The worst superhero movie costumes

Ash Walker • 07 Aug 2025 Features

Dressed to kill

Marvel Studios’ latest superhero epic, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is now stretching into cinemas, and by all accounts it's a pretty good time at the movies. But there’s one thing that some fans have been unhappy with since the very first trailer… the costumes.

They’ve been accused of being too simple, of being boring. But whatever your opinion, surely everyone can agree that there has been much worse in the past.

In case you need it, here’s a reminder of just how bad things can get - the absolute worst superhero costuming sins ever committed to film.

Green Lantern (Green Lantern, 2011)

Ryan Reynolds hasn’t had great luck bringing superheroes to life on screen (see also the dreadful first attempt at Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine), but in terms of costuming his biggest offender has to be Green Lantern.

You can see what they were going for. GL’s costume is, historically, a construct of his ring, created from the same sort of green energy that helps him create giant baseball bats and the like.

The problem here is the horribly unconvincing CGI that Reynolds ends up draped in. It’s glowy and constantly moving and looks a lot like Reynolds’ face has been pasted onto a video game character.

Let’s hope they do better in the upcoming DCU Lanterns reboot.

Catwoman (Catwoman, 2004)

Honestly, this costume isn’t the worst thing about the 2004 Catwoman solo film. But it is pretty bad.

For a start, it’s barely a costume - they’ve just given Halle Berry some torn trousers and a few leather straps. And, let’s not forget, a mask that wouldn’t look out of place in a kids’ Halloween costume.

As far as superhero costuming goes, it all feels a bit… lazy. Like they threw it together on the day and called it good. Which, honestly, kind of extends to the rest of the movie too.

Nuclear Man (Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, 1987)

The mullet. The shiny tights. The fingernails. As far as bad superhero costumes go, it’s hard to get more iconic - or more ‘80s - than Nuclear Man.

Created by Lex Luthor from a strand of Superman’s hair, and birthed from a nuclear missile in the heart of the sun, Nukey arrives on the scene fully formed, perfectly coiffed and bronzed to a dangerous degree. He even comes complete with his own logo, although best not to question how that formed in the midst of a nuclear explosion.

He’s not a bad character, really. Just badly deployed, maybe? Perhaps James Gunn could rehabilitate Nuclear Man in a future Superman installment, glowering and scratching the Man of Steel into submission.

Apocalypse (X-Men: Apocalypse, 2016)

Coming off the back of X-Men: Days of Future Past, a massive critical and commercial success, the hype was huge when it was announced that none other than Apocalypse would be the main villain in the next X-Men movie.

He’s a legendary villain - an ancient mutant, maybe even the first, with a penchant for collecting superpowers and the ability to transform other mutants into his ‘Horsemen’. In the comics, Apocalypse was so powerful that his arrival ushered in an entire dark, apocalyptic age.

And with acclaimed actor Oscar Isaac in the role, you can see why fans would be excited. Unfortunately, what they got was less ‘destroyer of civilisations’ and more… ‘smurf in a spacesuit’. Isaac deserved better.

The Joker (Suicide Squad, 2016)

Easily the worst version of Batman’s greatest villain ever committed to screen - yes, worse than Joaquin Phoenix’s icky incarnation - this costume design should have been tossed out at the concept art stage.

The idea seems to have been to take the Joker back to his comic book origins as a flamboyant gangster, updating the look from 1940s hood to modern day criminal, complete with shiny purple car and face tattoos. But rather than scary or intimidating, the changes just make him look a bit… silly.

‘Damaged’? Really? And why would the Joker have his own laugh - and his own smile - tattooed on his arm? The end result is something that looks like a Joker fanboy, rather than the genuine article.

Plus, you know, Jared Leto.

Bullseye (Daredevil, 2003)

Let’s get this out of the way - Colin Farrell is pretty great as psychopathic villain Bullseye. He’s fun and charismatic (as Farrell usually is) and pretty much steals the whole movie.

But that costume… yeesh.

To be fair, Bullseye’s costume in the comics is pretty silly - it’s a bit like a scuba suit with some white rings on it - but to do away with that entirely and stick the guy in a shimmery purple trenchcoat is… a choice.

The bullseye scar on his forehead is actually kinda cool, but does little to make up for a boring, forgettable costume.

The Fantastic Four (Fant4stic, 2015)

As far as superhero costumes go, you’d think the Fantastic Four would be hard to get wrong. After all, you basically just need to put the lot of them in a blue body stocking with a four on it somewhere.

But the costume designers of this fantastically bad flop obviously never got the memo. These costumes are grey and shapeless and completely devoid of character - and they don’t even have any numbers. Plus their much more monstrous take on the Thing might look scary, but robs the character of any pathos.

To be fair to the creators, they were going for grim realism, not comic book accuracy. But maybe that was never a good idea to begin with… And, historically, the FF haven’t had much luck in the costume department when being translated to film.

Thankfully Marvel Studios seems to have finally got it right in First Steps. Fourth time’s the charm, I guess?

Fantastic Four: First Steps is now in cinemas! Check it out for free with Sky Cinema - all subscribers get two free cinema tickets, every month.