From Captain America's red, white, and "meh" to Iron Fist's best Chippendale impression, let's check out the oddest MCU costume choices.
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00:00 From Captain America's red, white, and meh to Iron Fist's best Chippendale impression,
00:06 let's check out the oddest MCU costume choices.
00:09 By 2017, the Marvel Cinematic Universe could seemingly do no wrong.
00:13 Considering the massive success achieved by largely obscure characters like Ant-Man and
00:17 the Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios decided to bring the Inhumans to the big screen.
00:22 However, plans changed, and they were shuffled over to the small screen in the form of an
00:25 eight-episode miniseries.
00:27 Still, the studio had struck gold with its shared universe of Netflix series and ABC's
00:31 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so what could go wrong here?
00:34 As it turns out, pretty much everything.
00:36 Inhumans was absolutely destroyed by critics and fans alike who ridiculed almost every
00:40 aspect of the show, from the characterization to the story to the tone and more.
00:45 But even before the series was unleashed on an unsuspecting public, one aspect was singled
00:50 out - the suits.
00:51 As soon as an official still from the series was released, social media users ripped costume
00:55 designs to pieces like a pack of hungry piranha.
00:58 Their disgust was understandable.
01:00 Before Inhumans, Marvel Studios had largely spared no expense when it came to visualizing
01:04 characters for live action.
01:06 But what we got here was not of the same standard.
01:09 Actor Jordan Ross took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to joke about how the cosplay
01:13 looked great.
01:14 Captain America has gone through multiple costumes in the MCU, many of which were inspired
01:19 by the looks he sported throughout the decades in the comics.
01:22 The very first suit he donned in Captain America the First Avenger was intentionally cheesy
01:26 and dated, paying tribute to his 1940s comic book introduction.
01:29 However, once he got fed up with selling war bonds and decided to join the war effort,
01:34 Cap opted for something more rugged, similar to what he wore in the Ultimates comics.
01:38 While on the run from the authorities after his fallout with Iron Man in Civil War, Cap
01:42 adorned himself with a darker style, reflecting his nomad persona.
01:46 And it was in Avengers Endgame that he finally donned the iconic scale mail he'd been wearing
01:50 since his earliest comic days.
01:51 However, there's one Captain America costume that fans weren't happy with, the one he wore
01:56 in the first Avengers movie.
01:58 Within the movie, SHIELD agent Phil Coulson claims that he had a hand in its design, and
02:02 considering his deep love for Cap, it's completely fair to put the blame squarely on him for
02:06 the annoyingly cartoony appearance.
02:08 Marvel Studios is often blamed for making its heroes' costumes too busy and grounded
02:12 in an attempt to make them more practical.
02:14 However, this iteration of Cap's suit saw the studio commit the exact opposite sin.
02:19 "I understood that reference."
02:22 Adam Warlock is another Marvel Comics character who's been relatively unknown to mainstream
02:26 audiences.
02:27 Mostly relegated to the cosmic side of the comic book universe, Adam is a being who was
02:31 synthetically created to be the next step in human evolution.
02:34 He also plays a major role in such beloved storylines as the Infinity Gauntlet and Annihilation
02:39 Conquest.
02:40 The character made his live-action debut in 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, played
02:45 by Will Poulter.
02:46 In the film, he's the creation of Ayesha, who sends him to get revenge on the Guardians,
02:50 only for him to end up as a member of the team.
02:52 The MCU version of Adam Warlock borrows much of his backstory from the comics, which is
02:56 also the source of his costume's red and gold color scheme.
02:59 However, in true Marvel fashion, his suit is given far too much detail in the form of
03:03 tactical armor replacing the traditional superhero spandex.
03:07 Fans weren't terribly fond of the militaristic stylings given to the character, who was historically
03:11 so powerful that he didn't need additional padding to bulk him up.
03:15 At least the film's costume designers kept his cape and forehead gem.
03:18 It's rather humorous how everyone thought a crystal embedded in someone's skull wasn't
03:21 too weird, but red underwear somehow crossed the line.
