One of the most identifiable characteristics of the genera has got to be the costumes. Outside of the circus, or perhaps Milan fashion week, you'd be hard pressed to find more ostentatious getups than in the pages of your favorite comic book. While these outfits tend to be iconic, that doesn't mean they are immune to change. It is not at all uncommon for superheroes to get little fashion updates, replacing the anachronistic with the chic, the ho-hum with the au courant. In the spirit of the new year, I thought I would put together a list of my top five favorite costume changes from the past decade. Read on, true believer, and feel free to let me know what you think in the comment section.
#5 Ultimate Nick-FuryNick Fury has never really been a comic book front-man—he functions far better as a man behind the scenes, the guy who's always holding more cards than you think. His aesthetic is something like Wolverine’s (though in a less entertaining way): a man out-of-time, more reminiscent of the kind of guy my father would have idealized in his youth. In the mainline Marvel titles, they’ve played this up, making him something like a Clint Eastwood character—a rough and tough sheriff, tough as nails albeit a bit old fashion. It probably says a great deal that, when casting for a live-action miniseries in the 90’s, they decided that the great David Hasselhoff would be the best representation.
Ultimate Nick Fury, on the other hand, is a modern rewrite. While they kept the iconic eye-patch, they’ve abandoned the weird 90’s obsession with inexplicable shocks of white hair. Rather than looking like a grizzled World War II vet, he looks like a grizzled, disillusioned Vietnam vet. Oh yeah, and he’s black now.
#4 Kitty-cat BeastOkay, so, Beast used to look like a blue monkey. Due to a ‘secondary mutation’ he now looks like a blue kitty. At first glance it seems a bit arbitrary. Even in the comics it was hand-waved away: ‘Beast, you look like a kitten now.’ ‘Oh, it was a secondary mutation.’ ‘Oh, alright.’
Perhaps the writers simply realized that cats are better symbols of a feral, wild nature than apes, which fits in well with Beast’s ongoing inner struggle. While some part of me still misses the old Fox Kids cartoon look with its big swoops of Wolverine hair, a bigger part of me likes the idea of dressing my cats up in glasses and lab coats and pretending they are people.
I am not sure how many people actually read Runaways (and I wouldn’t recommend starting now: though it was an amazing comic, it seems its best days are behind it). If you were a fan in its heyday, though, you were treated to one of the most amusing Marvel comics in publication and the source of the canonical assertion that Captain America has bad breath.
Victor Mancha makes for an interesting member of the Runaways team, playing up many of the classic tropes: son of a villain, but a basically good kid, struggles against a dark destiny *coughcoughstarwars*. In the True Believers arc, we got a glimpse of his potential future as a villain--a villain with a cool costume and an even cooler name: Victorious (come on, that is clever). While this may not quite count as an alternate costume, it earns its place on the list for incorporating classical elements (domino mask), stylishness (black never goes out), and providing great art for what could have otherwise been a throw-away design.
Iron Spidey was a simple formula: mix two parts Spider-man with one part Iron Man, stir until consistent, bake. Okay, so, the costume design left something to be desired: I’d thought we left shiny metallic heroes by the wayside in the 90’s but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The suit came with all kinds of new bells and whistles, and like a Beowulfian heroic epic, there was an intense focus on the weaponry and the aggrandizement thereof. As is normal with with these kinds of things, the fan response was mixed but overall it wasn’t unwelcome—and like many costume changes it was never conceived of as permanent.
The best thing about Iron Spider was that the change was more than just aesthetic—it was symbolic. In Civil War (one of the best arcs in the past ten years) it made a very clear statement about just whose side Spider-man was on. As we’ve seen before with black-suit Spider-man or Scarlet Spider, it was an outward manifestation of the Character’s inner struggle. As a side note, Spider-man’s closet must be getting pretty damn full these days.
One of the great things about comic books is that it allows the writers to be downright playful when they feel like it. While Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Strikes Again may not be the work of art that Dark Knight Returns was, you can tell that old Frank decided to cut loose and enjoy himself a bit more. The new costume for The Flash is wonderfully playful. From the over sized running shoes to the spandex Olympic-cut track suit, he just looks fast. Now that we have one Flash too many in the mainline DC titles, I for one wouldn’t mind one bit if one if, say, Wally West picked up this costume. Heck, I wouldn’t even miss referring to him as The Scarlet Speedster.
Stay tuned for the five worst costume changes!
-Reckless Enthusiasm
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