Let’s say that you have the standard fantasy accident involving radioactive meteors, or a giant mutant star goat pissing in your cereal, or nanobots rewriting your DNA, or whatever. You find yourself with Superman’s powers: virtual invulnerability, unimaginable strength & speed, flight, enhanced senses, laser vision, the works. Naturally you begin by using these abilities to make yourself a trillionaire and to sleep with endless groupies, but after a year or so of this you discover, to your horror, that your nigh-omnipotence has moved you up several runs on Maslow’s self-actualization ladder. The fortune no longer has any meaning for you, and the groupies have lost their appeal. So you decide to put your powers to stereotypical good use by rescuing hurricane victims, averting tsunamis, sinking pirate ships if you happen to come across them, and stopping the occasional bank robbery. You become, in short, a super-hero.
Do you wear a costume? If so, what sort of costume? If not, why not?
Assume for this exercise that you have access to pre-Crisis Kryptonian quality tailoring; an indestructible suit is no big deal.
Hell yeah. It’s just not superheroics without a costume.
No tights…I would not look good in tights. But I would include stylised elements, non-standard colour themes, a mask, and likely a symbol (depending what power set I ended up with). Maybe a cape. Mon-El/Valor would be my source of inspiration, not Superman.
I’d wear leather, assles,s chaps and nothing else but my petruding beer gut.
This way people would think twice before yelling out my name for help. Reason beinng: I don’t want to be bothered every five minutes because some shmuck thought it would be “cool” to go mountain climbing in the middle of Og only knows where.
Even if gained superpowers, and lost another few pounds and got myself into shape, I’d still be too self-conscious to wear a super suit. Maybe I could manage on a few special occasions, but it’s just not the kind of thing I could do un-ironically.
Edna: It will be bold! Dramatic!
Bob: Yeah!
Edna: Heroic!
Bob: Yeah. Something classic - like Dynaguy. Oh, he had a great look! With the cape, and the boots…
Edna: (throws a wadded ball of paper at Bob’s head) No capes!
Bob: Isn’t that my decision?
Edna: Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids.
Bob: Listen, E…
Edna: November 15th of '58! All was well, another day saved, when? his cape snagged on a missile fin!
Bob: Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb…
Edna: Stratogal! April 23rd, '57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!
Bob: E, you can’t generalize about these things…
Edna: Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snag on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex!
(shouts)
Edna: No capes!
One the one hand, if I wanted to use the suit to help protect my secret identity, I really wouldn’t want to wear anything really flashy or memorable—I’d want to wear stuff that would help me “blend in” to situations before or after I used my abilities. Probably just different combinations of “civvies,” for different occasions and areas, possibly with gloves or a plain skimask.
But on the other, if I wanted to make an iconic image of myself, I have to face up to a simple, basic, fact…most comic book super suits, in the real world, would just look lousy. I mean really awful. And those that don’t mostly look like outfits from The Matrix, or Keaton/Bale Batsuit clones. (Which are fine and good, don’t get me wrong, but after awhile, any newcomers—such as myself—run the risk of looking uncreative and trite at best, and like a poser or a goof at worst.)
Right now, I’m thinking that if I did want to wear a “suit,” I might pattern it after a real-world, non-super, yet no longer current type of outfit. I mean, obviously, one would have to choose carefully, and within limits of taste and reason…Maybe something Roman, or 19th century. I dunno.
Edna was my favorite character. I agree with her intellectually, but a cape certainly does make a bold fashion statement. Since I wear a ruana IRL, perhaps I could forgo a cape for my superhero costume.
With these hips? The closest I’d come to a supersuit is borrowing Shakira’s clothes designer… (I’m several inches taller than she is, so I can’t just borrow the clothes)
<sidetrack>
But just why do you need a secret identity, anyway? What’s the point?
For example, being Clark Kent and working a job takes up a third of Superman’s day, and creates distracting situations like the frequent need to find phone booths or other semi-private places to change into your super costume, as well as the constant need to dream up cover stories to explain your sudden disappearences. Why bother?
Without a secret identity, Superman could just cruise around all day, looking for people to rescue or villains to capture.
The whole ‘secret identity’ bit seems pointless.
(Obviously, it’s used to make the stories seem more personal, and hook the readers more. But logically, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for it.)
Can anybody explain why a ‘secret identity’?
