There have been a LOT of suits worn by Spider-Man and other Spider-Peeps through the years. Some look silly, some look awesome, some are classic, and some are modern and sleek. These are my ten favorites!

#10 Cosmic Spider-Man

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This suit has so much going on, but it was also like the coolest thing that ever happened when it showed up. Spider-Man has the powers of Captain Universe! What!? Yes, the standard Spidey mouth is ridiculous on it, and yes, it seems totally weird, but dammit. It’s cool! This also has extra special significance to me, because it was the character resurrection card in the Overpower card game, which I played a LOT of when I was younger.

Behold:

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#9 Iron Spider

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Once again, this is a lot of additional power on Spider-Man, but really this made the list, because it’s a color scheme you don’t typically see on spider suits, and it ACTUALLY has functionality IN the suit. This was the suit that Tony Stark made for Spider-Man, and was worn for a while until he switched to the anti-registration side in Civil War. This suit had a slew of gadgets from additional arms with camera attached, to a glider, to just enhanced armor that was a significant stylistic improvement over Spidey’s classic armored look

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This had to make the list, just because it was the probably the most effective Spider suit that’s been made.

#8 Spider-Girl

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In a lot of ways, Spider-Girl shares a meta-narrative with Spider-Gwen. She was a one-off character that was kept around because the fans loved her so much. A lot of that, I think, had to do with her writing, and the fact that we hadn’t had the spotlight on a female Spider-person very much at that point, but it doesn’t hurt that her suit looks so damn cool, and it was the first time we really saw something resembling the traditional Spider-Man suit on a female character. Also, for my personal feelings, the fact that she used an alteration on the Ben Reilly sensational Spider-Man suit doesn’t hurt.

#7 Classic Spider-Man Suit

When I started this list, I had to make a decision on what kind of list this was going to be. If I based it off of influence or sort of overall importance of the costume to comic history, this suit HAD to be at #1, and if I based it off of what is cool or interesting then it was going to be much farther down the list (I love this suit, believe me! But there are just cooler designs now). So that’s what I chose, and it ends up at #7. Make no mistake, though, there is no Spider-Man suit that is more iconic than this one. Especially as above, drawn by John Romita Jr, who is responsible for some of the most iconic Spider-Man stories in the late 20th century. Though, I have a soft spot for Todd McFarlane’s version, below, as it was the cover of the first superhero comic I ever bought.

#6 Sensational Spider-Man

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I remember when Ben Reilly took over the Spider-Man mantle and donned this suit, I thought it was the coolest thing since his Scarlet Spider suit. Looking back on it now, it’s just a slightly more visually interesting traditional Spider-Man suit, but I still love the alternating colors and patterns on his fingers, which are really highlighted when he is doing his web-slinging, because of the way that he presses his web shooters, and I just love that this was the first time we saw someone new taking up the mantle of Spider-Man in the main marvel continuity.

#5 Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

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Why does everyone do better Spider-Man suits than Peter Parker? Miles Morales’ suit just works so well visually, I love the black and red, and I think it’s a great way to take those dark colors, but put them on a brighter character, but still one dealing with some heavy stuff. It’s both instantly recognizable as Spider-Man, and also instantly recognizable as NOT Peter Parker. It helps that Miles is just such an incredible character, and I am so glad that he’s currently headlining the Spider-Man title (which, as I mentioned earlier, Spider-Man #1 in 1990 was the first Spider-Man comic I ever bought, so I have warm feelings for this title).

#4 Spider-Man 2099

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Everything about this suit works. I love the Dia de los Muertos face on the mask, I love the darker blues and red spider pattern, and I just love how different it looked from any suit we had seen in 1992 when he was created. I think in general the 2099 series is underrated, and, suit aside, it doesn’t hurt that Miguel O’Hara was the first POC Spider-Man in comics.

#3 Black Suit

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I mean… It’s just cool, right? For those of you who don’t know, Peter Parker picked up this suit when his own Spider-Man suit was damaged during Secret Wars, and he didn’t figure out it was an alien symbiote until he got back to earth and it started really messing with him. But it allowed him to shoot organic webbing, it could repair itself, and it made him more powerful. It was cool, and it was all black. When this suit first showed up in comics, everyone just loved the change to the darker, sleeker look, and it continued to be so popular that it spawned, perhaps, the most popular Spider-Man villain of all time: Venom.

#2 Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly)

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I fully admit that my personal nostalgia is the entire reason this is so high on the list. But I mean, just look at my About Me section? I have a hoodie of this suit. I love it. It reminds me of when I was 10 years old. I loved the hoodie, I loved the darker red, I loved the external web shooters, and the fact that Ben Reilly had tweaked them to include impact webbing and stingers to his arsenal. Just everything about this suit takes me back to being a giddy 10 year old eagerly anticipating the next Spider-Man comic (which at the time came out once a week, because there were 4 titles). If given the opportunity in a video game or something, I ALWAYS opt for this suit… That is, unless there is an option to play as…

#1 Spider-Gwen

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Yeah… I mean, if you are a regular reader, you probably knew this was either #2 or #1. I love Spider-Gwen as a concept, for sure. And I love Robbi Rodriguez’s art and I think that Jason Latour is a great writer for this character and has created such a deeply fleshed out alternate universe, but the first thing that sold me on her, the first thing that sold EVERYONE on her was the suit. It’s just the coolest Spider Suit they’ve ever done. It’s colorful, but still mostly monochromatic so the splashes of color really pop, the hood looks cool, the blue shoes are an amazing touch. Everything about it is great. I love that it’s not sexualized, and just looks good on her, and, like Spider-Girl, this is a character that fans loved SO MUCH that she went from a one-shot “what if” character to a major marvel property. It’s just the best Spider suit, and one of the best superhero costumes in comics. Hands down.