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I do find maxed-out boob sliders with Eden tops a bit distasteful - sue me. Whatever gets your thrills...
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Technical question: I've got an older computer and a less powerful video card. My settings are kept on the low end. At higher video settings, do these maxed out racks still go all Buckminster Fuller?
Honestly, that is the part I find most distasteful of all. Without vertex shading it just looks corny. Nevermind trying someone trying to look like Powergirl.
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And if he's unconcerned about instilling fear I think he's very concerned about self-respect. If he appears on television, people still respect him. If he shows up to inteviews in a pair of super briefs, people just ain't going to repect him.
[/ QUOTE ]He wears his underwear on the outside, and you're claiming he's concerned about self-respect?
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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And if he's unconcerned about instilling fear I think he's very concerned about self-respect. If he appears on television, people still respect him. If he shows up to inteviews in a pair of super briefs, people just ain't going to repect him.
[/ QUOTE ]He wears his underwear on the outside, and you're claiming he's concerned about self-respect?
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LOL. Hear, hear!
As a girl player with six different female characters (5 heroic, 1 villainous), I generally design each costume with generous consideration of what each character's philosophy of battle is and their general personality types. For instance, my WP/Dual Blades Tank is all about an unexpected power, a set of blades gracefully wielded; thus, all her costumes are skirts and shirts with Strappy heels. (I've had people comment that with the Dual Blades powers on she looks like a "housewife gone mad," which highly amuses me. 
) But this look fits her because of her fairly "normal" backstory.
In general, I take a lot of time to flesh out my characters' origin stories because it really seems to help me design my costumes. Guess that's the English major surfacing again! But I do admit to making and dressing each character to be various representatives of "real women's" bodies--no HUGE boobs with teeny-tiny Barbie-sized waist and hips, for instance, and no legs that look like they've been stretched on a medieval rack. XD
But that's just my take on the whole costume debate. It's all a matter of personal taste, I think--however much "skin" you're willing to design for in a costume is part of what you find socially appropriate, attractive, or even simply fitting for each character...no pun intended. ^_^
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
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I do find maxed-out boob sliders with Eden tops a bit distasteful - sue me. Whatever gets your thrills...
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Technical question: I've got an older computer and a less powerful video card. My settings are kept on the low end. At higher video settings, do these maxed out racks still go all Buckminster Fuller?
Honestly, that is the part I find most distasteful of all. Without vertex shading it just looks corny. Nevermind trying someone trying to look like Powergirl.
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I have a feeling the chest slider "maxed to the right" looks freakishly silly regardless of your video card. 
To be honest I don't really mind that our game's chest slider maxes out as far as it does. I've never set one of mine out that far but if that's your thing then more power to you. I'm actually more upset that the smallest you can set it is still roughly C-cup sized. I have several characters who are either thin, small or young enough who would realistically be either flat-chested or nearly flat-chested but I can't set them that way. 
Maybe someday this game (or another) will allow that kind of realism. *shrugs*
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
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I do find maxed-out boob sliders with Eden tops a bit distasteful - sue me. Whatever gets your thrills...
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Technical question: I've got an older computer and a less powerful video card. My settings are kept on the low end. At higher video settings, do these maxed out racks still go all Buckminster Fuller?
Honestly, that is the part I find most distasteful of all. Without vertex shading it just looks corny. Nevermind trying someone trying to look like Powergirl.
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I have a feeling the chest slider "maxed to the right" looks freakishly silly regardless of your video card.
To be honest I don't really mind that our game's chest slider maxes out as far as it does. I've never set one of mine out that far but if that's your thing then more power to you. I'm actually more upset that the smallest you can set it is still roughly C-cup sized. I have several characters who are either thin, small or young enough who would realistically be either flat-chested or nearly flat-chested but I can't set them that way.
