Carbon Costume 10 Lame Costumes from Comic Book Movies
Hollywood loves adapting popular comic books into live action films. Unfortunately, Tinseltown doesn’t always hit the mark when it comes to recreating the costumes of our favorite superheros and villains. We’ve compiled a list of what we think are some of the worst superhero and villain costumes portrayed in film.
10. Shredder
In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic books and cartoons, Shredder’s appearance is as menacing as his name. Inspired by samurai armor, his muscular physique was often adorned with blades and a cape. Sadly in the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, costume designers removed Shredder’s intimidation factor by dressing him in a clunky helmet and a sparkly purple muumuu. How is anyone supposed to take him seriously?
9. Fantastic Four
As the first superhero team created by comic book writer, Stan Lee, the Fantastic Four battled the likes of Dr. Doom and Galactus while wearing form fitting suits that accentuated their muscular physiques. However, the costume designer of the unreleased low-budget, Fantastic Four film seemed to take inspiration from Dr. Seuss’s Thing One and Thing Two when it came to recreating their costumes.
8. Catwoman
The villainess Catwoman has donned a few different costumes since her first appearance in 1940. While there were minor differences between each, such as color, the costumes maintained the allure that makes Catwoman such a pivotal character. The catsuits scream “Watch your back.” Maybe that’s part of the reason why the 2004 film Catwoman costume was such a disappointment. It looked more like a sexy Halloween costume than the wardrobe of a villainess.
7. Batman
One of the most popular superheroes of all time, Batman, has undergone several costume changes over the years. Undoubtedly some have been better than others but it was the costume worn by George Clooney in Batman & Robin that really raised eyebrows. While moviegoers are used to costumes that showcase the character’s muscles, no one was prepared for the anatomically correct batsuit complete with nipples.
6. Steel
Steel, also referred to as the “Man of Iron” first appeared in June 1993’s “The Adventures of Superman”. Pulling from the likes of Superman and folk hero John Henry, the character is drawn wearing, well, a suit of steel with the added touch of a red cape. Much to the chagrin of comic book fans and film critics alike, the 1997 film starring basketball star Shaquille O’Neal ends up making Steel look like a clearance rack version of Robocop.
5. Bullseye
The supervillain Bullseye doesn’t need superpowers to take down his enemies. His flawless aim allows him to use any object as a weapon. In comic books Bullseye sported the standard form-fitting costume we are all familiar with. Thus, it was hard for many fans to swallow the extreme costume change in 2003’s Daredevil. Designers dropped the blue and white spandex for leather pants and a trench coat making Bullseye look more like a metal-head than a superhero.
4. The Phantom
First appearing in 1939, The Phantom set the trend for future superheroes when he appeared in a skintight body suit and black mask. So it makes sense that costume designers for the 1996 film of the same name wanted to stay true to the costume. Unfortunately, Billy Zane looked more like a Teletubbie than a crime fighter, making this one case where diverting from the original costume may have been been a better idea.
3. The Riddler
Batman fans have spent years debating Jim Carrey’s performance as The Ridder in Batman Forever. Yet many are in agreement that his costumes were hard to swallow. Carrey appears in a few over the top variations of The Riddler’s wardrobe but it was the revealing green question mark covered bodysuit that really made us cringe.
2. Daredevil
Ben Affleck has been getting a lot of grief since the announcement of his upcoming role as Batman in Man of Steel. Perhaps this is because many people are still recovering from his role as the Daredevil. It’s not that Affleck’s portrayal was terrible. It was just hard to pay attention to anything other than the awkward S&M outfit he was wearing.
1. Green Lantern
Hollywood occasionally gets a little CGI happy. Green Lantern is a great example of that. Rather than construct a costume from the traditional latex/spandex material that fans are used to, the powers that be decided a computer generated costume was the way to go. Granted computers can do amazing things these days but this costume was not one of them. Instead of looking like a badass, the Green Lantern looked incredibly silly.
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Jaime
Queen of Shades and Three-legged Animals
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Daredevil’s costume was actually pretty good. It would have been worse if they had gone with a spandex morph suit. You realize there’s a reason superheroes haven’t worn “spandex” on film since the old superman movies.
Daredevil’s costume was fairly good in most aspects, faithful enough while in keeping with the time. shame about the film though
Daredevil sucked…but affleck was the bomb in phantoms yo
I think they couldn’t do much else with The Phantoms costume. I think it turned out pretty good considering the source material.
The Phantom and Daredevil shouldn’t even be on this list. If anything, give them the 9 and 10 spot, both costumes are great adaptions of the source material updated for film. ESPECIALLY the Phantom, they killed the striped undies, darkened the shade of purple and if u look closely, there’s tribal details etched into the costume. Extra credit goes to Zane for taking the role seriously and buffing up for the role which was unheard of back then. Ex: Keaton and his scupted Batman muscles. Shredder was badass too, could do alot worse.
Daredevil suit was fine…… it was the movie that wasn’t great
Contrary to popular belief, the original 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles motion picture was NOT based on the animated cartoon series. It was based on the comic book it originated from. Hence the costume Shredder wears is consistent with a real-life representation of the comic version.