A Simple Question Regarding Comics: Why Spandex?

[Xion Valkyrie]

I'm not trying to flame or piss anyone off. Nor am I trying to downplay comic books by American authors. I'm just wondering how did this whole spandex thing with sueprheros start, and why its still continuing?

One of the reasons I never got into Spiderman, X-men, etc when I was a kid was because I just couldn't stand the spandex =P

[ChrisHerself]

Mobility?

[Charlie]

How can you be a superhero if you can't look sexy doing it!?

[Shou]

probably because its easier to draw spandex than a full outfit

[ben2theedge]

What Shou said. To draw a character in spandex all you need is a good knowledge of anatomy. If you want to draw a character in other clothes you need to be good at 1) anatomy 2) cloth and wrinkles 3) fashion sense.

[Hiltz]

Why Spandex? Because the gays already claimed dibs on the hotpants.

Spandex is probably easy to show one's muscles through since the fabric is tight fitting and is flexible to manuever in despite the possibility of getting a wedgie.


Spider-Man goes into a gay bar and bends down, "Spider-sense is tingling!".

[Alucard1515]

Why spiky green/pink/blue hair? Why catgirls?

Why let something superficial like that get in the way of enjoying something?

[Zabur]

Why let something superficial like that get in the way of enjoying something?

Because it's fun to complain.

[Alucard1515]

What Shou said. To draw a character in spandex all you need is a good knowledge of anatomy. If you want to draw a character in other clothes you need to be good at 1) anatomy 2) cloth and wrinkles 3) fashion sense.
It has nothing to do with those artists' abilities at drawing clothing. If you look at many old comics, they don't seem to have any problem drawing clothing. Like other people mentioned, it probably started to show off the character's physique, and just stuck.

[Xion Valkyrie]

But I was just wondering why pretty much EVERY early super hero wore spandex and just had color variations. Are there any new comics in the "Superhero" category that doesn't abide by that kind of dress code?

Why spiky green/pink/blue hair? Why catgirls?

Very few animes have catgirls, and when they do most of the time its to make fun of the whole catgirl thing. The hair thing could be applied to US comics too.

[The Bran Eating Zombie]

There are tons of super heros that don't wear spandex.

To complain about catgirl steriotypes in the same post where you do the exact same thing is kind of funny though.

[Alucard1515]

Very few animes have catgirls, and when they do most of the time its to make fun of the whole catgirl thing.
I've never seen it made fun of, and I've seen them in plenty.

But anyway, that's not my point. Spandex is a weird thing that's taken as a given in most superhero books, just like some weird things are taken for granted in anime/manga that wouldn't make any sense in real life either. Now, I don't KNOW that you still enjoy anime/manga despite this, but I've seen other people complain about the same thing, but they seem to have no problem accepting similar things in anime/manga. Come to think of it, they often have just as ridiculous costumes, they just aren't always skin tight.

So, if they stories are good, what does it matter?

[oringe]

obviously its because you cant hide a full suit underneath your regular clothes. spandex just makes sense since you can hide it easily and still afford yourself the luxury of a disguise. duh.

[Natezero]

well...to answer one persons question a example of a hero NOT in spandex id say is "the punisher" he is simple yet woopass
btw i think we should drop the weirdness thing befor it starts a flamewar
btw #2 Spandex* in my own experience in the track anf field area * is VERy flexible and smooth so it makes good for high movement ocupations...either that or it shows off the family jewls hehe

[Alucard1515]

btw i think we should drop the weirdness thing befor it starts a flamewar
What are you talking about?

[dfacto]

Why are you hating on spandex man? Seriously, who cares?

[Cian]

Why Spandex??? Does it really matter.

[Hiltz]

Spandex goes together with super heroes as bread goes with butter, it just does.

