Return of the superpants.

A year and a half ago I wrote a very thoughtful, thoroughly researched blog entry about Superman's pants. In it (if you don't want to experience the magic yourself) I wrote that while for decades Superman had the circus-athlete-type tights outside his pants, in recent years and in recent films the tights have gone away. "On the one hand, it's fun to change the look of a well-known character, to help keep it fresh. On the other hand, it's a well-known, trademarked character. You can't dump on success."

The gang at DC Comics has either been moved by my entry -- or not, since I didn't do too much to defend the tighty reddies -- or just decided to go with Supes Classic, because the tights are back. "The Red Trunks Return" DC trumpets, in the one thousandth issue of Action Comics.

Hooray, Superpants!

Artist Jim Lee says, “There’s no better way to celebrate Superman’s enduring popularity than to give him a look that combines some new accents with the most iconic feature of his classic design.” So, there you go.

A curious thing about those trunks I didn't know until recently: There was a rumor that a lawsuit between DC and the estate of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel caused the trunks to disappear. In brief (har!), DC's argument with the estate was that continued royalties did not apply since Superman was an evolving character and in effect not the same one artist Siegel had originally drawn -- and to prove it, they dropped his pants. (So to speak.)

I don't quite believe it myself. I think Occam's razor applies here; the simpler answer is that DC originally got rid of the tights because they had long been a source of jokes about superheroes, especially Superman, and they wanted to make Superman cool for an older comics audience. For the most part the costume didn't change -- you'd still know who it was -- but it was different in a more adult way.

Then again, we're still talking about a universe where grown men run about and stand around in spandex and masks, and are taken seriously.

That aside, the question on everyone's mind must be: Will trunks make a return? Probably not to their former widespread glory. Even in the 1940s, other prominent heroes like Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, and the Flash just had pants. (In those days, Wonder Woman wore a short skirt.) Batman had the tights, of course; even when Neal Adams did his famous run on Batman in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, bringing him back to his pre-Robin dark avenger days, he had 'em.

But I suspect, being the coolest hero of all, Batman will continue to wear a lot of black as he has done in recent years, eschewing the blue and gray, and skip the trunks. Besides, as he has not the benefit of superspeed, Bruce Wayne must like being able to change into uniform more quickly without that extra layer.

I'm always a fan of the classics, personally, and so I salute the superpants' return. The Superman costume always looks better with the extra splash of red. Keep 'em flying, boys!

And congratulations to Superman's Action Comics, continually running since 1938. Most periodicals that were running when those tights first appeared have gone to the great publishing morgue in the sky.