7 Black Leather Action Movies That Defined an Era

Tim Molloy
.January 03, 2025

A recent talk about the first X-Men reminded us of the lost era of action movies filled with black leather.

Speaking on the Tales From the '90s podcast, film journalist Drew McWeeny lamented that when Bryan Singer's X-Men was released in 2000, studio executives balked at the idea of everyone's favorite mutant superheroes wearing the bright, unique costumes they wore in the Marvel comics: "They lost their nerve and made them double-down with Matrix-style black leather because they were so scared of the way they looked."

We live in a very different movie era. Deadpool & Wolverine, featuring Hugh Jackman wearing, for the first time, the yellow costume that his X-Men character first wore in the 1970s comics, was the second-highest grossing movie of 2024. Thanks to a slew of superhero blockbusters, today's audiences are very familiar with comic-book lore, and love to see it faithfully translated to the screen, costumes included. Studios no longer feel the need to dress everyone in similarly sleek, simple, black leather costumes.

Also Read: All 10 Batman Movies Ranked Worst to Best

But the black leather era of the '90s and early 2000s was an important bridge to the comic-book blockbusters of the late 2000s through today. The costumes were a compromise: OK, the studios said. We'll try out some comic book movies — but no tights.

Hollywood decision-makers were no doubt inspired by the success of Tim Burton's Batman, in which Michael Keaton's Caped Crusader played it safe in dark colors and a cape, abandoning the lighter hues of the 1960s Batman TV show and of course 1978's Superman.

The black leather costume era is a time of risk-taking tempered by skepticism about how much comic book stuff audiences would endure. And it isn't the worst cinematic compromise — black leather costumes look undeniably cool, whether our heroes and antiheroes are stalking through a neon-lit club or flying from skyscrapers. For years, the black leather outfit was the go-to look for vampires, vampire hunters, and pretty much anyone trapped in a dystopia. In a world without hope, no one has time to color coordinate.

Of course, no one in the '90s or 2000s invented the cinematic black leather look: It goes back to at least Mel Gibson in George Miller's 1979 Mad Max, and you could make a case that it goes back even further, to motorcycle movies of the 1950s. But black leather action movies are different: They reflect an era when studios hedged their bets on genre experiments with the proven commodities of style and sex.

Here are seven movies from the era of black leather action.

Batman Returns (1992)

Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman may have marked the first unapologetic comic-book movie foray into the black leather catsuit.

In Tim Burton's sequel to 1989's Batman, Pfeiffer plays the civilian Selina Kyle as very smart, but also jittery and disheveled. But once she survives a near-death experience and fashions a cat costume out of a raincoat, she becomes the confident, elegant, scene-stealing Catwoman.

As Premiere wrote: "Michelle Pfeiffer's deadly kitten with a whip brought sex to the normally neutered franchise. Her stitched-together, black patent leather costume, based on a sketch of Burton's, remains the character's most iconic look."

It was a look that would open the door to many other leather catsuited characters.

The Crow (1994)

The Crow didn't dress Brandon Lee in black leather as a compromise — the costume was true to the goth look of the comic book character created by James O'Barr. And The Crow was a perfect comic-book bet for cinematic adaptation in its time — since it was part crime thriller, part supernatural horror, it didn't need to rely solely on comics fans.

Lee made it iconic. The costume — which sold at auction for $25,000 in 2020 — included "a long black leather coat, black top and black leather trousers" and was "heavily distressed for the film with tears and bullet holes," according to GWS Auctions.

It is, of course, imbued with tragedy: Lee died during the making of the film due to a tragic accident with a prop gun. He was just 28.

Blade (1998)

You could make a strong case that the box office success of Blade made the MCU possible — the film and its sequels proved that audiences would embrace even lesser-known Marvel heroes if they were represented well.

Though Blade was far less popular with comics readers than Spider-Man, the X-Men, or most of the Avengers, he could, in the '90s, be translated perhaps more elegantly to the screen, given that he didn't need to shoot webs, fly, or do any of the other things that could be challenging from a special effects perspective.

Like The Crow, Blade blended the superhero and horror genres. Even if you had never heard of the Marvel character, you could get behind the idea of a vampire hunter played by the coolly unshakable Wesley Snipes. The actor — and director Stephen Norrington, writer David S. Goyer, and many others — ensured that everyone would take the cinematic Blade seriously.

One of the best decisions was to change his comic book attire. When Blade first debuted in 1973's Tomb of Dracula, Issue #10, he wore a very early '70s ensemble of a bright-green trenchcoat, blue-purplish pants, and yellow glasses. The Blade costume designers wisely decided that less is more, and decided to follow Snipes advice from Passenger 57: always bet on black.

The Matrix (1999)

Though The Matrix was based on brand-new, rather brilliant ideas from the Wachowskis, and not existing comics IP, it asked audiences to take some very big imaginative leaps. The pared-down, no-frills coolness of the costumes helped.

Main villain Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) wore an elegant suit, while good guys Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Lawrence Fisbhurne) dressed a lot like The Crow, or Blade. It worked.

The Matrix was one of the most visually influential films ever, inspiring a slew of "bullet time" action sequences, as well as the growing popularily of the black leather look in action films.

X-Men (2000)

We love the '80s X-Men comics, but even as lifelong fans, we'll admit they were a risk for cinematic adaptation, because they were so unapologetically weird. The main characters include a woman who controls the weather, a telepath, a man who shoots lasers from his eyes, and of course, Wolverine, a fellow with razor sharp claws that pop periodically from his wrists.

As we mentioned above, some felt that the X-team's comic-book looks would have been another tough thing for the audiences of a quarter-century ago to accept. So Bryan Singer and company decided to jettison the cool, colorful costumes of the comics and just put everyone in black leather.

The movie kept the metaphors about fighting bigotry that are the heart of X-Men stories, so honestly, we're OK with the costume compromise.

Underworld (2003)

Though it came near the end of action movies' black leather phase, Underworld and its sequels embraced the look as enthusiastically as anyone. Kate Beckinsale was iconic as Selene (does the name owe a debt to Selina Kyle's?), a Death Dealer in the age-old war between vampires and werewolves — Lycans.

Underworld had a concept and look that would have been mind-blowing in the early '90s, but by 2003 fit like a warm blanket. We love the vampires vs. Lycans hook and the assured visuals.

Though the black leather era was coming to an end by 2003, the Underworld films would be among the most stalwart holdouts, staying true to the look through 2016's Blood Wars. An another Underworld is reportedly in the works.

Catwoman (2004)

We end where we began, with Catwoman. More than a decade after Michelle Pfeiffer inhabited the role, Halle Berry got the thankless task of starring in a standalone Catwoman movie separate from the Batman films, with a shooting script that was widely regarded as not very good.

Given that Pfeiffer's Catwoman costume was so iconic, we understand the impulse to do something different. And we're sure no one with an eye on marketing the film was upset about the fact that Berry's costume left less to the imagination.

But a new era had arrived, thanks in part to the black-leathered successful comic book movies of the past decade: 2002's Spider-Man went with the traditional red and blue costume of the comics, and become a huge success. 2003's The Hulk was a more moderate success with a very comics-accurate, CGI green-skinned goliath. 2005's Batman Begins would offer a middle ground between eras, justifying every aspect of the militaristic Batsuit. And 2008's Iron Man would go full comics-accurate with a red and yellow armored Tony Stark.

The era of black leather action may have ended — but it had opened the door to a more colorful cinematic world.