Why do superheroes have capes

Email address:. While fewer and fewer comic book characters are wearing capes these days, they are still associated with many popular heroes like Superman, Batman, Thor, Vision, Magneto and more. Some of them wear capes simply because they serve a practical purpose. Like Batman or Moon Knight, who use their capes to glide across cities, shield them from harm and disorient their enemies.

Artistically they can serve the purpose of making characters look bigger and more menacing. In addition, they have also been brought up as an easy way for artists to show motion in a panel. They can show the physics of a scene as well as which direction and how fast a character is moving: the article continues after the ad.

But how did this tradition of putting capes on superheroes start in the first place? But, let me give you a few main ideas. It was typically something they took off beforehand but Superman, being Superman, keeps his on at all times.

Superman practically started this. The Kon-El version of Superboy is the most notable exception. Flashbacks to Krypton sometimes show Jor-El and other Kryptonians wearing short capes, which is presumably where Clark got the idea. This makes it useful for shielding normal humans from dangers. Batman : Batman is possibly the straightest example of a useful one He uses it to glide yes, even before Batman Begins , he uses it to hide his arms so nobody knows whether he's about to throw a punch or a Batarang , it makes him seem larger and scarier than he is going along with his motif of fear , and it gives a large amount of useless space for mooks to target.

It's kinda necessary if you want to look like a giant bat. While this use is never brought up in the comics, Batman operates in the northern east coast of the United States, an area of the country with generally low temperatures, and given that Batman normally runs around in thin, skin tight fabric, the cape would prevent him from freezing to death on a nightly basis without greatly restricting his mobility.

And it's got breakaway fasteners that woefully underused yet extremely inconvenient bane of the "No Capes" Deconstructor Fleet , just in case some thug who watched The Incredibles tries to tangle up Bats' cloak.

Capes are also standard issue for Robins , although when the original became Nightwing , he dropped the cape. Tim Drake's cape as Red Robin has the same "glider" functionality as Batman's and as Robin he weaponized detaching his cape when someone grabbed it by making the thing contract around whatever was touching it at the push of a button on his wrist.

Lampshaded when Dick became Batman; he kept complaining about how impractical the cape is, pointing out that he lost his as soon as possible, and anyway it was a short fabric thing, not a couple of square metres of kevlar. It's easier to list the Batfamily members who don't wear capes.

Batman and Superman find themselves in an alternate universe where there are still superheroes, but none of them wear capes.

When Superman appears, the locals find him strange not because of his powers, but because he's wearing a garment that went out of fashion centuries ago. Deconstructed like everything else in Watchmen with the character of Dollar Bill.

He was a former football player hired by a bank when they realized that having their own personal superhero on payroll was a great way to cash in on the masked vigilante craze. The costume was designed by the marketing department, who were going for style over practicality and thought that the cape added visual appeal. It ended up getting caught in a revolving door while he was trying to stop a robbery, at which point one of the robbers shot him point-blank in the chest. Aside from Captain Metropolis and the second-generation Nite Owl, none of the other superheroes wear capes.

Nite Owl I's original costume had a cape, but when he failed to master the art of walking around his own house with it on without the cape catching on things, he got rid of it. In Love and Capes , it is said that the reason superheroes favour capes is because they cover your butt an important consideration when you're running around in spandex.

Generally, characters designed by Jack Kirby tend not to wear cape, unless they are supposed to appear regal Thor, Magneto, Doom Doctor Strange and his Cloak of Levitation.

While he attire is rather nostalgic; it's Justified since his cape is 1 part of the inheritance of the Sorcerer Supreme and 2 very useful.. The series, typically, acknowledges the potential disadvantages but posits that people will work around them, for instance by applying low-friction coatings that prevent adversaries grabbing the cape during a fight.

When Captain America stopped wearing the stars and stripes and took the name "Nomad", he stitched himself a costume and decided to include a full-length cape. Why not? He'd always sort of wanted one. The first time he went into action, he tripped on that cape and missed catching the bad guys, one of whom snarked as she was escaping that she'd always hoped she'd see that happen. Promptly he tore the cape off. It was never seen again.

This old desire for a cape was revisited with one of the revamped and expanded origin story issues. Steve Rogers, training during the day to toughen himself before being hit with the Super Serum , spent his evenings drawing the imaginary superhero "American Eagle", writing in the margins that he had to have a cape, capes were boss. The military rifled through his drawings, based the design of his costume off of them without telling him, much to his embarrassment, and left out the cape.

Cap's spoof, Major Glory from Dexter's Laboratory , wears a cape. Of course, he's also a Superman spoof, so he probably doesn't have the same problems Cap did. The Spectre Who's cape was pretty much the only piece of clothing he wore.

Spawn 's cape is a Badass Cape all by itself thanks to its Voluntary Shapeshifting. There's a Polish superhero spoof, Chinchilla Man. Chinchilla Man's team employs one caped hero, who is rather useless, but teams with caped heroes receive funding from European Union.

Storm from X-Men. In her case, it's got a practical effect: the extra surface area it gives her makes it easier for her to fly, since her flight is performed by manipulating air currents. She can fly without the cape, but not quite as well. Scarlet Witch The Vision : Justified originally because he used his ability to alter his density to fly by becoming so light that the cape and a mild breeze was enough to get him airborne. Not really referenced much anymore since writers quickly figured out that that required excessively convenient wind patterns all the time.

Booster Gold was told by Superman that he couldn't handle wearing a cape. Spider-Man villain Mysterio: Justified given his propensity for stage and theatrics Quantum wears a cape. Woody thinks they're stupid. Orient Men , as part of his origins as a parody superhero. Magneto and Mr. Sinister, both of X-Men books, usually wear capes. Deconstructed: The protagonist of Joe Hill's The Cape had a blanket that was turned into a costume cape, and he wore it as a kid when playing with his brother as superheroes.

As an adult, he discovers that the cape makes him able to fly. His full "costume" is just his cape. Then he kills his ex-girlfriend and we discover that, as a child, he played the supervillain. Justice of the New Warriors and Avengers wears one.

Being telekinetic, he can pretty easily keep the cape from getting in the way. Prodigy has a big red one. Back when he was an alternate identity of Spider-Man, the character was specifically designed - out of universe - to evoke Golden Age heroes, so it fits rather well.

Wonder Woman wears one occasionally — usually just when she's making a public appearance and wants to look impressive or regal, not when she's out there fighting. Hers has an optional hood. Lightning Lad wore one in his early days. Comic Strips. Calvin and Hobbes presents: " This is a job for They can also help our heroes fly or glide on air again, refer to Batman.

Look at Captain Marvel and Captain America for example. What they wear seems to be based on military-style uniforms and work as utilities in and of themselves. Superman is a good example of this.

Why not give him a cape instead? Fashion has a lot to do with it as well. Depending on the costume design, a cape is necessary to enhance the look. Would this costume be convincing if it came without a cape? I think not.

It is just there. To me, his long, flowing probably heavy red cape always looks cumbersome to wear. Personally, I like some super hero looks without a cape. Take Batman Beyond. His costume looks sleeker, and he looks lighter on his feet. I think in the end it boils down to costume design not including characters like Iron Man, of course, because a cape on that suit would not be appropriate.

I guess the bottom line is what purpose it serves and whether it makes sense in terms of the character. Maybe someone, someday will educate me a little more on the cape theory. How long is Disney Plus Day ?