Should Dc have new 52 Superman wear tights.

Yes. And bring the real suit back while they're at it.

I just have a lot of trouble seeing how somebody can be a fan of the character yet hate his costume -- or at least a certain aspect of it -- of over 70 years that his creators gave him. That goes for Batman too. Not saying that the people that don't like the trunks necessarily hate Superman outright, or are somehow less as people or something ridiculous, I don't believe that to be the case, please don't twist my words, but I just don't think they quite get it. For me, personally, I know if I love something and think it is perfect the way it is, I don't want to change that. I don't want to entertain the notion that I'm somehow better than the creators and have a BETTER idea than what they did in this regard, either. It's almost like being in a relationship to me: if you love someone for who they are, you don't try and change them.

And this whole notion that the trunks are somehow dated and outlandish, but the rest of the suit isn't, to me is pretentiously absurd. It's not as though he's in a poodle skirt or bell bottoms, there is no era in which people all walked around in trunks wherever they went, just as people don't walk around in blue robo-puzzle-collar onesies today. Circus performers, carnival freaks, and wrestlers still wear them, that hasn't changed, either....I don't understand why people pick at this one aspect of the suit, when it's no better or worse than the rest of the suit and the character in its entirety. The "dated" argument doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, and is something I think people who don't really think all this through to its conclusion just easily throw out there. I mean, a couple people who don't care for the character either way to begin with make fun of the character, and suddenly he must be changed to pander to these people? No! How about instead we bring those people into the fold and show them the how and why of the suit, justify what's already there, rather than deconstructing him right out of existence for once? That goes for the secret identity, too!

For me, it's beyond just nostalgia reasons why they should be there, I truly believe, objectively speaking, that they are hands down the best design on the character. People call me a purist, but in many ways, I'm really not, I'm just supportive of the best idea regardless of where it comes, 100% of the time, and 90% of the time what's in the comics is the best idea. I truly believe that Superman's costume, trunks and all, IS the best, most flawless idea/look for the character. He just looks better that way. Superman practically invented this look for superheroes, along with the secret identity. He should be the last to abandon either. The costume just looks so bland and bare without them. Plus, they help cover him better. When all you can wear is a form fitting suit because it's all that's protected by your yellow sun aura, wearing the trunks makes sense because it helps conceal your umm...gems more, if you're a guy, while also staying true to the form fitting rule and remaining within the yellow sun aura around his body that protects and empowers him and otherwise gives him all of his fantastic abilities. If you've ever worn tights as a guy, you'd get the reason for the trunks right away -- going without them in a form fitting suit is like the male equivalent of wearing a really tight shirt with no bra as a girl, except much less umm...becoming, if you will, as a guy.

Plus, Superman is Clark Kent's freak show performance symbol for the world, his carnie act, his stage name, performing identity, if you will -- it makes sense from a spiritual perspective that this, along with his bold flag like colors, is how he would dress this persona. Superman is Clark Kent from Smallville (the place, not the show) with the powers of Superman. He cares about humanity and wants to help and seek the truth, Daily Planet Clark is a facade, the symbolic public persona of Superman is also a facade. What isn't a facade is his morals.

There's a war on Superman right now, a full out assault on practically every aspect of the character, from his costume, to his secret identity, to his morals, to his general persona, to his supporting characters, powers, and world. I'm actually considering writing a book on it -- not sure who would buy it, but it's well worth documenting for when someone in the future hopefully attempts to put him back together again.

We must always hope.

I've always thought the costume was sort of natural for the character, and that including it in the story like this is an interesting way of examining the character's real life history through the eyes of the story, kind of like how New Frontier did with Batman's costume changes in the '50s (shorter ears, more blue, etc,), the "I set out to scare criminals, not children" scene, where he explains the new look to Superman after keeping in mind the terrified child he tried to rescue from cultists.

I think an idea similar to this would work well in a Superman story: imagine young Clark and maybe Lana and some friends are attending a fair in Smallville, and one of the circus freaks is making his way through the crowd dressed in normal clothes, and his appearance startles someone in the crowd (possibly Lana?), Clark, with all of his senses, notices this, and notices the terror on this person's face at seeing the circus "freak" unannounced moving among them. Later on though, while the same circus "freak" performs on stage, in a colorful costume similarly patterned to what the Superman one will eventually become (minus the cape and familiar colors, but it's form fitting, trunks, etc), Clark notices the same person that was startled by the circus performer earlier laughing and cheering and having a great time watching the act. This tells Clark, subconsciously, that when a spectacle is made of the unusual, and it is brightly colored and isn't trying to hide, the world around it can accept it (sort of like how many jewish immigrants became actors and comedians in the early 1900s as that was partially all that was available to them work wise, but also a way to help people connect to them and not look at them as "foreigners", if you will).

