Top 20 WORST Superhero Movie Costumes

After the lackluster results of the DCEU, Warner Brothers probably didn’t want to invest much in 2020’s “Birds of Prey.” Despite this, the film actually turned out pretty good. However, it had its problems, one of which was the wardrobe of Jurnee Smollett's Black Canary. She plays a songstress-turned-hero with a super-powered sonic blast. As a result, she understandably wears attire appropriate to her role as a lounge singer. Still, none of her looks really resemble her traditional black leather garb, which is often adapted faithfully in the DC animated films. She spends the movie wearing either her nightclub clothes or punky streetwear, even when taking on a squad of Black Mask’s goons.

This movie may be a beloved early entry in the superhero genre, but can we all agree that the costumes are utterly absurd? General Zod and his squad of Kryptonian soldiers sport black jumpsuits that look like they were pulled out of the closet of a disco band. It’s a little hard to take an alien fascist seriously when he’s wearing a silky black onesie with his bare chest exposed. Is he an evil Kryptonian general bent on dominating the earth or is he the lead singer in a goth Abba cover band? Still, Terence Stamp is a consummate professional, and ate the film up despite his attire.

After the success of his 2012 superpower flick “Chronicle,” filmmaker Josh Trank was tapped to direct the reboot of The Fantastic Four. It was an unmitigated disaster. The production suffered from both studio pressure and a young filmmaker out over his skis, and stars four heroes and a villain in absolutely horrible costumes. They give up the team’s trademark “4” logo for a supposedly grittier and more realistic look. Johnny, Sue, and Reed’s costumes are just the black jumpsuits they wear when cosmic rays spark their super transformation. The Thing is 100% mediocre CG, while Doom gets a body of weird metal plates. The suits are utterly unremarkable, and give a lackluster face to a failed film.

This 2000 film was one of the first successful mainstream comic book blockbusters of the modern era. The filmmakers knew that there could be backlash from comic book fans, and even included an inside joke referencing their comic costumes. For the most part, the black leather worked, and the heroes looked great. The same could not be said of Wolverine’s nemesis, Sabretooth. He rocks a terrible blonde wig and large, feathered eyebrows. His wardrobe gives off vibes that are less “psychotic evil mutant” and more “bad leather jacket that was torn up by cats.” The character received a more realistic upgrade in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Despite the mediocre reviews and box office results of 2003’s “Daredevil,” Fox doubled down with this sequel two years later. Expectations were at rock bottom, and yet somehow the film still manages to underdeliver. It’s a little difficult to take a ninja warrior woman seriously when she is fighting in a cropped, ill-fitting corset that looks like it was bought off the rack at Spencer’s in the mall. While the costume was accurate to the comics, in this situation it may have been better for the studio to go with a more realistic adaptation.

This disastrously bad unreleased film from 1994 makes even 2015’s “FANT4STIC” look good. As far as we can tell, it’s completely unavailable except for pirated versions online. It was intended to be a low-budget schlockfest, and in that regard it was a wild success. The low-effort costumes are something out of a Hollywood Boulevard nightmare. The blue spandex suits, festooned with white embellishments like gloves, turtlenecks, and belts, might be comic book accurate, but that doesn’t mean they look good. From Johnny’s horrific early CGI to Thing’s horrible bodysuit, to Doom’s clearly plastic armor, the costumes are a miss from start to finish.

Before Wesley Snipes’ Blade ushered in the dominance of the superhero genre, “Baywatch” star Pam Anderson brought this Dark Horse Comic character to life. The film was an example of how being faithful to the source material can be a huge mistake. Both in the comics and the movie, Barb Wire is meant to be a sexualized hero. In that respect, the film is a success and a cult classic. Still, it's a little difficult for mainstream audiences to be fully onboard with lingerie gunfights. Barb has a few different styles, often preferring black leather, heels, and halter tops.

Many looked to the HBO release of Patty Jenkins’ sequel to “Wonder Woman” to provide a much-needed escape during this difficult year. With fan favorites Kristin Wiig and Pedro Pascal joining the cast, it seemed like a “can’t miss” film. Unfortunately, it did miss, with Cheetah’s look just one of its many issues. Thanks to some magic wishes, Barbara Minerva transforms into the DC baddie over the course of the film, looking sillier with each transformation. Her pleather cheetah print jacket eventually transitions into a CG-heavy Cheetah-human hybrid. Compared to Diana’s golden angel, Cheetah is utterly forgettable.

This film was so bad, even its star, Dakota Johnson, got in a bit of trouble with the studio for her negative comments on the promotional tour. Honestly, the costumes are just a minor flaw in a movie full of problems. Both Madame Web and her three Spider-Women disciples spend only a few minutes of screen time in their hero costumes. While the outfits themselves aren’t awful, the complete lack of masks on any of the heroes seems to defeat the point of having a secret identity. The Spider-Men we do see – both those in the Amazon and the film’s villain – feel more like Spider-Man knock offs than fully realized characters.

Halle Berry is more than willing to take criticism and poke fun at herself. She even showed up to the 2005 Razzie Awards to accept her Worst Actor trophy for “Catwoman.” Berry, herself, truly deserves none of the blame for the disaster. The cheesy music, bad CGI, and terrible writing made the film virtually unwatchable to most viewers. Worst of all, however, was her costume. It’s a little insane to see a super-powered cat burglar leaping across rooftops in a leather bra, leather pants, bare midriff, and open-toed high heels. Superhero costumes don’t have to be fully utilitarian, but suspension of disbelief has its limits.

