Spider-Man is a character with a rich history and background. His comics have been around since the 1960s. Spidey has gotten tons and tons of different costumes in the years of his popularity. Of course, he will always have his classic red and blue outfit. That will never go anywhere. But throughout his tenure in pop culture, Spider-Man has had some of the best alternate costumes a superhero could ask for. Here are this writer’s top three costumes for Marvel’s web-head.
The Iron Spider
Starting with a classic, the Iron Spider suit. This suit was initially given to Spider-Man in the comics by Iron Man. During the Civil War event, which saw heroes fighting each other over superhuman politics, Spider-Man initially took Iron Man’s side. Tony Stark then gave Spider-Man a suit that would make him visually more aligned with Iron Man, while giving Spidey some extra abilities.
The Iron Spider is a super high-tech suit that also comes with retractable robotic arms on the back. This inspired tons of future alternate Spider-Man suits to have robotic, spider-like arms. This suit is cool due to the visual simplicity of it. It’s red and gold. It looks like Spider-Man got an Iron Man makeover. It’s perfect for the time and is a fan favorite due to how cool this crossover is. It’s a shame this event ended so terribly for Spidey, with his identity coming out and then a ton of bad stuff happening to him, but that’s an article for another day.
The Scarlet Spider
This suit is a throwback. While it isn’t the first alternate costume Spider-Man has ever had, it is one of the oldest. This suit technically isn’t Peter Parker’s suit, it’s Ben Reilly’s. Ben Reilly is a clone of Peter Parker. Yes, the Jackal, a villain from the 1970s era of Spider-Man, cloned Spidey and pitted the two spider-powered individuals against each other. This clone was defeated, then seemingly died, and then came back. The Clone Saga took place in the 90s, and oh boy was it rough.
It is perhaps the most maligned Spider-Man comic story. Or maybe it’s the second most. Who knows. But Ben Reilly’s Spidey outfit was cool. It stripped down a lot of the basic Spider-Man design and is supposed to be a homemade affair. The blue vest, the visible web-shooters, and the oh-so-lovable straps. Yes, this suit is steeped in the culture and superhero aesthetic of the 1990s, but that isn’t a problem. It’s a great, unique look for the character that many fans adore.
The Black Suit
How obvious was this? Spider-Man’s black suit, otherwise called the symbiote suit, or the alien suit, is easily his most popular alternate outfit. Marvel made so many comic lines and stories based on this singular outfit. Spider-Man got it on an alien planet, and he thought it was a sentient costume. He was wrong, and he eventually found out that it was an alien called a symbiote that was trying to permanently bond to him. Pretty horrific right? Once Spider-Man got it off, with the help of the Fantastic Four, he went back to the old red and blue.
That was, until his girlfriend at the time, Black Cat, made him a cloth version of that exact suit. Same design and same look, just made of polyester, not evil alien goo. The black suit was so popular that he still wore it in the comics, and this cloth suit let that happen. This alien costume would then take over other characters in the Marvel universe, like Eddie Brock, turning him into Venom. But this article is about Spidey. The black suit is easily Spider-Man’s most iconic and recognizable alternate suit, and it’s for a darn good reason.
Spider-Man’s Visual History
It’s just so cool. This entire character has such a rich history. It truly speaks to how colorful a superhero’s background is when he can have a litany of alternate suits that are as iconic as his main outfit. It’s a testament to how great this character’s legacy is. There can honestly be dozens of articles written about the wall crawler’s alternate looks. That is how popular and widely spread he is. This is just scratching the surface. For this writer’s money, however, these are Spider-Man’s best looks.
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