03:25 The Eternals were never anyone's favorite characters, mostly due to the fact that they
03:28 occupied such a small place in the Marvel Comics pantheon.
03:32 Other than a handful of dedicated series, the race of humanoid space gods appeared only
03:35 sporadically in other titles since comic book legend Jack Kirby created them in the 1970s.
03:40 On its surface, bringing such obscure characters to the big screen was a bold move on Marvel
03:44 Studios' part, but since they were riding high on the gargantuan success of Avengers
03:48 Endgame, who could blame them for taking such a risk?
03:51 Well, it turns out that their risk didn't pay off.
03:53 The film received a mixed reaction from audiences, due in no small part to its predictable plot
03:57 and boring characters.
03:59 Of course, the Eternals' bland fashion sense did little to make them stand out from the
04:02 rest of the MCU's growing roster of heroes.
04:05 As one Reddit user pointed out, "At some point you really start to notice how a lot of the
04:09 Marvel Cinematic Universe's costumes just feel the same.
04:12 Whether your character is an alien god, a space pirate, or just a human billionaire,
04:16 you all shop at the same outlet."
04:18 One would hope that immortal gods who have been around since the birth of humanity would
04:21 be treated with a little more respect.
04:23 "You like the costume?"
04:24 "We need to talk."
04:25 "Tell the director I have some notes for him."
04:26 "We need to talk to you in private."
04:28 Following the fairly positive response to the previous Marvel shows on Netflix, Iron
04:32 Fist was released in 2017 to a considerably less enthusiastic reception.
04:36 Despite a handful of decent action scenes, fans and critics largely balked at the show's
04:40 wandering storyline, weak performances, and lack of a strong villain.
04:44 In short, it made for a middling lead-in to The Defenders, which was Marvel Television's
04:48 attempt to recreate the crossover magic of the Avengers film on the small screen.
04:52 The show may have scored more points with audiences if its protagonist wore his famous
04:56 green and yellow costume from the comics.
04:58 Instead, he wore regular street clothes, which did nothing to garner favor with fans of the
05:02 source material.
05:03 Sure, the Netflix versions of the characters were more gritty and down-to-earth, but that
05:06 doesn't mean the show's creators couldn't have done something more with it.
05:09 Danny Rand's on-screen look felt like a slap in the face to many who followed the
05:13 character for years and waited patiently for a live-action iteration.
05:16 As CBR's Sean Acheson wrote,
05:18 "Although there was an in-story justification for the absence of Danny's costume, it still
05:22 felt like a pretentious rejection of Iron Fist's comic roots.
05:25 If not for his chest tattoo and his glowing fists, it would be impossible to realize that
05:29 Danny was actually the immortal Iron Fist."
05:32 Whiplash from Iron Man 2 is sort of a composite of the comic book character of the same name
05:36 and the Crimson Dynamo, both of whom were longtime nemeses of Tony Stark.
05:40 In the film, Whiplash is Ivan Venko, the son of a Russian scientist who worked with Tony
05:44 Stark's father decades earlier, before getting kicked out of the U.S. for illegally selling
05:49 advanced technology.
05:50 Either Ivan doesn't know that his father was a criminal, or he doesn't care here.
05:54 He sets out to get revenge on Stark, believing that the best way to do that is arm himself
05:58 with some dangerous tech.
06:00 Whiplash's first attempt to take down Iron Man is a little short in the style department,
06:03 as he attacks wearing bright orange pants, a couple of electrical whips, and that is
06:07 it.
06:08 Other than the whips, nothing about it is based on his comic book counterparts, but
06:11 fans would have been more forgiving of it if it had led to something greater later.
06:15 It did not.
06:16 Instead, we got a bland, bulky rip-off of an Iron Man suit whose only saving grace is
06:20 that it is barely in the film.
06:21 As Hamilton Parker wrote for ComicBookMovie.com, "His final appearance, which received a laughably
06:26 short amount of screen time, is so generic that it's hard to remember what Whiplash even
06:30 looked like when he finally donned his own suit of armor."