Maybe someday this game (or another) will allow that kind of realism. *shrugs*
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Blame Statesman. Back in the late 80's, he took everyone in Washington hostage until Congress agreed to pass a law mandating that all females had to get implants.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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You could realisticlay say its a B-cup with the slider all the way to the left, but yes, I've noticed that too - there's simply no way to make a genuinely flat-chested character in this game. Of course, RPG avatars are, to some extent, author fantasies, and I somehow doubt there are a great many more women who fantasize aobut being flat-chested than there are men who long to drool over it, so I suppose it works out. Certainly I've always been of the iopinoin myself that if IM going to pretend to be fighitng demons, deities, and alien invaders with my magicla superpowers, then by heavens, I may as well pretend to look GOOD doing it. But it is certainly iritating on those rare occasions when I need a character or an NPC of less ample purportions (particularly, as you say, when she's meant to be young).
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I do find maxed-out boob sliders with Eden tops a bit distasteful - sue me. Whatever gets your thrills...
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Technical question: I've got an older computer and a less powerful video card. My settings are kept on the low end. At higher video settings, do these maxed out racks still go all Buckminster Fuller?
Honestly, that is the part I find most distasteful of all. Without vertex shading it just looks corny. Nevermind trying someone trying to look like Powergirl.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have a feeling the chest slider "maxed to the right" looks freakishly silly regardless of your video card.
To be honest I don't really mind that our game's chest slider maxes out as far as it does. I've never set one of mine out that far but if that's your thing then more power to you. I'm actually more upset that the smallest you can set it is still roughly C-cup sized. I have several characters who are either thin, small or young enough who would realistically be either flat-chested or nearly flat-chested but I can't set them that way.
Maybe someday this game (or another) will allow that kind of realism. *shrugs*
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Blame Statesman. Back in the late 80's, he took everyone in Washington hostage until Congress agreed to pass a law mandating that all females had to get implants.
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A true hero to men everywhere, of course. *le giggle*
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I do find maxed-out boob sliders with Eden tops a bit distasteful - sue me. Whatever gets your thrills...
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Technical question: I've got an older computer and a less powerful video card. My settings are kept on the low end. At higher video settings, do these maxed out racks still go all Buckminster Fuller?
Honestly, that is the part I find most distasteful of all. Without vertex shading it just looks corny. Nevermind trying someone trying to look like Powergirl.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have a feeling the chest slider "maxed to the right" looks freakishly silly regardless of your video card.
To be honest I don't really mind that our game's chest slider maxes out as far as it does. I've never set one of mine out that far but if that's your thing then more power to you. I'm actually more upset that the smallest you can set it is still roughly C-cup sized. I have several characters who are either thin, small or young enough who would realistically be either flat-chested or nearly flat-chested but I can't set them that way.
Maybe someday this game (or another) will allow that kind of realism. *shrugs*
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Blame Statesman. Back in the late 80's, he took everyone in Washington hostage until Congress agreed to pass a law mandating that all females had to get implants.
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A true hero to men everywhere, of course. *le giggle*
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If I wasn't so lazy, I'd link to the post where I said Statesman was just as evil as Tyrant and Nazi-man.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Personally, I'd like to see a gut slider for guy characters.
Learn modesty, if you desire knowledge. A highland would never be irrigated by river." (Kanz ol-Haghayegh)
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You could realisticlay say its a B-cup with the slider all the way to the left, but yes, I've noticed that too - there's simply no way to make a genuinely flat-chested character in this game. Of course, RPG avatars are, to some extent, author fantasies, and I somehow doubt there are a great many more women who fantasize aobut being flat-chested than there are men who long to drool over it, so I suppose it works out.
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I've got nothing against reasonably flat-chested women. Of course, this goes along with my ambivalence about women shaving their armpits or being vegetarians, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm not really a fan of modern fashions.
Creepy personal revelations aside, I have numerous male and female heroes, in a variety of costumes. Oddly, the character who has gotten the most flack for his costume was the original Genshiro, a ninja clad from nose-to-toe in black. However, he initially wore the old tight pants, which led to an endless quantity of comments about posteriors and packages.
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Who else was expecting a follow up to LISAR's
"ME!" thread? Be honest.
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Expecting? no. Just hoping.
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As a girl player with six different female characters (5 heroic, 1 villainous), I generally design each costume with generous consideration of what each character's philosophy of battle is and their general personality types. For instance, my WP/Dual Blades Tank is all about an unexpected power, a set of blades gracefully wielded; thus, all her costumes are skirts and shirts with Strappy heels. (I've had people comment that with the Dual Blades powers on she looks like a "housewife gone mad," which highly amuses me. ) But this look fits her because of her fairly "normal" backstory.
