As to villans, I have to go with The Goblin, from Spiderman. Such a cool outfit, that little bat shaped flying machine, and his psychedelic pumpkins.
Fenris - I kinda like the Cockrum/Grell Era LSH costumes, Giffen got rid of most of the really bad ones (Cosmic Boy) early in his run. Phantom Girl’s flairs rock!
plnnr - I think the Daredevil costume switched in Daredevil #4, so you go way back indeed.
Other costumes I liked - The FF jumpsuits before they became form fitting spandex (Early Kirby, then again with a slight modification by Byrne)
The blue Angel costume with the big white stripe down the center (don’t like it so much in red).
Neal Adams’ Green Arrow revision in the early 70’s
The original Spider-Man
The big bulky Iron Man armor
A costume I liked at the time but can’t stand to look at now is Firestorm’s
Agree re: ultra collar - add Nightwing’s first costume to that, (Perez has always been about 5-10 years behind on fashion)
The ‘90’s were the age of bad costumes - Bulky jackets with too many pockets containing nothing (X-Men, LSH), Shoulder Pads (Everybody), Armor/Cyborg parts (Marvel, Image, that new Batman); - probably because the 90’s were the age of bad comics’ artists.
At some point, Dodd’s costume changed. The gasmask became less gas-masky, for instance. It had a nose thingie, and the filter was a simple circular mesh-dealie right over the mouth, IIRC.
Sandman’s entry part way down the page mentions the change.
His later equipment can be seen here, but it’s a little small - it’s just to the left of the Rocket Red armour.
Can’t find a good pic of the superheroised Sandman.
Dang. I liked the original War Machine, when it first showed up in Iron Man. The Red&silver was nice, but those shoulder wings had to go.
Geez… I’ve been reading Iron man for ages.
Azreal. I liked the origial Mini Series. The constume Jean Paul wore was cool.
Gotta disagree on the trenchcoat, because one was worn by a chap I forgot to mention: Rorshach, from Watchmen. He had the coolest mask ever.
I know he was a villain and not a hero, but I thought Kestrel, from the “Hawk and Dove,” mini-series had a cool costume. I also liked how the characters in that comic could change just by saying their alter-ego’s name.
Hot damn, you’re right. Thanks for the interesting education on the character. I guess I just assumed that the Dodds mask from the Sandman (Gaiman) series had been the original, as it was used in all of the Sandman (Dodds) books that I have seen. The Gaiman version of Dodds, from my recollections (I don’t have my trades in front of me) appears to be the laster version with the circular mesh filter.
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Damn. I just thought of one instance where we do see Superhero Sandman in the Gaiman Sandman series. At one point, Odin attempts to bride Dream with the bit of Dream’s soul that is in Wesley Dodds, who is in Odin’s pocket universe (to practice for Ragnarok). Dodds is wearing a trenchcoat, gold mask, green suit and cape.
The only costume that rated a second look from me was Wonder Woman’s 
I wouldn’t pick a single worst…there’ve been so many…but one of the worst, by far, was Zatanna’s short-lived “black unitard with cape and ponytail” look from Justice League of America in the late 70’s or early 80’s.
And, again bucking the anti-trenchcoat trend, I really like The Question’s blue suit, fedora, trenchcoat and “no-face” flesh mask. I generally like any costume that shies away from the standard form-fitting Spandex.
Mike Grell’s physics-defying costumes were awful in LSH, IMHO, but great in The Warlord. Not sure why there’s a difference.
Yeah, that’s what I said:
The original Sandman costume had a gasmask (and trenchcot and fedora) which is an amazingly cool costume in it’s simplicity. Later, Kirby revamped the character and gave him an ugly purple and yellow jumpsuit. He also ditched Dian and introduced Sandy, The Golden Boy. Both of which were mistakes, IMHO. In the '60s, when the JSA came out of retirement, a varient of the original costume with a sort of hockey-goalie mask (it was a slimmed down gas-mask, kinda) was introduced. They also gave him a “wirepoon” gun which shot sand and fused it into glass.
Fenris
Oops, hit “submit” too soon.
During Gainman’s run, Wesley was in Limbo fighting an eternal Ragnarok as a result of “Last Days of the Justice Society” one-shot. During the arc where Lucifer gives Morpheus the key to Hell, Odin offers a small globe to Morpheus that shows Wesley and the rest of the JSA fighting in a tiny little Ragnarok.
