
Give 'Em Elle: What is Up with Superhero Costumes These Days?
Welcome to Give ‘Em Elle, a weekly column that hopes to bridge the gap between old school comics fandom and the progressive edge of comics culture. This week I wanted to talk about superhero costumes. I solicited questions on the subject on Twitter, but a lot of what I got were variations on the same basic question: "What's wrong with superhero costume designs these days?" So I'm going to attempt to delve into that.
First, a caveat. I’m going to focus on male superhero costumes in this column. Obviously I have a lot of feelings about women’s superhero costumes as well, but they’re a whole different set of feelings about a whole different set of problems. So I’m going to cover the men for now, and return to talk about the women another time. It’s very rare that you’ll catch me focusing on men over women, but in this case there’s a lot to say, and I feel like it hasn’t been covered as thoroughly.