In general, I take a lot of time to flesh out my characters' origin stories because it really seems to help me design my costumes. Guess that's the English major surfacing again! But I do admit to making and dressing each character to be various representatives of "real women's" bodies--no HUGE boobs with teeny-tiny Barbie-sized waist and hips, for instance, and no legs that look like they've been stretched on a medieval rack. XD
But that's just my take on the whole costume debate. It's all a matter of personal taste, I think--however much "skin" you're willing to design for in a costume is part of what you find socially appropriate, attractive, or even simply fitting for each character...no pun intended. ^_^
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See that bolded part. I have seen them. In fact my first thought upon seeing them was "OMG! Comicbook superheroes really do exist!"
But no, not the norm.
That said, I can't be the only one who plays this game, and think "This is a world of superheroes. A MMO based off of comic books."
Personally. I hate it when I see "Look at me I'm dressed like a normal person superhero".
Not that I care much for the "Look at me, I'm in a string bikini fighting crime" or "Look at me, I'm in my underwear ladies." type of heroes. Because, usually it's not concept releated to begin with.
But, to use real world reality? Oh yes, for the batman types, cover up those weak points, is part of the superhero world for them.
For the others like Superman, Wonder Woman, ect ect...they don't tend to go around in full armor.
This is still a comic book superhero based MMO, is it not?
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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I can understand the mindset of wanting to always dress females in "realistic" Batman-esque clothing because let's face it not many superheroines IRL would likely fight crime in 5 inch stilettos even if they could.
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Hmmm, my Agent Wildkatze is guilty of just that in her base costume. The suit covers head to toe, but has stilettos. I vaguely recall debating about it for half a second and deciding she's just that agile she can do it. As a comparison, my tankers I don't expect to be that agile, and have flat soles.
As an aside, in the Watchman movie, Silk had stilettos...except for the hallway fight, where she suddenly didn't.
I started with male toons, found I spent much of my time in 3rd person, and now run mostly female toons. In general, practical considerations do not enter into my costume choices. What I think looks good does. While I have my catgirls and schoolgirls and scantily clad vixens, I also have a fair number of high % coverage suits. If the toon conceptually is young, or airheadeded or otherwise not meant to be taken seriously, they tend to show more skin....though admittedly full coverage spandex doesn't hide much in comparison.
As for comic book costumes, I always presumed a lineage to sports figures 'back when'. Old time boxers, and particularly wrestlers then and now. The point of the costume is to make you uniquely identifiable as a symbol, while masking your true identity. Back then no clothing was bulletproof anyhow, etc.
For the purposes of the game, I presume the toons are inherently extremely tough (heck, hellions hit us with bullets, knives and fire, skulls use dark forces...kevlar ain't cutting it) and the problem is finding clothing that can stand up to the wide spectrum of threats...which is apparently very expensive, clingy and easier to produce in small batches.
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Well, sure, if a game character's origin story is that of a supertype blessed with some kind of invulnerability, fine, all they have to worry about is public decency laws in Paragon or the Isles. Or the eye rolling of their friends as they tart around.
But there zillions of origins where no invulnerability exists.
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I could see a natural or tech tank or scrapper in some power sets wearing armor. Picking a costume to show their resists is fine. But for a SR scrapper, for instance, armor could be a hindrance.
Most blasters, defenders, and controllers don't have much defense at all until they get IO sets and/or epic power pools. Dressing them for defense would be something of a contradiction. I do have some blasters and defenders in a powered armor look, but the "armor" is really just light metal that serves to contain the power packs and gadgetry that gives them their super powers. They could just as easily be in a bikini bottom and an Eden top with oversized gloves and boots.
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That said, I can't be the only one who plays this game, and think "This is a world of superheroes. A MMO based off of comic books."
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This is still a comic book superhero based MMO, is it not?
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Yep. People running around in impractical technicolor spandex, with irrational builds is kind of par for the course, given the genre.
People in SuperHeroWorld don't really bat an eye when some guy or girl wearing primary-colored very tight&very little saves them from a psychotic clown. It's just the way their world works.....
