Why Some Superheroes Wear Capes, and Others Don't

A superhero's costume must be skin tight, colorful, and come with a cape. But superhero costume designer Edna Mode says, "No capes!" and therefore some of the more modern superheroes don't. So why do the old school heroes like Superman and Batman wear capes? It's not just because capes are cool. 

To get the real story, we have to go back to the pop culture that inspired the comic book superhero in the first place, back in the 1930s. Once a character has been designed, artists found all kinds of ways to use the cape to illustrate different aspects of the character or the story. As more and more superheroes came about, some went without capes just to be different, or as a statement that they aren't a slave to obsolete fashion unless the character was designed to be old-fashioned. My mother made a red cape and a blue cape for my brother and me to play superhero with. Whoever had the red cape was Superman, and the other was Batman. I made capes for my kids, too. When you have a cape, you don't need a full costume to be a superhero. -via Laughing Squid