Top 5 Alternate Costumes of Our Favorite Superheroes (in no particular order)

What's cooler than having superpowers and saving the world every month? Getting a new, sweet costume to don and make your enemies go "ooooh" as you swoop in for the coup-de-grace. Here are some of the sweetest costume changes for our favorite characters (in no particular order)

1. Spider-man's Symbiote suit

Giving rise to one of the most beloved characters and plot-lines in comicdom, Spider-man classically bonded the living ooze after having transported to another planet and fighting a hero vs. hero battle royale with the whole Marvel universe in a mini series called The Secret Wars. Peter Parker was beaten and dying, and the symbiote saved his life and gave him new strength, aggression, and resilience. Eventually, after returning to earth and kicking butt as the black-suited Spider-man, the symbiote begins to compromise Peter Parker's morals, it's increasing influence causing Parker to become more villain than hero, forcing him to split with the sentient slime, giving rise to the anti-hero Venom.

2. Black Racer

Near the end of the continuity of the previous DC universe, the Justice League heroes succeed in killing the Apokolips version of Death. Earth's defenders think Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash had given his life in the attempt, yet little do they know the two beings fused, creating a the fastest version of The Flash yet: The Black Racer!

3. Iron Man's Hulk-Buster suit

Easily one of the most epic and heart-quickening scene in Marvel Cinematic Universe history, the fight between Iron Man and The Hulk served as a marquee moment for Avengers: Age of Ultron. While Iron Man is known for having a varied menagerie of Iron Man suits, tailored for different situations, fans were given a beautiful gift by the MCU by bringing the hardest hitting of them all to the big screen in short order. Perhaps the ultimate test of Tony Stark's engineering prowess, the Hulkbuster suit is

4. Superman's burial suit

The Death of Superman is possibly one of the top five comicbook story arcs, wherein we see a proliferation of Superman-like characters, specifically Steel, Superboy, Cyborg Superman, and the Vindicator. Spoiler Alert: Superman comes back, momentarily wearing a black jumpsuit with a silver crest, looking very angry, and goes on to wreck all those who would tarnish his name (or clone him, or impersonate him with a cyborg). A teaser poster for the upcoming feature Justice League shows a silver Superman crest over black chain link, nearly confirming this sleek, strong, adult version of the icon for the upcoming movie. While he will certainly put on the cape before the ending credits, black-clad Superman rising from the grave is something we can all look forward to seeing very soon.

5. Planet Hulk's Gladiator Hulk

One of the biggest challenges to both writers of Marvel comics and their characters within the world is just what the heck to do with the Hulk. One of the most far-out answers to have become a story-arc is Planet Hulk, which shows the green machine exiled to a planet where he is a little less...overpowered. He fights as a gladiator in an intergalactic coliseum and comes to rouse the rabble into revolt, showing the Hulk becomes more powerful no matter what.  Press from the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok movie appears to show a similarly leather-clad Hulk lending a hand as something goes foul in Asgard. The result of the crossover could produce the redemption the Hulk seeks in the MCU. Then again, he could be flung out into space/the multiverse, only to wash up on uncertain shores...

5 Spiderman Plotlines We Hope Marvel Will Explore In The MCU

Quipping and thwip!-ing his way into our hearts since the golden age of comics, Spider-man is easily one of the most-recognized characters in comics. Last year, fans rejoiced when a teenage version of the beloved hero stood toe-to-toe with the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War. With that revelation came the news that a new trilogy would be coming unto us, and verily, a trailer has appeared to slake our thirst for more. While the anticipation makes us talk like Thor, we wonder what plot-lines, villains, and other Spider-men Marvel's MCU might present us?  Also, which ones should they be most careful with?

5. Sinister Six

Andrew Garfield's version of Spider-man had a couple things going for it, namely a loyalty to the lore which saw one of the most poignant moments in Spider-lore on screen, as well as the prospect of a real, live, Big-Screen super team up of villains against Spider-man. While we never got to see that shiny Power Ranger-inspired version of the Six, the vulture-shaped shadow of possibility of a standalone Sinister Six film floats above the rebooted franchise.