</side issue>
Because Superman has no friends and family (Superman’s a bad example of this; try Batman instead), so supervillains can’t get to him by going through his friends. He doesn’t own any property, so supervillains can’t destroy it to annoy him. If a supervillain wants to kill him, they can’t just show up at the Daily Planet with a big gun, or sneak kryptonite into his desk drawer. If something robs your of your powers (a surprisingly common occurrence), a very weak and ill Clark Kent would mean a very weak and ill Superman, instead of an absent one. In a world where the majority of people don’t like “your kind” (for example, the X-Men are pretty much disliked since all mutants are) a cover provides needed anonymity.
Plus, news reporters aren’t endlessly talking about Clark Kent, which I imagine would get pretty annoying after a while.
There’s several reasons, that different capes are motivated by to different extents.
Most heroes have friends and family that their enemies may go after to get at them. If Lex Luthor ever believed that Superman was Clark Kent, you can be sure that the Daily Planet would be bombed and the Kent farm would be burnt to the ground. A few heroes take their chances with this - either by choice, or because they can’t blend in. Some of them get lucky, others don’t.
Nobody can be on the alert all the time, and not all superheroes are Superman. They’re vulnerable when they’re not on the game. Bomb Wayne Manor while Batman’s asleep, or snipe Robin or Captain Marvel while they’re at school, and you’ve saved yourself a lot of trouble.
Most superheroes are, at the core, vigilantes, and a lot of them, particularly at the start, aren’t well tolerated by the authorities - Batman’s a good example here. It makes it a lot easier to avoid being arrested when the cops don’t know where you are.
It allows them to lead a normal life. Clark Kent can take a break and have a nice leasurely coffee. If Superman tried that, people would be asking why he wasn’t out stopping crimes or averting natural disasters.
If you’re trying to present an aura of fear, it helps if you’ve depersonalised yourself.
Let’s see . . . lots of black leather and steel, including a black enameled steel face mask with no openings; my super powers will let me go without air, and see through mere metal. Lots of spikes, razors, chains; that sort of thing. Plus, a belt and other accessaries made from the skulls and bones of my enemies; that’ll keep people from making unnecessary requests for help, and scare the hell out of any would be supervillains. Besides, it neatly eliminates the part where the supervillain returns from the dead to get his diabolical revenge. It also helps with the old “threaten the heros family” scheme; would you threaten the family of a superhuman who dresses like that ?
I knew somebody would bring her up, which is why I didn’t bother. I’d point out, though, that none of Edna’s examples would be a problem for a Kryptonian. Or Thor.
Batman needs to lose the cape, though. I mean, seriously, how does nobody just step on it in a melee?
Clark Kent isn’t the secret identity. Superman is the secret identity. The being born Kal-El of Krypton & raised in Smallville doesn’t especially want to be a world-famous super-hero; he feels an ethical obligation to, but he wants to be a writer. He adopted the second identity so he doesn’t have to be Superman all the time.
Also there’s the groupies.
Oh, it occurs to me I didn’t answer my own question. I’d hardly be inclined to become a super-hero myself, but if I did for whatever reason I’d wear a suit, yeah. Presumably I’d have the physigue to go with it, so I could make it work; and the costume would be some variation of Black Adam’s, except with black boots instead of yellow. And a cape only on formal occasions.
You can get away with capes if you’re nigh-omnipotent.
Your information is about 20 years out of date (unless of course there’s been yet another retcon that I don’t know about). Clark wasn’t born “Kal-El of Krypton.” He was born on Earth and raised from day one by the Kents. Clark Kent is his identity.
Johnny Zap wears the uniform of Captain Marvel, who is his great-uncle by marriage, except Johnny’s color scheme is midnight blue and silver. He has a spherical silver helmet that reacts with his wristlets to make a van de Graaff generator, allowing him to ZAP! evildoers.
And you’re 6’2"- oh Lobelia, I think I cyber-love you.
I was gonna chime in and say - if it meets the following criteria:
does the suit enhance my ability to be super?
Would I need to protect my identify - for reasons other posters have mentioned - and would this outfit help me do that? Although I gotta believe that with today’s CSI forensic tech, it would take, oh, 2 seconds for folks to track a masked superhero down…
can it help me make money and/or extend the reach of my powers in some other way - e.g., branding, etc. - so I can have that much more influence?
can it help me, you know, bag babes? Cuz everybody knows chicks dig the whole “grown man in shiny underwear out in public” thing
If it met those criteria, I would’ve been in. But with Lobelia’s description, I think I would humbly assume the role of macho, but non-super support / love interest…it’s a burden, but someone’s gotta do it.