Now this isn't what out and out inspires Clark to go and make a costume, but rather it teaches him a valuable lesson about how to reconcile who he is with regular "normal" humanity, which is still, at his core, despite his powers, what he considers himself to be (human). He must make "entertainment" of what he is (and his powers and abilities, the things he can do, are entertaining, it WOULD be entertaining to see Superman perform his feats in real life, would it not? And surely some part of Clark would know this), but also, something so much more than just that.

Also, Clark making his costume with the Kents would allow for costume changes down the line so he could have the Kingdom Come look, etc. When the suit is just made on Krypton, it doesn't really allow for that because you can't really change it since it's indestructable, even though I don't mind the "it's made on Krypton" excuse for the suit, I just think it's much more personal and intimate if Superman is able to make it himself with the Kents, which is something I think the general audience needs to feel with Superman at this point.

Because we've seen the psychology of Batman and the why and how he gets his suit delved into so many times, we've even seen it with Green Lantern to an extent, those characters, in many ways like you said, have been able to develop, while Superman, to an extent, hasn't quite had all of that. He's been a victim, in some ways, of his own success & iconography, and having to be the face of superheroes, whereas characters like Batman and recently Green Lantern, who were maybe popular, but not AS popular as Superman, got to sort of hide in his shadow and tool together who they were more without ever violating anyone's preconceived notions of them too much because they had never quite experienced the exposure or success that Superman had -- Superman's almost like a child star in a way that reached success at an early age, if you will) Am I saying that Superman is "dated", and that they should trounce on everything his creators did like the costume and his story, etc? No, absolutely not, all I'm saying is that they should embrace and explore this the way they have with Batman and many of the others.

Everybody knows why Batman wears his costume, where it comes from, how he developed it. They don't know that with Superman. You get all sorts of answers across the board for why the first and best hero of them all does what he does. Man Of Steel, a film I was hoping would explore this, failed pretty miserably at it: Clark spends the first half of the film hiding because his one dad told him to, and then the other half putting on a costume he has never seen before and has no purpose to wear all because his other dad told him to and said he was to be the space-jesus-messiah. No wonder people think the character is "boring" -- he's been dehumanized, and robbed of all the "grit" and excitement and personal connection that made the original Superman such a success.

Oh -- and as I said, the CAPE would be the only thing from Krypton, meaning it's invincible and has a protective aura around it, juts like Superman (obviously, it isn't form fitting, so there'd need to be some explanation for its invulnerability). As to why he would wear it, early on before he's developed his Superman identity and suit, Clark rescues some people from a fire, and sees to it they get wrapped up in a cloth or sheet to help their burns, but the fire rages, and ends up catching the sheet on fire, putting them at greater risk than before -- naturally, Clark stops the fire, but it'd be great if he had something else to help protect people in. Well, lo and behold, it so happens that the Kents happen to have this red "blanket" he was wrapped in as a baby, and Clark checks it out -- turns out, it's as invincible as he is, and there's a strange insignia on the back, little yellow blotches on it. These yellow blotches are of course the yellow insides of the Superman logo, but have no diamond outline around them. They just look like alien gibberish, or "two whales" as John Byrne said his childhood self described them, but if you squint, it also kind of looks like the yellow blotches cause a red "S" to form due to their placement. This is interesting as the name Clark along with his parents have come up with for this "public identity/persona" he's created is "Superman", and they incorporate the look of this into their "S" design for his chest, but just put a diamond around it. Clark incorporates the cape into the costume because it looks great, and he'd be an idiot to not do something with that invincible blanket. He can use it to wrap around people if need be, and deflect stuff like lava for people he can't reach/cover completely, like the old Fleishcer Superman would do in the cartoons. As for how it attaches to the costume, seeing as you can't put a needle through it because it's invincible and sew it onto it, well, it just tucks into his shirt. The protective aura around his body from the yellow sun also helps it stay put in there since it's so close to his body too, almost "magnetic" in a way when it's that up close, seeing how it's from his planet and is that close to his body, like the form fitting suit. He can take it off at a moment's notice, but nobody else can. (And the "S' being on the cape doesn't HAVE to be there, it's not a dealbreaker for me, though if I have a preference, I generally like it to be there)

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