Marvel has created many of the coolest villains in the history of superheroes. Now, not every villain can be a winner, but Marvel’s more grounded universe has created a lot of villains that fans love. A big part of why Marvel’s villains are so popular is because of their great costumes. Marvel costume design has always been one of its greatest strengths, and this has helped give the villains some of the most eye-catching costumes ever. There are a lot of really great Marvel supervillain costumes, and some of them have become legendary. Look at Magneto or Doctor Doom or Loki: their costumes are some of the greatest villain costumes ever, and that’s all there is to it. However, that doesn’t mean that all Marvel villain costumes are great; some of them are completely terrible.
There are a lot of reasons for a villain costume to be terrible. Some of them don’t really fit the villains; they’re too garish or not garish enough. There are some that are basically just copies of what came before, and there are some that will make you scratch your head while trying to figure out the creative process behind it. These ten Marvel villain costumes are the worst of the worst. Sometimes they’re worn by villains who should know better, and some of them are so bad they actively stymied villains’ career.
10) Thanos’s First Costume
Thanos is one of Marvel’s greatest villains, and has been for a long time. Thanos’s costume is one of the coolest ever, but it’s impossible to say that he’s always been a well-dressed bad guy because of his original costume from his first appearance in Iron Man #55. Thanos was basically a pastiche of Jack Kirby’s Darkseid and Metron, and his costume has that feel to it. His original costume coped Darkseid’s bare arms and legs, but this look just didn’t work for Thanos at all. There are hallmarks of his later costumes in this design, but it’s just not good. Thankfully, creator Jim Starlin would fix the costume in the years to come, and give us the masterpiece we have now, but this original version of the costume isn’t it, folks.
9) Magneto’s “M” Logo Costume
Much like Thanos, Magneto has one of the greatest costumes ever. Jack Kirby knew what he was doing when he gave readers that sartorial masterpiece and artists decided that it didn’t need to be changed for decades. However, all of that would change in the mid ’80s, when Magneto would get the “M” logo costume. I know a lot of people really love this costume, but it’s just terrible. Magneto has changed a lot over the years, but this costume is the worst change in Magneto’s career. Taking away Magneto’s helmet is a huge loss to the character, and that’s only the beginning. The bicep high gloves and bare shoulders don’t really work, and the solid purple is kind of boring. The “M” logo on the chest is the weirdest choice, and it feels like a throwback to another era of superhero comics and just doesn’t work with Magneto as a character.
8) Knull’s Costume
Knull is one of the worst comic villains ever, and that extends to his costume. It’s the most generic thing that you can imagine. It’s black, there some armored flourishes, a cape, and the dragon emblem, which is just close enough to the Venom spider logo to remind people that Knull is related to the symbiotes. However, that’s really it on that note, and it’s one of the many problems with the costume. Knull was supposed to be a massively powerful villain, but his costume doesn’t get that across. There’s nothing regal or powerful about it, and it’s just sort of generic. Everything about Knull is generic, though, so him having a generic costume isn’t that much a surprise. What is a surprise is that the character is somehow popular wearing a costume like this. Somewhere, Jack Kirby is screaming at Ryan Stegman for this mediocre design (can you imagine if Jack Kirby made this? It would have been so good).
7) Stryfe’s Armor
Rob Liefeld became very popular once he moved over to Marvel and started working on the X-books. ’90s Marvel gave a lot of power to artists, and Liefeld was one of the most creative artists at the publisher. However, this wasn’t actually a good thing; Liefeld was creative, but he never really created anything that was any good. Liefeld’s style was all about extremes — big shoulder pads, bandoliers, pouches, and spikes — and there are some brutally bad Liefeld designs out there (although, there are some good ones, like the original Shatterstar costume). The worst for my money is Stryfe. It’s just some ugly chrome armor with a big helmet. It’s definitely eye-catching, but that doesn’t mean its good. Nothing about it is practical, and the design is an example of why Liefeld’s art is so bad. It’s all about eye-catching style, but the longer you look at it, the worse it becomes. Honestly anyone out there could design a better costume for the character in seconds.
