Over the course of Spider-Man's 60 year publishing history Peter Parker and the legacy characters who spun off from him have boasted an impressive array of costumes. From variations on the original red and blue (Sensational) to living creatures (The Black Costume) and even fusions with other superhero costumes (Captain Universe) and they have all been met with either high praise or not so high praise. Below are my top three Spider-Man costumes of all time (with pictures!) What are some of your favorites?
1. SENSATIONAL (Ben Reilly and May "Mayday" Parker)
My all-time favorite Spider-Man costume just so happens to also be Spider-Girl's threads. This bad boy was originally worn by Ben Reilly up until his death in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75 and was later briefly worn by Mayday Parker in What If? #105, the costume itself and its trademark Scarlet Spider webshooters were burned in a dumpster at the end of that issue but Mayday created a replica of the Sensational suit in Spider-Girl #1 to honor the memory of her dear old Uncle Ben. Honestly, I think it looks a lot better on Mayday than it did Ben.
2. SPIDER-MAN 2099 (Miguel O'Hara)
Honestly, it was really tough choosing first and second place because I love both the Sensational and 2099 suits so much. Anyways, this bad ass costume was acquired by its owner, Miguel O'Hara, at a Day of the Dead festival. The suit itself is made up of Unstable Molecules (that same wacky material that both the Fantastic Four and Spider-Boy use as well as other Marvel heroes, I'm sure) and has an attached web cape made of LyteByte. A new version of this costume was recently featured in the movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and it looks sick.
3. THE BLACK COSTUME (Peter Parker)
This suit is a thing of absolute beauty. Regardless of whether we are talking about the Venom symbiote or the fabric costume, I am sure we can all agree that Peter Parker's Black Costume is one of the most awesome Spider-Man suits of all time. Peter found the symbiote during the events of the original Secret Wars and eventually ditched it when he learned it was a living creature from outer space! Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, later made him a new one out of spandex as a gift and he rocked that for quite some time until one day a man named Eddie Brock, who had gotten his hands on the disgruntled symbiote, terrorized Peter's wife Mary Jane! Her fear of the Black Costume resulted in its retirement and Peter's return to the good old Red and Blues.
Honorable Mentions:
Captain Universe
The Classic Red and Blue (Bagley Style)
Spider-Armor MK I