How many times have I seen Clark Kent start to leap into action by pulling back his suit on his chest revealing the Superman S? Many times is the answer. I bet you’ve seen this before, too, dear reader. I never questioned it until recently.
Does Clark Kent wear this double suit home from the office during heat waves? That would be brutal. And before someone says that he has an alien physiology, remember this alien has been posing as human for decades with no one being any wiser. Surely Clark Kent has had many opportunities to sweat. I bet Superman can sweat and might have to sweat in order to avoid overheating.
Even if he doesn’t sweat, his body would become overheated in the heat. Surely Lois would have noticed this in the hundreds of times Superman has picked her up while rescuing her. She would have said something like “Superman, you’re so hot!”
Maybe the Superman suit has advanced technology to prevent the wearer from overheating. But could it cool under the conditions portrayed in all the Superman stories? Air conditioning creates more heat than cooling. The reason air conditioners work is because the heat is made outside the volume to be cooled. That suit stuck inside another suit is not going to provide any cooling. It’s waste heat would be trapped by Clark’s business suit.
So Superman would likely cook if he wears a double suit. I think we have enough knowledge now to call BS on the idea of Superman wearing his suit under a suit.
Even if we couldn’t, there is the little problem of wrinkling. If he is wearing a superman suit under a business suit the question is how does the cape fit in? The answer is that it doesn’t fit neatly inside. Instead it must be getting wrinkled in some obvious way. Obvious enough so people would notice.
The people around might start making jokes. “Superman’s good but he’s no Ironman.” Or “He’s like Dorian Gray. He’s been around since 1938 but all the wrinkles that should be on him are on his cape instead!” Or if a case is taking a long time to solve, “This case is going slow because of all the new wrinkles Superman finds.”
