Spider-Man, the world’s favorite creepy hero, has been known for his jokes almost since his conception. However, across the Marvel Multiverse, the Spider-Men have been the butt of jokes almost as often as they have been pranksters. Sometimes the funniest thing about the characters is the clothes they wear, including plenty of clumsy and misguided attempts to alter the formula of 1962’s classic red and blue Spider-Man suit.
All superheroes and their costumes are absurd when brought into the real world. The extent to which a superhero costume is a joke depends a lot on the artists portraying it. However, some of Spider-Man’s more unusual looks were also intentional jokes, albeit usually jokes made at Wall Crawler’s expense.
10/10 The original Scarlet Spider drew on a ripped hoodie with magic marker
The 1990s were a time of excess in the American comic book industry. Variant cover editions commanded high prices in direct market specialty stores and the industry tried to capitalize on this trend by creating more variant covers. This fueled a speculative market which, in turn, fueled a temporary boom in the industry. New characters with new costumes arrived regularly.
Scarlet Spider’s costume has been regularly attacked as a joke and defended by nostalgic fans. The do-it-yourself aesthetic of the outfit is pretty fun in its own way, but it’s also cheap. It’s the kind of costume a fan could make but not something a hero should wear.
9/10 Cyborg Spider-Man Was Just Erik Larsen Playing With Readers
At the end of the main story Spider Man #20 from 1992, Spider-Man’s enemies the Sinister Six beat him badly and left him bleeding in a filthy warehouse. When he woke up, he needed cybernetic implants to get back to fighting crime. At least, that’s how it appeared.
However, this was just a joke played on the Webhead and his fans. The cybernetic arm was a decorative cast and its “new eye” was just a modified bezel. Erik Larsen, the writer/artist of the book, pulled out a bait and cover switch. Readers certainly thought Peter had been maimed, just like Spider-Man himself. In retrospect, even the title of issue #21 makes the joke clear: “Dealing Arms.”
8/10 Ricochet looks like a gymnast in a goth phase
During the 1998 “Spider-Hunt” storyline, Peter Parker dodged a bounty on Spider-Man’s head while fighting crime in new suits. In the “Identity Crisis” storyline, he adopted four new heroic personas to follow four different crime-fighting leads.
One of Peter Parker’s four new suits was designed for optimal movement, as Peter used his spider-like agility to bounce off walls. Here he was called Ricochet and wore a loud blue and white leotard under a leather jacket. It wasn’t Spider-Man’s finest fashion moment, and he never wore that ridiculous costume again after the story ended.
7/10 Spider-Man’s First Outfit in Amazing Fantasy #15 Was Weird and Boring
When Spider-Man first appeared in 1962 amazing fantasy #15, his story was dramatically framed as nerdy Peter Parker gained great power and discovered great responsibility. Seeing Peter exclusively in ordinary clothes, even when he first used his powers in a professional wrestling match, helped readers relate to the character.
The comic was created via the Marvel method, with a loose plot fleshed out by the artist. Records are nearly nonexistent, so it’s hard to say who came up with the idea for Spider-Man’s professional wrestling look. It could have come from Stan Lee’s writing or Steve Ditko’s art, but that quirky “Spider-Man turtleneck and bottom” definitely made the Wall-Crawler’s beloved red and blue suit look a whole lot better in comparison.
6/10 Tobey Maguire’s Original Wrestling Outfit Was Even More Dorkier
When the first Spider Man Released in theaters in 2002, Tobey Maguire’s performance as the nebbish Peter Parker was universally hailed as compelling and comic-accurate. He responded to an ad for a wrestling match with a prize for the winner, hoping to cash in on his newfound powers, recreating his origin story from amazing fantasy #15.
The spray-painted sweatshirt, balaclava and work gloves didn’t inspire much confidence. Bruce Campbell’s ring announcer must have mocked the lean weirdo stepping into the ring to take on the hulking Bonesaw. It’s unclear where the redesigned Spider-Man outfit he donned later in the movie came from, but it was definitely an improvement.
5/10 Spider-Man 1602 looks like a teenager’s idea of Elizabethan England
Marvel Comics approached world renowned writer Neil Gaiman with an open opportunity in 2001. The resulting project, Wonder 1602, is set in late Elizabethan England and its American colonies. Released in 2003 and drawn by Andy Kubert, it features a helpless version of Spider-Man named Peter Parquagh appearing alongside other heroes born 400 years too soon.
Near the end of the series, Parquagh is finally bitten by a spider, just like in the classic Spider-Man origin tale. In a 2005 sequel titled Marvel 1602: New World written by Greg Pak and drawn by Greg Tocchini, he receives spider powers and debuts as a spider in his own red and blue costume with a Shakespearian grindstone collar. It was a wild, non-heroic fashion statement at best.
4/10 Spider-Man 2211 looks like a B-movie monster costume
By the early 1990s, Marvel Comics had an entire publishing line projecting its fictional universe a century ahead. Writers and artists created new characters to inhabit the world of Marvel 2099. Towards the end of this experiment, Peter David wrote and Rick Leonardi drew a comic book one-shot titled simply Spider-Man 2099 meets Spider-Man.
At the very end of this time travel story, the Spider-Men of both eras were suddenly visited by another Spidey: Spider-Man 2211. The character implied a larger legacy for Peter’s life story. Parker but didn’t have many pages. and probably didn’t deserve much design prep. The result was wonderfully ridiculous.
3/10 Hard web spider armor barely lasted ten minutes
During Terry Kavanagh’s “My Enemy’s Enemy,” a mob war in New York is in danger of breaking out and one party has chosen an all-robot crew. Alex Saviuk has designed a new Spider-Man costume for this menace, advertised on the cover as “The All-New, All-Daring Spider-Armor”. It wasn’t meant to last more than an issue, but that made it extremely disappointing.
The spider armor is mostly a joke for the fans. The fact that the suit was featured on the cover of Spider-Man web #100 with special bright green foil material made it worse. Putting together a new costume that was only nine pages long was a ridiculous disappointment.
2/10 Spider-Man: Far From Home’s Nocturnal Monkey Costume Was Hilarious
Spider-Man: Far From Home is probably the funniest film featuring the famous web hero to date. It’s funny from the start, with a fake Nick Fury hijacking Peter Parker’s European class trip and forcing him to moonlight as a spy. To avoid danger to his secret identity, with Spider-Man appearing in Europe at the same time as Peter, he wore some black outfit provided by Fury.
At a climactic moment in Prague, the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s Ned Leeds and Betty Brant saw him as he saved them. Ned covered for Peter by calling him a “European version of a con” named Night Monkey. Audiences loved the gag enough that Night Monkey was the focus of several internet memes.
1/10 The Bombastic Bag-Man is still a fun joke
For over 38 years, Spider-Man fans have laughed at a moment in Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. The Amazing Spider-Man #258. Johnny Storm dispatched Peter Parker in an old Fantastic Four uniform and a paper bag. Johnny’s brilliant teammate Reed Richards had just solved the mystery of Peter’s alien symbiote costume and Peter Parker had nothing to wear at home. Of course, he ended up foiling a crime on his way home.
The resulting identity, Bag Man, was short-lived but hilarious, with reporters asking Peter if he was joining the Fantastic Four. Completing the joke, Storm even taped a “Kick Me” sign on Spidey’s back. It was literally a prank and it’s still funny almost 40 years later.
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