Best/Worst "Upgraded" Costumes

Speaking of which, I love Otto's design in The Spectacular Spider Man.

And Atom James's avatar reminded me: I abhor Hank McCoy's blue, furry mode in all its iterations. It's something that lazy writers always come back to—not because readers like it, or because the look is visually compelling (it's not), but because it's handy to milk for pathos and hang subplots upon.

edited 20th Nov '13 7:49:29 AM by Jhimmibhob

shame it's the form of Beast i'm most familiar with. (besides, chicks dig the fuzzy.)

Cosmic Boy's "Magic Mike" haberdashery got mentioned on the first page, but it was only a little worse than any of the other Bronze Age costume updates inflicted upon the Legion. There's Saturn Girl's proto-Storm one-and-a-half piece, Shadow Lass's bikini, and Princess Projectra's ... whatsit. I have seen the 31st century, and the very ceilings shall have shag carpet!

Eh, I like furry Beast way more than I like "blue Wolverine" Beast.

edited 20th Nov '13 9:18:37 AM by Heatth

x4 That's really not true.

I liked Lion!Beast the best. And while I like the Future Foundation costumes, bring back the blue. Please, Robinson, I'll do anything you want.

Alright, "Superior Venom" Looks really damn cool.

very cool.

Believe it or not, Vampirella had a Redesign-Her-Costume contest already in Warren times. Add Harris with her Battle-Nun suit; optionally google "Project Rooftop: Re-Vamp", cue Dynamite dressing her in fairly normal street clothing as a vaguely political (?!) statement...the result in all cases is: You can't improve the stuff of legends. (Incredibly Lame Pun intended.)

But you already knew that before, didn't you?

I really like Hank Pym's Wasp costume. Probably his best one, with Yellowjacket as the runner-up.

There was a period during the 90's where Nova, instead of his "black with yellow suns on the chest" suit, had a maroon one : That's the only image I could find on a short notice.◊ It's not as horrible as some other examples, but it was a stepdown.

On the other hand, Namorita sometimes donned an atlantean armor instead of a swimsuit in some issues. It was looking nice, too, but I can't find an image.

edited 11th Jan '14 5:06:13 AM by purplefishman

Didnt Colossus briefly have a costume that was just shorts? While i dont really care for the shorts aspect, i think that shirtless Colossus was a lot cooler looking than the "Russian strongman" look he had in the 70s (or for that matter, that weird sleeveless thing he had in the 80s, man, the 80s werent a good time for x-men costumes). I know theyve modified his original look since then, but i still think that this is one character who doesnt really need a costume.

Agreed. Colossus never looked better than the jeans and tank top look he had in the 90's X-Men cartoon.

You know, I couldn't help but think of Colossus going out completely without costume (any clothing could be considered costumery). Kitty would likely approve, I'd say.

Wonder Man has had some goofy costumes. This might be the worst.◊

Edit: Crap. OK, here's a different link.

edited 4th Feb '14 6:20:57 PM by Tiamatty

Link just leads me to their front page.

So Firebird's got a pretty cool costume.◊ Here's her original costume.◊ Here's what she switched to in WCA #17. Yeesh. That's just awful.

OUCH. I think her "Christian missionary superhero" schtick is pretty awesome, but wow, emphasizing it was a bad choice.

Yeah, that's like Nightcrawler fighting in full vestments.

Did... she just stop Hank Pym from killing himself? What issue is that?

Yes she did. It was West Coast Avengers #17, from 1987, and Hank Pym was totally about to shoot himself in the head. Yeah. Pym was actually suicidal for a couple issues, which came out of fucking nowhere. Seriously, he was doing really well, he was happy, and then Whirlwind insulted him, and he decided he had no reason to live any more.

Steve Englehart gets a lot of love. But honestly, I'm not a fan of him. He did a lot of shit that was just flat-out fucking insane.

Wait, Whirlwind drove him to suicide? As in, the guy he beats all the time who wears a stupid-looking green helmet? What? It'd be one thing if Tony Stark or Janet or Ultron or someone had said something that drove him to suicide, but Whirlwind? That's like Batroc getting Captain America to jump off a bridge.

Engelhart, IIRC, was also the guy who did the incredibly terrible and stupid "Falcon was a pimp until the Red Skull retconned reality with the Cosmic Cube because reasons" bullshit.

He is, to say the least, a very uneven writer. When he is on (Serpent Crown), he is on - and when he is off, oh dear God is he off.

Whirlwind gave a speech to Pym, talking about how he's never given up on who he is, never let anyone else run around with his shtick, the way Pym did. He called Pym a has-been, and that beating him means nothing.

This was apparently enough to drive Pym to suicide. For some stupid fucking reason.

Englehart also gave Quicksilver a mental breakdown after Crystal cheated on him. And somehow made Quicksilver out to be unreasonable for not wanting to forgive his wife mere hours after finding out she cheated on him. And made him out to be a bad guy for not thinking of how his refusal to forgive his wife for cheating on him affected Wanda. It was seriously fucked up.

I don't know if maybe Englehart was just past his prime by the mid-'80s, but he was writing a lot of dumb shit at that point.