In the real world wearing spandex would obviously make you look like a wierdo but in the comic book world its a different story. :)

[mofo09]

its easier to draw basically

[Snowfox]

I'm positive the artists drew their heroes in spandex to show their physiques without ludeness in the prude society that was the early 1900s. If I remember, I've read that the Western Superhero was loosely based as a modern Greek God. If you know anything about that society as well, you'll know they loved the naked figure and considered it an art.

[Xion Valkyrie]

So it just sort of stuck as the norm?

Al: the cartoons I sometimes watched when I was little weren't very good, so I sort of just equated shows with spandex wearing people to be not very good, and pretty much never got interested from then on.

Question: Does batman wear spandex? In the animation and some comic books it looks like he does, but in the movies it looks like he wears some sort of armor?

[Hiltz]

In the original tv series live action Batman & Robin both of them I'm pretty sure wore spandex and they looked gayer than Ellen Generes telling a gay joke.

In the movies, I think they used a more suitable fabric made of a much harder different material . I guess with his chest armor it more resembles body armor for protection or something.

[Alucard1515]

He wore a latex rubber suit in the movies. In the comics now, I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. It looks more armor-ish now, but not really. Probably something like leather, or a harder fabric like Hiltz said.

So it just sort of stuck as the norm?
I mean, I'm no expert, but that's what I'd assume. Comics began just as collection of newspaper strips, then they started to become original works first appearing as comics. They started to cover different genres. It wasn't always predominantly super heros. They got popular in the 40s I believe (Batman, Superman, original Captain America, etc) and then kind of fell out of favor. Comics didn't go away, but superheros were around less. Stan Lee at Marvel started doing a lot of different takes on superheros (different at the time), starting with The Fantastic Four, and later stuff like The Hulk, Spider-Man, etc. That's when superheros started to get really popular again, and eventually they started to overshadow everything else. By then, it was pretty much a given that superheros wore SOME type of costume, though not all of them were in spandex.

And seeing some goofy cartoons as a kid isn't really a fair way to base your opinion on every comic book with superheros. You don't think of every anime as Speed Racer do you? Of course, there were some pretty goofy comics, but there were some great ones as well, whether they deal with men in tights or not. You might want to check out "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen" for examples of some pretty serious (and very good) examples of superhero comics. Dark Knight is a take on an old Batman set in the future, and Watchmen uses original characters (based on older characters), so they might not do much to get you interested in existing characters, but they might let you take them a little more seriously as a whole. Frank Miller (writer of Dark Knight) also wrote one of the more well known Daredevil stories, and Sin City (upcoming movie), so that might help you branch out a little.

It just depends, some writers embrace the silliness of superheros, and don't take it too seriously, and others try to treat the subject completely seriously, as a world with its own weird set of rules, but where the people still act normally otherwise. I really don't see how it's any different than anime in that way. Both deal with things that wouldn't really make sense in the real world. Some just have fun with it, and others just try to do their take on what that would be like if it were possible.

[Cruiser18]

Perhaps they made that chest armour to better play off the "Washboard" stomac Batman is supposed to have. The actor obviously can't compete with the comic book illusion of his muscles so they have to play around a litle to make him look more like he does in the comics.

If you look at the original batman series (oh the horror of it) the batman actor was wearing a greyish suit that looked like ordinary cloth, but still tight, cloth fabrik. They didn't play around with it however and you can see that his gut is flash as a pancake.

Personally I would think Spandex would be logical since it's easy to hide under a normal set of cloth without looking too suspicious (I wonder where superman hides his cape though).

Or perhaps they whole spandex and wearing their underwear on the outside (!) is just because they are so badass that if anyone makes fun of it they'll kick their ass.

[Agent Cryrid]

I'd have to agree with most of what was already said.

For starters, spandex shows off the muscles giving the impression that the hero isn't merely someone hiding in a costume, but rather a genuine example of a super human. You can't have naked peopke running around though, and limiting the costumes to just covering private areas wouldn't allow for too many unique looks. So spandex just seems like a perfect choice.
Also, since it hugs the skin you can easily hide it and move in it (I'd have to take people's words for the latter). It just seems to be the perfect choice.