06:34 Deathlok was never an A-list Marvel Comics character, but having been around since the
06:38 1970s, he's had enough of an audience to justify his appearances over the years.
06:42 Many characters have taken on the Deathlok identity, but the main qualities they've all
06:46 shared are that they were once dead humans who were revived with advanced technology
06:50 and given an arsenal of deadly cybernetic weapons.
06:52 The style most associated with Deathlok is that of a corpse-like figure with futuristic
06:56 armor and half their face covered in deadly machinery.
06:59 It's a pretty heavy metal look that's reminiscent of the T-800 from the Terminator films, so
07:03 there was a precedent when it came to realizing this character in live-action form.
07:07 Unfortunately, Deathlok's grand live-action debut on Agents of SHIELD left fans wanting
07:12 more.
07:13 In fact, a lot more.
07:14 In the show, he is a regular man named Mike Peterson who is turned into a cyborg with
07:17 expensive high-tech abilities by HYDRA experimentation.
07:21 HYDRA apparently had its funding cut, so they outfitted Peterson with plastic armor that
07:25 made him look like a Power Rangers villain.
07:27 Viewers do get the occasional glimpse of his metallic interior, but it feels like they
07:31 pulled back to ground the character more.
07:34 Baron Zemo is a long-time Captain America villain and a high-ranking HYDRA leader who
07:37 always shows up with a different plan to conquer the world.
07:40 His MCU counterpart is quite a bit different.
07:43 Zemo first appeared in Captain America Civil War as a Sokovian soldier who blames the Avengers
07:47 for his family's death after their battle with Ultron devastated their country.
07:51 He returns in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in which he's recruited
07:55 to help track down the Flag Smashers.
07:57 Zemo donned two outfits that fail to do his iconic comic book look justice.
08:01 Civil War mostly sees him wearing regular clothes, prompting many fans to wonder why
08:05 he was even in the film as he was such a departure from the way he's portrayed in the source
08:08 material.
08:09 For the Disney+ series, he eventually puts on a purple mask that brings him a little
08:13 closer to his original look, but it's only for one scene and did little to thrill fans
08:17 with enthusiastic recognition.
08:19 Marvel's failure to recreate the villain's suit was pointed out by Game Rant's Adeola
08:23 Adeoyi, who wrote,
08:24 "Marvel's villains feature some of the least live-action-friendly designs in the comic
08:27 universe.
08:28 Baron Zemo, however, isn't exactly one of them.
08:31 His full suit is a bit much for the MCU, but his general color scheme and theming should
08:35 have been fairly easy to adapt."
08:36 "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
08:39 Malekith has been plaguing the God of Thunder in the comics for decades, so fans were looking
08:43 forward to his live-action debut in Thor: The Dark World.
08:47 Played by Christopher Eccleston, the cinematic version of Malekith and his Dark Elf brethren
08:50 have been in suspended animation for a millennia following a battle with Odin's father and
08:54 the Asgardians.
08:55 However, once Jane Foster is exposed to the Aether, Malekith and his army are reawakened.
09:01 The ensuing attack on Asgard leads to the murder of Thor's mother, Frigga.
09:04 Thor ultimately thwarts Malekith with the help of his brother, Loki.
09:08 Despite being played by the immensely talented Eccleston, Malekith has gone down as one of
09:11 the worst MCU villains ever.
09:14 Not only was he devoid of personality or a compelling arc, he looked absolutely nothing
09:18 like his comic book counterpart.
09:20 Instead of the sinister black-and-white face and wild, heavy metal hairdo, the audience
09:24 received a strange-looking humanoid with pale skin and tied-back hair.
09:28 Screen Rant's Quinn Lewandowski said, "Malekith spent most of the movie with bright white
09:32 skin and hair that washed out visual definition, only to receive a climactic burn somewhat
09:36 mirroring his two-toned comic appearance.
09:39 Instead, all we got was a tiny tease of what the character could have been, but that amounted
09:43 to little more than an insult to comic book fans."
09:45 - Quinn Lewandowski, EW Director, Comic-Con 2016