Spider-Man's costumes

Spider-Man, a fictional superhero character by Marvel Comics, has taken several costumes over time in his career. Here is a description of them and the storyline around them.

Traditional Red and Blue

This is the traditional suit that Spider-Man has used throughout his career. It is made from a Lycraand Spandex body suit. The costume is blue with red gloves, boots, and mid-section. Peter designeda web pattern that covers the red portions of the suit, starting at the mask. The suit also has a black spider in the center of the chest and a red spider on the back. The mask has plastic lenses with a chrome covering that allow Spidey to see out, but no one can see in. The lenses also protect Peter's eyes from dust particles while he is swinging through the city. In addition the mask helps to conceal Peter's identity by muffling his voice, thus making it unrecognizable to others. In addition to his costume Spider-man also wears a twin set of webshooters. They are worn on his wrists under the gloves. Also worn under the suit is his cartridge belt, which also has a spider-signal on the buckle.

First appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #1

Symbiote Costume

In the Marvel series Secret Wars, Spider-Man's costume was torn during battle and he was sent to a machine that would repair it. It was in reality a prison that contained an alien symbiote which copied his thoughts about the second Spider-Woman's costume and created a duplicate of it. During and after the Secret War, Spider-Man learned that the costume could respond to his thoughts and change shape. It could also create a seemingly unlimited amount of organic webbing (although this could be related to his later power to generate webbing and that it was created based on his health and nutrition, although the symbiote could be generating the web as well). However, he began to feel tired and consulted his friend Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. He said that the suit was actually a creature and that it was taking him web-swinging every night while he slept. Spider-Man removed the costume and locked it in a protective case. However, the suit escaped and Spider-Man was forced to use the bells of Our Ladies of Saints Church to remove the suit, as it was susceptible to sound. The suit dragged him to safety and apparently died, although it secretly bonded to Eddie Brock, who became Venom.

In the Spider-Man 3 movie the suit was an alien that oozed out of a meteor and bonded to Peter Parker. This caused him to act aggressively, enhancing the darker qualities of his personality, but he removed it in a similar fashion.

In the comics, the costume responded to Peter's mental commands to cover him at will and could generate organic webbing without the use of web-shooters.

First appearance: Secret Wars #8, Amazing Spider-Man 252

Black Costume

After Spider-Man removed the suit, his girlfriend, the Black Cat made him a duplicate of the suit, as she thought it was "sexier" than his red and blue one. He eventually returned to wearing the red and blue one, and only wore this one from time to time, mostly for stealth missions. After Venom's attack on his wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, she forced him to abandon the suit for good.

Bag-Man

Twice Spider-Man has been forced to abandon his usual costume. When he lost the symbiote costume, Spider-Man was forced to use an old Fantastic Four costume, with a paper bag mask and a kick-me sign on his back. He was then sent into action as "The Amazing Bag-Man". He received a better costume later. He then was forced to go into action without his suit, and became "The Bombastic Bag-Man". He has never been seen as either incarnation since.

Spider-Armor

When the New Enforcers attacked New York using high caliber fire-arms, Spider-Man created a suit of "Spider-Armor". Composed of a pseudo-metallic compound Peter Parker developed at Empire State University, the suit slowed him down, but allowed him to not get shot. During battle, the suit was destroyed by acid.

First appearance: Web of Spider-Man #100

Six-Armed Spider-Man

At one point, Peter Parker decided to quit being Spider-Man. He developed an untested serum that would remove his Spider-powers. However, this magnified his Spider-self and he became the Six-Armed Spider-Man. With the help of Dr. Curt Connors (Lizard) he got rid of his other arms. During his tenure as SASM, he simply had holes in his costume for his four extra arms. The Spider-Man Doppelganger took a variation of this costume, but added arm coverings.

A similar occurrence happened later when Spider-Man inhaled the toxic fumes of Plantman's mutagenic plants.

