For better or worse, superheroes have taken over Hollywood. There’s plenty to love about these movies, like their all-star casts, their explosive action scenes, their (usually) family-friendly content, and — let’s be honest — their costumes. There tends to be a lot of buzz around the superhero’s outfit. What’s it going to look like? What upgrades will it get from the last film? It’s always a treat watching our favorite costumed heroes come to life — but they don’t always look as good as the comics.
Some of these suits are just plain awful and make no sense. Others stray from the source material and make a mockery out of the costume and the superhero that’s wearing it. And still other costumes, while they might be comic book-accurate, don’t translate well to the big screen.
When compiling this list, we tried to stick to movies over the last 30 years. It seems unfair to include a costume from the 1940s; the superhero genre, and Hollywood in general, just didn’t have the same level of production that we see in movies today. We also kept this list to superheroes and anti-heroes. No villains here. And so, without further ado, here are the 10 worst superhero costumes in movies.
10 Crimson Bolt
Super (2010)
Long before he achieved Marvel and DC super stardom, James Gunn directed a little, black comedy superhero film called Super. It follows an ordinary man without superhuman abilities, who becomes a crime-fighting, costumed hero known as the Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson). Crimson Bolt’s suit is comically bad. It looks like a cheaply made outfit that was thrown together by an average Joe — and that’s exactly what it is.
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That’s also the point. Crimson Bolt’s costume is supposed to be funny, which is why he’s ranked lower on our list. But hey, black comedy didn’t stop Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl, or Big Daddy from making badass costumes in 2010’s superhero film, Kick-Ass, now, did it?
9 Invisible Boy
Mystery Men (1999)
Mystery Men is a superhero comedy from the turn of the century that resulted in one of 1999’s biggest flops. The Mystery Men are the poor man’s version of the Avengers, a team of obscure superheroes with unimpressive powers. Because of this, the superheroes and their costumes are all comically lame. Like the aforementioned Super, that’s supposed to be the point. But that still doesn’t stop one of its characters, Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), from having one of the worst costumes in superhero movies.
Mystery Men
- Release Date
- August 6, 1999
- Director
- Kinka Usher
- Runtime
- 121 Minutes
- Main Genre
- superheroes
Invisible Boy himself is incredibly lame. He can turn invisible only when other people aren’t looking. On top of that, there are some weird fashion choices when it comes to his costume, like goggles, bleached blonde hair, and a mishmash of purple and silver clothes. There are a lot of superheroes with the power of invisibility, like the Invisible Woman from Fantastic Four, Transculent from The Boys, Rodney Skinner from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and a few others. And Invisible Boy has by far the lamest costume of them all.
8 Wolverine
X-Men Trilogy
Hugh Jackman has been playing the iconic Marvel superhero Wolverine since 2000’s X-Men. And aside from his tall height (Wolverine is only 5’3″ in the comics), Jackman has been perfect in the role. There’s just one thing that’s been missing: Wolverine’s iconic yellow and blue suit from the comic books. In most of his film appearances, Wolverine can be seen wearing a tight black suit.
It’s a standard costume that’s worn by all the X-Men to make them look like one cohesive unit. Previous filmmakers didn’t think Wolverine’s yellow suit would translate well to film. There’s even a joke in the original X-Men movie that pokes fun at the character’s “yellow spandex.”
- Release Date
- July 13, 2000
- Runtime
- 104
But in 2024’s smash hit, Deadpool & Wolverine, fans finally got what they wanted. Wolverine at last donned his comic book-accurate suit, complete with the mask, to bring the character to life like never before. It was awesome to see Wolverine in his true colors, though some fans still had gripes about his CGI, white eyes.
Wolverine’s black suit from the original X-Men trilogy wasn’t a bad costume. But the fact that all the other X-Men were wearing the same thing made Wolverine blend in rather than stand out. It just wasn’t the costume that we wanted to see, and it’s absurd that it took 24 years to finally get it.
7 Daredevil
Daredevil (2003)
2003’s Daredevil starring Ben Affleck ruined more than the iconic superhero that bears the movie’s name. It also butchered several characters’ costumes. It got rid of the bandanna that Elektra (Jennifer Garner) is known to wear in the comics. It deprived the villain Bullseye of his awesome suit. And worst of all, it turned Daredevil’s costume into a glossy, leather jacket.
- Release Date
- February 14, 2003
- Runtime
- 103 Minutes
This outfit might make for a more realistic take on the character, but in terms of practicality and combat, this thick, red leather suit just isn’t scoring very high. And Daredevil’s skintight, leather mask doesn’t exactly inspire fear.
6 Batman, Robin, & Batgirl
Batman & Robin (1997)
Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever was the sequel to Tim Burton’s Batman Returns. With this passing of the torch came some changes, and one of the most noticeable alterations was the character’s costume design. Schumacher’s Batsuit was designed to capture the peak male form — so naturally, it had to include nipples. The infamous bat nipples returned in 1997’s (almost) universally hated Batman & Robin. But the poor costume design didn’t stop there.
- Release Date
- June 20, 1997
- Runtime
- 125
Toward the end of the film, Batman (George Clooney), Robin (Christopher O’Donnell), and Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone) are adorned in metallic-looking, blue and gray costumes. Their ice armor, they called it. But how exactly do these costumes protect them from ice attacks? How do these suits allow the Bat family to right Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) more effectively? And poor Robin. His ice armor suit was the only one that still had the nipples. Fans hated the flashy look of these costumes, which is just one of the many, many flaws of Batman & Robin.