After a decade and a half of “X-Men” films, Fox chose one of their most terrifying enemies to face the rebooted mutant heroes. They cast Oscar Isaac as En Sabah Nur, the ancient Egyptian mutant known as Apocalypse. When you are bringing one of the scariest villains in Marvel Comics to life for the first time on film, you want to get it right. What you want to avoid, however, are comparisons to the Power Rangers’ villain Ivan Ooze. Unfortunately, Fox went with the latter. Between the bad makeup, silly headdress, and thick layered leather armor, the entire look is an utter failure. It’s difficult for audiences to fear a villain who struggles just to turn his head.

The costume of this Marvel Comics villain is understandably difficult to translate to the big screen. In the comics, the deadly assassin sports a full bodysuit complete with a white target on his head. It’s a little silly, so when he made his film debut in 2003’s “Daredevil,” the filmmakers understandably wanted to go in a different direction. Unfortunately, the direction they chose was bonkers. They swapped the bodysuit for a massive fake gator-skin overcoat. When out in public he wears a simple black beanie, concealing a target-shaped scar on his forehead. Bullseye’s look, from head-to-toe, is pure 2000s shlock.

After the much-lauded sequel “X2,” the third installment of the “X-Men” films nearly ended the franchise. Among its many faults is the look of Vinnie Jones’ Juggernaut. The ex-football-star-turned-actor was forced into an absolutely ridiculous bodysuit. While the comic version of Juggernaut obviously takes major liberties with human proportions, this adaptation is just weird. The skin and hair look fake, and his chest straps look like cheap BDSM gear. Worst of all is his helmet. The Helm of Cyttorak is a majorly important object in Marvel Comics. The film version is meant to be carved out of solid stone. Instead, it clearly looks to have been carved from styrofoam.

Modern-day audiences can be forgiven for forgetting all about the 1984 “Supergirl” film until she was referenced in “The Flash.” It was meant to be a direct sequel to the Dick Donner “Superman” films, though Christopher Reeve refused to appear in a cameo. While Supergirl’s costume is a fairly solid replication of her comic book look, the same cannot be said of the movie’s villain Selena. She has more wardrobe changes than a Beyoncé concert, none of which are especially flattering. Her plethora of looks feature the worst of what 1980s fashion had to offer, making it virtually impossible to take her seriously for even a moment.

Director David Ayer had to deal with overbearing studio interference to get this movie made. Unfortunately, the studio can’t really take the blame for one of the film's most egregious errors: the Joker. In addition to Jared Leto’s supposed behind-the-scenes antics alienating his co-stars, his look was something out of a nightmare. Ayer eschewed any number of comic-accurate looks for a more modern wardrobe. In lieu of a purple and green suit, the DCEU Joker wears couture clothes, is covered in tattoos, and sports a metallic grill. While this version was rightfully unhinged, the attempt to be edgy and new was a total flop with viewers.

After years of development hell, director Andy Muschietti delivered the Scarlet Speedster’s first solo outing in theaters. It could not have been more of an unmitigated disaster if they’d tried. The many criticisms of the film extend to the wardrobe, especially the villain Dark Flash. What is even going on with this look? Admittedly, part of the problem is that the most pivotal scene, the infamous Chronobowl, is a CGI-heavy mess where the characters get lost against the overly busy background. In a different movie, with less reliance on computer-generated embellishments, this costume might not have looked that bad.

When DC and Warner Brothers chose to bring Green Lantern to the silver screen, they made a bold choice: his entire costume would be generated with CG. Bold, however, doesn’t always mean good. Unfortunately, the CG costume – particularly the mask – was both poorly rendered and poorly received, and of course the film itself was a flop. Since its release, star Ryan Reynolds has repeatedly made fun of both the movie and the costume. In both “Deadpool” and the 2018 follow-up, Reynolds included several jokes poking fun at himself and a film he’d like to forget.

Twenty years before his first appearance in the MCU, the star-spangled hero made his debut in a straight-to-video cheesefest. The low-budget Marvel film leaned hard into its comic book origins, choosing to give Steve Rogers a comic-accurate look. Unfortunately, on camera it reads like a cheap rubber Halloween costume. The wings are extremely silly, and if you look closely, you’ll notice that those are fake ears attached to the headpiece. The worst, however, is his shield. It seems as though the props department didn’t even try to make his trademark weapon look like actual metal. Instead, it looks like a cheap plastic replica.

Though it had its moments – particularly with Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth – 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was generally not well received. The most despised aspect of the film by far was its handling of Deadpool. At first, he’s just Wade Wilson, a wisecracking sword-wielding mutant in a sleeveless combat super suit. Later, however, their experiments on Deadpool absolutely ruin the character. They chose to play with his trademark wit by literally sewing his mouth shut. Instead of a costume, they have him bare-chested, scarred, with retractable swords coming from his arms and Cyclops’ optic blast. Everything about the character and his look was an insult to the beloved merc with a mouth, and, like Green Lantern, Reynolds would later poke fun at it himself.

The Joel Schumacher “Batman” movies of the 1990s combined the camp of the 1960s TV show with the aesthetic of Tim Burton’s 1989 update. The result was a pair of very messy movies. “Batman & Robin” was by far the worst when it came to wardrobe. The villains, Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, went in opposite directions. Ivy wore a very plain green spandex suit and sported a nightmarish hairdo inspired by the 1960s. Mr. Freeze, on the other hand, wore a silly, over-the-top suit of icy armor. But the Bat Family costumes really take the cake, from the codpieces and butt-plates to the nipples. This version of Batman was as far from a Dark Knight as you could possibly get.