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On the average, my female characters are.... not completely clothed. But there is a decent amount of variation, some jackets, skirts, etc. Although they are all wearing stilettos of some form or another.
(And yeah, I'll even admit that I've got an Eden/Bikini3 character.... but I at least tried to give her a theme. The Sunbather! Blond, big hair, big sunglasses, big smile, dark tan..... and she's an energy blaster with the battle cry "Catch some rays!" /giggle)
....of course, the guys I've made *also* have the chest slider over to the right, giving them pectoral development that's probably crushing their lungs. Whee!
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....of course, the guys I've made *also* have the chest slider over to the right, giving them pectoral development that's probably crushing their lungs. Whee!
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Better crushed lungs than those poor WoW females who wear their lungs on the outside of their chests.
Weird, nearly all my characters have either jackets or power armour regardless of gender.
Or in the one girl's case, my best approximation of what was the height of fashion in the 1970's. In monochrome. (she's a ghost, y'see)
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I can understand the mindset of wanting to always dress females in "realistic" Batman-esque clothing because let's face it not many superheroines IRL would likely fight crime in 5 inch stilettos even if they could.
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Hmmm, my Agent Wildkatze is guilty of just that in her base costume. The suit covers head to toe, but has stilettos. I vaguely recall debating about it for half a second and deciding she's just that agile she can do it. As a comparison, my tankers I don't expect to be that agile, and have flat soles.
As an aside, in the Watchman movie, Silk had stilettos...except for the hallway fight, where she suddenly didn't.
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If you ever watched the old Wonder Woman show from the 70s Lynda Carter's boots magically became flats whenever you'd see her in an action scene as well. 
I figure between your example and mine that pretty much proves the point.
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
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If you ever watched the old Wonder Woman show from the 70s Lynda Carter's boots magically became flats whenever you'd see her in an action scene as well.
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Yes, that's one of the more common superpowers. It's a limited form of 'instant change'.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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I can understand the mindset of wanting to always dress females in "realistic" Batman-esque clothing because let's face it not many superheroines IRL would likely fight crime in 5 inch stilettos even if they could.
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Hmmm, my Agent Wildkatze is guilty of just that in her base costume. The suit covers head to toe, but has stilettos. I vaguely recall debating about it for half a second and deciding she's just that agile she can do it. As a comparison, my tankers I don't expect to be that agile, and have flat soles.
As an aside, in the Watchman movie, Silk had stilettos...except for the hallway fight, where she suddenly didn't.
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If you ever watched the old Wonder Woman show from the 70s Lynda Carter's boots magically became flats whenever you'd see her in an action scene as well.
I figure between your example and mine that pretty much proves the point.
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Also happened with Catwoman in Batman Returns. Bugged the heck out of me.
I figure, if I can leap tall buildings anyway, a pair of high heels isn't going to be that much of a hindrance to normal, day-to-day buttkicking.
And honestly, if I was built like my toons (chest slider never past half, and rarely even near that), I'd wear "with skin" options all the time too. As long as they were gravity-defying and wedgie-proof, of course.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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Hmmm, my Agent Wildkatze is guilty of just that in her base costume. The suit covers head to toe, but has stilettos. I vaguely recall debating about it for half a second and deciding she's just that agile she can do it. As a comparison, my tankers I don't expect to be that agile, and have flat soles.
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A colleague at work says she doesn't find high-heel shoes at all uncomfortable because she always walks on her toes when wearing them, so the heel doesn't matter. I'm not sure how much faith I can put into this, but it's certainly POSSIBLE that an agile character can dash around in high heels by just not touching the heel. To my eyes, it doesn't look good, though. I will admit to the appeal of a high-heel boot, but the only times I've used those on my female characters has been on those who fly inherently. I figured they won't be spending a lot of time walking around anyway. Might as well have pretty but uncomfortable shoes
Generally, though, I design costumes based on function rather than, because to my eyes, function IS appeal. When I see the old cartoon super heroes with the gigantic arms that drag on the ground, humongous chests and tiny, tiny little legs that can't be more than a third the length of their arms, I don't find them appealing. I find them silly. If I can infer function from form, and a good, practical function, then the form is appealing.
