Spider-Man, the world's favorite wall-crawling hero, has been known for his jokes almost since he was first conceived. However, across the Marvel Multiverse, the Spider-Men have been the butts of jokes almost as often as they've been jokers. Sometimes the funniest thing about the characters is the clothes they're wearing, including many awkward, misguided attempts to alter the formula of Spider-Man's classic red and blue costume from 1962.
All superheroes and their costumes are absurd when they're transposed into the real world. The extent to which any superhero suit is a joke depends a lot on the artists depicting it. However, some of Spider-Man's more unusual looks were intentional jokes, too, though usually jokes made at the Wall Crawler's expense.
10 The Original Scarlet Spider Drew On A Ripped Hoodie With A Magic Marker
The 1990s were a time of excess in the American comic book industry. Variant cover editions were commanding large prices at direct market specialty shops and the industry tried to capitalize on this trend by creating more variant covers. This fueled a speculator market that, in turn, fueled a temporary boom in the industry. New characters with new costumes arrived regularly.
The Scarlet Spider's suit has been attacked regularly as a joke and defended by nostalgic fans. The outfit's do-it-yourself aesthetic is kind of fun in its way but it's also cheap. It's the kind of costume a fan might make but not something a hero should wear.
9 Cyborg Spider-Man Was Just Erik Larsen Playing With The Readers
At the conclusion of the main story in Spider-Man #20 from 1992, Spider-Man's enemies the Sinister Six severely beat him and left him to bleed out in a dirty warehouse. When he woke up, he required cybernetic implants to return to crime fighting. At least, that's how it appeared.
However, it was just a joke played on the Webhead and his fans. The cybernetic arm was a decorative cast and his "new eye" was just a modified goggle. Erik Larsen, the book's writer/artist, pulled off a cover bait-and-switch. Readers certainly thought that Peter had been maimed, just as Spider-Man himself did. In retrospect, even the title of #21 makes the joke clear: "Dealing Arms."
8 Ricochet Looks Like A Gymnast In A Goth Phase
During the 1998 storyline "Spider-Hunt," Peter Parker dodged a bounty on Spider-Man's head by fighting crime in new costumes. The the "Identity Crisis" storyline he adopted four new heroic personas to follow four different crime-fighting leads.
One of Peter Parker's four new costumes was designed for optimal movement, as Peter used his spider-like agility to bounce off walls. Here, he called himself Ricochet and wore a loud blue and white leotard under a leather jacket. This was not Spider-Man's best fashion moment and he never wore this ridiculous suit again after the storyline ended.
7 Spider-Man's First Outfit in Amazing Fantasy #15 Was Weird And Boring
In Spider-Man's very first appearance in 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15 his story was dramatically framed as nerdy Peter Parker coming into great power and discovering great responsibility. Seeing Peter exclusively in regular clothes, even when he first used his powers in a professional wrestling match, helped readers identify with the character.
The comic was created via the Marvel Method, with a loose plot fleshed out by the artist. Records are almost nonexistent so it's hard to say who came up with the idea for Spider-Man's pro-wrestler look. It could have come from Stan Lee's writing or Steve Ditko's art, but this original "turtleneck and stocking Spider-Man" definitely made the Wall-Crawler's beloved red and blue costume look a lot better in comparison.
6 Tobey Maguire's Original Wrestling Outfit Was Even Dorkier
When the first Spider-Man hit theaters in 2002, Tobey Maguire's performance as the nebbish Peter Parker was universally praised as compelling and comics-accurate. He answered an ad for a wrestling match with a prize for the winner, hoping to cash in on his newfound powers, replicating his origin story from Amazing Fantasy #15.
The spray-painted sweatshirt, balaclava, and work gloves didn't inspire much confidence. Bruce Campbell's ring announcer pretty much had to mock the skinny weirdo climbing into the ring to face the imposing Bonesaw. It's not clear where the redesigned Spider-Man outfit he donned later in the film came from but it was certainly an improvement.
5 Spider-Man 1602 Looks Like A Teenager's Idea Of Elizabethan England
Marvel Comics approached world-renowned writer Neil Gaiman with an open opportunity in 2001. The resulting project, Marvel 1602, takes place in late Elizabethan England and its American colonies. Released in 2003 and drawn by Andy Kubert, it includes a powerless version of Spider-Man named Peter Parquagh appearing alongside other heroes born 400 years too soon.
Near the end of the series, Parquagh is finally bitten by a spider, as in the classic Spider-Man origin tale. In a 2005 sequel titled Marvel 1602: New World written by Greg Pak and drawn by Greg Tocchini, he receives spider-powers and debuts as the Spider in a red and blue costume of his own featuring a Shakespearean millstone collar. It was a wild, unheroic fashion statement at best.
4 Spider-Man 2211 Looks Like A B-Movie Monster Suit
In the early 1990s, Marvel Comics had an entire publishing line projecting their fictional universe a century forward. Writers and artists created new characters to inhabit the world of Marvel 2099. Near the end of this experiment, Peter David wrote and Rick Leonardi drew a comic book one-shot titled simply Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man.
At the very end of this time travel story, the Spider-Men of both eras were suddenly visited by yet another Spidey: Spider-Man 2211. The character implied a larger legacy for Peter Parker's life story but didn't get a lot of pages and probably didn't merit a lot of design preparation. The result was wonderfully ridiculous.
3 The Hard-Web Spider-Armor Barely Lasted Ten Minutes
During Terry Kavanagh's "My Enemy's Enemy," a New York City mob war is in danger of breaking out and one side has chosen an all-robot team. Alex Saviuk designed a new Spider-Man costume for this threat, announced on the cover as "The All-New, All-Daring Spider-Armor". It wasn't meant to last more than an issue but that just made it extremely anticlimactic.
The Spider Armor is mostly a joke to fans. The fact that the suit was introduced on the cover of Web of Spider-Man #100 with special bright green foil material made it worse. Pumping up a new costume that lasted a mere nine pages was a ridiculous letdown.
2 The Night Monkey Suit From Spider-Man: Far From Home Was Hilarious
Spider-Man: Far From Home is probably the funniest film featuring the famous web-swinging hero so far. It's funny from the start, with a fake Nick Fury hijacking Peter Parker's European class trip and forcing him to moonlight as a spy. To avoid any danger to his secret identity, with Spider-Man appearing in Europe at the same time as Peter, he wore a nondescript black outfit supplied by Fury.
At a climactic moment in Prague, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Ned Leeds and Betty Brant saw him as he rescued them. Ned covered for Peter by calling him a "European rip-off version" named Night Monkey. Audiences loved the gag enough that Night Monkey was the center of quite a few internet memes.
1 The Bombastic Bag-Man Is Still A Funny Joke
For over 38 years, Spider-Man fans have been chuckling about a moment in Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz's The Amazing Spider-Man #258. Johnny Storm sent Peter Parker out in an old Fantastic Four uniform and a paper bag. Johnny's brilliant teammate Reed Richards had just solved the mystery of Peter's alien symbiote costume and Peter Parker had nothing to wear home. Of course, he ended up foiling a crime on his way home.
The resulting identity, Bag Man, was short-lived but hilarious, with reporters asking Peter if he was joining the Fantastic Four. Completing the joke, Storm even taped a "Kick Me" sign to Spidey's back. It was literally a practical joke and it's still funny almost 40 years later.