The one constant in the world of superheroes is the colorful costume. Tights, spandex, latex, long johns, leather, pajamas; all superheroes play dress up when it comes to fighting crime. It’s just more fun that way. But in the real world, everybody knows that a big, muscular guy in spandex just looks silly. If a real world Batman was just wearing a pair of gray tights, he’d be no more threatening than a ballerina. Why do you think the movies put Batman in a specialized suit of black armor, or the X-Men wear black leather?

Tights and spandex costumes just aren’t cool, no matter how good they might look when drawn.

Paper, though, always looks good

Which is why, throughout the history of comics, creators have often tried to upgrade a superhero’s costume to make it look more badass. For some reason, this meant changing from spandex to armor, with heavy layers of complicated plating and protection. Yet no matter how good the creators’ intentions, somehow these upgrades looked even worse!  These armor costumes were running rampant in the 90s, and in hindsight, everybody agrees that they looked ridiculous. Superheroes have gone back to tight spandex ever since.

I thought I’d share with everybody some of the more ridiculous armored costume changes in comic book history.

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