Spider-Man is one of the world’s most popular superheroes, and in that sense, his suit is easily one of the most recognizable character designs on the planet. However, despite the fact that just about everyone knows his design, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has changed up his look more than a few times since his introduction. Spidey and his counterparts each have their own distinct style, and none of them seem afraid to branch out and experiment either, which has given us a laundry list of awesome costumes to look at and rank. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what I consider to be the ten best Spider-Man costumes ever put to comic book pages.
10) Beyond
Ben Reilly has been shafted more than a few times by Marvel, most recently with his transformation into the villain known as Chasm, but the story directly leading into that gave us his best Spider-Man costume. The Beyond Corporation provided Ben with a brand new Spider-Man suit, which looks like an updated and modernized take on the costume he wore when he first served as Spider-Man. This suit is both very familiar with the standard Spidey mask and color scheme, but definitely differentiates itself with its massive spider logo and lack of a belt. The logo especially pops out and perfectly captures Ben’s in your face attitude, and is a great way to differentiate his suit from Peter’s in such an important way. While this suit isn’t as iconic as his Scarlet Spider suit, I’d say that the Beyond version is a fantastic Spider-Man suit and definitely works for the hero that Ben is.
9) Iron Spider
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Iron Spider suit is far more similar to the original suit in design, the comic book version is a complete redesign. It ditches the classic red and blue and instead sports a far brighter red with gold accents, and even gets rid of the web-design. The bright colors and clean, metallic sheen gives the suit a very sleek and futuristic look, which is exactly what an armor designed by Iron Man for Spider-Man should look like. Even beyond that, the gadgets that come attached to this suit are incredible, from the armpit web wings that allow actual flight to the Doctor Octopus-inspired spider legs that can be used like extra arms. It gives another aspect of being a spider to Spider-Man, and that alone makes this suit a favorite. It’s simplistic, but every aspect of it is perfectly utilized, and I’d say that the minimalist approach works perfectly in contrast to Peter’s usual suit.
8) Superior Spider-Man
Speaking of Doctor Octopus, when Otto Octavius took over Peter Parker’s body, he became obsessed with becoming a greater hero than Peter ever was and proving that he was superior in every way. To that end, Otto took the Spider-Man identity to the next level, and that meant designing his own costume. Otto ditched the blue for black and darkened the red, along with the lenses. In fact, most of the suit was black, save for the upper half of his torso and mask, and the silver bracelets. This suit change was a great way to show Otto’s much more aggressive take on being Spider-Man, and of course he had to bring in his own version of the spider legs to reflect his mastery with his tentacles. The entire suit is meant to be just edgy enough to convey Otto’s utilitarian and villainous attitude, while also keeping in line with his attempts to be a hero and the classic Spider-Man look, which I think it does to a T.
7) Future Foundation
After the Human Torch’s death in Fantastic Four #587, his will asked for Spider-Man to fill his empty seat in Marvel’s First Family. Drowning in grief over Johnny’s death, the team renamed themselves the Future Foundation and created new white costumes with the next evolution in unstable molecules. Spidey’s all white costume is the inversion of his classic black one, and stands out as his brightest one to date, but is still so darn cool to look at. The lenses are larger and more curved down, which makes Pete look angry constantly, which contrasts greatly with his comic relief attitude. But the real star of the show is the spider logo, which not only stretches out to connect to the rest of the black highlights on the suit, but the spider’s body has been adapted to the hexagonal shape that was a part of all of the Future Foundation suits. This costume is a really smart and stylish redesign, which somehow makes being almost entirely white work really well. The mostly black variation of the suit never did it for me, but this white one is pure style.
6) Last Stand
This potential future version of Spider-Man appeared in the oversized Amazing Spider-Man #500, showing a version of Peter that had fallen from grace after killing his villains, and who did one final battle with the NYC police over Aunt May’s grave, where he was killed as his younger self watched. To better fit with his fatal vigilante style, he traded in the spandex for a leather jacket with a high collar, jeans, and boots, but of course had to keep the mask. This is a Spider-Man who has all but turned his back on the idea of being a hero, and instead turned himself into a controlled monster that does what he believes to be necessary, even if the people he loves most wind up getting hurt. I wouldn’t want this suit to be a standard for Peter as a hero, but as an alternate grime future it definitely works really well. Its simple but impactful design makes Peter seem more human and older, less idealistic and far more down to a dark Earth. It puts the man before the spider, but never completely forgets that part of him. This suit is Spider-Man’s Dark Knight Returns suit, and it works perfectly in that role.
