Alternate Reality Costumes

I’ve always been a fan of the alternate dimensions/realities that comic books use. It gives us readers a chance to see our favorite characters in a different light if the world had turned out different. We may not always like how they are portrayed, but if nothing else it’s a nice change of pace. And another good thing: a new costume.

Well, some of the time a least.

See, this is what I don’t get. If you have an alternate reality, and you’re doing it to make things different, why the hell would you use the same costume? Case in point is Ultimate Spiderman. Same damn thing. In many alternate realities, Magneto has the same costume. What’s the point of doing that?

I get that some costumes are iconic, or just well liked. But when you’re doing something different with the character, why keep the same costume? It’s like writers use it as a safety net where they can say “well if you didn’t like the story, at least we had the same costume.” It’s just weak. This is your chance to go wild because it isn’t the mainstream. It makes the whole effort seem wasted.

So yeah, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine. If you’re doing something different with the character, especially if it’s changing their personality, change the costume too. Give us something different too look at.