Andrew Garfield’s iteration of Peter Parker wore two different suits in his continuity, but why did he change costumes in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The Amazing Spider-Man franchise consisted of two films and various spinoff materials, such as comics and video games Peter Parker had two primary Spider-Man suits in this continuity, and although the films never explain the outfit change, one of the spinoff comics depicts the origin of his second suit and a video game confirms what happened to his first one.

After fighting crime for a brief time in a simple vigilante suit consisting of street clothes and a red facemask, Peter Parker crafts his first Spider-Man outfit in The Amazing Spider-Man. Using spandex athletic wear for the bodysuit, sneaker soles for the boots, and yellow sunglass lenses for the mask’s eyepieces, Peter’s first suit was a fantastic looking DIY superhero suit and a realistic take on the iconic Spider-Man costume from the comics. Completing the outfit was a pair of homemade web-shooters, loaded with Oscorp Industries BioCable and featuring flashing red lights when activated. The costume sustained severe damage in The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2012 video game epilogue of the same name but was fully repaired each time.

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Peter Parker returns in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 wearing a new suit, but no explanation is given for the noticeably different outfit, which is fairly atypical in modern superhero films. But while the movie doesn’t provide the origin for Peter’s second costume, the Amazing Spider-Man Cinematic Infinite Digital Comic does. Roughly two years after the events of the 2012 film and game, Peter and Gwen Stacy are discussing ideas for a second suit when Peter has to cut the conversation short and pursue a group of robbers. Fighting the criminals in a warehouse filled with advanced technology, Spider-Man is pulled into a giant centrifuge, injuring him and shredding his costume yet again. After subduing the robbers, Peter and Gwen resume work on the new suit, opting to make it his primary outfit.

Amazing Spider-Man Suits

Spider-Man’s second costume is less DIY than his first, but far more comic accurate. With a new design and a mask with large white lenses, Peter’s second Amazing Spider-Man suit looks nearly identical to Mark Bagley’s Spider-Man illustrations in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, which the Amazing Spider-Man films are heavily inspired by. The costume also features a new set of web-shooters, which lack the original set’s flashing red lights.

As revealed in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game, Spider-Man no longer uses Oscorp BioCable for his web-shooters, and synthesizes his web fluid instead, perhaps as a means to save money and avoid suspicion. The game also reveals what became of Peter’s first suit. He repaired the outfit and the original web-shooters once more, keeping them as backup gear in his bedroom. Peter briefly used his first web-shooters in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 while trying to protect his new set against Electro’s electric attacks, which disabled one of his new devices.

Behind the scenes, the costume change came at the behest of director Marc Webb. Although the first suit was a phenomenal new look for the web-slinger, Webb wanted to give Spider-Man a more comic-accurate appearance for the second film and specifically asked for the biggest eye lenses possible. The result was a crowd-pleasing suit that even the film’s biggest detractors had difficulty criticizing. In-universe, Peter kept his refurbished original suit on hand but made his costume from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 his primary outfit.

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