15 Best Superhero Redesigns

Catwoman tops the list because it’s a change that seems fairly minor at first, but it’s infinitely cooler than her old look and has gone on to become her definitive, iconic look that all others have taken inspiration from.

Female supers wearing catsuits is nothing too special; Blacks Widow, Canary and Cat all wear them to some degree, and Catwoman herself was designed to have a sensuous tone, perhaps best typified by Eartha Kitt’s performance in the Adam West led Batman show. Because of this, her costume often lacked a bit of practicality and worse, felt very rooted to its original era and often came off as dated.

Darwyn Cooke’s redesign of the character changed all that in 2001. The catsuit was kept, but it became much more suited to her cat burglary, adding zippers, pockets and putting less emphasis on her curves. It looked, for the first time, like an outfit she might have wanted rather than one an artist picked out for her.

Perhaps the most influential change though was the addition of her goggles; an accessory that quickly became a staple from there on out. It gave her a much more modern, hi-tech feel and dragged her into the present, and it was all thanks to Cooke.