6) Onslaught’s Phase Two Armor
Onslaught’s design is one of those you either hate or love it designs. Personally, I always loved Onslaught’s original armor (and the Onslaught story itself, fight me), but the second phase of Onslaught’s armor is terrible. There was honestly no reason for the armor to change and it was a huge downgrade. They were basically trying to say that Onslaught was “mutating”, but what was really was happening was that he was downgrading. The hunched posture was made to look monstrous, but it really only looked funny. At least they kept the purple and red coloration, but other than that, this is just a terrible redesign. Some artists could make it look almost passable — pretty much only Joe Madureira and Adam Kubert — but if you want to see the worst version of it, Google when Rob Liefeld drew it. It really brings out how horrendous a redesign this change was.
5) Whirlwind’s First Armor
Whirlwind is an Avengers enemy who is much cooler than his wannabe Juggernaut costume would let on. There are some good aspects of Whirlwind’s costume — the helmet isn’t terrible and the green color is actually pretty great — but it’s such a bad design. Whirlwind’s mutant spinning powers would be whipping up all kinds of detritus around him, so why does he have so much exposed skin? Also, superhero and supervillain costumes are at their best when they say something about the character wearing them. Whirlwind’s costume says nothing about him at all. It just doesn’t really work on any level, and the character would later get some much better costumes.
4) Gladiator
There are two characters named Gladiator in the Marvel Universe. One of them is the leader of the Shi’Ar Imperial Guard, and he’s awesome. The other is a street level Daredevil and he’s the opposite of awesome. This Gladiator took inspiration from Roman gladiator masks for his helmet. There’s really nothing good about this costume at all. The helmet is mid at best, but there’s nothing else about the armor that’s special in the least. The circular saw blades on the wrists seem like they should be cool — and sometimes were replaced by shields — but much like the rest of the costume, there’s just nothing good about the costume. Gladiator doesn’t really show up very much in the modern day, and I think that has a lot to do with how bad his costume (not to mention the fact that the other Gladiator is his superior in every way).
3) Immortus’s Costume
Kang the Conqueror is, to quote the vernacular, “rizzed” out. Kang’s armor is one of Jack Kirby’s best designs, and while it’s been modified over the years, it’s very rarely been completely changed. In fact, most costumes worn by Kang over his existence are pretty awesome. All except for one — his Immortus costume. Its green, purple, and yellow colors are fine, but it doesn’t really have anything special. The helmet definitely stands out, but that doesn’t mean that is stands out in a good way. I think the biggest problem with this costume is that it’s so simple. Other than the helmet, there’s nothing to grab your eye, which is disappointing for the same villain who wore the Iron Lad, Kang, and Scarlet Centurion armors. Immortus has always been the lamest version of Kang and he has the costume to prove it.
2) Moonstone’s Original Costume
Moonstone has had some great costumes over the years. The one she wore as Meteorite in The Thunderbolts has always been great, and the costume that she started wearing in the late ’00s is also pretty great. However, Moonstone’s original costume was terrible. The helmet is terrible; that’s really all there is to say about it. The cut of the costume isn’t great either — why does she hide her face but not her arms? — and there’s no decoration at all. Simple costumes can be a good thing and this is a very simple costume. However, other than the helmet, this costume is too simple to be any good.
1) The Orb
The Orb is one of those Z-list villains that has some fans — most notably writer Jason Aaron, who made him one of the main villains of Original Sin — but isn’t really anything very special. There’s two schools of thought on the Orb — that he’s so ridiculous that he’s cool or that he’s just ridiculous. The Orb’s costume is basically a Evel Knievel motorcycle suit with a giant eye mask. The mask can make the costume unnnerving, but it can’t make the costume any good. There’s something interesting about the Orb being a mercenary with an eye mask that looks like a ’70s motorcycle daredevil, but it’s a terrible costume.
Who do you think is the worst-dressed Marvel villain? Sound off in the comments below.
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