10 of the Least Stylish Jackets in Comics

By T.J. Dietsch in Comics, Daily Lists
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 7:58 am
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Last Thursday, DC ditched Wonder Woman's traditional outfit for a new look that was only somewhat woman-y, and not particularly wonderful. The design's biggest problem is undoubtedly the jacket. Once nearly as ubiquitous on superheroes as pouches, most jackets were tossed in whatever the Marvel and DC equivalent of the Salvation Army donation bin is by the end of the '90s. This was okay with just about everybody.

Not to say all jackets look crappy. But not every comic book hero can be Hellboy, and by that, we mean, not everyone can rock a jacket well, especially in 2010l. It's not an easy look to pull off. Wonder Woman's new Jim Lee-designed costume may be a swell form-following-function look, but that jacket... well, the jacket looks like it came from that same Salvation Army bin mentioned above (she probably got a helluva deal on it, though). At any rate, we figured it's a good a time as any to take a walk down comics memory lane and call out the worst jacket costumes in comics. We guarantee, it gets much worse than Wonder Woman's. Much.


10) Hitman
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Don't get us wrong, we're huge fans of Garth Ennis's bullet-ridden masterpiece Hitman, but damn that's an ugly jacket good ol' Tommy Monaghan wears throughout this series from the mid-to-late '90s. John McCrea did his best to draw the hell out of it, but it's still a big, brightish green jacket with those weird metal clips on the popped collar. Plus it bears an uncanny resemblance to another cool killer's duds: Grifter from WildCats.

9) Alex Elder
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This star of the Image/WildStorm/Cliffhanger/DC vampire book called Crimson got couched with a generally terrible wardrobe early on in his series. Not only was he forced to fit into every vampy goth stereotype by wearing bondage gear, but the best he could find to cover himself up with was a thin trenchcoat with short sleeves. It wasn't a good look for Static, it's not a good look for you, dude.

8) Superboy
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Superboy's costume seemed so cool at the time. Leather jacket! Belts! Circle shades! Then again, many of us were 9 at the time and such things didn't seem ridiculous. Now, well, times have changed. That hasn't stopped this costume from returning in the form of a DC Universe Classics figure from Mattel though. Apparently it still has its fans.

7) Invisible Woman
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More derided for the 4-hole cut out to reveal her cleavage, this costume of Sue Storm's has been the target of ridicule since it first appeared in 1993. On the contrary, we dislike the soon-ditched jacket because it covers up the goods!

6) Mr. Terrific
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Whether you're talking about the Golden Age version with the bell-shaped "Fair Play" slogan on the green jacket or the current one with the words running down the arm and his name on the back, neither is a particularly good look for either man, which is too bad because they're both pretty badass heroes.

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