Why must traditional super heroes wear their underwear on the OUTSIDE?

[ModerationNow!]

**KEY: Abbreviation for underwear on the outside = UOTO
I remember back when I was somewhere between 5-7 years old, watching Batman re-runs on tv somewhere in the 1973-75 time frame. I also read comic books and watched superman, aquaman and others, all running around, kicking butt, with their briefs on the outside. As a logical, reasonable 5-7 year old, I realized that there MUST be some inherent benefit to underwear on the outside, so it wasn't long b4 I was running around our wide open back yard with MY underwear on the outside. I once watched an episode of Spider Man going up against the scorpion guy, who had a tail with some sorta stinger on the end. He too was wearing UOTO. So for 1 day, I decided to be the scorpion. Now I was running around the back yard with UOTO, with one end of a rolled up green beach towel stuffed into my UOTO, and the other end was flailing around. It wasnt a very convincing scorpion tail unfortunately.....

Fast forward to late 2018, and it seems that exterior underwear is out of style. Normally I ignore fads, but in this case, I chose to follow the "no-UOTO" fad. I've also taken notice to the fact that pretty much none of the aforementioned super heroes are wearing colored briefs on the outside these days. Why were they doing it in the first place? Did they cave to modern style norms?

BTW: Is traditional Aquaman a salt water creature, or can he function in brackish & fresh water as well? Does he swim up gently rolling streams to fight bad guys who, for some reason, happen to be hanging out in the middle of that stream?

 

[maquiscat]

**KEY: Abbreviation for underwear on the outside = UOTO
I remember back when I was somewhere between 5-7 years old, watching Batman re-runs on tv somewhere in the 1973-75 time frame. I also read comic books and watched superman, aquaman and others, all running around, kicking butt, with their briefs on the outside. As a logical, reasonable 5-7 year old, I realized that there MUST be some inherent benefit to underwear on the outside, so it wasn't long b4 I was running around our wide open back yard with MY underwear on the outside. I once watched an episode of Spider Man going up against the scorpion guy, who had a tail with some sorta stinger on the end. He too was wearing UOTO. So for 1 day, I decided to be the scorpion. Now I was running around the back yard with UOTO, with one end of a rolled up green beach towel stuffed into my UOTO, and the other end was flailing around. It wasnt a very convincing scorpion tail unfortunately.....

Fast forward to late 2018, and it seems that exterior underwear is out of style. Normally I ignore fads, but in this case, I chose to follow the "no-UOTO" fad. I've also taken notice to the fact that pretty much none of the aforementioned super heroes are wearing colored briefs on the outside these days. Why were they doing it in the first place? Did they cave to modern style norms?

BTW: Is traditional Aquaman a salt water creature, or can he function in brackish & fresh water as well? Does he swim up gently rolling streams to fight bad guys who, for some reason, happen to be hanging out in the middle of that stream?

Actually they are not underwear but tight shorts similar to racing swim suits for men. It was a fashion for circus performer and wrestling stars of the era when some of the heros were first envisioned. Some of it was sex appeal. Burt Ward, Robin to Adam West's Batman, had once mentioned that the show producers purposely had them stand akimbo (?) to further entice female viewers.

As to Aquaman, there has never been a salt water/fresh water issue with him. He functions equally well in both environments, and can control the creatures of both.

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