The Worst New Superhero Costumes of the 90s

Image Comics' popularity in the 90s really hurt Marvel and DC throughout the decade. Marvel and DC were lacking in top tier artistic talent and they both kept trying to redesign their characters to chase popular trends. It didn't work well.

This episode takes a look at many of these short-lived looks and looks for common techniques to figure out where things went wrong.

[geremynakhone]

Daredevil's blind, I don't think he knows how any of his suits look like good or bad

[Cdr]

“Not looking any deeper than surface level”

Honestly with some early Image books like Youngblood and the like, there wasn’t much else than surface level.

[nohomers]

I think the Azreal batman was intentionally designed to be bad. It supposed to parody the trends of grim and gritty if I'm remembering correctly an interview with Denny Oneil

[malusignatius]

Ahh yes, Cool Mint Superman vs. Cinnamon Fresh Superman...

[whitespyder]

Knightfall was excellent for its commentary on the "extreme" trend of the time, and its introduction of Bane.

[jacobturnerart]

AzBat was cleverly done because the armour evolved over the story arc. As Jean Paul gradually turned mad the armour got more extreme, to the point where Bruce defeats him via forcing him to lose the costume. He's 'saved' through abandoning it. Nice and symbolic. I do have a real soft spot for Knightfall though, because it's what got me reading comics.

[TheSuperhomosapien]

Chris Clairmont talks about this time in interviews. He decided to leave X-Men when basically he would send the script to the artists, who would then ignore it and send him back the artwork and tell him to write something that matched the artwork. The artists were basically saying "I drew something I think is cool, now make a story for it". Editorial supported the artists and basically it was the artists creating the story and not the writers.

[comedyrock]

for all the bad the looks for the 90s costumes were, i'm actually really in love with the bomber jacket look and the wonder biker look.

[JomasterTheSecond]

"This is War Machine. Seriously."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[joeycote]

I remember a comic with Kitty Pryde being involved with the Guardians of the Galaxy. At one point she was dressed in a way the closely resembled Star Lord. While talking with him she goes on to mock herself in saying that she hasn't ever been able to put together a "look". Was amazingly funny to hear a character talk about not being able to figure out a wardrobe that would become iconic to her that she also liked.

[Sener]

Azbat shouldn't be on this list. The whole point of the entire story was that the classic Batman was better. Their feud ends with Azrael literally losing the fight BECAUSE of his bulky costume with built in night vision.

[carpesolis]

Will say this: Boob Window Sue Storm is one of the designs I'm thinking of turning into a swimsuit.

[cerebros]

I liked when they added pouches that seemed practical. Not the super over exaggerated pouches, just the realistic ones.

[GeneralKenobi]

Apart from the jacket, I actually really liked Scarlet Witch's new outfit for the Crossing. I actually preferred it to her original design which always looked stupid to me. Maybe it was the head thing she always wore, and the rest was kind of generic. But the outfit she had in the crossing actually looked mystical like a sorceress which fitted her.

[johnathonhaney]

1:23 Just as an aside, Image was being true to its name in being just as shallow. It's why several of the founders wound up going back to the majors starting with the misbegotten Heroes Reborn series by Liefeld and Lee. Or does no one else note the irony of Jim Lee now being in the upper echelons of DC Entertainment all these years later?

[randyping]

90's comics reader 1: Have you seen Wolverine lately? He has no nose!!

90's comics reader 2: NO NOSE??!! How does he

90's comics reader 1: Terrible.

[kebimtheaccess]

Everyone looks like 90s Gambit or Havoc lol

[Clarkthek]

Wait a minute... you're going to criticize character's clothing... in THAT shirt?

[TheUncannykodiak]

Azreal Batman’s first costume was badass. It was also obvious Bruce was set up to re find himself. People don’t like writing about Bruce’s mistakes and fallibility and knightfall was actually a good story to show his having to fix a problem he created. He made a bad decision and had to deal with it.

[dennissinned]

The most annoying thing in all comics, old and new, it's the NEED for all of them to be wearing some kind of skin tight "uniform". THAT makes no sense at all, especially for aliens.