The Best New Marvel Comic Costumes of 2021

The Marvel Comics universe is populated with various heroes and villains who all wear brightly-colored costumes, but this year showcased some of the most memorable outfits in recent memory. From the various alternate-universe versions of characters to the elaborate costume showcase that was the Hellfire Gala event, the Marvel heroes and villains were stylishly dressed as they had never been before. Let’s look at the best Marvel comic costumes of 2021.

This list counts all Marvel costumes from January 1st, 2021 to December 31st 2021. New costumes announced in this year but not debuting until the following year (like Miles Morales as Captain America) do not count. Nor do costumes that have debuted onscreen or on streaming services as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; this is a list strictly for comic-based costumes.

Captain Marvel’s Magical Costume

One of the first major new costumes belonged to Captain Marvel, who constructed her own magician-inspired suit while attempting to learn magic from her once-lover Doctor Strange and the greater magical community. The dark grey suit with yellow and maroon accents and a hood showcased Carol Danvers’ dark journey into the world of sorcery.

Carol has since reverted to her classic red, yellow and blue battle suit after fighting and defeating (through more trickery than magic) the Enchantress’ future son Ove, but she hasn’t entirely abandoned magic either. It remains to be seen if the magic costume will make an appearance in the future.

The Scarlet Witch’s Heroes Reborn Outfit

Captain Marvel wasn’t the only character to receive a new magical costume, as the Scarlet Witch (as the Silver Witch in Marvel’s Heroes Reborn event) wore a green-and-silver outfit that payed homage to her first comic book appearance in Uncanny X-Men #4 in 1963.

Absorbing her brother Pietro’s speed powers, Wanda Maximoff became the Silver Witch in Mephisto’s reality of the Heroes Reborn universe. Maximoff’s usual red outfit changed back to green, with the addition of multiple silver stripes (including one gracing Maximoff’s crown), echoing her brother’s classic costume from the Silver Age. With the destruction of the alternate reality, it’s doubtful the green suit will make another showing in 2022.

Elektra’s Daredevil Costume

Elektra’s new Daredevil outfit was another standout superhero costume of 2021. Her headpiece kept Daredevil’s signature horns but included a scarf covering her mouth and plenty of loose red pieces to suggest dynamic movement.

Also unique to Elektra’s Daredevil uniform are the multiple red wraps around her limbs, suggestive of athletic tape. Similar to Batwoman’s costume, Elektra’s hair flows freely from the back of her own cowl – again, functioning as an easy method for the readers to track her quick, graceful movements and fast-paced acrobatic feats.

Miles Morales Finally Gets His Own Spider-Man Suit

Miles Morales is one of the most popular characters in the Spider-Man roster of characters, but his black and red old costume’s fatal flaw was mirroring Peter Parker’s original suit when Miles himself was such a distinctive character. That changed in 2021 with the reveal of Miles’ new suit; a vast departure from Peter’s old costume, beginning with a distinctive silhouette that lost Parker’s skintight Ditko design.

The white lenses in Miles’ mask have been replaced with red, and a mask is pulled over his mouth. Overall, the suit is more baggy, but still suggests Miles’ movements. The white from the previous design is almost completely gone, and the spider logo is considerably more angular.

Peter Parker’s Steampunk Dark Ages Costume

Peter Parker received a new costume as well in the post-apocalyptic series Dark Ages; while not as much of a radical departure from his original suit as Miles’, it’s noticeably different in multiple ways that reflect the hopeless situation of the alternate universe. The suit closes at the front, similarly to a military jacket, and plenty of straps adorn the new suit, giving off a more practical appearance.

Since electricity no longer functions in the Dark Ages world, Peter has radically redesigned his webshooters. They appear as bulky forearm-mounted attachments, with a multitude of gages and pneumatics. He’s even designed a similar set of webshooters for his daughter, but her suit is primarily pink and purple while Peter’s own still retains the classic red and blue color scheme.

Jean Grey’s Hellfire Gala Costume

The X-Men’s Hellfire Gala event was one fantastic way to showcase multiple exotic costumes in the Marvel Universe – to the point where Doctor Strange even considered himself to be underdressed in his usually-elaborate sorcerer garb. Jean Grey’s costume for the event was a throwback to her original green color scheme as Phoenix.

The costume is regal while being practical; the metallic texture of the torso suggests armor of a sort. But the standout feature of the costume are the multiple golden shards floating around Grey’s head, courtesy of her telekinetic mutant abilities. As is often the case with modern-day X-Men, the X logo appears multiple times – once on the front of the costume and twice on the shins. A yellow cape, attached at the waist, completes the look.

Every Other X-Men Member At The Hellfire Gala

But the rest of the Hellfire Gala’s attendees are more than worth a mention. This was an opportunity for artists and costume designers to go wild; they often incorporated a mutant’s powers into the design. Storm’s regal costume, for example, included a transparent cape that took the form of a dark glimmering thundercloud. Jean Grey’s aforementioned suit contained telekinetically-lifted pieces, and Emma Frost wore a costume that blended in whenever she engaged her diamond form (in addition to a rather ridiculously-revealing outfit complete with a fur coat and a cutout of the X-Man logo. Some elected for simple outfits, such as Nightcrawler’s long red jacket (Kurt, true to his character, would not choose to wear anything too ostentatious).

Once again, Marvel’s events were a showcase for plenty of new costumes. Dark Ages, the Hellfire Gala, Heroes Reborn and the new Avengers Forever series are excellent platforms to change up certain classic looks in comics. The Marvel Comics scene is quite traditional, but at the same time, the changing nature of comics make for incredible costumes; if 2021’s suits are this interesting, one can only imagine what next year will bring.