Off THEIR Minds: Should Superheroes Change Their Costumes?

I personally always like to see characters change up their looks, especially the lesser known heroes.  The best changes are always small tweaks or pattern changes in costumes, but I personally believe that a complete overhaul can work in some cases. 
Not to mention, as many said, when the heroes change looks in reaction to a situation, then it makes even more sense.

The new Wonder Woman and Vampirella costumes both suck.  They should change them back.  Also, I hope Red Sonja never gets tired of wearing the chain mail bikini!

I love the traditional costumes, but changes for a short time are ok by me.

I just think its funny when some do it we don't like it for example: Wonder Woman and the New Bruce Wayne duds, But others it okay like Spidey or any of the X-men. The X-men are always changing their look but nobody seems to mind.

Some people think they shouldn't change costume..but they do it a lot, even if no one notices.
Power Girl or Wonder Woman went through a lot of costumes over the years..
It's all about adopting new designs and evolving along the mentalities & tastes.

" Not if it has become a part of them. Costumes like Superman's and Batman's should stay the same forever. The only exception is a future or alternate version of the hero "

Not if it has become a part of them. Costumes like Superman's and Batman's should stay the same forever. The only exception is a future or alternate version of the hero

"And just a note, I have a couple more of these Off THEIR Minds left from Long Beach. Hope you guys are diggin' them. "

And just a note, I have a couple more of these Off THEIR Minds left from Long Beach. Hope you guys are diggin' them.

" I have no problem with a costume change if it fits the character.  "

Adam Warlock has changed over time, and improved, Spider-Man's black costume was great, and any time Namor wears more than a speedo is an improvement. Some characters look is fine though, like classic Dr. Strange. It's alot better than the trenchcoat look he has now. So some characters changes are good. I personally think Superman needs an update. Nothing too different or extreme, just a touchup, as his costume looks out of place compared to alot of the modern characters. 

Sometimes a change is good, sometimes it's just unwanted. I know I liked Kyle Rayner's change from his strange black and white GL costume to his current mixture of classic and crab-mask. But overall I do like to see variations of costumes as opposed to complete changes. Like how one artist interprets the Bat-Suit as opposed to the other.

i don't think costumes should have drastic changes unless it reflects the changes in the life of the character like spiderman's black costume or hank pym becoming 'different heroes'. 
but also when a character dies and some one takes their place such as bucky becoming cap he didn't really want to replace him more carry on the legacy so he had a slightly different costume. 
but there are some heroes who's costumes are always changing like iron man because of upgrades etc...  
also when janet van dyne was a fashion designer  so it makes sense that her costume will change 

Depends on what hero it is. If it's anyone like Batman then no, not really. Unless the changes are very minimal - nothing, too, drastic. As long as the artists don't get out of control and start thinking like a musician's manager who's always saying: "You have to keep your image fresh!"

I know that comic fans don't like change, but there have been a lot of improved outfits throughout the years (Nightwing springs to mind ;)

I know this isn't related to the topic at hand, but I just can't resist... 
Andrew "Dice" Clay + Ron Jeremy = Jimmy Palmiotti 
 
Now, with that done, here's my 2 bits... 
I don't have a problem with characters changing costumes.  As the argument was made, people in real life change their looks all the time.  So, it only makes sense that comic characters do it too.

Only if it is a bad costume.

People don't seem to realize that even iconic characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Captain America have tweaked their iconic costumes. 
 
Compare Superman's S-shield from the 30s to the one he's sporting now. Captain America went from having a triangular shield and an exposed neck to a circular shield with a covered neck (and when Brubaker first came on the title, he gained a pouch belt). The blue in Spidey's costume was originally black and the eyes and the size of the symbol on the chest and back are always changing depending on the artist (and the presence and size of the armpit webbing varies). Wonder Woman has worn a skirt, shorts, bikini bottoms, sometimes with only two stars, sometimes with multiple, and the WW on her chest was originally an eagle, sometimes the WW serves as a bustier, sometimes it's just a symbol on the red shirt. The ears on Batman's cowl are different from the 30s, much thinner, the symbol has varied from being a silhouette of a bat to being a bat in a yellow circle to some variation on that, the black has shifted to blue and then back to black and sometimes black with blue highlights, and the belt has changed numerous times as well. Sometimes he's worn trunks over the pants, sometimes he hasn't. 
 
Even the classic costumes are occasionally tweaked or updated. Sometimes, it's necessary. Take Iron Man -- if someone made a rule that comic characters can't change costumes ever, would Iron Man still be believable as running around in a suit of advanced armor when he looks like something out of a sci-fi B-movie? And then there are some costumes which are such a product of their time that they scream out for change -- does anyone really want to see Luke Cage, Blade and Black Lightning running around with afros again? Or what about disco Dazzler? Mullet Superman?  
 
Just because there have been bad costume changes in the past doesn't mean they should be prohibited. It's not the costume change itself that's bad, it all depends on who designs it. Sometimes, even a well-intentioned design change turns out bad. When Claremont returned to the X-Men in 2000, the costumes were changed because in many cases, it had been about ten years or so since any change and it was to reflect the fact that we were (supposedly) entering a new era for these characters. Some of the costumes worked because they kept classic elements of the characters -- Colossus and Phoenix come to mind. Some of them were done to reflect character changes, like Cable who incorporated the presumed-deceased Cyclops' visor into his costume. But some of them didn't work, like Nightcrawler or Archangel and then some, like Storm and Beast, just made people wonder what the hell the artists were thinking.   
 
