In the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and settle it, once and for all

When saving the planet, it’s important to dress the part. This isn’t like taking the bins out. You can’t hang off a chopper in a slanket and Crocs. Superheroes understand this. Unlike James Bond – who is permanently tuxed up as if he’s about to host a pharmaceutical industry awards bash – the offspring of Marvel and DC Comics have brought spandex, codpieces and vulcanised rubber out of the niche-interest sex-toy trade and into the multiplex. But which superhero has the best costume?

Maybe this should come down to the costume with the best gadgets. Iron Man has to be in with a shout. After all, without his jet thrusters, repulsor rays and, one assumes, a catheter, Tony Stark is just a snarky yuppie with a heart murmur. Trouble is, he looks like a crash test dummy, with a nasty rhubarb-and-custard paint job.

Or perhaps it’s all about the costume that looks the coolest. Immediately, this cuts down the competition. Superman’s outfitters might have dropped the whole pants-outside-trousers thing lately, but the stigma still trails behind the Man of Steel like loo roll. Hulk doesn’t really have a costume as such, just some tattered shorts. As for Thor, he ruins the good work of the cape and chainmail by accessorising with a Timmy Mallett-style sledgehammer. Batman? I mean, sure, he’s sleek and shadowy. But he gets points knocked off for the notorious bat nipples of the Joel Schumacher-era Batman & Robin, which suggested that the Dark Knight was off to suckle a barnful of pipistrelles. “I wasn’t thrilled with the nipples on the batsuit,” grumbled that film’s incumbent, George Clooney. “Batman was just constantly cold, I guess.”

But enough about the wardrobe malfunctions – what about the fashion triumphs? You would have to nod to Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns: a masterpiece of bin-bag couture that looks like something knocked up by Vivienne Westwood and Victor Frankenstein, sexually charged without being as unsubtle as Halle Berry’s bra-sporting moggy from 2004.

By rights, Spider-Man’s costume shouldn’t work – it’s a red-and-blue romper suit with Towie eyeliner – but undeniably does, reflecting the character’s youth and athleticism. Wonder Woman has to be the genre’s most improved dresser, evolving from the spangled gym knickers of the 70s TV show to the burnished warrior-like bodice of last year’s Wonder Woman 1984.

In the end, though, it’s got to be Black Panther for the win. We could refer you to the king of Wakanda’s nifty gadgetry, with his suit constructed from a vibranium microweave mesh that absorbs and redistributes the kinetic energy of his attackers. We could stare all day at the claw necklace, silver accents and perky little ears.

But Black Panther’s victory runs a little deeper, too. In an overwhelmingly white movie genre, suit designer Ruth E Carter’s creation represents a genius splicing of African cultures, incorporating the geometry of tribal art in its chevrons and tessellated triangles. The outfit was even honoured as a star exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. And that’s more than you can say for Robin’s budgie-smugglers.