In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.

One of the oddest things about the Avengers is how often they inexplicably design costumes for each other. It's SUPER weird. It's one thing to design a costume for yourself, but for your teammates? I was just going to note the five times that Avengers designed costumes for their teammates, but I decided to mix things up a bit by actually RANKING the examples!

Before we begin, there are a pair of examples that technically happened where one of the heroes was not yet an Avenger and another hero was no LONGER an Avenger (but come on, Force Works is still pretty much the Avengers), but it's all close enough to count. However, what I am NOT counting is She-Hulk's leotard costume from the Avengers circa Avengers #236. The one with the legwarmers. I don't think there was anything that explicitly noted that Wasp designed it and I don't think it's any real different than She-Hulk's more generic leotards, so I'm not counting it as a Wasp design. I'm also not counting Captain America's armor from the end of Mark Gruenwald's run. That was more like a medical deal, ya know? Okay, on to the costumes!

8. WONDER MAN'S CHRISTMAS COSTUME (DESIGNED BY THE BEAST)

What I love about this awful costume is that it's just so overall absurd that the Beast, who never designed a superhero costume before, just abruptly says, "Hey, let me give this a shot!" This costume was destroyed in battle with Count Nefaria a few issues later and it never returned. Somehow, Wonder Man actually had a WORSE costume later on, but that one was designed by Hollywood designers. A big misfire by a young George Perez.

7. GIANT-MAN'S SECOND COSTUME (DESIGNED BY THE WASP)

The weird thing about this costume is that Wasp, throughout the issue, talks about how ugly the original Giant-Man costume was, when it really was fairly normal. Her re-design, on the other hand, was this odd sort of sci-fi pastiche look that didn't work at ALL. It was very garish. Giant-Man and the Wasp took a superhero hiatus right after this and I think we all know the REAL reason - Hank was just too embarrassed by this costume. Bob Powell designed this one.

6. LIVING LIGHTNING'S YELLOW COSTUME (DESIGNED BY HANK PYM)

The Living Lightning's original costume was not exactly a bold look, but it was a fairly ordinary costume. It was also functional, as it helped regulate his powers (it allowed him to return to his human form, and on the other hand, it kept his lightning powers from going TOO out of control). So when Hank Pym went to go work on the costume, it made sense to add even more safeguards.

However, also adding giant shoulder pads and a plunging neckline was a weird idea by Hank. Perhaps the shoulder pads were meant to evoke Hank's Yellowjacket wings? Weird design by David Ross.

5. CLINT BARTON'S FIRST GOLIATH COSTUME (DESIGNED BY THE WASP)

It feels wrong having this costume in the top five, but it is what it is. Hawkeyw was upset over how useless he felt after his bow broke while trying to save his teammates. The Vision ultimately had to transport Hawkeye's arrow himself. This was right after Hank Pym had a mental breakdown and became a new personality called Yellowjacket. Once he was snapped out of it, he kept his Yellowjacket identity and the costume that went along with it, so Hank was no longer Goliath but Wasp had already made him a sort of BDSM-inspired costume as a wedding present.

Hank left the costume and his latest growth serum in his Avengers locker and Hawkeye quickly stole both to become the new Goliath. This Gene Colan design was later adapted a bit to add more color later on.

4. THE WASP'S FIRST COSTUME (DESIGNED BY HANK PYM)

It is more than a little disturbing how quickly Hank Pym was able to put together a costume for Janet Van Dyne in her first appearance (this was technically before they became Avengers, but come on, it is close enough. They formed the Avengers very soon after Wasp debuted). Was he just sitting around waiting until he ran into a woman that he could make his superhero partner?

The initial Wasp costume design is very old fashioned, but it definitely DOES work. It's a fine Jack Kirby design.

3. JUSTICE AND FIRESTAR'S AVENGERS COSTUMES (DESIGNED BY THE WASP)

The Wasp's costumes for Justice and Firestar when the former New Warriors joined the Avengers weren't, like, earth-shattering or anything, but they were nice, normal costume designs, which makes them upper echelon when it comes to Avengers costumes designed by other Avengers. Kurt Busiek and George Perez cleverly worked the disturbingly low plunging neckline into the story, as that's obviously not the REAL costume design, as Firestar covers up that area with basically a black leotard later (as part of an outfit Hank Pym came up with to help Firestar with her powers). Justice STILL uses this costume, so it actually became his standard costume.

2. USAGENT'S FORCE WORKS COSTUME (DESIGNED BY IRON MAN)

Force Works is technically not even the Avengers, but come on, it's still clearly the Avengers, as Force Works was just the Avengers West Coast under a different name. When the "Wackos" broke up, USAgent retired and destroyed his original costume. So Iron Man whipped up a new sort of armored look that was quite nice looking. It was a strong Thomas Tenney design.

The only problem is that the original "Dark Captain America" look was just too wrapped up in with USAgent's whole DEAL, so despite being a good look, USAgent has typically just used his dark Captain America costume over the years.

1. HANK PYM'S FIRST GOLIATH COSTUME (DESIGNED BY THE SCARLET WITCH)

This is a perfect example of one of the problems with the "Marvel Method," as Don Heck obviously had some sort of idea as to what was going on on this page, but Stan Lee had his own ideas and in Stan Lee's version, Scarlet Witch decided to design Hank Pym a new costume...you know, just in case he ever decided to return to the Avengers. Yes, you read that right, Scarlet Witch decided to design a costume for some guy she didn't even know on the off chance that he returned to the Avengers.

But that being said, this Heck design for Hank's new costume (as he went from Giant-Man to Goliath) is excellent. Very restrained and classical in its design elements. Good stuff.

If anyone has a suggestion for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!