Cosmic Spider-Man

When a lab accident granted Spider-Man the Uni-Power, his costume was cosmicly changed into the Captain Universe outfit by the Uni-Power. This form gave him incredibly-enhanced senses, strength, speed, flight, and limited telekinesis.

Iron Spider

At the beginning of the Civil War prologue storyline, "The Road to Civil War", Tony Stark fabricated a new red and gold costume for Peter utilizing much of the same technology used for his Iron Man suit, with the main difference in being the suit's mesh like quality. This new suit provided Peter with advantages he never had before in other costumes such as radio transmission scanners and receivers, multiple biological sensors for himself and others (such as EKG readings, pulse rates, etc...), multiple vision settings, deflection of small caliber firearms and even gliding capabilities. The Iron Spider costume also provided Peter with three retractable pseudo-arms, though not ideal for fighting. If Peter ever felt that he'd like a change of pace in his appearance, Stark also built in an feature for the costume to change its appearance. This was an ideal feature for Peter due to the fact that he never had to worry about trying to hide is suit in public.

Despite all of these new advantages, Peter was still concerned with features in the suit not told to him, and the possibility that they may be used to control him by way of Tony Stark. These fears came into fruition when Peter came to the realization that he made the wrong choice in the Civil War, and while attempting to flee pre-emptively from Stark, the two fought. Iron Man initiated an override feature built into the Iron Spider costume to disable Peter. Foreseeing this confrontation, and much to Stark's surprise, Peter had built in an override for the override and ceased using the suit.

First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #529

Other Spider-Men Costumes

Over the years, there have been numerous Spider-people. Here is a documentation on their costumes.

Ben Reilly

When Spider-Man's clone, Ben Reilly, took over being Spider-Man, he duplicated his classic red and blue costume and extended the spider motif's legs. He also used a costume during his career as the Scarlet Spider, donning a blue vest with a Spider insignia and a red shirt and mask.

Scarlet Spider II

A man named Joe Wade was transformed by Carolyn Trainer, an assistant of Doctor Octopus', into a virtual reality being due to an accident. He took on the guise of Scarlet Spider II and appeared in an all-silver Spider Man costume.

Scarlet Spider III

In the MC2 reality, Felicity Hardy, daughter of the Black Cat, fights crime as the third Scarlet Spider. She takes a costume similar to Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider costume, but with a silver vest in the place of a blue one.

Blood Spider

Blood Spider was a copy of Spider-Man created by the Red Skull and Taskmaster. It donned a costume similar to the black symbiote costume, but with a webbing storage tank on his back and loose wires that led from it to his wrists.

Spider-Man 2099

Spider-Man 2099, aka Miguel O'Hara, donned a Spider-costume similar to Spider-Man's, but with a more skull-like spider and more blue.

Spider-Man 2211

In a far, alternate future, a Timespinner (aka a Spider-Man robot) decides to become the Spider-Man of that time. His costume had a different color scheme and no webbing marks, but had the same patterns. His mask was a mechanical helmet and he had four red mechanical arms similar to Doc Ock's mechanical arms.

Madame Web

Madame Web adopted a Spider-Man-like costume, which was similar to his symbiote suit. It had a dress instead of legs and had a more circular spider insignia.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel wore no costume despite being a Spider-Man, choosing instead a simple shirt and coat. He was a hairy old businessman who'd gotten his powers from the priest of a Peruvian spider-temple, but his powers were nearly identical to Peter's.

Spider-Women

The first Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) had a costume that looked nothing like Spider-Man's. Instead, it had a red and yellow color scheme. It was a red shirt with a yellow stripe running down the center and a mask that exposed her hair. The second Spider-Woman (see Arachne) had a costume that resembled the symbiote suit. The third Spider-Woman (Mattie Franklin) possessed a costume the same as Spider-Man's blue and red, but with an inverted scheme, after having a traditional red and blue. The fourth Spider-Woman (Charlotte Witter) had a green costume with a yellow frame and separate leg pieces.

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