The problem with the new WW costume isn't that they changed the classic costume -- it's that they changed it too much, changed it into a costume that doesn't reflect the character, and turned her into something unrecognizable. Had they kept the basic elements of the costume the same, they could have tweaked parts of it.

I think a little change every now and then is ok

Horrible question. Whether or not a costume should be changed is entirely dependent on the costume itself. Sure, messing with Batman's costume would be iffy, but I'm betting most people wouldn't prefer to have heroes like Rogue or Luke Cage running around in their original costumes.

A costume or costume change is usually irrelevant. If a costume is no longer to hide an identity, why should it exist?

I dont think an ESTABLISHED and POPULAR character should have anymore than different variations of the same costume unless they have a complete NAME CHANGE! If they become a new hero then it is more exceptable when they change their uniform...

Yes. I will always like the Scarlet Spider & black suit better than the "classic" outfit.
 
It doesnt hurt to have some options, & keep it fresh.
 
Plus, some guys like Batman, or Ironma it would actually make sense to have customized suits.

" The main problem is that the majority of comic artists draw a few standard body frames.  A generic male & a generic female body.  After that, they rely on the hair & outfit to make the character recognisable.  In real life we recognise friends, family & colleagues every day, even though we all change clothes.  Yet in comics, there isn't that distinctive difference between characters' faces, build, height, etc.  A lot really does come down to costume & colouring.  Take the Age of X for example, we're still guessing who some of the characters are... purely based on their designs.  We know who Jubilee & Dazzler are because they carried over the same costume these: a yellow jacket & visors for Jubilee, and a blue top with a starburst design for Dazzler.  They're vastly different outfits, but still carry the familiar motif. "

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I think they absolutely should, but you're always going to get people complaining about any kind of costume change.

Not only should they change costumes, they should age and have finite conclusions.
As for marketability Pro Teams change uniforms, colors and logos and stay popular. 
 
Now from my sentimental perspective it does seem like certain characters have classic looks. I think this is the dilemma that is created from characters that don't age. They have looks that fans love but don't work in a contemporary world thus the character runs into the corner of becoming dated or unbelievable. 

" @Silkcuts said:

" @EisforExtinction said:

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Even if it leads to really bad design (see above) I always think it's cool to see new costumes.  "

I liked Guy Gardner: Warrior, I kind of miss his Alien bloodline "

I didn't but I really liked Superman's static costume: 

"

Sometimes it's cool to see a hero with new look for a couple of issues, but they always go back to the original eventually

They should keep in pace with fashion. Anyway, no one love the original green dress Marvel Girl costume but we love Rachel's current Pretty HOTTT Marvel Girl costume!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To a certain degree i think absolutely  they should be able to change costumes. If I lived in a world were there really were superheros I'd have like 10 different costumes so that if I got caught I'd only have to face the possible criminal charges that can happen being a superhero, and the villains of one costume. I'd only have 1/10 the trouble. And that way people would get confused.
In comics I definitely think superheros should be able to change their costumes to progress with the artists drawing them, but I do not think that they should change completely so that you couldn't recognise them.

No, If they want to get creative create a new character. Leave them alone they usually return to the original costume anyway.

lol, there's a reason why the popularity of Power Rangers dropped when they changed the Mighty Morphin costumes and powers for the Zeo ones. MMPR is iconic, Zeo's suits are ugly (the show survived, but it's never been as popular as it was in 1994). Same applies to comic books, and that's why Spider-Man always goes back to his classic red and blue.

"Red"? That's clearly pink~ ^_^ 
 
As for costume change, it really depends how big a change, an for how long. Small things like the bat-logo don' matter as much as say removin the cape an cowl.  
 
However some outfits evolve. Like with Wonder Woman. No I don' mean the new pantsuit(pfft) I mean skirt to bathin suit, sandles to boots. Some minor changes can become the main for many years, till the creators get bored an change it up again.  
 
An of coruse there's always the option of new people takin on the roles of other heroes. More often than not they change the outfit either slightly like with Dick becomin Batman, or majorly like when Pym takes over as Wasp. Every Robin (in comics[cartoons everyone steals Timmy's~]) has their own look. 
 
It's really hit or miss when it comes to costumes. Some can think it's brilliant, others just don'. Personaly, I'm just happy when I don' see bats with those shoulder horn THINGS some artests drew in the 90s~ ^_^

it worked great for Spider-Man

I agree that characters such as Iron Man are able to change their look without any consequence as it is part of their character.... but i dont really agree with the changing of super heroes costumes... 

I think a  little change is good but not much. look if they were ever to change superman's suit, which they shudnt, they only thing they shud really do is take away the underwear. I think underwear shud leave a lot of characters if writers are thinking of redesigning

Yes, they should change up from time to time.  Change is good.  Even if the costume sucks then when they change back it's good! 

" @EisforExtinction said:

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Even if it leads to really bad design (see above) I always think it's cool to see new costumes.  "

I liked Guy Gardner: Warrior, I kind of miss his Alien bloodline "

I was thinking about this just the other day, 
What about weather?  In one comic Batman mentions that he must be sure to make a costume for each climate, hot, cold, rain, snow, whatever.  Spider-Man isn't as rich as Batman, but he only wears thin spandex.  One issue he got sick from the cold,
why not have the character's costumes change slightly for the cold.  Imagine Spider-Man wearing a sweater or jacket, or something.

Notice how everyone is talking about DC characters. If they really didn't need a makeover then nobody would be so quick to defend.