Many years ago we featured The Worst Superhero Costumes, and recently showcased The Best Supervillian costumes, so it was only a matter of time before we finally got around to give the best hero duds a shake. What makes a great costume? Is it a one hit wonder design that is only around for a bit but just taps in to something cool that everyone loves? Or is it an iconic design that has lasted for many decades virtually unchanged from the original pages it appeared in? We have a pretty good mixture of all these things. The Top 15 of these are a result of voting responses from a poll we featured for retroCRUSH readers, while the bottom 5 are just some personal favorites I threw in that were likely too obscure to register with the polling masses, but needed special recognition nonetheless.

I decided to leave female characters off the list, as they’ll get their own Top 20 shortly. So without further adieu…

#20 THE PHANTOM

The Phantom’s purple outfit is one of those costumes that looks absolutely ridiculous in real life, but in the comic book medium, it’s rather striking. The Phantom first appeared in comic strip form back in 1936, beating comic book heroes starting with Superman by a good 2 years. Though there haven’t been too many purple heroes since then, you have to give The Phantom credit for being the first costumed hero to wear tights, and have a mask with blank white eyes (which they took out of theatrical version with Billy Zane) that became a staple from heroes ranging from Batman to Wolverine in the years to follow.

#19 CAPTAIN MARVEL
(ORIGINAL MARVEL COMICS VERSION)

If there was ever a superhero costume that embodied the retroCRUSH spirit, it’s the original ’60s version of Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvell (or Mar-Vell, if you must). Green and white is such a neat color combination for costumes that I totally dig. I’d have put The Spectre here, too, but he’s more or less just underwear and a cape. Jim Starlin later redesigned the costume into a neat red blue and yellow number that was made with cheap Chinese fabric that ultimately gave the good Captain cancer. Always stick with your roots.

#18 ULTRAMAN

Despite the 800 different revamps of his outfit since original ’60s TV series, I’ll always have a fond place in my heart for the original silver and red getup that Ultraman first wore. I always wanted to be Ultraman for Halloween, but always ended up getting stuck being Casper or Leo Sayer. My mother was very cruel.

#17 GHOST RIDER

How could you not totally love a guy who rides a motorcycle with a flaming skull? My good buddy and retroCRUSH contributor Bradley Mason Hamlin and I were arguing last evening about whether or not Ghost Rider even wears a costume, since he really just sort of turns into a monster, but the outfit he has, natural or not, is probably one of the more fearsome and striking of them all.

#16 THE ROCKETEER

Dave Stevens’ ’80s comic only lasted a handful of issues which spawned a very underrated movie, but it’s a gorgeous simple and striking design that looks as cool and fresh as the day it was created. The slick aviator outfit, the simple but menacing looking jetpack, and the streamlined art-deco inspired helmet is simply kick ass.

#15 THE PUNISHER

The Punisher’s costume is one of those rare outfits that would actually look cool on someone in real life. As much as Batman is supposed to strike fear in the hearts of criminals with his cape and pointy ears, he’d likely strike as much laughter into them if he actually went around wearing it in the real world. The single menacing skull on top of an otherwise black getup (which has gone from all spandex, to disgruntled high school goth coat look through the decades), tells you everything you need to know about Frank Castle. Trouble is coming.

#14 GOLDEN AGE SANDMAN

I’ll admit that Sandman perhaps looked a bit more silly back in the golden age of comics, but when he got a more grim ’90s revamp courtesy of Matt Wagner’s “Sandman Mystery Theater” the more darkly drawn version made him seem a lot more menacing, creepy, and even kinky. Sure, he’s basically just a dude with a gasmask on, but he’s scary as hell. Once I had entered a short film competition put on by The Sacramento Film Festival in which all the entrants had to show up and get the surprise theme to proceed making a 10 minute film within 10 days on. One of the guys that showed up was wearing a gas mask that looked just like this and talked through a 70s era tape deck that was strapped to his belt. I thought it was a put on, but apparently he was some guy with a mysterious disability. The festival organizer told me the film he submitted was unusable because it was just 10 minutes of him having sex with an inflatable doll. I don’t know why I brought that up, but I’d still love to figure out what that guy was all about.

#13 WOLVERINE

When he first appeared in #181 of The Incredible Hulk (or #180 if you’re a nitpicky dork), Wolverine had one of the most ridiculous costumes of them all, complete with whiskers. Now the brown themed combo used above is my personal favorite, but the yellow/blue/black versions that have appeared through the years are pretty nice, too. Wolverine also has one of the coolest masks for a costume ever made, too. Too bad they never tried to use it in any of the movies.