As for showing skin, it's a matter of both character design and character concept. Typically, if a character is vulnerable to regular attacks, I find it inappropriate to show much skin. On the other hand, if that character is super-touch, like my completely indestructible cyborg, then putting her in shorts and a small jacket is actually a lot of fun. Here is this half-dressed girl punching holes in giant robots and taking rockets to the face who just hand-waves the damage away and keeps on going. It's ESPECIALLY fun when I put her on a team of armour-clad big burly men and STILL have her be the strongest and toughest in the end
As for chest slider, I don't feel restricted by it in either direction. In real life, different women have different sizes of breasts that, despite popular urban myth, don't really have anything to do with their personalities or life philosophies any more than being tall does. However, I don't restrict myself by what is "real" so much as what is "average," and average is mid-slider. I don't feel the need to make my characters flat-chested just because that's how real women should look like and then work off that. I work off the middle. If a woman is supposed to be more busty, I bring the slider right. If she's supposed to be less busty, I bring the slider down.
On my characters, who gets what rack is largely random, based on what my whim was at the time. The two exceptions I have are my giant woman, whose muscle and shoulders slider went so high that I had to raise a bunch of others to compensate, namely waist, hips and chest. Pushing the limit on the creator limits my options a lot of the time. The other is my pink bunny girl whom I was inspired to make by Bunny Love, posting a link to whom would get me banned SO FAST. Given the source material, a larger-than-normal rack came with the territory.
You know, I've had an interesting observation on the subject of bigotry and shame. I used to be a pretty modest player, always worried about what my friends, even strangers, would think of my designs, always ashamed to make characters I considered "too revealing" or "too girly." Truth is, though, that I actually liked a lot of those designs I pretended to not want to make... Until I actually ended up making them anyway. Since then, I've admitted to myself that, yes, I am a pervert and I'm not really ashamed of it. Not being worried about what others would thing, and indeed even enjoying their reactions, has freed me to make several quite interesting characters, ironically such that DON'T come off cheap or cheesy.
Any character of any concept, when made well, can be cool. That doesn't mean JUST sell on sex appeal, but be actually cool as a character concept and character design. Pretty much the biggest hurdle to making one is getting over the taboo of it. This both lets you make one to begin with, and prevents you from giggling like a pre-pubescent boy and sticking giant boobs on it because it's so wrong but so cool.
I've always hated people who chastise others for being a "guy in real life" like a guy playing a female character is shameful and men shouldn't find virtual female characters attractive. Worse still, this gets applied to actual WOMEN, like women should never, ever like hot, sexy super heroines, and if they do they're immoral. It's patently silly, and it IS happening just the same. Me, the only time I feel justified to badmouth someone's costume is when that costume SUCKS. Male, female, cheescake, robot, giant chicken - the concept and specific design doesn't matter. If it's bad, it's bad, but if it's good, it can be very good.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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A colleague at work says she doesn't find high-heel shoes at all uncomfortable because she always walks on her toes when wearing them, so the heel doesn't matter. I'm not sure how much faith I can put into this, but it's certainly POSSIBLE that an agile character can dash around in high heels by just not touching the heel.
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Well, there are high heels and there are high heels. And it's not just the height.
As an extreme example, professionally made dancing shoes are made to (1) reduce the risk of injury to the wearer and (2) so that the shoes can withstand the often considerable torque and forces they're exposed to while dancing. You're looking at shoes with suede leather soles (not rubber, because its grip is too good, and not regular leather, because it lacks grip -- both of which could cause injury), are reinforced with a steel shank, and have flared heels for added stability. Turning and moving fast while wearing them is pretty much what they're made for.
Obviously, these are still a poor choice to actually fight in for a number of reasons (unhealthiness, reduced balance, poor leg support being some of them), but there's a marked difference between them and the cheap high heels you get at your local shoe discounter.
Also, of course, wearing high heels for a protracted length of time can and will cause serious problems for your feet, legs, joints, and back because of all the extra stress they cause your body (such as putting extra stress on your knee joints). That doesn't mean that they're necessarily uncomfortable (as long as they are a good fit), just as eating lots of chocolate is not necessarily uncomfortable (up to a point), even though it's unhealthy in the long term.
