In Reading Comics, Cultural Historian Mila Bongco outlines the typical characteristics that most superheroes have in common, including super powers, the loss of a family member that motivates their “concern for justice,” and a secret identity or alter-ego that is concealed in a costume (102). In this post, I trace the use of costumes in Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again (1985), as it amplifies character and plot elements in a highly successful revision of the Daredevil mythology. In the mid 1980s, when comics creators were beginning to update the genre for more mature audiences, artists like Frank Miller and Alan Moore cast aside previously accepted costume traditions as they complicated the storylines and psychological motivations of their characters. As superhero comics evolved over the decades, the rendering of costumes-and their use as a story-telling device-also grew and changed.
Often the portrayal of the costume in these comics parallels other themes within their narratives: Superman bears an alien symbol on his chest that recalls his origins on Krypton, Batman and Spider-man wear masks to protect their identities, and so on.
Since the inception of the superhero genre in comics in the late 1930s, the powerful, crime-fighting protagonists have worn special costumes that distinguish them from other characters.
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