5 The Phantom
The Phantom (1996)
1996’s The Phantom was based not on a comic book series from Marvel or DC, but on an old comic strip that follows a costumed crime fighter without superpowers. Although he’s not as popular today, the Phantom revolutionized the superhero genre. He’s regarded as the first fictional hero to wear a skintight costume and the first to wear a mask with no visible pupils, both of which have become hallmarks for comic-book superheroes.
The Phantom’s skintight costume, however, didn’t translate well on screen. That suit and domino mask look like a $40 costume that Billy Zane purchased from a Spirit Halloween. And did we mention that The Phantom doesn’t have superpowers? How is this outfit supposed to protect him during combat? The Phantom has enjoyed a cult following, though, since its release, among fans who don’t seem to mind this character’s laughable getup.
4 Catwoman
Catwoman (2004)
Catwoman, the iconic anti-hero from Batman and arguably the love of Bruce Wayne’s life, was given her own movie in 2004. Well, sort of. Catwoman is famously known as Selina Kyle. But in 2004’s Catwoman, she was weirdly changed to Patience Phillips, a graphic designer who’s revived by an Egyptian mau cat and is granted superhuman cat-like abilities. Um, OK?
Catwoman is the story of shy, sensitive artist Patience Philips (Halle Berry), a woman who can’t seem to stop apologizing for her own existence. She works as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a mammoth cosmetics company on the verge of releasing a revolutionary anti-aging product. When Patience inadvertently happens upon a dark secret her employer is hiding, she finds herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy. What happens next changes Patience forever.
- Release Date
- July 22, 2004
- Director
- Pitof
- Runtime
- 104 minutes
Halle Berry infamously played the titular heroine. Catwoman is often portrayed as a sexy character, but this 2004 box office bomb took it a little too far, adoring Berry’s Catwoman in the most impractical costume ever. She wore a leather bra and ripped leather pants that openly exposed her midriff. How is this costume supposed to protect her upper body during fights? This lingerie-based outfit turned Catwoman into a sexual object rather than a legitimate superhero and deserved its own Razzie.
3 Green Lantern
Green Lantern (2011)
Ryan Reynolds had the misfortune of putting on some of the worst superhero costumes in movies — although technically, he never put this one on. 2011’s Green Lantern is known as one of the worst superhero movies ever made. It was so bad that the DCEU didn’t bother to include Green Lantern, a major DC superhero, in its Justice League. And one of the film’s many, many mistakes was its superhero costume.
The powers that be thought it’d be a good idea to CGI Green Lantern’s suit for the entire movie. And it looked horrible. Even though the movie had a massive budget of $200 million, Green Lantern’s suit somehow wound up appearing fake and cartoony. A green, glowing CGI mess that looked like it had been superimposed onto Reynolds’ body. The comedic actor later made up for his mistake when he was cast as the sarcastic anti-hero, Deadpool, in 2016.
Naturally, Reynolds couldn’t pass up the chance to poke fun at his old superhero project. In Deadpool, Wade Wilson asks his captors to avoid making his super suit green or animated, a reference to Reynolds’ horrible, CGI suit in Green Lantern.
2 Steel
Steel (1997)
Steel is a poorly reviewed superhero film that’s loosely based on the DC Comics character, Steel. In the comics, Dr. John Henry Irons dons a suit of powered armor and is one of four heroes who replaces Superman after his death. In the movie, John Henry Irons (played by Shaquille O’Neal, who had the right look but not the acting chops) also dons a suit of armor. He also wields a massive hammer, just like in the comics. But Steel’s armored suit, which looks more like metallic skin in the comics, didn’t translate well on screen.
Steel
- Release Date
- August 15, 1997
- Director
- Kenneth Johnson
- Runtime
- 1h 37m
Shaq is given a bulky costume that looks difficult to walk in, let alone fight in. He looks more like Tony Stark’s original, makeshift suit from 2008’s Iron Man than the Steel from the comic books. And because the movie rids itself of any connection to Superman, it also removes all Superman references in Steel’s suit. He doesn’t have the red cape or the giant S on his chest, both of which are major pieces of his costume in the comics.
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1 Deadpool
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Ryan Reynolds first played Deadpool in the 2009 superhero film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Or at least, he played some version of him. Because Deadpool starts this movie as an anti-hero, we decided to include him in this list. And all we can really say is — wow. This film massacres Deadpool so badly, not even his regenerative abilities can heal him. The character starts off as a talkative mutant named Wade Wilson, who rocks a sleeveless uniform and wields two katana blades. “OK, maybe he hasn’t turned into Deadpool just yet,” you think to yourself when you first see the character. “Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have any scarring and isn’t wearing his costume.”
- Release Date
- May 1, 2009
- Runtime
- 107
Oh, how wrong you are. Toward the end of the movie, Wilson strangely becomes Weapon XI, a bastardized version of Deadpool. He has no mouth, which silences his signature trash talking. He has katana blades popping out of his arms, laser beams shooting out of his eyes. And worst of all, he’s not wearing his iconic red and black mask and costume. It’s an abomination that deviates from the source material, making this arguably the worst look in superhero movies. But Reynolds eventually gave fans what they wanted and brought justice to the merc with a mouth, and also to his costume, with his Deadpool film series.