So back in the long long ago of DC Comics, referred to as The Golden Age, superhero costumes/uniforms were relatively simple, with colors and such determined by the simple newsprint printing technology of the time. Hence, why so many characters where in bright primary colors and/or colorful in general.
There was a period where Wesley Dodds (The Sandman) stopped using his phenomenal gas mask Mystery Man look and went to a rather bland generic purple and yellow more superhero trope costume. (Hell, he was even given Sandy The Golden Boy as a teen sidekick!)
Anyway, Tarantula’s original costume was a generic bland purple and yellow one that was more or less the same as Wesley Dodd’s new look, with the addition of a cape.
During the 1980’s run of The All-Star Squadron, artist Jerry Ordway created a phenomenal new costume for The Tarantula, in dark colors and with a spider theme. Writer Roy Thomas came up with a retcon explanation (as he often did during that era) for why the 2 characters looked the same. It worked, and the new costume truly is beautiful for superhero costumes.
But… it looks like no costume that would have been designed between 1938 until really up until the Bronze Age of the 1970s.
Ordway is one of my GOATS and does no wrong in my book. But… ever time I look at the Tarantula’s revised costume my inner monologue always is like… “THAT ISN’T SIMPLE ENOUGH!!!”
It is one of my odd comic fandom issues.
The Golden Age Tarantula was created by writer Mort Weisinger and artist Harold Wilson Sharp in Star-Spangled Comics #1 (1941).