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AdaptationalModesty / Comic Books
Examples of Adaptational Modesty in Comic Books.
  • New Fun and More Fun comic magazines
    • Rose Psychic wore sleeveless dresses with plunging necklines in the Doctor Occult features to draw out his targets while he waited in the shadows. Since DC Comics bought out National Allied Publishing, the overwhelming majority of Rose Psychic's appearances have made her a member of the Trench Coat Brigade, dressing the same manner as Doctor Occult.
    • In More Fun Comics #15, Doctor Occult travels to spiritual world, implied to be the Kemetic dream world/after life, to don a magic pair Modesty Shorts, a magic cape and magic belt that will make him powerful enough to defeat the Evil Sorcerer Koth. In the original comic these three clothing items were all Doctor Occult wore in this realm. DC Comics series Secret Origins volume 2 placed Richard Occult in a unitard akin to Superman, with Occult wearing the trunks, belt and cape on top of it, when the story was retold there.
  • The New 52 reboot did this for a number of female superheroes with normally skimpy outfits:
    • Zatanna briefly ditched her trademark fishnets for a pair of leather pants. This new design was quickly ditched for one closer to her classic look, fishnets and all.
    • Black Canary kept her stockings but was given a more segmented, armored top meant to seem more practical than her usual leotard. In Birds of Prey #19, she says that they might look like fishnet stockings, but they're actually kevlar-mesh leggings. She eventually went back to her classic look when the Black Canary solo book launched, with the outfit rationalized as a stage costume designed for her career as a rock singer.
    • Power Girl was given a new costume that was a tight unitard rather than a leotard, but also removed her iconic Cleavage Window. Like Zatanna, fan outcry resulted in the new costume being done away with in favor of a return to her classic look.
    • Carol Ferris, one of the Star Sapphires, now wears a fully clothed uniform with black cloth where her exposed skin used to be.
    • Starfire upon her first appearance was known for her outfit being exceptionally revealing even by normal comic book standards, justified as her race has a no nudity taboo. A partial reboot in 2015 finally got an outfit that's more of a straightforward two-piece outfit that better lines up with her outfit outside of comics (see Western Animation and the page image) to show they've moved away from her infamous Red Hood and the Outlaws portrayal that relied too much on Adaptational Skimpiness with the bare minimum to avoid actual nudity.
    • Wonder Woman was supposed to have her bikini bottoms replaced with a pair of pants. However, general grumbling about all the changes in so many of the costumes led to DC caving and reverting Wondy back to her original look. This, in turn, annoyed another group of fans, who felt like Diana was a little too dignified to run around in such a skimpy outfit. It didn't help that the first image was from her Justice League look, which wasn't as well received as how she would have looked in her solo series. Her solo series gave her two new additional armors, which naturally covered more of Diana, but only one of these outfits was well received.
    • Although they later turned out to have been fakes several of the Greek Gods Wonder Woman encounters in her first New52 series are dressed much more modestly than usual, including Apollo in a suit instead of a loose chest exposing toga, and Hermes in a t-shirt instead of essentially topless.
    • Phantom Lady had a fairly revealing outfit in her debut. But default only her arms were uncovered, but a little side boob cleavage could be seen depending on how she moved and what angle she was viewed from. Phantom Lady became more famous as her outfit got more revealing, so visible cleavage at all times became her standard until Flashpoint happened and the New 52 introduced a new version of the character named Jennifer Knight whose outfit showed very little skin aside from some small holes in her sleeves. She even wears sensible shoes in contrast to the previous Phantom Ladies who wore Combat Stilettos.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Wonder Woman (1942): Golden Age Hippolyte generally wore a loose red and blue skirt with side slits and a armored bullet bra, her Silver Age iteration wore flowy white dresses.
    • Starting with Wonder Woman (1987) Ares is fully covered in layers of blued armor in most of his DC appearances even though he was pretty much always nude in the original myths, give or take a helmet and shield. Even his previous DC appearances tended to have bare legs or arms. Ares is seen hanging out in the buff after the soft re-boot of DC Rebirth, with a strategically placed strip of cloth and other carefully arranged bits of scenery keeping things presentable.
    • Wonder Woman and the Star Riders gives Wonder Woman a shirt and long tights to cover her legs. Dolphin gets a full body outfit as opposed to her original crop top and micro jean shorts, even more modest than the leotard Dolphin wore when she tried out being a super hero. Less so with Ice. Her Star Riders outfit is far more modest than her original clothing, but Ice of the "main" DC comics had also switched to a more modest outfit.
