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You're right. Stelfreeze did design the suit for the first/original Nightwing mini series. Greg Land pencils the majority of the series in which Dick Grayson "quits" being Nightwing only to get tangled up in his private life and finding that he needs yet another suit to do some vigilante work. Since he destroyed his old suit...

The main reason, IMHO is that no one but Perez could make the look of the original suit "work".

Cory
I think you're right. Even Grummet changed it for Titans to the blue and gold suit with the webbing wings.

For all his talents as an artist, Perez's costume design has always been terrible. He was also responsible for Wonder Man's green and red pre-leisure suit monstrosity, for Starfire's and Cyborg's original costumes, and the Scarlet Witch's Busiek-era gypsy look. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting. With the possible exception of Raven (basically just a black cloak, which is pretty hard to mess up), I don't think he's ever designed a costume that didn't get improved when someone else started to draw the character.

For all his talents as an artist, Perez’s costume design has always been terrible.

You neglected to mention probably his worse offender -- Jericho. Jericho had one of the most unnecessarily complicated costume designs until the mid-90s "pouches and gun" era. What was up with the 1/3 length cape? What do you even call that - a scarf?

Credit must be given to Stelfreeze for designing what is probably one of the sleekest superheroes costumes in the 90s, when I am sure it was very tempting to give Nightwing a few pouches and a bulk set of shoulder pads.

"With the possible exception of Raven (basically just a black cloak, which is pretty hard to mess up), I don’t think he’s ever designed a costume that didn’t get improved when someone else started to draw the character."

Two words:

Death. Stroke.

But other than that and the gypsy Scarlet Witch costume, I agree with you. Can't think of a single costume created by Perez other than those two that wasn't awful.

What other major characters' costumes (hero and villain) has Perez designed?

Nightwing
Jericho
Cyborg
Starfire
Raven

Scarlet Witch
Justice (actually, I think this isn't terrible)
Triathalon

Monitor
Harbinger

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. What else?

i was watching a tape of Into the Woods the other day, and I was amazed at how much the Rapunzel costume looks like Perez's Jericho costume. Same color scheme and puffy sleeves and bubbly Christopher-Atkins hair and everything.

Oh, and Perez also did Taskmaster for Marvel, which was liek Deathstroke dressing up as Moon Knight. Which I approve of.

Oh god, the Avengers-era Justice and Firestar costumes were just painful. The moment Janet said, "Oh, why don't you let me design you two some new costumes," I just wanted to shout into the book, "Don't do it, you two! She'll make you look like DORKS!"

And sure enough, Justice's nice, streamlined costume got a bunch of weird vents and rocketpacks and lord knows what else. And Firestar became the sexiest skiier 1970's Colorado had to offer.

And back to the wording of the original question... while Stelfreeze did design the current outfit let's try to remember that back in the days of Nightwing and Birds of Prey before Land discovered his lightbox that the man could draw.

wait, what was wrong with Starfire's original costume?

I tend to like Perez's costume designs, but the man has undeniably done some stinkers. The main problem he runs into is that he tends to draw costumes that don't work when anyone else draws them, like the Scarlet Witch's gypsy outfit.

The good:
Starfire's original costume
Cyborg's original costume
Raven
Zatanna's 2nd superhero costume (the dark blue one with the white cape)
Wonder Man's red safari jacket look
Pariah from Crisis on Infinite Earths
Justice's 1st Avengers look (the Vance Astro-esque one)
Taskmaster
Deathstroke the Terminator
Brother Blood
Mammoth
Cheshire

The bad:
Jericho
Nightwing's original costume
Shimmer from the Fearsome Five (instantly dated)
Psimon from the Fearsome Five (He died in Crisis because even Perez hated the design)
Wonder Man's 70s red & green costume
Triathalon

Oh, and another bad one: Justice's 2nd Avengers look. Hated it from first sight.

Don't forget the original Troia costume talk about needlessly complicated and noone but Perez and Phil Jimenez can even draw it.

Sorry guys, I like the original Nightwing costume. I'm clearly in a minority here but I thought it looked pretty good. Maybe I'm a sucker for a wide collar...

I think the original Nightwing costume works well in a superhero group book like the Titans. It looks odd in a Batman-type story. It's just so flashy.

And I LIKED the Troia costume! I was always sorry she didn't keep it for longer.