More Cool Costumes!

It's been quite a while since I've looked at cool costumes, so I thought I would shoot out a few more that I think deserve mentioning...

Changeling

Gar Logan started out as Beast Boy with the Doom Patrol, but it would be his time with the New Teen Titans in the 80's that would forever cement his place in my list of cool costumes. The guy has green skin and can turn into any animal (again, green) but his costume is this cool red-and-white number that gives you no indication whatsoever as to his name or power set. Instead, it's just this neat design that was a vast improvement over his old purple Doom Patrol uniform.

Unfortunately, Gar's back to being Beast Boy and the purple outfit is a regular occurrence. Still, this suit wins for the time it was around, which remains the high-point of the Teen Titans comic run thanks to George Perez.

Captain Comet

Another red-and-white color schemed hero, Captain Comet was a truly cool guy in the 70's to me. He was in the Secret Society of Super-Villains comic book (a title I recently scored a full run of at last year's Wizard World Atlanta for $20) but I remember being introduced to him in his first DC Comics Presents adventure with Superman. I didn't pick up SSOSV until later.

After SSOSV died in the DC Implosion of the late 70's, he pretty much dropped off the radar. He shows up here and there from time to time, most recently in a new incarnation and costume. The new costume pays homage to the old, but I'm still a fan of that 70's look. It's kind of simple, but the blue bands and white highlights are set up perfectly to compliment the color scheme. I have a character in the City of Heroes MMORPG that was modeled after this look.

Blue Shield

This is a pretty understated costume with the blue and white scheme, but it works. This obscure hero hasn't made a lot of appearances in the comics, but he has held the position of security director of Project Pegasus for a while...which isn't too shabby.

His power actually involves a small force field around his body rather than an actual shield. I guess I can see where he was going with the name though.

You'll never see him on a t-shirt or in his own title, but he was good enough to make this list.

Ronin

I was always a fan of this character's costume. Clint Barton definitely wins as the coolest guy to wear it (yet) and it made sense for him to get to stretch his abilities beyond the bow and into other weapons while he was getting his head on straight after House of M.

Looking sort of like a ninja Snake Eyes (and yes, I know Snake Eyes was a ninja), the costume allowed for swords, nunchaku, throwing stars, and a host of other fun goodies to be pulled out at any moment.

Clint is back to being Hawkeye and Echo (the original) isn't up to wearing it again anytime soon, but hopefully someone else will grab the suit soon and Ronin will be around again!

Goliath

Say what you will about Hank Pym's constant costumed identity changes, the man can design a really cool costume. Ant-Man has made one of my lists before, and this short-lived blue-and-yellow Goliath suit joins him.

While choosing the name "Goliath" as a superhero name didn't make a lot of sense (hint: Goliath was a bad guy), the costume was a good choice. The antennae from the old Giant Man/Ant Man costume didn't really work.

I'm not sure the goggles were the best idea though. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold would disagree with me, I'm sure.

Manhunter

Paul Kirk was the original Manhunter, and though there have been two since him I still give him the best costume. I know a lot of people were put off by his somewhat garish appearance--especially for an assassin--but I think it works in print. In real life, the flowing sleeves and freaky boots probably wouldn't be the best choices during combat.

I have been reading a lot of Silver and Bronze Age comics again lately (as you'll notice in some of my upcoming posts) and was introduced to this character through his backup stories in Detectice Comics that eventually led up to his teaming with Batman in issue 443 and dying in that mission. It was an incredible storyline that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I've always thought the costume was cool. I bought the statue and the DC Universe figure of this character long before I actually read the stories.