The Aerodynamic Body

While most superheroes are gifted with multiple powers, there are examples of single-powered superheroes, such as The Flash. The creation of writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, The Flash possesses super-speed, which includes the ability to "talk, think, act, and run faster than any human being on earth." In true comic-book style, The Flash uses his speed to produce a range of superpowered effects, such as time travel, whirlwinds, invisibility, intangibility, running on water, and appearing to be in more than one place. The Flash, therefore, represents multiple powers conflated into a single power.

Four different characters have assumed the identity of The Flash since his debut in Flash Comics No. 1, January 1940. The first was Jay Garrick, a college science student who acquired his super-speed through inhaling "hard water" vapors. His costume consisted of a red shirt inscribed with a stylized lightning bolt and blue trousers, which originally featured a similar motif running down the sides, accessorized with a blue metal helmet and red ankle boots adorned with wings. Barry Allen, the second incarnation, first wore the sleek, scarlet bodysuit that has become the character's trademark. Allen was a police scientist who gained his power when a lightning bolt hit a rack of chemicals in his laboratory, dousing him with a mix of electrified solutions. The unitard, which Allen stored in his ring, retained the iconographical details of the original costume, including the stylized lightning bolt, now located on the chest, waist, and arms, and the wings, now attached to yellow boots and the identity-concealing hood. Wally West and Bart Allen, the third and fourth incarnations of The Flash, wore facsimiles of Allen's costume.

Given the twentieth-century preoccupation with speed, it is not surprising that the first single-powered superhero should be The Flash. In his Manifesto of Futurism (1909), Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote, "We affirm that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed." Some Futurists, notably Giacomo Balla, translated the futurist ideal of speed into prescriptive designs for dress. In his Futurist Manifesto of Men's Clothing (1913), Balla wrote, "We want Futurist clothes to be comfortable and practical … dynamic … energetic … flying …"

Jean Paul Gaultier's autumn/winter 1995–96 "Femmes Amazone" collection included a series of bodysuits that quoted the streamlined aerodynamics of The Flash. Featuring an ombréed and graduated dot pattern inspired by electrical circuitry, some versions included printed representations of undergarments. While the concept of infra-apparel and the mediation between privacy and public presentation is a Gaultier leitmotif, in these bodysuits they carry the association of Superman's flaunted underpants. More than an evocation of speed,Eiko Ishioka's "Muscle Suit," Nike's "Swift Suit," and Speedo's "Fastskin" suits are three aerodynamic solutions to the problem of passive drag. Made from super stretch fabrics that mold to the body, they rely on unique seaming to increase velocity and decrease friction. Atair Aerospace's "Twin-Turbine Powered Exoskelton Wing Suit," which expands the concept of skydiving into skyflying, allows its wearer to reach speeds of over two hundred miles per hour. Hussein Chalayan's spring/summer "Echoform" collection featured garments that drew upon the concept of the "man-machine," including an "Aeroplane Dress" that relied on technology from the aircraft industry. For Chalayan, speed transcends the notion of movement to become a symbol, and ultimately a form to be developed. As with The Flash's costume, Chalayan's poetic representations of the aerodynamic body serve as metaphors for freedom, freedom of the laws of physics, surpassing both gravity and velocity.

Costume Designer Quotes