I’m amazed that slipped my mind, in that case I vote Tarzan, first appearance 1912 first comic 1929 with fairly consistent output till today. Aside from his visits to civilization where he dresses normally he’s just about always in his “costume”.
Zorro?
Lone Ranger?
Zorro was a pulp character. If ypou look at his depictions in the movies, it has varied considerably – sometimes Zorro wears a full-face mask.
The Lone Ranger was a movie and TV hero. AFAIK, he always wore the same get-up*.
Both Zorro and the Lone Ranger have appeared in comic books since their original appearances, though (and in animation, as well), so I suppose you can consider them “comic book heroes”
If you’re going to consider them, you might want to consider the Lone Ranger’s descedant, The Green Hornet (and Kato)
*After he was no longer The Lone Ranger, but still making public appearances, Clayton Moore started wearing dark sunglasses instead of a mask, since IIRC, the owners of the copyright wouldn’t let him dress up at TLR. But that probably doesn’t countr.
I’m going out on a limb and nominate Krypto. Hard to see how a collar and cape could change.
Sometimes Krypto wears glasses, sometimes not.
Sometimes he wears a goldcollar, sometimes it’s white.
(and, yes, Superboy is a dick)
Didn’t Krypto have a bunch of pouches and buckles in the 90s?
Krypto was a terrier in the 90s. (Also a completely mundane Earth dog. I don’t think a Kryptonian Krypto was reintroduced until the 2000s, but I may be wrong - but it was a close thing, if he did appear in the 90s.)
Hey, who hasn’t played “helicopter” with his pets?
Wolverine, at least in the 606 Marvel universe, has only one real major costume change - when he wore the brown/yellow in the 1980s instead of the blue/yellow. Beyond that, he hasn’t really changed all that much since his first job as an X-Men (except for the Morrison era when everyone wore leather jackets). For example, when everyone else got full-scale costume makeovers in the short-lived “Revolution” era, he kept his old uniform.
I would call that sort of thing artistic license, but Batman has had plenty of costume changes over the years besides that. Most notably the addition of the yellow oval around the bat on his chest in the… 60’s? I think the 60’s, then the removal of it again in the 90’s. Also for a time he lost the trunks over his tights as well.
Someone already brought up the sometimes there, sometimes not trunks, but also his surfboard sometimes has a fin, sometimes not. Maybe not costume, but certainly part of his look.
Wolvie’s had many costumes besides those two. Just to name a few his Astonishing X-Men uniform clearly inspired by his original yellow & blue, yet with some distinct differences (lack of trunks for one).
There’s also his costume from early on in his ongoing solo series (which I can’t find a good image of) where he basically wore black tights and a black tank top instead of his brown costume (which he still wore in Uncanny X-Men) because the X-Men were pretending to be dead at the time. How that costume was supposed to fool anyone (no mask!) I dunno. But even worse his civilian identity, Patch, was just him with an eyepatch… Okay…
Also, his first appearance in Incredible Hulk had a different mask from his traditional blue & yellow as seen from Giant Size X-Men #1 and later. And he replaced the mask for a bandanna in the brief period when he lost his nose (I wish I was kidding). Also at some point he replaced his normal belt buckles with an X on both the traditional costumes.
There have been more, but that’s enough for now.
When Howard Chaykin brought him into the 80s, he gave him a leather overcoat with a different collar; double-breasted, IIRC, with no cape or scarf. The pointy-topped slouch hat was replaced with a flat-topped Borsalino. Subsequent artists (Sienkiewicz and Baker) brought him back to his classic look, though.
Good call!
Don’t know if The Phantom Stranger has changed either.
Popeye?
Judge Dredd?
No need to get salty. He’s right
The Phantom Stranger and The Question were the first two I thought of.
Popeye switched from his usual getup to the all white U.S. Navy uniform for a while.
Didn’t Galactus wear shorts once?
What, was Liefeld drawing him?
How about The Question?