The MCU has heavily leaned on the events of the first Avengers movie, and the Chitaurian invasion it depicts, as the impetus for a surge in technological super villains who have co-opted the alien technology for nefarious reasons. This M.O. seems to be true for The Vulture, shown to be the villain of Homecoming, played by true bird-man Michael Keaton, as well as The Shocker. Both of these villains are stringers in the Six when needed. If this continuity trend continues, we wonder what the MCU's Octavius could do with access to the alien tech, who is at nearly each point the progenitor of the Sinister Six (see also-- octopus Octavius!). While OG members Electro, Mysterio, and Sandman seem to defy the rules of the MCU, newer iterations featuring Kraven, Hobgoblin or Green Goblin, Lizard, or Scorpion or even the Rhino (teased in the film-that-has-yet-to-be) could all be easily explainable under the Alien Tech umbrella. Murderous lowlifes, assemble!


4. Mutation

While the rebooted Spider-man franchise will feature a highschool version of Peter Parker, the reality is that a 16 year old actor very quickly becomes a 20 year old actor, a la Harry Potter. Assuming Marvel is anticipating this inevitability, let us also assume we will watch Peter go to college in the second or third MCU movie. Where does he go? NYU, of course (thank you, Uncle Tony), where, naturally his study would be genetic mutations and naturally he would meet a character named Doc Conners, a one-armed genius seeking the cure for all ills through genetic means. We would enjoy the undertones of foreshadowing Peter himself presents in the area of undergoing mutations, and the empathy he has for Conners when, after a self-inflicted experiment goes wrong, he transforms into a giant man-lizard and...well, the rest is up to the imagination, but the storyline is right in front of us all. The relationship between Conners and Peter is a dynamic and formative one, easily one of the most accessible and human stories that can be scooped from Spider-lore.

Of course, having successfully brought Conner's back from the salacious sewer-scouring life the Lizard leads, he eventually (as depicted by the 90's Spider Man: The Animated Series) finds his own mutation growing out of control, sprouting new legs and becoming more Man-Spider than Spider-Man. Who is the only person who understands what is happening to him, and has the expertise in controlling massive mutations? Our very own snake-in-the-grass, Doc Conners.

There, Marvel, I just wrote you two movies. Pay me.


3. Venom

No disappointment has been so pronounced, so hurtful, and so unforgivable as the appearance of a pseudo-Venom in Spider Man 3, pitting Hollywood niceboys Tobey Mcguire and Topher Grace against each other in a mildly-entertaining yet anticlimactic slap-fight. If Marvel were eager to reclaim any bit of Spider-man's enormous lore, they ought to want to do Venom right.

Originally the black suit found Spider-man while he had been whisked away to fight in a Secret War featuring all the heroes of the Marvel continuity. Sound Familiar?

2.  Carnage

Venom presents a great story because Eddie Brock is another redeemable character in Peter Parker's life that falls victim to something Parker himself feels responsible for, namely, the Venom symbiote.  This feeling of responsibility becomes compounded a hundredfold when the Venom symbiote reproduces (because Ooze! Of course) and the offspring first bonds with maniacal serial killer Cletus Kasady, creating Carnage. Carnage is murder incarnate and presents the biggest mortal threat to Spider-man imaginable, being a stop-or-die challenge at every turn. A great quirk of many Carnage plot-lines is papa Venom himself, who sees Carnage as an out-of-control disgrace to symbiotes across the multiverse. Can we please see a QUALITY Spider-man and Venom vs Carnage? Can we? Please?

1.  Spider Fam

Should Tom Holland's Spider-man find himself indisposed after the events of the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, there are several non-Parker webslingers that have pulled on the tights in the past. Much loved is the younger, biracial Miles Morales, an alternate Spider-man (from a universe where Peter Parker died young) voiced by Donald Glover in the recent Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. Fans will enjoy a teasing appearance by Glover as The Predator, the prospect of a 13 year old poc hero joining the fray against some of the MCU's Chitaurian infused-villains is titillating. Also recently introduced to the comics lore is Silk, or asian-american Cindy Moon. The MCU has plenty of opportunities to show increased diversity in image and dynamic plot-lines which such characters, and while we won't hold our breath for a Spider-pig on the big screen anytime soon, we do expect the mantle of spider-hero to multiply in the future, making more complex and epic stories to be told on the big screen before the effects team even takes over.

Up for a challenge, Marvel? We have already seen pervasive, underground, long-secret conspiracies in the MCU, so a secret underground (hydra-led?) plot to create multiple Spider-men doesn't seem so far-out. Ben Reilly is a spider-clone who thinks he is the real Parker, eventually adopting the morality of the real deal and becoming the Scarlet Spider after realizing and rebelling against his own origin.  Recent Marvel comics have featured a series called Spider-Gwen, Gwen Stacy from a universe where she, not Peter Parker, gets the bite. However it forms, a Stark-tech infused spider-team could provide the primordial material for the best action and most engaging story in MCU history.