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As for showing skin, it's a matter of both character design and character concept. Typically, if a character is vulnerable to regular attacks, I find it inappropriate to show much skin. On the other hand, if that character is super-touch, like my completely indestructible cyborg, then putting her in shorts and a small jacket is actually a lot of fun. Here is this half-dressed girl punching holes in giant robots and taking rockets to the face who just hand-waves the damage away and keeps on going. It's ESPECIALLY fun when I put her on a team of armour-clad big burly men and STILL have her be the strongest and toughest in the end
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Sorry for the snipping, Sam (though I did read the whole post first - this is just the part I wanted to focus on), but I thought it'd probably be a good time to comment on my personal design philosophy regarding costumes and showing skin.
I watch a lot of action movies, do a lot of thinking, and actually do a fair amount of physical labor myself. The biggest thing I can tell you is that if you want any freedom of motion at all, less is more. Most of my 'athletic' characters focus on this sort of concept - even a fully-covering spandex suit actually does a fair amount to limit your range of motion. Specifically because it impairs joint movement (albeit not as much as something heavier or bulkier), which is the most important thing for an athletic/acrobatics focused character to have.
Most of my 'enhanced' or stronger-then-normal characters tend to lean towards being more covered up (because they have enough force behind each motion to overcome the disadvantages of whatever they're wearing), as do my characters that focused more on ranged combat or support (as they have less reasons to actually rely purely on agility)... but most of my up-close 'natural' type scrappers tend to rely a lot on clothes that don't do a lot to hinder their movements. Two of my 'ninja' types in particular tend to wear mid-drift t-shirts and athletic shorts to have the four major points (shoulder, elbow, waist, knees) free to move in any direction they have to with no impairment, in a way maximizing their total agility (the one defensive fallback they have).
You can replicate that with certain kinds of clothing, but that also has a few other logistical problems that are better to just plain cut out of the equation instead. Of course, when assuming stuff like, say, unstable-molecular cloth (that adjusts and flows naturally with the body's motion naturally - or it can be designed as such) it's less of a concern, but I tend to assume that I don't have that kind of stuff to work with.
A fair number of my characters are built on the small side, period - Minimized sliders everywhere but legs and waist which are adjusted as necessary. I almost always tend to minimize the 'chest' slider no matter what, though - female chests in this game are comically large (which, while expected, goes way over my 'maximum preferred' size for personal taste just at the low end). It's just something I do out of habit more then anything else... playing taller characters is a little weird/disorienting for me, and as a result a lot of my characters hover in the 5' to 5'5" range on average, with one or two actually taller then that (my one male character is around 6'). Costumes really depend on the visual style I'm going with - it's an even split between 'reserved' and 'belongs on the cover of Maxim' for me. I don't let anything get in the way of the character vision/concept, though naturally I tend to limit myself to my upper ranges of acceptable on everything. I've had some costumes I felt were a bit on the risque end, only to feel worlds better once I loaded Atlas or Mercy and saw something I know I'd never be able to play without feeling ridiculous.
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Actually from a pure Sun Tzu point of view of combat it's probably not a bad thing for enemies of heroes like Superman or Wonder Woman to be "distracted" by their flashy outfits because while the bad guys are busy laughing/gawking they are getting their butts beat down badly.
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Again, if you have the invulnerability to get away that, fine. At that point it's a matter of vanity or personal taste.
If I were an invulnerable super, I wear something durable and sensible because even if I don't care about Godzilla's breath, my clothing should be tough enough to withstand that. Bikinis and briefs made out of buckytube fibre might not burn or tear easily but they can get pulled off in combat, right? At least Superman has considered this. I suppose someone could give him a superwedgie but his suit is composed of Kryptonian fabric that can't tear easily and it covers most of his body so someone can't pull it off easily.
And if he's unconcerned about instilling fear I think he's very concerned about self-respect. If he appears on television, people still respect him. If he shows up to inteviews in a pair of super briefs, people just ain't going to repect him.
But whatever, I think I'm made my points. I'll agree it's a matter of personal taste. With that, I'm bowing out.
"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."