Too many costumes for Spider-Man?

[Lasse]

What do you think? I am officially overloaded with the variations on what is to me the perfect superhero costume. Consider that Spidey went a full 22 years before getting his first alternate costume (the still awesome black one in 1984---albeit it as Venom first time around). Since then? Well, I have actually lost count but just in the last decade we have had Iron Spidey, Tron costume, Ends of The Earth Armor, White FF costume, Superior and now the latest tweak for the Fall relaunch. Plus Miles is on his second costume already and Miguel O'Hara gets a new costume this fall as well. Spider-Woman Jess just had a change in duds and Silk didn't make it past her debut before she received a (well-needed) upgrade.

But Spidey? Damn, that classic red and blue suit is just perfection. Only costume that comes close is the black one. I get why publishers like to mix it up with the costumes but it's just hard for me to justify messing with perfection, even if the fall upgrade does so relatively minimally.

Thoughts?

For my taste? Yeah, there has been too many costumes. The thing is that there has been a lot of new costumes during a pretty short span of years. The original suit was the only one for many years, until we had ONE new, the black one. I can understand when something dramatically new happens, like when Ben Reilly or Otto Octavius was Spider-Man, but when Peter gets new variants all the time...nah.

[Darthfury78]

Why can't Jessica Drew have a cool new costume like Peter Parker. Her recent costume is so bland that it's not even appealing at all. If her costume was similar to Peter's Spider-Armor MKII, that might have been cool to see. But her costume seems so uninspiring.

And Peter upcoming costume change reminds me of Superior Spider-Man...

[Mr.Lion]

We need to keep giving Spider-Man Unlimited options somehow.

Besides, I think it's a fun little way for an author and an artist to play the role of toy designer in addition to being a craftsman of storytelling. One notable thing from the "Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" anniversary comedy sketch for Doctor Who was Steven Moffat whipping out two action figures and enacting a scene from "Day of the Doctor" with them. I don't know if that's an accurate portrayal of life at Marvel offices, but hey, it's a cool thought, to be swamped by all the figures that have been made based off the various costumes you have poured your creativity into.

Everything goes back to the regular suit anyway, so who's it hurting to expand when you can always wind back? Keep the costumes coming I say.

[David Walton]

I'm withholding judgment until Marvel debuts the buzzcut, t-shirt and jeans Spider-Man.

[rckstr1253]

While I love the red and blue costume I still find Ben Reilly spiderman costume to be the best. It had the large spider like the one on the black costume, but had the colors of the classic red and blue.

[Lasse]

I'm withholding judgment until Marvel debuts the buzzcut, t-shirt and jeans Spider-Man.

That's Superman nowadays, right?

[Anubhavkumarc]

To be honest the only changes which stuck for years were only slight modifications of the costume.. seems to me that the ANAD costume is going to stick for a long while. The last time it happened was #300, where MJ gives him a variation of his original costume with a modified Spider-Insignia (which she got for him during Spider-Man Vs Wolverine), this costume continued to be standard until now when his ANAD costume is taking over (which has the original insignia)

[Scott Taylor]

That's Superman nowadays, right?

Mainly its Commissioner Gordon. Aka Bat Gordon!

[jgprime]

I really hope the new costume sticks. It's enough of an upgrade for a 21st century Spider-Man without being too much of a departure from the original costume. Having too many new costumes means that they never actually stick, it's time for Peter to get an actual upgrade to his suit.

[Turn the Page]

Batman and Ironman are concepts that are orientated towards the idea of costume changes. I'm not sure Spider-Man has or needs that orientation.

I can see Iron Man's changes and redesigns being a product of upgrades and additions to his armour, but I disagree that Batman is any more or less orientated to costume changes than Spider-Man. Both Peter and Bruce are intelligent guys and make use of tech and gadgets, and both have needed high-tech heavy-duty costumes/armours from time to time.

[Aura Blaize]

I don't think he has too many costumes. When it comes down to it, he has two than he will use for more than a story arc/event. The original and the black suit. The others are more or less one offs. Iron Spider was for like half of Civil War, Superior was Doc Ock, FF seemed limited to just the FF books. the "Tron" suit is now Kaine's and Ends of the Earth was highly situational.

[David Walton]

That's Superman nowadays, right?

Yes. To be fair, it's not a bad look for him, actually. I don't like it as a permanent change, but it probably sends the message DC wants.

[Lasse]

I liked it when he had jeans and a t-shirt during his early days when Grant Morrison wrote it and Rags Morales drew.