As many of you know, this is a bit of civilian ignorance (shared by ennui-engorged fanboys) that particularly sticks in my craw. A quick review of Golden and Silver Age reveals none come even close to “spandex”. Superman’s costume was retconned as Kyptonian blankets. Batman debuted in a leotard. Wonder Woman wore Amazon armor. Green Lantern, conventional cloth. Same for the first Flash.

By the birth of the Silver age, more exotic materials were introduced. Barry Allen created a fabric that could be compressed to fit in a signet ring. Green Lantern inherited a uniform mage from ring plasma/energy. The Atom’s costume was “dark star” material.

Over at Marvel, early characters relied on leotards. Captain America’s uniform was government issue, tho nothing ever indicated there was anything “special” about it. The Fantastic Four wore “unstable molecules” developed by Reed Richards. Iron Man wore literal iron at first, later switching to a super polymer invented by Tony Stark. The Hulk wore trunks, then torn trousers. Peter Parker stitched together his costume with fabrics found in Aunt May’s “sewing drawer”.

And so on.