There was a tie-in with the sleeping sickness, but it didn’t involve Wesley.
Fenris (who loves Gainman’s Sandman) and who’s first back issue was JLofA #47-8 featuring a JLA/JSA teamup which reintroduced Sandman and his wirepoon gun
Personal, I like the original (1940’s) Captain Marvel.
The button flap makes the costume.
The Golden Age Green Lantern is pretty cool, too.
During Gainman’s run, Wesley was in Limbo fighting an eternal Ragnarok as a result of “Last Days of the Justice Society” one-shot. During the arc where Lucifer gives Morpheus the key to Hell, Odin offers a small globe to Morpheus that shows Wesley and the rest of the JSA fighting in a tiny little Ragnarok.
Mentioned above in my post, though I frankly didn’t know the JSA part. Dodds joined a team? Weird. Kind of like when Spider-Man, the Hulk, Ghost Rider and…someone else…tried to step in for the Fantasic Four sometime in '89 or so.
*There was a tie-in with the sleeping sickness, but it didn’t involve Wesley. *
Hmmmm…not having the first trade in front of me, my best recall is that Wesley comes back form WWI having recovered from the sleeping sickness (I’m almost certain he wasn’t the one who had gone "over-the-top). I’ll check that when I get home tonight.
Man, I love this thread.
As for a butt-ugly costume, I’ve got to go with the current Black Canary custome. Yes, it’s nice and simple and only two colors. But c’mon, turquoise and black? What is this, a Florida baseball team? Pains me to say it, as I’m greatly enjoying the Birds of Prey book.
Haven’t really picked up a comic since about '91 or so. :o
Loved it when you could follow 1 or 2 titles and pick up the occasional cross-over. IMO Marvel got nuts. After a couple of months of spending $50 on comics just trying to follow the X-MEN, I threw in the towel.
Favorite costumes: Wolverine (yellow), Captain America, Night Crawler, and Vision.
Wolverine. 
No, he definitly wasn’t the one who “went over the top”. I remember the panel you’re talking about (and it’s great: the artwork gave me the creeps).
Regarding the “Dodds joined a team?” comment, you just made me feel very, very old. 
He was a member of the Justice Society for far longer than he ever had a solo strip either in the 1940s or in the 1990s, and he joined the JSA back in about 1941 or so, within a few months of his first appearance. Until Sandman Mystery Theater came out, he was like…oh…Hank Pym over at Marvel: Had his own solo strip (as Ant-Man/Giant-Man) but everyone remembers him as an Avenger; Dodds was associated as a second tier JSA member with a cool costume and mediocre powers. I’d suspect that if you polled fans back in the '80s and earlier, most couldn’t tell you what anthology comic Dodd’s solo strip appeared in, but most could associate him with the JSA.
That said, if your first exposure to him was Sandman Mystery Theater, I can imagine how truly weird the though of him in a team would be. (SMT was a great, underrated series).
A couple of other Sandman tidbits: You did know that Cain, Abel, Eve and Destiny all had their own titles long before Gainman invented Morpheus? Brute, Glob and Jeb came from a Jack Kirby Sandman title (had nothing to do with Dodds or Morpheus). And Matthew the Raven was a supporting character in Moore’s Swamp Thing. Sandman is packed with stuff like this. I love the little trivia tidbits that Gainman threw in for older fans, but I think the most amazing thing about Gainman’s writing is his ability to take any character, any title and make it interesting.
Um…to end the hijack: um…Ditko’s Blue Beetle costume is another really cool costume. So’s Infantino’s Captain Cold and Adam Strange. And my all-time, bar-none favorite villian costume has to be Sekowski’s Dr. Light costume. Black and white and you gotta love that fin!
Fenris
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In my opinion, Ambush Bug had the greatest costume!
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Not that I can live up to all of you people’s comic knowledge, but here’s what I like: Batman (New gray costume) Flash, Nightcrawler (BAMFF!), and the Fantastic Four costumes were so simple, yet so elegant.
I don’t feel like dragging it out of my closet, but I’m pretty sure Dodd was the one that ‘Slept the sleep of the just’ during the Sleeping Sickness section of Preludes and Nocturns.