9

It's been hot lately where I live, and I had the misfortune of needing to wear a 100% polyester shirt for some of the time.

It was awful, but it made me start thinking of super hero costumes. Daredevil's is essentially leather. Batman's is thick and armored.

How do these costumed heroes stay cool during their physical activity? They're so active, that I'd think heat exhaustion would be a serious risk.

Okay, so I don't want to know about every single hero and their costume. This is my real question:

Have any comics addressed overheating as a concern of the character's costume? If so, which comic/character was it, and did they mention how it was addressed? (I understand this could potentially be a list question, but I would presume the number of answers is not only finite but small.)

Something like special fabrics, personal air conditioners, anything. I would narrow the scope to only include solutions that involve special properties of the costume and not the hero. IE Superman's immunity to temperature isn't an explanation, but Iron Man having an AC unit in his armor would be.

This may seem like a trivial question, but I've found that in some types of sci-fi works, small details like suits dealing with temperature regulation or homeostasis are quite common.

Improve this question
8
  • 4
    comicvine.com/rhino/4005-2126 - Spiderman used the fact that Rhino was overheating in his Rhino suit to cause him to pass out from heat exhaustion.
    – Valorum
    Sep 7, 2015 at 17:36
  • @Richard That's pretty awesome. Did it only happen in that animated series, or was that based on a comic?
    – user31178
    Sep 7, 2015 at 17:44
  • I'm fairly sure it was in the animated series only. I'm not a big enough fan of the spiderman comics to know for certain. There was also a comment in the film about Spiderman's costume "riding up" but since it's spandex, clearly there are no heat issues.
    – Valorum
    Sep 7, 2015 at 17:48
  • 6
    Superheroes are cool. 'Nuff said.
    – Mr Lister
    Sep 7, 2015 at 18:54
  • 1
    This isn't really too broad, as the OP is simply asking "has this been addressed before?" A single example will fulfill the requirements of the question and it doesn't need a list.
    – Xantec
    Oct 9, 2015 at 17:54

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
9

Maybe not quite in the reality mentioned, but in Pixar's The Incredibles Edna Mode (the maker of the super suits) talks about exactly these kind of things:

our suit can stretch as far as you can without injuring yourself, and still retain its shape. Virtually indestructible, yet it breathes like Egyptian cotton.

So in some stories this is a thing, others just bother about looking cool

Improve this answer
4

I've found evidence that this issue has been mentioned at least once in a mainstream comic book series, and the implication is that it has even been addressed in some cases, but just how it was handled is still unclear:

enter image description here
- The Big Book of Superheroes by Bart King

It appears that Batman's newest Batsuit has a cooling system (thanks to the OP, Creation Edge, for pointing this out).

The only other clear cut case that I could find without any extenuating circumstances is the villain Rhino:

When Rhino stopped his charge in order to drink water though Spider-Man figured that Rhino was over heating thanks to the costume blocking his pores from sweating. Spider-Man lured Rhino underground and started busting steam pipes which caused Rhino to overheat and pass out.
Comic Vine

Aside from these cases, there is also Batman's enemy Mr. Freeze, who is incredibly susceptible to even moderately warm temperatures. Batman has installed a device in his Batsuit that is specifically designed to defeat Mr. Freeze by overheating Freeze's refrigeration system. However, since most superheroes and supervillains aren't especially susceptible to temperature fluctuations, this is obviously a special case.

Improve this answer
1
0

Armor wearing warriors sometimes had problems with overheating in their armor. I think that they sometimes died of heat exhaustion from fighting like crazy in hot armor. So writers could sometimes describe how their superheroes avoid overheating in their costumes, if they want to go for a bit of realism.

But if finding examples of mentioning the problem of overheating in a superhero costume depends on comic writers trying for realism, examples may be very, very, very, very rare.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Well we no far have 2 examples from animated mediums. So, rare but not unheard of. But this doesn't really answer the question.
    – user31178
    Sep 9, 2015 at 4:10

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy