10 Of The Least Comic-Accurate Superhero Movie Costumes

As we outlined in our list of 10 Extremely Comic-Accurate Superhero Movie Outfits, some comic book films get the look of their main character exactly right. Success doesn’t always equal simply borrowing ideas from the source material, but generally speaking, if filmmakers stick to what makes the character work on the page it will likely work on screen. Some movies didn’t get this memo, though. It's probably not a coincidence that the superhero films with the least faithful costumes are some of the very worst of the genre, from Catwoman to Green Lantern. That’s not always the case, of course, but if your star looks naff then the chances are the whole movie is, too. So, on that note, here are 10 of the worst superhero movie costumes ever. 10) The Punisher (Dolph Lundgren) Of all the superhero outfits out there, The Punisher’s garb is one of the most low-rent. His outfit is a little more stylized in the comics, but basically it comes down to his signature skull insignia on a black shirt. It's that simple. For some reason, though, this was something that the original movie to star the character could not manage. Even though the mega-successful, more serious Batman arrived that same year, we can assume that the makers of 1989's The Punisher wanted to distance themselves from the usually kid-friendly image of comic book heroes and so stripped away any trace of the Marvel character. The result, though, is a protagonist who looks identical to every other action hero you've ever seen. 9) Bullseye 2003’s Daredevil movie hardly got anything right in the costume department. Ben Affleck was forced to wear an ugly leather outfit while Jennifer Garner’s Elektra did not wear the character’s iconic red number from the comics. The worst crime of all, though, is the ridiculous look for Bullseye (as hammily played by Colin Farrell). One of Daredevil’s coolest enemies, Bullseye really doesn’t have too zany an outfit in the source material – with a dark blue spandex suit and bullseye mark on his forehead. In the movie, however, they swapped this out for the dumb idea of giving him a bullseye-like scar on his head. We’re sure this highly-distinctive feature really helps when the wanted criminal is on the run from the police. 8) Catwoman (Halle Berry) Catwoman’s had some iconic outfits on the screen – from the spangly catsuit worn by Julie Newmar/Eartha Kitt in the 60s Batman show to Anne Hathaway’s sexy yet practical version in The Dark Knight Rises. What all of these iterations realized is that the character's look works best when kept simple. This was something sadly lost on the execrable 2004 Catwoman solo movie. Halle Berry’s outfit seems to have been made by people who knew nothing about Catwoman except her name. Look, she’s a cat because she’s got ridiculously oversized cat ears and jagged claw-shaped rips on her trousers. And, in case we forget she’s a woman, she’s only wearing a leather bra. The result is cheap-looking and totally impractical for the character. Purrfectly terrible, really. 7) Scarlet Witch On the other end of the scale, when Marvel brought Scarlet Witch to the screen in Avengers: Age of Ultron they changed the character’s look from the comics to ensure that the actress showed less skin. Scarlet Witch’s outfit on the page is one of the most notoriously skimpy numbers in all of comicdon, so Marvel were never going to make Elizabeth Olsen wear that in the movie. Sadly, though, their alternative was to stick her in ordinary clothes, with just a plain red jacket to hint at the character’s classic colour scheme. Civil War did a little better by giving her a cooler coat, but we really would like to see her wearing Wanda’s traditional crown next time. 6) Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) A formidable foe he may be, but the goofy look of the Green Goblin on the page has caused problems for both versions of the character seen on screen so far. Firstly, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man elected for a high-tech suit that replicated the goblin features but sadly covered up Willem Dafoe’s own face. It wasn't perfect, then, but at least it was a whole lot better than the abomination that was Dane DeHaan’s Gobbie in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Though making sure we got to see the actor this time was definitely a good idea on paper, the make-up used to render DeHaan more goblin-like just makes the character laughable rather than frightening. Besides that, the idea of the mechanical glider and prototype Osborn suit is shamelessly ripped from Raimi’s version. It's bad and plagiarizing. 5) Fantastic Four (2015) Comic book fans like to see their heroes wearing their traditional insignia. Though it might seem a bit kooky in live-action, that symbol of a bat or lightning bolt or whatever is at the core of the character’s look is important to have. As we saw with 1989's The Punisher, without that symbol there is nothing to latch onto and the character just looks bland. This is exactly what happened in 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot which, as well as removing all fun from the heroes, also decided to strip away their classic FF logo. Instead, they just wore boring protective outfits that weren’t even really blue. The Thing was even worse, though, as he didn’t get any clothes at all - awkwardly revealing that his good looks were not the only thing he lost in the transformation… 4) Captain America (Reb Brown) Until Chris Evans and Marvel Studios nailed a more militarized look for the character in The First Avenger, Captain America's suit had not been served well in live-action. As well as the 1990 movie where Matt Salinger (J.D. Salinger’s son) wore fake rubber ears when in costume, two TV movies attempted to update the hero’s outfit for the 1970s – and made something that looks incredibly dated now and looked pretty rubbish at the time as well. In an attempt to cash in on the Evil Knievel craze of the era, this Cap wore an ugly bulky motorcycle helmet in place of his usual sleek cowl - especially bad were the wings glued onto the side. He also had a cheap-looking plastic shield which could definitely deflect bullets, right? 3) Green Lantern Though Ryan Reynolds got to wear a pretty comic-accurate outfit in Deadpool, he was not so lucky for 2011’s Green Lantern. In fact, that CGI eyesore of a supersuit has gone down as one of the most universally derided superhero movie costumes ever. Even Deadpool himself took a well-deserved dig at it. In the comics, Green Lantern has an outfit that is appealing in its simplicity – for the big screen, however, they sadly messed about with it. Though it is on paper a decent idea for the suit to be another construct of the power ring, the animation was awful. The veins of energy running through it are ugly and the CGI mask looks ridiculous when plastered over Reynolds’ face. Particularly with those creepy alien eyes. 2) Batman/Robin/Batgirl (Batman & Robin) While all the ire directed at the terrible decision to add nipples to the Batsuit in Joel Schumacher's movies is deserved, it shouldn't be forgotten that the entirety of the outfits from those films are awful. The worst offenders are the Batfamily’s costumes from Batman & Robin, worn during the film’s climax. Everything is at fault here. Homogenizing the character’s looks – as in swapping Robin’s red and Batgirl’s usual purple for a metallic blue - takes away their individual appeal. Furthermore, the silver detailing is ugly and the chest-hugging batsymbol is just too far removed from the beloved black logo. And do we even need to draw your attention to those oversized codpieces? Alfred, what were you thinking when you designed these? 1) Wolverine While Batman & Robin’s costumes are certainly the worst superhero movie outfits, there is one more that is even further from the comics. As poorly realized as Clooney’s Batman was, at least he was recognizably Batman. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, however, never wears anything approximating his comic counterpart’s get-up. While it made sense for Bryan Singer to eschew the classic yellow spandex for a standard issue leather jumpsuit for 2000’s X-Men - so as not to scare away non-comic book readers - the lack of a proper Wolverine costume over the years is a big disappointment. Nowadays, audiences are a lot more superhero savvy and no one would bat an eyelid if Jackman donned, at the very least, the traditional helmet. With the actor bowing out of the role one final time in the upcoming third Wolverine movie, let’s hope he gets to wear the suit at least once. After all, we did get a glimpse of it in the alternate ending for The Wolverine, which you can see above.