20 of the Worst Superhero Costumes

Image via DC Comics

14. Technicolor Batman

It’s true that Silver Age Batman had a lot to deal with in the costume department. 1960s comics creators were often casting about for the silliest ideas possible. Maybe they had some sort of bizarre contest for dumbest character development, but inexplicably never got fired. It must have been like a practical joke gone terribly wrong and turned into a lucrative career.

Anyway, the Silver Age gave us a Zebra Batman, Mummy Batman, and a Batman who had watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat one too many times. The crazy thing was, unlike other zany one-offs, technicolor Batman just wouldn’t go away.

Now, this one may be a bit of a cheat. Technicolor Batman isn’t exactly Bruce Wayne Batman, you see. At first, he is simply an alien named Tlano from the planet of Zur-En-Arrh. Tlano loves Batman so much that he decides to cosplay as him.

Later on, writer Grant Morrison decided to resurrect the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. In this version, he’s a kind of psychotic persona created by Bruce Wayne in response to psychological trauma. So, whenever Bruce sort of loses his mind over his dead parents and desire to dress as a bat and fight crime, the Zur En Arrh personality can take over and still protect Gotham.

So, how can you tell which Batman is currently in command of Bruce Wayne’s body? For one, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is extra violent. You wouldn’t want to be a criminal in his path, to say the least. Also, he’s dressed in a frankly hideous costume. Where classic Batman was in subdued black with hints of yellow, Zur-En-Arrh Batman is in all the colors. Seriously, he’s clad in bright primary colors such as blue, yellow, and red. Yikes.