#12 AQUAMAN

Bradley Mason Hamlin wrote in his retroCRUSH Aquaman tribute a couple years back, “Aquaman’s costume was very aesthetically pleasing, orange shirt, black trunks, and aquatic green leggings. His gloves originally appeared yellow, but someone wisely changed them to green to match the legs. Sadly, that one change, the yellow gloves for the green, in my opinion, remained the only wise change that occurred with this classic character.” For a few issues in an ’80s limited series, Aquaman sported a pretty kickass ocean camouflage costume that disappeared about as soon as it arrived.

#11 CAPTAIN MARVEL

Captain Marvel got one of the biggest shafts in comic book history. Debuting just a couple years after Superman first appeared, he quickly became one of the best selling characters of all time, especially during war time years where comic book sold an insane amount of copies to a market of kids who were buying them because they actually enjoyed reading them, not just putting them in a plastic bag so that they’d be kept in mint condition for all eternity. Superman’s creators, DC comics, successfully sued Fawcett publications for trademark infringement and Cap was taken off the market. In the meantime, Marvel Comics stepped in and made their own Captain Marvel, and took over the retired trademark. DC ironically bought the rights to the original Captain Marvel after that but since Marvel owned the trademark, had to call his books Shazam, instead. The difficulty in marketing this character, and his long hiatus from the public eye made him very hard to sell and sales of new Captain Marvel books always seem to disappoint. But about the costume!

What a fantastic and powerful looking outfit. Like The Phantom, it looks better in a comic than it does in real life, but it’s just such a fun mix of red and yellow with the prominent thunderbolt on the chest. Hell, you could argue that DC’s Flash ripped off Marvel’s look more than he ripped off Superman.

PROTIP: Captain Marvel creator CC Beck used the face of Fred MacMurray as a design inspiration.

#10 THE FLAMING CARROT

Bob Burden’s wonderfully ridiculous Flaming Carrot certainly has the wackiest costume of all time. But despite having a giant carrot mask with a can of Sterno on top, and green scuba flippers he still manages to come off as one of most suave and cool motherfuckers to ever grace the pages of a comic strip. Martini in hand with a gaggle of bikini clad beach babes, it’s clear that despite the occasional odd glance, the costume doesn’t hold him back. His origin story perhaps provides some insight as to why he chose this awesome getup, as he read 5,000 comic books in a single sitting (on a dare) and received permanent brain damage as a result. It’s a parable for our times. Flaming Carrot remains one of the funniest comic books ever published. CLICK HERE to check out his official site.

#9 DR. STRANGE

Hands down, the coolest cape in comic book history! That being said, I also have a soft spot for Steve Ditko’s original capeless design for the character, too (below).

Both designs were expertly crafted by Ditko, and befitting of an older gentleman who lived in a world of sorcery and magic, instead of just flying around and busting through doors. An all time classic that has changed little in the 40 plus years he’s existed.

#8 SPACE GHOST

Alex Toth designed this great character back in 1966 and hit a grand slam during the original design (above). Elements from Batman and Superman are mixed with a rare white costume base that superheroes can rarely pull off successfully. Obviously there’s a lot less dirt in space. There’s a nice feature on Toth and his work if you pick up the complete Space Ghost/Dino-Boy DVD set.

#7 THE SHADOW

I was concerned as to how far into the pulp hero world I should go back, while still keeping the term, superhero. Green Hornet, for example, has a fun costume but nothing so brilliant about it to deserve “all time best” recognition. The Shadow, however, has one of the most simple and effective outfits out there, and deserves praise. Brad pointed out that The Shadow is pretty much just dressed as a cowboy, but damnit if The Shadow ain’t the sexiest spooky cowboy the world has ever seen. The red scarf over his face is a simple mask, while his black clothing accented with a red interior to his cape, make him pretty damn awesome. Check out the very underrated Shadow movie starring Alec Baldwin to see how cool the costume can really be.

#6 GREEN LANTERN

Probably no other superhero has gone from bad to good costumes than Green Lantern. The original Green Lantern, who first appeared in 1940, clearly had his Garanimals tags mixed up, with a garish red, yellow, black, and green combination that clearly demonstrated that the power ring rendered its owner Alan Scott color blind. In 1959, Gil Kane gave the character a reboot with the innovative green, white, and black number that only with slight variation has remained the same ever since. Green Lantern’s costume is a personal favorite of mine, and works well as a uniform of The Green Lantern Corp, as well. It’s certainly one of the more aesthetically pleasing costumes ever made.

