It's a bird! It's a plane!It's a ... man in weird undies?

Costumes matter, especially when they're supposed to hide the identity of a superhero. But their absence is as important to a comic book as their presence. In fact, I have seen comic books with no wacky costumes at all, and they count amongst some of my favorites. Indeed, the worst comic books are often no more than a costume parade (or soft porn, or both).

What matters much more than the costume is the person inside it. "The Amazing Spiderman" is actually the story of Peter Parker, "Batman" is the story of Bruce Wayne, and trenchcoat or not, "Hellblazer" is simply the old bastard John Constantine. It's good to see Batman kick some psycho's ass every now and then, but what really hooks a reader to the story is when Bruce Wayne's life is turned upside down e.g. "Bruce Wayne Murderer" . And a spiderman comic book is no fun without smart-mouth Peter Parker moving earth and the heavens for earning the extra buck and trying to score with MJ.

What keeps a reader hooked to a story, any story, is emotional engagement. If you can get the reader to invest his emotions in the story, you got it made. And in the current comic book paradigm, the costume doesn't help much towards that goal. The hero puts it on mostly when he has to fight, and the emotional range of a fight sequence is rather hackneyed most of the time(there are a few exceptions, like the death of Gwen Stacy). So, you have to turn to the non-costumed part of a hero's life and explore his relationships and non-super life situations. The larger than life persona fascinates us, but it's the human behind it that we identify with and trust.

All good writers know this and many of them have made comic books heroes who don't wear any outrageous costumes and masks. But the fact remains that the hero must be unique and different from everyone else. And the graphic medium provides one with such lucrative choices that are hard to resist. I mean, since visual effects are a big attraction of the medium, it seems almost foolish not to exploit them to add dimensions to the hero. Sometimes the results are very unique, like Hellboy (with a body like that you don't need a costume to be an eye-catcher). And even when the hero is not so outrageously unique visually, it's good to see something familiar on him, like John Constantine's trenchcoat or Spider Jerusalem's suit. Even in books like "Y - The Last Man", where the hero doesn't have anything unique in his attire, someone else does (like agent 355 who stayed with him till the second last issue); even though it wasn't needed, I mean, you're the last man alive on earth! That's pretty unique in itself.

Also, when used well, costumes add complexity to the plot. Because costumes usually go hand-in-hand with the idea of a 'secret identity'. And that element is a good source of conflict in a hero's life. And who doesn't like good visual effects? But there has to be a balance. The writer needs to remember not to smother the hero or the story with the costume, while maintaining fascination for the character. After all, who wants to see 30 pages of a man flying around in his undies? Now, if it's a superbabe ...