Jon, Fleet, and I are covering some of our favorite really good and really bad costumes this week and I have what I think may possibly be the worst costume to exist in funny-books. While pondering what I thought was the worst costume, I was a little overwhelmed with the numerous possibilities. I was close to declaring Dick Grayson era Robin with his scaly green briefs and elf shoes, but one costume actually manages to trump that. I dare you to find a costume worse and less characteristic of the character who wore it than the Fantastic Four’s Invisible Woman circa 1993.

In the 1990’s everyone was EXTREME(and yes that is supposed to be said in all caps.) and all the comic book women had to be busty vamps with attitude which resulted in comic-doms #1 soccer mom looking like a super-skank. In the issues leading up to this wardrobe change, Sue had been possessed by the entity Malice which turned her into a leather and spikes wearing dominatrix type complete with a fem-mullet. Apparently that experience unlocked some repressed wild-side within Sue’s normally mild mannered personality, and so was born the EXTREME Invisible Woman. The most noticeable feature of this costume is of course the cut out 4 logo on her chest drawing as much attention as possible to her cleavage. This felt wrong, even for 1993. The Invisible Woman is not a character you really think of when it comes to the “bad girl” craze in the 90’s.  Sue wasn’t the only FF member to bear the burden of attrocious clothing alterations. On the cover of Fantastic Four #375 (featuring one of those totally radical shiny holo-foil cover. EXTREME!!!) The whole gang gets a slight makeover. the Thing has a bucket mask on his face thanks to a festering wound given to him by Wolverine, the Human Torch is wearing a jacket (because people who burst into flame get cold?) and even Mr. Fantastic is all Liefeld-ed out with a vest covered in pouches. And everyone is wielding a really big gun. *sigh*

Eventually Sue ditched the EXTREME look in favor of a more modest costume that just showed off her well toned arms instead of drawing attention to the more naughty regions of her anatomy. There have been some bad super-people costumes out there, but for my money, I’d say Sue Richards got the worst of it. The 90’s were not kind to her for that brief time or to a lot of characters for that matter. I still don’t really get why female super-heroes fight crime in swim-suits AND high-heels. I know it’s gratuitous fan service, but c’mon, it’s not very practical.

-Jim

PS- Speaking of the 1990’s, here’s my theory about what characters of that era were carrying around in all those pouches they were covered in: Trail mix! Why, you ask? When did you ever see a hero get a chance to eat anything during those epic ‘roid fueled battles? I’m just sayin’…

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