Marvel actually bought Spider-Man’s most iconic costume design off a reader

Spider-Man’s black costume is one of the most popular costumes in all of comics, which makes it all the more surprising that it was designed by a fan and bought by Marvel.

There is perhaps no more iconic design than Spider-Man’s black costume. It’s remarkable how it has persisted over the years, with the character routinely finding excuses to go back to it and new media quickly adapting it. 

Marvel’s attempted to replicate the success of the black suit, too. Spider-Man’s gotten a number of new costumes over the years, but they just never seem to stick. Still, the black suit continues to come back. 

That’s what makes it all the more surprising to learn that the suit isn’t even really a Marvel design. Instead, it’s something straight from the mind of a Spider-Man super fan. 

Marvel bought Spider-Man’s black costume design from a reader

Spider-Man’s black suit originated in a fan pitch by Randy Schueller. The pitch predates Secret Wars and was just your average run-of-the-mill submission. 

The story would have Spider-Man’s suit being destroyed, necessitating a new one. In the pitch, Schueller included an idea for a new, all-black suit with a red spider design. The then-current Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter, liked the idea enough to do something with it.

Shooter bought the design from Schueller for $220 (just shy of $700 in today’s money) and offered him the chance to turn his story idea into a script. The actual story wasn’t published, though. Schueller, in an open letter he wrote to Comic Book Resources, recalls that the whole thing just didn’t click.

“In the end, the whole scripting thing just didn’t work out for me – I don’t remember the exact reasons,” he explained. “I submitted another version of the story, they didn’t like it, I stopped sending in letters. The whole thing just kind of fell apart. Regardless, I had no regrets. As a true blue Spidey fan, this was a very cool moment in my life.”

The original Spider-Man black costume story was finally told in 2019

The black suit obviously made history in Secret Wars, but it was notably different from Scheuller’s pitch. The original idea would be more-or-less forgotten until 2019 when it finally saw the light of day in Spectacular Spider-Man: Self-Improvement. 

In the story, Spider-Man is badly burned, and his costume is destroyed while fighting Firebrand. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four whips him up a new, black suit made of unstable molecules, allowing Spidey to avoid the embarrassment of having his costume destroyed. It also includes telepathically activated web-shooters and working web wings.  

Much of the story revolves around Spider-Man learning how to use the suit and the public not recognizing him. In particular, one child is terrified of him. In the end, Spider-Man returns the new suit and sticks to his traditional costume, as he has enough of a PR nightmare without people thinking he’s some “venomous evildoer.”

So, there you have it — that’s everything to know about Spider-Man’s black costume and its original conception. For more about Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, be sure to check our other content below:

How did Spider-Man’s black suit create Venom? Marvel’s villain explained | Who is Miles Morales? Marvel’s other Ultimate Spider-Man explained | Who is Venom? Everyone who ever wore the Venom symbiote in Marvel Comics | How strong is Venom? Powers and weaknesses explained in Marvel Comics | Every Spider-Man comic, movie & game in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 timeline