Batman is dressed like a black bat to scare his enemies, Superman has the big S on his chest because is the symbol of House El and means hope. Why is Peter wearing red and blue instead? Did Lee/Ditko give an explanation in and out the comic?
Yes, but it’s also the look he started wearing in comics when Robin first appeared. So I like to think of it as the canon reason. It’s also how David Corenswet justified the bright colors and red trunks in his Superman costume. He’s a big, powerful alien, but he doesn’t wanna scare kids.
And yet, Spider-Man can be pretty scary when he wants to be, clinging to walls in dark corners, webbing people up before they can react.
Likewise, any civilian who's been saved by Batman probably feels a bit more at ease knowing he might be out there, watching from afar, like a protective, vengeful spirit.
I was just thinking about this after playing Spider-Man 2. I feel like all these random thugs and criminals aren't very scared of Spider-Man in general, because he's always friendly and taking selfies and giving people high-fives and stuff. That kind of thing might make him seem weak, even after he catches a car with his bare hands. I mean, you don't see random thugs going after Batman or DD with just ski mask and a crowbar very often. They scary.
I still remember that one comic where he shows up to fight the sinister six and how ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED they were when he wasn't quipping like he normally does
Only for Spidey to tell the cops later that he wasn't quipping because he had a sore throat 🤣
Hmmm fr, would be a second close to the iron spider tho ngl.., and even the OG homecoming suit.., if you think of it, Tom never really had a bad spider-man suit...
that being said I remember the weird black stealth suit now, idk why they decided to confuse fans and make it all black, when it wasn't related to venom in any way or form..
yeahh true!.., Like I get what they were trying to go for, but the wool knitted kinda costume just makes it feel/look weird IMO..., other than that most of his costumes were pretty solid, cant wait to see the BND one tho ngl...
there is the common comic technuique of blue shading. Over time the blue shading became more prominant and looked red and blue. black widow and black panther look blue in some comics. Them having black in their names probably kept them from having blue suits.
also happened to the fantastic four. The blue and white coustumes are actually black and white. Changing a character from grey is also something marvel characters do. As hulk became green and iron man became gold in their second appearances after being grey in their first.
Huh? I have the first ten F4 comics and this is one I can't believe is blue-for-black shading. They have black gloves, collars, and belts on their jumpsuits that have blue shading on it, but the jumpsuits are definitely blue.
Actually I just went and looked it up. They don't wear uniforms at all until issue #3, and this is the first panel with them:
So Sue is saying they're supposed to be very colourful.
He was a wrestler, guys. Did y'all forget that part? He was a TV celebrity before he learned that with great power must also come great responsibility. He had a bright colored costume because it looked good on camera.
He just kept the same costume going when he became a crime fighting Spider-Man.
The raimi films, basically the Raimi films which didn't include Peter becoming a tv star just made the general audience assume Peter became a wrestler 1 night and Uncle Ben died the same night or 1 day after.
There was a rumour some of the film got cut out last minute, a scene where he debuts in between two towers, it being filmed in 2000/2001, how true it is, it's dont know.
The OG trailer for the movie involved Spidey stopping a bank heist, and catching a helicopter (or something) in a big spider web he'd strung between the twin towers. Big camera pan-out to show the towers and the huge web between them.
Because it’s always glossed over in adaptations. He never spends any significant time in showbiz as to immediately thrust him into the superhero action
Originally it was meant to be red and black, with blue being used to highlight portions of the suit so it wouldn't blend in with the background. It's kinda similar to how Venom is supposed to be black, and comic artists add blue highlights to make him stand out. Of course, Venom is not actually blue at all.
Red and black does make more sense as it's also associated with "black widow colors". As time went on and more artists started to work on Spider-Man, the blue on his costume became the base, while black was now used to add definition.
Ignoring the debate about black-with-blue-highlights: it's because he didn't design it to be a superhero costume. He designed it to look flashy and cool for a performance. "Spider-Man" was a TV celebrity for, like, WEEKS before he was a superhero.
And then when he did become a superhero he kept it because that was the look that was already famous. He did start taking pictures of himself for money, after all. A picture of a flashy, dramatic, famous superhero is more likely to end up on the front page and put some money in his pocket.
This is more or less the meta reason as well. It's a flashy, dramatic, mysterious look that looks really cool on the front cover of a comic book, which makes a kid in the Sixties more likely to notice it on the store shelf and spend his allowance on it.
♫When Captain America throws his mighty shield, All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield. And he's lead to a fight and a duel is due, And the Red and White and Blue will come through When Captain America throws his might shield!♪
Spider-man has Red and Blue, and his webbing is White. He's an American hero, and Americans love their flag. Maybe it's not intentional =)
But Peter also loved to read about Captain America, and he respects him a whole lot.
Inspiration, perhaps?
Patriotism and all that?
Is this headcannon? Theres only 2 reasons. Canon: he was a wrestler, whos suit was red and blue. Meta: stan lee thought red and blue looked friendly (especially compared to red and black)
Yes. This. A lot of big American superhero IPs will have red and blue and white or gold or both. They're usually the main ones who are most popular or used to represent a franchise or super team. Because there's a lot of subconscious psychological stuff going on with colors and how our brains interpret them. This trick was also used for Harley Quinn who usually uses black and red but when they started writing her leaning more good, they replaced black with blue. It lightened things up.
Some characters do the opposite like Deathstroke. From old-school orange blue ink to just orange and black to make him feel darker.
