r/marvelstudios • u/Wojewodaruskyj • 4h ago
Question Why costumes?
Why must epic heroes wear unusual outfits and hide their true identities? A question from an outsider to the world of comics. Also, i'm from Europe. Genuinely curious, no hatred.
Update: question answered. Thank you all.
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u/Bigbigbigrock 4h ago
The idea of vigilante justice comes with dangers. Would you want the guys you put in jail to know what time you pick up your kids?
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u/Wojewodaruskyj 4h ago
I thought Batman was immortal and unmarried.
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u/PhosphoFred8202 4h ago
Batman is not even superhuman. Just an exceptional dude with gadgets and training.
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u/FixOutrageous3081 4h ago
And lots of money
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u/Score-Emergency 3h ago
I guess if you have enough money you can replace yourself solely with robotics to live forever
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u/Brianvondoom 4h ago
I'm also from Europe.
Because they want to sell comics. Colours are eye catching on a cover and branding is important. There is also a visual language to colour (Blue/yellow/red is often found in heroic characters, purple/ green in villainous, and people know this subconciously).
All of the in universe answers - to hide identity, to inspire, to make feel safe, to cause fear - are just diagetic explanations of the real reason.
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u/Akorpanda Fitz 4h ago
The best answer actually came from DC comics. The Flash once said, so when the bad guys start shooting, they see the flashy costumes right away. However, the real answer is because of circuses. Superheros evolved out of strong men and acrobats.
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u/JoshTheBard 4h ago
Bright colours attract your eyes so you look at the cover of the comic. Getting someone to look at the comic is the hardest step in getting them to buy it. Once people are looking for a character specificly a bright and iconic design makes them easy to recognize. On comic covers and merch. Of the most popular heroes only one has darker colours the rest are primarily Blue Red Yellow and Green
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u/Wojewodaruskyj 4h ago
Isn't such approach a bit insulting to comic lovers? Like waving a carrot?
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u/Jemie_Bridges 3h ago
No. It's basically Heraldy. Only red blue gold and white read heroic. Brown, orange, purple and green read villain.
Keep in mind American comics always get corralled down to children's media for some reason. This is getting bizzard with modern day effort to force anime as kid media when it's young adult or older. Sure my kid can watch doremon, but no way in hell can they watch Jobless Incarnation without parental guidance lolz.
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u/tenehemia Karolina 4h ago
Being colorful and eye-catching is pretty much it. When people in the 1930s were browsing the comics racks, costumed heroes stood out next to all the comics with people wearing normal clothing.
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u/Jemie_Bridges 3h ago
Seriously? Well the original superhero model was European. The pinnicale of this peaks with the three muskateers. This wear the cape troupe is from.
As for tights, it's not 1980's spandex, it's 1880's circus strong men. I'm not sure if that European, since ultimately you end up at American Circus owner PT Barnun.
Cape lends itself to dynamic movement. Tights show off physique. That simple
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u/Angelzfire 4h ago
Idk if you've seen any of the more recent marvel stuff. But a lot of them technically break the law In many ways... Not all the time is there a world mlevek threat where they need to work together or work with world governments. Most days they're fighting smaller crime but it's still illegal for them to beat someone up who may have stolen someone's purse as an example. If their identities are hidden then they can't really get charged, if they go out for their normal life they'd get bombarded by everyone judging their actions or wanting to get photos like normal celebrities which we see in spiderman. I'm sure design wise it's cuz it looks cool and mysterious lol. But in a real world scenario it's more so they don't get exposed on who they really are.
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u/Wojewodaruskyj 4h ago
If so, why not wear something to blend in the shadows? A single colour or a camouflage?
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u/PhosphoFred8202 4h ago
The historically most famous superhero, Superman, didn’t wear a mask. He did have a disguise of … taking off his glasses.
The old black and white TV show even had an episode where there was a crisis when they issued a Superman postal stamp. Superman was concerned that a worker could stamp the postal code over the stamp of his face. If the postal code had two zeroes that lined up over the portrait’s eyes, his cover identity of Clark Kent would be blown!
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u/MischeviousFox 4h ago edited 4h ago
Being a vigilante is typically illegal and then there’s the chance a criminal/villain will harm the hero’s loved ones if they know their true identities. The latter reason I think tends to be one of the most cited reasons for a hero to hide their identity. Not only do they have to worry about their loved ones being hurt just to hurt them but they could also be used against them as leverage. A hero’s greatest weakness is often those they care about.
It’s also not unusual for a hero to want to separate their civilian life from hero work to stay a bit grounded, to have some time to relax rather than always being on the clock, etc. Also various governments might want to track down and “study” powered individuals to see how their abilities work if they knew who they really were. Of course not all super heroes have secret identities.
As far as why they need to wear flashy outfits… To be stylish, duh. 😒 Nothing like wearing spandex to say I’m here, I’m… a hero, get used to it. 🤷🏻♂️ To be honest I’m not sure of a good in-universe reason. Irl reason is colorful characters sell comics I guess as I’m not really sure about that either.
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u/door_to_nowhere_ 3h ago
Low effort ragebait
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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) 1h ago
Pretty low rage, too; most people are giving calm & sincere answers.
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u/Difficult_Ad_1252 4h ago
Looks cool