Why Do Superheroes Wear TIGHTS? || Comic Misconceptions || NerdSync

Why do superheroes wear tights? We're finding out today in the first part of our 4-part miniseries about the design of comic book superheroes! It only seems fitting to start with the colorful skintight spandex costumes that our favorite comic characters fight crime in!

Every Wednesday, Comic Misconceptions explores the incredible stories, fascinating ideas, and mind-blowing theories regarding comic books and the rich history and culture that surrounds them!

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SUPERHERO DESIGN SERIES:

Why Do Superheroes Wear UNDERWEAR on the Outside?

Why Do Superheroes Wear CAPES?

Why Do Superheroes Have White Eyes?

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SOURCES:
Fixing the Hobo Suit - Imaginary Worlds
Science of Golf: Why Golf Balls Have Dimples

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[kyletowers]

i think the main reason is because it's easier to wear tights under civilian clothes than something like bulky armor.

[voldlifilm]

That's why Adam West is the most badass Batman. He doesn't need an incredibly expensive military tech body armor to get the job done. Just some cloth, some skills and some mad dance moves. Does Baleman dance? I don't think so. I'll say this for Baleman though, having that plane makes it much easier to get rid of a bomb.

[farrex]

My guess, as someone who has studied a bit of art, is that they wear skin tight costumes because it is easier to draw them that way. Okay let me elaborate, if you want to draw a muscular person in a dynamic pose it is extremely hard to get the proportions right. However one easy way to do that is to draw an sketch of the character naked and then draw the clothes on top. However if you would be drawing the same character again and again, one way to speed up the poses is to always draw him/her naked and then only paint the costume on top. You might think it would be hard to draw every major muscle, but it is not. Once you know how the anatomy of the muscles flow through the body it is actually quite easy, and you would have to do it to get the proportions right anyway.

[KeyserSoze]

I figured it's easier for artists to draw figures in smooth lined outfits than bulky looser fitting clothes?

[Ultinuc]

My problem isn't tight fitting costumes, it's when they straight-up say that it's Spandex. Practically the only artist that seems to know what Spandex actually looks like on people is Alex Ross.

[ReiAyanami]

One way to look at it, is that comic books are one of the few forms of media that displays eye candy regardless of where a person's preferences lie. Though that may not have been the intention, I kind feel like men and women have an abundance to look at. And okay with that.

As for whether or not I prefer tights over something that holds up to more scrutiny, I don't have a particular preference. Plus, I get the feeling that comic books can come up with some weakly defined form of comic book logic to justify tights if they really wanted to. "I know it looks like this hero is wearing tights, but it's actually a super-durable nano material that uses quantum generated black holes to negate impacts and BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!" Sure thing comic book science. Whatever you say.

[SolVentulus]

I think some of it comes down to the way someone would fight. Someone like Spider-Man, who is incredibly nimble and has a strange way of fighting where a lot of his hits are tied to his movement, needs something where he can move freely with nothing getting in the way. Someone like Iron Man, who normally attacks with his repulsors, wouldn't need a suit that would allow the same type of fluid movement as Spider-Man's although I'm sure being the genius that he is, he could make something functional with that type of suit. But then again, he practically has a normal human body, so he needs the armor to be able to withstand attacks. Like I said earlier, I think the type of suit someone would wear would be one that allows them to move and fight as comfortably as possible.

I think the smaller/tighter suits also provide less grabbing area for someone to grab them as well. I'm sure you're seen times where although someone was wearing a tight suit, they also wore a cape which was at some point grabbed to trip them up in some way or used as something to grab to toss them around. Or they wore a non-skintight suit but close fitting suit of some kind and there were areas to grab to interrupt their movement or just get a grasp of someone to follow up with something else. Not to say that you can't get hit with a skintight suit, but the closer it is to the skin, the less opportunity someone else has to do more harm if there isn't a piece of clothing flailing around in the middle of a fight.

[YourUncleBenis]

2:52 The sound effect on that panel, though...

[Sjono]

It's much easier for artists to draw characters that wear form fitting clothes

[iBlackMamba]

haha "Batman very Superman" I love it!!

[abbeylloyd]

I like tights, because as a dancer I was always told that they kept your leg fat from showing/jiggling. Probably not a problem that superheroes have though.

[thenerdherd]

If you need to be as fast or aerodynamic as possible, fine, you have my blessing, but if your like bat man, you have no powers, and you don't need to be super fast, maybe armor is a better route, if your wolverine, or deadpool than you should just rock like, ya know, clothes, because you have no need for stealth, no need for hyper-mobility ans certainly no need for armor.

[bosslevel]

LMAO! Sports references??! Laughed so hard!

[Megidramon]

I prefer a hybrid between spandex and modern costumes. I guess, for me, anyway, it depends on what their powers consist of. Speedsters, like Flash and QuickSilver. People that fly and swim, those make sense for spandex. Personally though, characters like Captain America, for example, who get up close and personal with their opponents because they have to, do better with modern outfits. Light armor that provides them with protection, but still gives them full mobility so they can do all the ass kicking they need to.

[wolffisu]

Cause we gotta show off their sick as frick muscles! YAY! ^~^

[Natakupl]

How can people dislike tights? I mean have they seen Nightwing? rawr

[Hello-febk]

"I made a sport reference! Proud of me dad?" I laughed so hard

[healmehha]

"to follow SUIT" hahaha nice one x)

[jesseinfinite]

Why not make an entire video about Phantom?

[jocelynhealy]

It's also possible that the Superheroes of their respective universes can influense each other. Lets look at DC for an example. Three of their main heroes is Super Man, Batman, and Flash. Flash and Supey ware tight fitting costumes for practical reasons, super speed and flight respectively. Batman, though the outfit appears skin tight, is made up of a Kevlar mix making it more of a light weight or tatical battle armor than spandex suit.

Understandably new heroes would take insperation from them by having a skin tight suit, a cape, a mask, body armor, or a belt. In the case of Hawkeye and Robin (depending on what continuity you are reading) they used their actual circus outfits or modified versions of them.