The Top Five Worst Costumes in Comics

#5 - Hourman II - The Infinity Inc. Years

I'll be honest with you guys. I'm calling this the Top Five Worst Costumes, but really, except for #1, the rest are all pretty much random suits that I don't care for. Heck, I'm not even sure Hourman here has the worst costume in Infinity Inc. It is, however, the only purple costume with a giant clock on the chest and corsair boots, so it's safe to say it's a contender--Nuklon's mohawk notwithstanding.

Fortunately for Rick Tyler, he later abandoned both the color of Prince and the giant H that makes him look like he's wearing Robin Williams suspenders for an updated version of the original Hourman suit, drawn here by ISB favorite John Cassaday:

Oddly enough, he's not the only time-themed character with a giant clock on his costume to get a great redesign. The Clock King, who used to look like this got a redesign courtesey of Batman: The Animated Series and now commits his deadly time-crimes in classic businesswear. There's hope for everybody.

#4 - Cable
Well, maybe not everybody. Let's talk about Cable for a second. He almost doesn't count as having a terrible costume. I mean, he's a Rob Liefeld character. Still, Cable has everything wrong with that guy's costume designs except the headgear that Shatterstar wears. There's pouches, shoulderpads, gloves that apparently restrict his hands to the size of a mere child's, a metal arm, and not just a few scars on one eye, but the other one glows. And sometimes he even goes shirtless.

#3 - Cosmic Boy: The Awkward Years
So yeah. To this day, I'm not sure if Cos is rolling around in a flesh-colored costume with black highlights, or if he just decided that the best way to take on the Fatal Five was to make them as socially uncomfortable as possible. He's a guy who had a great costumes before this--he managed to use purple to great effectiveness--but I just picture him waking up one morning and going: "Hey, you know what? It's the future. I'm going to cover my hands, feet, naughty bits and nipples, but that's IT. Deal with it." Fortunately, this costume was relatively short lived, but it can serve as a cautionary tale for the rest of us.

#2 - Jericho
My theory here is that in between designing awesome costumes like Deathstroke and the Taskmaster, George Perez thought it would be a good idea to smoke roughly eight kilograms of pure crack cocaine. I mean, Jesus. What exactly is going on here? Let's take it point by point.

First off, we've got that blonde afro/muttonchops combo going on there. 'Nuff said. Then there's a poofy-sleeved turtleneck underneath a scaly purple vest with a big jewel in the belt, accented by some huge gold bracelets. Throw some blue stretch pants and purple boots with gold anklets and you're ready to be The Gayest Wizard.

Jericho can't talk, but if he could, I imagine he'd say: "Hey, I look like a tool." So who could possibly outdo that guy?

#1 - Gambit

If I were honest, this list would've been nothing but the Jim Lee X-Men costumes. But even in that pencil-scratched lineup of pouches and unnecessary belts, Gambit would reign supreme. He's got it all folks. There's headgear, a trenchcoat, gloves that are missing the two middle fingers... It's an ensemble that screams "Radical... TO THE MAX!"

But even beyond the trappings of the '90s, Gambit's costume is just weird. Take away the trenchcoat and the headgear, and you've still got a hot pink shirt with blue metal piping around the collar, black spandex pants with pink squares down the sides (because, you know, pink squares and playing cards go so well together) and what appear to be boots from a suit of medieval armor. At least with Jericho there's a reason for the craziness. That guy jumps out at you, you're going to be staring at the purple sequined vest trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and contact! He's in your body, using your credit card to buy things online. And you know what a hassle that is.

But Gambit? Gambit's a thief who wears metal shoes to sneak around, hot pink body armor to blend in to the shadows, and fingerless gloves so he won't leave prints. That, my friends, doesn't even try to make sense.