The Mighty Thor has long been one of the most powerful beings in all of Marvel Comics, but he hasn't always had the keenest eye for fashion. The Odinson has a brand new look as Marvel's new Herald of Thunder, but one inexplicable costume definitely stands apart from the rest.
Based off of the original Norse God, Marvel's version of Thor made his debut in 1963's Journey into Mystery #83, with comic book legend Jack Kirby designing his original costume. As a result, Thor's design becoming instantly iconic. The metal helmet with wings, long red cape, black bodysuit with silver circles, and yellow boots would become Thor's most recognizable outfit. While Thor's costume has changed throughout the years, the 1990s made sure his wardrobe would be talked about for years to come.
During the late '90s the Thor flagship comic had been selling poorly, so Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato Jr. were brought on board to completely revitalize the character, and make him more accessible. One of the major changes made was altering Thor's costume to something more simplistic, removing the helmet, cape, and body armor, and leaving him with only black pants, boots, and silver gauntlets on his forearms. While the storyline itself would receive praise from fans and critics alike, the redesign removed many of the iconic fixtures of Thor's outfit. And with Marvel planning to reboot many of its biggest characters after the Onslaught event, Thor wouldn't see a return to his own comic for a few years. But one of his final appearances would feature one of his most... interesting designs.
Thor #502 was the final issue of Thor's ongoing series before it was renamed Journey Into Mystery: The Lost Gods. However, without any explanation, Thor's costume had changed drastically for this final appearance. Thor was no longer simply wearing pants, but a blue top (that failed to cover his pecs) blue pants, a blue helmet that showed his face, his signature red cape, silver boots, bands, and underwear on the outside. While many classic elements returned, the mixture of features was quite the change from his previous, more simplistic, design. There was no mention of a costume change in the previous issue, and other comics that featured Thor, such as Onslaught, still showed have Thor wearing his "pants-only" design. Furthermore, when Thor made his eventual return to comics, this costume was immediately replaced, with no mention of the change. So why was this costume used in the first place?
Given that the Thor comic had seen better days prior to this redesign, and that Marvel was undergoing massive changes with their publishing line-up, it seemed like no design was too radical for publication. Since the Thor comic was about to lose the titular character with issue #502, Deodato and Marvel probably decided it wouldn't hurt to use this costume for one issue, possibly to gauge how fans would react to the change.
While the redesigned costume seemed to go largely ignored at the time of its debut, it did make an appearance in other comics at the time, most notably the Marvel vs DC crossover that was going on at the time. Despite its limited use, the redesigned costume would be replaced with a more classic costume when the Thor title was relaunched in 1998.
It's a shame that this costume never really had a chance to shine, outside of a few comic books. While redesigns can often cause controversy among fans, the new costumes usually have at least a few issues to win over even the fans most reluctant to the change. Redesigns are a chance to try something new and change the status quo for even a brief period of time. In some instances, like Spider-Man's Symbiote costume, the design can go on to become a fan-favorite costume, or one of the most popular redesigns for the character. In other instances, when rtruly terrible superhero costume designs don't go over well with fans, the original costume is restored just as quickly as it left. In this case however, the new costume barely had a chance to win over anybody, and largely remains forgotten. Still, because of its interesting history, this redesign has to go down as one of the weirdest redesigns Thor fans ever saw.
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