5) Spider Armor MK IV
After Peter got his body back from Otto, he inherited the scientific juggernaut Parker Industries, and with it, all of the futuristic tech that its people had made. Peter put that to use in designing the Spider Amor MK IV, which looks like his original suit upgraded with all kinds of advanced tech. Instead of simple cloth, it has a metallic sheen that shows how it’s both flexible and much sturdier than before. It brought back the web wings with an armor-like redesign, which is always a plus, but the stars of the show are the eyes and logo. They both glow with a blue light behind them, which not only makes them pop, but gives the suit this sense of energy to it. This costume was designed by the legendary Alex Ross, and it looks as beautiful as anything drawn by him, which makes the fact that this suit is attached to one of Spidey’s weakest few years of stories really unfortunate. The suit is always tied to the general discontent the fans had during that time, but if you remove the suit from the stories, you can definitely see that it is a great advancement and natural progression of Pete’s OG suit.
4) 2099
Miguel O’Hara serves as the Spider-Man of Nueva York in the year 2099, whose DNA was spliced with that of a spider after a colleague tampered with his equipment. Miguel is basically Spider-Man’s own version of Batman Beyond, and actually debuted years before the Batman Beyond cartoon invented Terry McGinnis, likely serving as an inspiration for the future Dark Knight. Miguel’s suit is the embodiment of the ‘90s perspective on the future, being dark and edgy to the nth degree, and it’s great. The dark blue, similar to Spidey’s original design, was meant to be black, though the navy shade wound up sticking. The webbing pattern is gone, instead replaced with an elongated, bright red logo that splices both a spider and a skull. There are red streaks that go down his arms and up to his mask, highlighting his eyes with negative space against the red, and the bits of the arms even extend into spikes on his forearms. He’s often depicted as having a tattered cape made of torn webbing, which looks so sick. This costume is the best example of the cyberpunk boom in comic books in the ‘90s, and easily one of the best parts of that era.
3) Miles’s Anniversary Suit
When Miles Morales became Spider-Man, he was gifted with his own black and red version of the suit, which was a very strong contender for this list on its own. However, to celebrate Miles’s tenth anniversary since his debut, he had a brand new costume created that screams personality. Miles’s new costume added a loose sweater and widened shoes alongside a much more vibrant red. The webbing pattern instead only decorates his legs and up his sides, and most of it is hidden by the sweater which extends all the way up to be a second mask on the lower half of his face. I initially wasn’t sure what to think about this costume, but after seeing it in action I fell in love with just how dynamic and expressive it is. The loose sweater gives a sense of weight and drag to his movements, which only accentuates how quick and acrobatic Spidey is. The near-pink lines highlight his suit with this very bright style which makes it feel happy and upbeat. This suit is just pure fun, and what are costumes for but being fun ways to express who the hero is? This suit is awesome, and it’s a darn shame it didn’t last very long, even if Miles’s new suit is also an absolute banger. Miles just never has a bad suit. In the comics, at least. We don’t talk about the Adidas suit.
2) Black Suit
There is only one suit that can even begin to rival the sheer iconicness of the original red and blue, and that is this pure black suit. It first debuted when Peter bonded with the Venom symbiote in the Secret Wars event, and it was an instant classic. The fully black suit sported only an enlarged spider logo, the lenses, and patches on the back of his hands as pops of white against the black, and it’s so beautiful. It’s the very essence of less is more, doing so much with so little. This suit was so popular that even after Spider-Man ditched the symbiote, Black Cat knit him a cloth version that he continued to wear until Venom traumatized MJ. This suit was a departure from everything of the original, even changing it so the webs came out of the back of his hands rather than under his wrists, but it all just worked so well. This suit always makes a comeback every couple of years, and it is always a joy to see. This is easily one of the best redesigns of an iconic hero ever done, and I am always excited to see Spidey swing in with his all black threads.
1) Classic
Even against some of the steepest competition in comics, the original Spider-Man suit is just too iconic to be anything but the top of this list. What can I even say about it? The red and black-turned-blue work in perfect harmony to give him this larger than life appearance, with the webbing pattern and logo perfectly capturing the essence of the spider in Spider-Man. The lenses alone have inspired literally hundreds of lookalike masks, and for good reason, although I still say that Pete has them all beat in terms of style and being one of the only heroes that can make his style of mask work. He infrequently sports web wings that I say are always a fantastic addition, although this suit is just as awesome without them. Spider-Man is one of the most beloved heroes of all time for a reason, and his spectacular suit is definitely a factor. It’s an amazing design through and through.
So that wraps up our list, although there are plenty of other costumes that could have made the cut without question. Some of my honorable mentions definitely include Miles’s Vibranium suit and the red and black variant Peter wore when he worked with Deadpool. Of course, the Scarlet Spider suit was just, and I mean just, eked out of this list by some of the others. Spider-Man has plenty of amazing costumes, but which one do you think is the best look for the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? Let us know your favorite in the comments below!
The post Spider-Man’s Best Suits, Ranked appeared first on ComicBook.com.