I mean, EVERYONE recognizes the red and blue tights! The web design! The huge eyes! No one would look at Spidey and think "Hey, it's (insert name of some OTHER hero here)" because it just doesn't happen.
However, Spidey (and others with the Spider persona) have donned various other costumes throughout the Spider-Man history. Several were....pretty horrible. A good handful were, however, very very cool and a, in my opinion, a welcome change from the traditional duds.
And here, I'll countdown the top 6 alternative costumes that Spidey (and Spidey people) have worn.
#6: The Amazing/Bombastic Bag-Man
Only seen once each, Bag-Man has become almost synonymous with Spidey forgetting/not having his costume. Improvisation is the key to success, as some say, and the web-head is not a stranger to this tactic.
The first instance was when he left his symbiotic black costume with the Fantastic Four to study and forgot to bring a spare to wear home. The FF was nice enough to lend him a spare suit and a handy paper bag for his face (not to mention a nice "Kick Me" sign provided by the Human Torch).
The second instant was when he was caught in a criminal situation, again, without his suit. Not willing to let the bad guys go, he donned another trusty paper bag (as well as stripping off his shirt) and going to town on them.
The Bag-Man persona shows us not only that Spidey refuses to let the lack of a costume stop him from doing what's right, but also that he has a sense of humor about himself. Willing to lampoon himself (sometimes begrudgingly or unknowingly, but still), Spidey gave us all laughs when he donned those bags.
#5: Blood Spider
Blood Spider is just a BADASS name. His costume, though having some slight design flaws and color scheme issues, is equally badass.
In one of Spidey's stories, the Red Skull and Taskmaster made a copy of Spider-Man (everyone was doing it, so why not them?) and gave him a costume similar to the black symbiote costume. Add in a web tank on the back and suction cups on the hands and feet, and you suddenly have your own web-head copy (not that there weren't enough running around, am I right guys?)
Now, the loose wires going from the tank to the shooters on the hands were a rather...er...poor aesthetic choice and I'm not crazy about the yellow color scheme (more a fan of the red and dark blue/black, really), but what better way to strike fear into your enemy than to send a clone of himself (there's that word...).
#4: Cosmic Spider-Man
What happens when you give our favorite wall-crawler incredible, godlike power? He changes his clothes, of course!
During a lab accident, Spidey was temporarily granted the Uni-Power (the powers of Captain Universe, for you unenlightened out there). The Uni-Power granted him advanced senses, even greater strength, telekinesis, and a kick ass costume!
I mean, seriously, if I was a villain and saw Spider-Man show up in THAT costume, I'd shit my pants and expect to have my insides turned into my outsides. It's intimidating to say the least. Unfortunately, power trips like this usually don't last long, and Spidey lost the super godlike crazy powers not long after receiving them. However, he did have both the powers and costume long enough to leave a lasting impression that if you give Spidey a scary costume AND superior powers, it'll be something special.
#3: Ben Reilly's Spider-Man costume
Good ol' Ben Reilly. Y'know, I honestly liked Ben. I know he was introduced as part of that horrible, messy clone saga debacle, but I really did like him. He wanted so much to have a normal life without having to worry about being a clone. But...Spider-fans know how that all turned out.
Ben started out his Spider-career as the Scarlet Spider, sporting a costume a little similar to Spider-Man's but ultimately different in a tacky way (really, dude, a sweatshirt?). Eventually, he switched over to using a design more closely-resembling Peter's costume and thus we have the Ben Reilly costume.
I like this costume because it says one thing to me: no matter who it is behind the mask, it's still Spider-Man as long as they do what's right. Though Reilly's costume was mildly different from Peter's he still sported the traditional red and blue, the web design, the spider emblem, and everyone knew it was Spider-Man they were looking at. Taking the name of Spider-Man and merely putting a minor spin on the appearance simply said to fans "Yeah...I may be a different guy, but I'm still your Spider-Man, and I'm still going to do what you guys love to see me do"
#2: Iron Spider
Now, before I get into it, I want to say that I LOVE this costume. It is, personally, my favorite alternative costume. But it isn't the BEST alternative costume. That aside, let's dive in.
Right before Marvel's "Civil War" event hit and following Spidey's "The Other" storyline, Tony Stark took it upon himself to craft our friendly neighborhood you-know-who a brand new costume using the latest of Stark technology. A fully integrated, technologically enhanced super spider suit akin to the Iron Man tech. This suit provided Peter with a wide variety of tech gadgets, like radio, varying vision settings, bio-monitoring equipment, and other things. The COOLEST feature, of course, had to be the retractable arms that were controlled by Spidey mentally.
The reason I like this suit so much is because Spider-Man, while wearing the suit, went toe-to-toe with Captain America. During the fight, Spidey knew full-well he stood no chance against his (at the time) former ally since Cap was familiar with all of Spidey's moves. Except...Spidey had gained a few new "moves" thanks to the suit. With it, the webhead was able to draw first blood on Cap before the fight was abruptly ended.
Now, his time in the suit was brief, but memorable, and unfortunately he had to ditch it thanks to some betrayals from the suit's creator, but nonetheless it was really really really cool seeing Spidey in a spider-like suit. Even if it was gold and red.
#1: The Black Suit
Who honestly didn't see this choice coming?
Originally an alien symbiote picked up from an alien world (and eventually becoming one of his greatest villains, Venom), the black suit was a drastic, yet fan-favored, change from the traditional duds. After ridding himself of the symbiote version of the suit, Spidey frequently returned to a normal cloth version of the black suit on numerous occasions (including right after the "Civil War" storyline).
The black suit is cool because it's representative of so many things for the wall-crawler. On most occasions, it's used to show his dark side...the angry, violent, edgy Spider-Man that was typically associated with the Venom-driven tendencies. And why shouldn't it? It's downright SCARY. Comparatively, the red and blue threads are positively warm and inviting when put against the black suit.
However, other times the black suit has been used to show a sense of deep emotion and mourning. Specifically, following the "Civil War" storyline, Spidey adopted the threads to express his sorrow at the loss of some comrades and the regret he had for having to battle against what were once his allies.
Though it may be a bit lacking in subtlety for the purpose of expressing it, the black suit shows us that even our favorite joke-slinging webhead can have a dark side.
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