#5 CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America’s costume is cool because it’s all about America, baby! The only thing that could only make it cooler would be to have an eagle crying in the center of the shield next to the World Trade Center Wreckage. Freedom isn’t free! God Bless America! Love it or Leave it! If you don’t speak the language, get out of our country! Bros before Hos! That which make ya may also break ya! A stitch in time saves nine. FREEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!

#4 IRON MAN

The photo from the upcoming Iron Man film above is already giving comic book geeks raging nerdgasms all over the world. After seeing countless superhero costumes fucked up in movie adaptations (Bat-Nipples, anyone?), it’s great to see those Hollywood jackholes actually sit down and get things right for a change! Iron Man has had quite a few cool suits of armor through the years, and from the secret footage I’ve already seen, it looks like they get them ALL right.

This is probably my favorite incarnation of all the Iron Man costumes. It was right when he ditched the Frankenstein looking outfits he’d been relying on and got the more form fitting and slightly devilish number you see above. It also should be noted that the legendary Steve Ditko designed this, which is funny since he’s generally more famous for the freaky metaphysical art from Dr. Strange or wacky Spider-Man villains he co-created with Stan Lee.

#3 SUPERMAN

How can you leave off Superman? This is one of the few overrides I did with the reader poll, because the retroCRUSH fans voted his costume at #11, and I say “What the fuck?” to that! C’mon folks, Superman is the costume that started all superhero costumes. And aside from a slight insignia change, it’s remained more or less unchanged since he first appeared 70 years ago. Though his mom made him the costume out of his baby blanket, so the smell of Kryptonian spit-up has been awfully hard to wash out.

#2 SPIDER-MAN

While comic books had been a decades old institution in 1962, Steve Ditko was able to dream up one of the more original and beautiful designs for any superhero. A gorgeous design that has survived the decades. It’s so nice to look at that even after a well received and badass black and white costume variant in the 80s (which later split and went to Venom) the good old red and blue looked just as good as ever when it came back. It’s amazing how well this costume works, considering it has the most un-spider colors you could possibly imagine. I used to love drawing Spider-Man on notebook paper in school. There’s something so wonderfully meditative about drawing all of that intricate webbing, like walking through a labyrinth. The webbing was so intricate, as a matter of fact, that they omitted a lot of it on the costume in the 1962 cartoon to reduce animation expense. I also like the costume because it really looks like something a teenage geeky boy would make in his room.

True embarrassing confession time. When I was a high school junior at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo, they had a career dress up day. You were supposed to come to school dressed in your ideal career. I decided to come to school dressed as Spider-Man. Of course, this wasn’t a store bought costume, but one I made myself. It was horrible, and I can’t believe nobody beat me up. The sketch I drew above pretty much tells you the story about how horrible it looked. In order to achieve the “white eye” effect, I used an innovative approach of sliding index cards under the mask, allowing about 1/32″ of space in the inside corner of each eye to see out of. How on earth did I even survive high school, anyway?

#1 BATMAN

Among retroCRUSH readers polled, Batman was the runaway favorite by a long shot. Though Batman was conceived by Bob Kane in 1939, we have his writing partner Bill Finger to thank for not making him look like a complete dork. Kane’s original design reportedly had a Lone Ranger style mask, giant black wings, bare hands, and a mostly red set of tights. The story goes that Finger suggested the cape, glove, and mask changes, and got rid of the red (which is funny, considering Finger was responsible for the very ugly original Green Lantern costume). Batman’s costume is so badass, because it was actually designed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. In the original and some later incarnations of the outfit, you could really imagine a thief shitting his pants after seeing Batman pop down in an alleyway. Batman’s costume is also so great because it give so much leeway for artists to interpret in different ways that best suit their style. Berni Wrightson and the late Marshall Rogers are probably my favorite Batman artists, but as you can see from the gallery below, his costume has always been a great way for artists to show us what they’ve got.

Bob Kane	Jerry Robinson	Dick Sprang	Carmine Infantino
Neal Adams	Marshall Rogers	Berni Wrightson	Jim Aparo
Frank Miller	Brian Bolland	Bill Siekiewicz	Mike Zeck
Kelly Jones	Jim Lee	Bruce Timm	Alex Ross

Something tells me in 100 years, Batman’s costume will still be the coolest of all time.

-Robert Berry
rberry@retrocrush.com