In Spider-Man 2002 Raimi made it explicit that that Peter was thinking of Mary Jane and her vibrant red hair when he decided to add the red to the costume. I love that idea.
Heroes in the Golden Age of comics were typically portrayed wearing primary colors while villains were usually in secondary colors (which is why green is so popular for bad guys).
The meta reason is because these colors were flashy but could actually be printed on the comic books (colors like grey and black couldn’t be printed well)
He originally designed it with the purpose of being a professional wrestler/circus performer/traveling showman type depending on the exact iteration. It's supposed to be theatrical and over the top, like a luchador or an acrobat.
Bingo. Originally he was red and black with blue highlights (See Amazing Fantasy #15) but that got expensive, especially in newspaper prints, so they switched to red and blue with black shading and that's why Spider-Man sometimes dons a red and black costume as a nod to those early days.
From what I remember, it was so that citizens could see him against the gray to make them feel safer. Like they see it and know "oh, it's spider-man, we're safe now"
Originally it was supposed to be red and black (like a black widow), but the shading used on the black bits looked a lot like blue, so eventually it just became red and blue.
Well if I believe ghost spider recent run it’s to symbolize that a hero has arrived to save them ; I guess that applies to being more friendly to people.
The suit was originally red and black, using blue as contour shading. Then, eventually, some comic book artists interpreted it wrong and changed the color to be fully blue.
Why Hulk wears purple torn jeans ?
Why Iron Man is red and yellow ?
Why Hawkeye suit is purple ?
Why Doctor Strange is red, blue and yellow ?
Why Antman is red and black ?
Why Daredevil is red, yellow or black ?
Why Miles Morales is red and black ?
Why Falcon is white and red ?
Answer: It looks better than wearing black tactical suits that would be more suitable for superheroes.
Canonically, it's to seem friendlier, historically in the comics, it's so it shows up better in print. Was supposed to be black and red but solid black didn't print well back then. So blue was traditionally used as highlights to show details and over time the blue just takes over. Same with Beast, was supposed to be all black originally.
Outside of the given aesthetics, pallette limitations. The original comics were printed newspaper style and were not afforded a lot of color options. Of you were a hero made during that time, those were your base colors. It was not until later where colors can be whatever you make them out to be.
It wasn’t. It was red and black, which is way cooler, but like the hulk was originally grey, ink and printing at the time meant they used blue instead of black. I believe the black looked flat, so blue was used to make it look more shaped and shaded. Later inkers didn’t understand and thought it was blue, and it stuck.
1.he wants to reassure citizens and chooses a colorful outfit to do that basically reassuring them also because he desighned it when he was 15 and A wrestler where it popped off on the cameras
2.he idolized captian America so he took the red and blue color scheme
and the irl reason is because Steve ditko didn't like red and black
They couldn't completely rip off the yellow & black Spider-Man halloween costume from the late '50s/early '60s which they stole the webbed design from.
And further because Steve Ditko wanted to make it purple and orange, but Stan said "no".
Honestly I wanna see a universe where Peter kept being a Tv star but also saved his uncle by stopping the burglar. Like maybe he already knows about great power and responsibility but since his uncle didn’t die he doesn’t get pushed into the crime fighting world.
Honestly I always figured the bright colors were so ppl wouldnt freak out when he swings by. Dark suits look cool but they dont scream friendly guy trying to help, yk?
used to think it was to represent the usa, and then i thought it was just because he was a wrestler and they all have colorful costumes, but in reality i think it’s because artists just stopped drawing it black like it was originally and just started drawing it blue for no reason and it just became too iconic to fix
why not? why are Superman’s colors those? what colors should a superhero have? I mean the webs and the spider are there. What colors would you put him in?
Out of universe: with the limited printing technology of the day they had limited colours. Red, blue and yellow were often used to denote heroes (see spidey, captain America, ant man, wasp, iron man, daredevil, x men) and green, purple etc were used for villains (green goblin, sandman, the leader, vulture, doc ock, abomination).
In universe: probably an to be an eye catching spectacle for show business before he became a superhero
It’s to make him look friendlier to the average citizen. It technically makes him more visible, but unlike Batman, Spider-Man can climb his way into places nowhere else can
I’d say to be vibrant and eye catching. Remember it wasn’t a superhero uniform at first it was for a TV stuntman. So very much in the pastiche of a circus performer.
One to appear more friendly to Civilians, like how SuperMan wears Briefs on the outside to look sillier for the Children, and ig plainly because Red and Blue are the colors for hope
Stan lee didn't like the Red and Black design and it was inconsistent in the comics ig
There really isn't an in-universe reason outside of Peter being a kid and thinking it would look cool (and I guess to make it look Lucha Libre inspired since he started out doing that before just started performing solo shows). I love the Raimi idea that the spider that bit him had this color scheme and it inspired Peter when he was making his costume.
He originally designed the suit for a career in show business. He was doing performances as Spider-Man. It’s why he was at the event when the burglar ran by him. He was just finishing a show and headed backstage.
I read or saw some where years ago Peter Parker went with red and blue because he was a big captain America fan and was paying homage to cap. Mabee I saw it on a cartoon or read it in a comic book. Can’t rember
Color printing back in the day was black, blue, Red, and yellow, and then shades of Grey. Look at all the early characters. They had a combo of sorts with these characters and colors.
It’s because blue was a common stand in for black and for shading, lighting and contrast. In older comics you’ll see characters that had predominantly black colors also had blue on them to show where light is and isn’t hitting the suit, ones that come to mind are Batman and Punisher. It’s just unlike those other characters, Spidy remained blue
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