While superheroes aren’t always put under the best-dressed microscope, there is no denying when an iconic costume hits the market, and Spider-Man’s uniform is one that hasn’t needed to change much over the years.
Originally designed by the legendary Steve Ditko, Spidey’s costume has remained unchanged for decades, with a few costume changes over the years that distracted fans, but ultimately always returned to the original red and blue webs. The internet has been buzzing lately after a few teased images from a new Twitter account called @Russo_Brothers offered very vague glimpses at what might be the new Spidey costume that we will see in Captain America: Civil War.
James Gunn took to Twitter to report that the account is not in fact run by the Russos, though the general consensus online is that it is somebody from the set of Civil War. Today we will take a look at some of these possible teases, as well as some of the comic costumes we might see on the big screen during Civil War or Spidey’s solo film in 2017.
— Russo Brothers (@Russo_Brothers) July 10, 2015
The images don’t really give us any detail on who the costume is for, but the general assumption is that it is Spidey’s new suit. What’s really interesting about these teases is if it is Spidey’s new suit, we might be seeing something brand new that could blow the lid off how we look at cinematic superhero costumes. These first couple images show us what appears to be the red and black outlines of the spider insignia on his chest, or some think it might even be the eye design on the mask. This is coupled with the ‘goggle’ pic that seems to highlight the emotive properties of his eyepieces from the comics that we obviously haven’t seen on the cinematic version yet.
— Russo Brothers (@Russo_Brothers) July 9, 2015
If these really are snapshots of the new costume we will be seeing, it’s important to remember that the first time we will see Tom Holland as Spidey, he will probably be already in his first homemade outfit. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige already let it slip that this version of Spidey is already swinging around the MCU, we just haven’t seen him yet. After Civil War brings Spidey to the awareness of the Avengers and MCU in general, I would expect a much different costume to appear for his solo film.
So let’s talk about where he might be starting off in Civil War, and what we can look forward too in the as-yet-untitled Spider-Man reboot.
The Original
Created by Steve Ditko, the original costume featured smaller eyes, a much darker blue (almost to the point of being black) and what fans like to call webpits. The color scheme of the teased images has fans thinking we might see this original version, but modified for the times with a homemade look that young Peter Parker would be able to put together. Obviously since Pete is a science genius he can put together something a little better than the average teenager could put together. If they even attempt the webpits in any way I will be one happy Spidey fan.
The Classic
Now we are talking about the classic red and blue look, which we’ve seen on-screen before. Both Raimi’s trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 replicated this look, which makes me think we won’t be seeing it for the MCU reboot, despite how iconic it is. Elements can obviously be seen in the Ditko original, but Kevin Feige’s brief comments on the costume have stated we will be seeing a Spidey costume on-screen unlike anything we’ve seen before, so the classic might be out.
The Clone
Worn by the clone (long story) of Peter, Ben Reilly – and by May Parker, Peter and MJ’s daughter in a possible future – this costume has many of the elements of the classic look, while offering slight design changes and a more pronounced spider emblem. This costume may have found a home in the hearts of many Spidey fans and would offer enough of a change to differentiate the MCU Spidey from the Sony Spidey’s, but chances we will see it on the big screen are relatively small. For starters Peter never really wore this costume, and it might be too similar for Marvel Studios.
The Noir
Chalk this costume up to extremely unlikely, but the goggle similarity is hard to ignore. Spider-Man Noir sees our hero back in the dirty thirties, so his attire reflects that kind of homemade design aspect without the clean lines or hidden stitches we might see today. The goggles are the main aspect, and while this costume might not find a place in the MCU, maybe we’ll see that element brought onto Pete’s homemade version in Civil War.
The Iron Spider
For me, given the nature of Spidey’s introduction into the MCU and his already rumored relationship with RDJ’s Tony Stark, this is the suit we will eventually see in Spidey’s solo film, or perhaps even at some point in Captain America: Civil War. The Iron Spider suit first appeared shortly before the Civil War storyline in the comics, at a time when Peter and Tony had entered into a mentor/student relationship after Peter had spent some time on the Avengers.
Stark actually built the highly advanced outfit for Peter, which is why it mimics his red and gold armor, but it also offered a few features that made it unique to Spidey, like the three extra robotic arms on the back, or the various web-shooter adjustments they both made to the suit over time. Granted, Spidey didn’t wear the Iron Spider suit for very long, but it returned a few times worn by different characters and even appeared on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. I would expect to see some variation of this suit on the big screen sooner rather than later.
The Superior
This one is again pretty unlikely, but going off the teased images we saw on Twitter, we’d be silly to ignore the similarities. The Superior Spider-Man was actually the mind of Otto Octavius AKA Doctor Octopus inside the body of Peter Parker. He created his own costume and became what he considered the best version of Spider-Man, until eventually returning the body to Peter to save the woman he had fallen in love with.
His costume started off as a slightly altered version of the classic red and blue, but it was red and black and featured unique, goggle-like eyepieces that look a little like the image provided by the unconfirmed Twitter account. His costume eventually departed further from the classic suit and became primarily black with a little bit of red, with a very stylized spider emblem that has us thinking about the other image released, that may or may not be the close-up version of the spider emblem. However, this costume would make little to no sense to see on the big screen despite the fact that it looks cool and differs from what we’ve seen before.
The One We Don’t Even Know About…
Of course, Marvel Studios could be ready to shock us with something completely new, which isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibilities. Marvel will no doubt want to make their cinematic mark with the character, so we could potentially see a whole new costume for Spidey.
“But Scoot, how could they just make up a new costume?” It’s pretty simple, really. Just check out Project Rooftop on Tumblr or DeviantArt and you will find some seriously amazing redesigns of a ton of superhero costumes, Spidey included. Redesigns of the classic costume, the black costume, or even crazy beautiful modern mergers of both, like this great piece below from Rosy Higgins.
Pretty sweet, right? Obviously we’ll have to wait a bit to see the official costume, but these options listed above are great places to start. There are still more costumes from the comics that we didn’t look at today, but they are either reliant on other heroes (Spidey’s white Future Foundation costume definitely won’t make an appearance) or too scientifically advanced for teen Peter (the Big Time Sonic Suit or Ends of the Earth battle armor, for example).
What are you hoping to see with the MCU’s version of the Spidey costume? Think it might be one of these or something entirely new? Let us know in the comments section below or join the discussion on the GrizzlyBomb Facebook Page!
Images: Marvel Comics, Project Rooftop
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