As times change and superheroes go through major events, their costumes have evolved. The costumes for major characters usually retain important similarities from earlier incarnations, however, there are times when popular heroes show up in new costumes that raise a few eyebrows.

Wolverine, one of the most popular X-Men, didn’t just get a new costume in X-Men #107 (October 1977) – he stole it. Wolverine’s Fang costume came about when his costume had been burned during a fight in space with an Imperial Guard. Once Wolverine defeated Fang, another member of the Imperial Guard, he took his clothes. Designed by Dave Cockrum, Wolverine sported an orange bodysuit with a brown stripe at the collar and down the middle, completed by a neckpiece, belt, and gloves trimmed with skulls and claws. Once the X-Men returned to Earth, Wolverine continued wearing the costume for a brief period.

Staying hip with the times, Storm ditched her usual long white hair and flowing cape for something a bit radical in Uncanny X-Men #173 (October 1983). Chris Claremont and Paul Smith introduced Punk Storm who donned a leather top, vest, and pants with gloves, a belt, and a leather collar, embracing the punk look of the London and New York music scenes. The change was made, in part, to reflect Storm’s bleaker outlook after struggles with the Brood.

Daredevil made a more practical change in Daredevil #321 (October 1993) when he started using an armored suit after his red suit was destroyed fighting the Wild Pack. Scott McDaniel worked on the design, which was made so that Daredevil could fight stronger villains. It’s a mostly black suit with red on the chest, chin, arms, and knees, plus armor plates on the shoulders and legs.

One of the most curious costume changes at Marvel came in the ’90s with Mike Deodato Jr.’s version of Thor. The redesign in Thor #502 (September 1996) was not accompanied by an event that necessitated the change. Thor started wearing a cut-off shirt, wrist and thigh straps, partial facemask, metallic chest piece and armored shoulders with really long hair and a chain wrapped around Mjolnir. Prior to this he had been mostly shirtless before taking on a glam rock look.

Check back next week when we take a look at some of the drastic costume changes at DC.