Does The Man Make The Suit?

For this new blog post, I will focus on the many suits in Spider-Man's history. Over the many years, we as readers have always been treated to the classic blue and red costume created by the all-star team of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In those days Spidey's red and blue costume was as common as apple pie and the fans loved it!!! However decades later, Spider-Man has dawned a few new costumes and not all have been received with open arms.

The first of Spidey's costumes was the black and white (Venom/Secret Wars) costume. This costume marked the first time in Spider-Man's history that Peter has worn something other than the classic one (and mind you it wasn't by choice). This short version is during the Secret Wars where Spider-Man got his costume torn and there was a machine that repairs costumes.

However for some reason, Spidey picked the wrong machine and actually freed an alien symbiotic creature that bonded with Peter. This new costume of black and white was greeted with mixed reviews. Among the many complaints was the "if it isn't broken why fix it" argument. This change was hard for me at the time because I'm an old school guy but on the other hand, I also thought the new costume was badass!!! The weird part is, decades later the fans loved the black suit look and sometimes I will catch a Spidey fan say, "man I wish they brought back the black suit" and I can't help but agree with them.

However the next couple of costumes that Spider-Man wore were not as great and in fact in my opinion should not have even made it to print. One case in point was the spider armour costume which appeared in Web of Spiderman: Vol 1 Issue 100 and was a total disappointment for me. It's one thing to change a look and even a colour but to make him a metallic, goofy looking spiderman was awful. This ridiculous suit also slowed him down and for a hero that needs to be quick and agile that made no sense!

Moving right along, we get into the Civil War Iron Spider-Man suit which some fans liked and others like me did not. This suit was just a cheap marketing gimmick by Marvel to sell more books during The Civil War crossover event and for a moment it probably did.
In fact, the suit had the Iron Man colours and even looked like something Iron Man would wear. I find that when Marvel tries to add these little weapons and gadgets to Spidey's costume it takes away from the sleek look of the character.

It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions with fans over these suit changes, but ultimately isn't it the love of the character stronger then what he/she puts on?......

-----------

This week's On My Shelf item is Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars # 8. This is the origin of the black costume (Venom origin). This issue is really a landmark for any passionate, Spider-Man comic book collector. Since this comic is from the 1980s, it's a hard to find back issue so happy hunting!