?

Science is a methodology, not an explanation, so no.