I've always been more of a DC guy than Marvel one, but I've never understood why people don't like Wonder Man's costume.  Specifically, either of these:



What am I not supposed to like?  Is it an outfit which works on a cover but looks bad in story or something?  Is it too busy?  Too colorful?  I thought color and intensity are boons in superhero comics.  Gauntlets, wrist bands, cool looking belt - what's not to like?  I'll admit that I may never have read a comic with him in it, but I'm not seeing a problem which a lot of people seem to regard as instantly obvious.

Daredevil is one of my favorite Marvel characters, and I've gotta admit, I don't hate that redesign. 

Speaking of Daredevil, I really like the yellow and black Daredevil costume, which seems to be pretty widely disliked. It's an interesting colour scheme and it feels very swashbuckler-y. The red one is definitley better, but I honestly wouldn't mind if he occasionally wore the yellow one, similar to how Spidey alternated between the red and blue suit and the black one for a little while.

I really dislike Red Sonja's iron bikini. I much preferred the chain mail shirt she wore at first, and loved her leather armour (seen in the latter days of Savage Sword of Conan) even more.

I assume at least some Marvel fans thought that wearing your initials on your chest was too "DC" (although there really aren't that many--Superman Family, Robin, Wonder Woman...uh, Geo-Force...).

Wonder Man's original costume had the curly filigree on the abdomen, something that always suggested to me that Don Heck designed it. Heck had some very distinctive but not especially good design instincts, and that design is, at the very least, not in keeping with the usual super-hero aesthetic.

Y’know, Wonder Man’s black and red outfit was one of the better redesigns of its era. 

It's a terrible design for anyone who actually enters combat or wears mail of any sort. Plus, I've known a few woman who have worn chainmail bikinis to do promo work at conventions, and it chafes and pinches areas that shouldn't be chafed or pinched, removing layers of skin in the process. It would distract the person wearing it more than those viewing it and such a person would be unlikely to survive their first battle, not because the armor didn't cover things but because it caused discomfort to the person wearing it leading to them losing focus when they needed to keep theri head (both literally and figuratively. Chain mail usually has several layers of padding under it to make it wearable. Can't do that with a bikini. It may satisfy male gaze (and that is all it does), but it doesn't work as actual mail, looks ridiculous destroying any sense of verisimilitude needed in a story about people swinging swords against supernatural threats, and generally is a terrible design for any reason except titillation. I think everyone who likes the costume should have to spend the day wearing chain mail briefs under their pants to see how it feels.

My nominee for iconic costumes I just don't like-Spider-Man's black costume. It just smacks of either laziness or deadline's dictating design rather than aesthetics, and has zero correlation with the established character of Peter Parker.

On that gets a lot of dislike but that I don't mind so much (saying I like it might be too strong but I don't dislike it) is the bomber jacket era costumes in the Avengers.

-M