Name a Superhero you just can't stand
For some reason I've just never liked Spider-Man. He comes off as a whiney, ignorant child that never seems to grow up or mature despite everything he goes through. I love a good coming of age story, but he just never seems to become an adult.
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I'm kind of annoyed by most superheroes as characters because of the costume thing.
The spandex thing that's a pretty-common convention was because the Comic Code Authority disallowed nudity. Solution? Skintight outfits.
Now, I've got no problem with nudity, or salaciousness, or outright adult comics for that matter.
But we've got all that historical baggage of just about everyone running around in skintight outfits. So a lot of the genre winds up with having to come up with elaborate explanations as to why they're wearing the things.
The CCA is long dead. You can have nudity or salaciousness in comic books if you want. But the convention is still with us because of designs that date to that era, and it's just senseless. I feel like it kinda restricts the genre and doesn't help the immersion.
There are comic characters who don't do the spandex thing. John Constantine or Dick Tracy wear trenchcoats. Dream in Sandman doesn't have fixed garb, but doesn't do spandex.
The Parahumans series -- Worm and Ward web serials, not comic books but certainly superheroes -- are what I'd call some examples of modern superheroes that don't have a design dating from an era where there were CCA constraints. Granted, they aren't graphic novels or comic books, so there are different incentives, but even so.
Are you claiming that Batman wears spandex because originally he was supposed to be naked but the CCA wouldn't allow that?
Well, he'd still need his utility belt...
The spandex thing that's a pretty-common convention was because the Comic Code Authority disallowed nudity. Solution? Skintight outfits.
That's definitely a... unique take. Do you have any quotes or sources for that? IMO, superheros started with spandex for the same reason everything else about them was larger than life: to appeal to children and teenagers. No offense and from one nerd to others, but come on. They have brightly-colored capes, they travel the world and go to space and travel through universes and time, fighting the bad guys with over-the-top magical powers. And we loved it. I still do!
I don't think the fact that they didn't want nudity in their comics (which was even more stigmatized back then) implies causality with many of them having skin-tight uniforms. Both male and female forms were exaggerated for the aforementioned reasons and tighter suits were just another reason to emphasize that larger-than-life human evolution thing. Plus, it would be easier to move in clothes that stretch and move with you...