    • Wonder Woman had been given a complete overhaul in J. Michael Straczynski's short-lived Continuity Reboot Wonder Woman: Odyssey. The new Wonder Woman outfit featured a leather jacket and a pair of pants to make her seem more "modern", but both of these elements were ditched for the New 52 relaunch of the series.
    • Wonder Woman '77, a comic book tie-in to Wonder Woman (1975), zig-zags this with this continuity's take on the Barbara Ann Minerva incarnation of the Cheetah. The Barbara Ann Minerva version of the Cheetah ordinarily goes naked or wears a bikini pelt, but this incarnation wears a shirt and denim shorts even while transformed in her first story, is subsequently shown going without clothing in a later story where she tried to get Clayface to defeat Wonder Woman and is depicted wearing a jumpsuit in the Batman '66 crossover.
  • Perhaps to better sync up with her more modest film counterpart, Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy was redesigned to sport a suit of black and white body armor after the Marvel NOW! relaunch. Prior to that, she was well known for her Stripperific outfits.
  • Marvel Adventures sees Black Cat's uniform modified to get rid of her cleavage-baring outfit and Tigra trades her bikini in for a one-piece.
  • Scarlet Witch despite the comics code of ethics already had very a Stripperific outfit for the 60s and since then, Wanda’s outfits have eventually become Tamer and Chaster over time. Her current outfit bares her shoulders and cleavage, but unlike her previous outfits keeps her legs covered and no longer includes a leotard. Although in more recent comics like X-Factor (2020) and The Trial of Magneto Wanda is rocking the leotard again.
  • Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers has spent many decades with some of the most notoriously Ms. Fanservice outfits in Marvel. Her original costume as Ms. Marvel had her baring her midriff and legs and then next came her much loved Ms Marvel leotard which put a lot emphasis on her buttocks. After taking the title of Captain Marvel Carol now inclusively wears a full bodysuit and her Fanservice is at a bare minimum.
  • X-Men:
    • Both Madelyne Pryor and Emma Frost got hit with this in the Inferno (1988) and Age of Apocalypse tie-ins to Secret Wars:
    • Maddie's outfit as the Goblin Queen in the original Inferno is legendary for her underboobs, putting her one deep breath away from a wardrobe malfunction of epic proportions. In the original solicit cover for the Secret Wars tie-in, this outfit was faithfully reproduced. However, by the time it actually went to print, the artwork both on the cover and in the book was changed, putting her into a slightly-more-modest crop top that was still revealing but kept her breasts completely covered. Suffice to say, it generated a bit of controversy among fans for censoring a classic costume.
    • Likewise, on the solicited covers for the Age of Apocalypse tie-ins, Emma's outfit could generously be described as a G-string, in keeping with the reference to the 90s-era artwork, right down to her being drawn in a Boobs-and-Butt Pose. And once again, by the time the final art was released it had been altered to completely cover her backside.
    • Storm has long since ditched her iconic Leotard of Power for a bodysuit similar to one from the movies with her leotard being last seen in Second Coming. Ororo's modern outfits sometimes bare her cleavage and midriff (as seen in the more recent Black Panther comics) but are otherwise quite modest compared to her numerous Stripperiffic outfits over the past few decades.
      • Really anything after the Claremont era is Adaptational Modesty for Storm, she was literally introduced semi-naked with Godiva Hair and spent several comics afterwards taking all her clothes off outside the mansion and basking in the sun (her culture is less fussy about clothes). In modern comics even in her skimpiest African attire, Storm usually wears both a bra and a loincloth.
      • In a strange double example, in the Marvel Adventures setting, Storm wears a mix of her original midriff-baring costume and the Ms. Marvel black-swimsuit-with-lightning-bolt outfit mentioned above, but combines them into something more modest than both by giving the outfit full pants.
    • Rogue ironically inverted this for the longest time as she had modest costumes as a villain and only got progressively Hotter and Sexier outfits (along with becoming Progressively Prettier) after her Heel–Face Turn. But ever since her tenure in Uncanny Avengers Rogue’s modest green hooded outfit has mostly been her default costume and her Fanservice has been toned down somewhat. It’s even lampshaded in her more recent solo series with Gambit as during a battle with physical memories of their past selves, Gambit takes note of her famous Jim Lee bikini and short shorts picnic outfit with nostalgic lust, while Rogue only remarks “What was ah thinking?”.
    • Psylocke (one of the famous Ms Fanservices in comic history for her ninja leotard and the Trope Codifier for Boobs-and-Butt Pose) ever since returning to her original body in 2018, Psylocke has started dressing modestly. This culminated in the recent Excalibur series where after taking the title of Captain Britain Betsy’s default costume is full body armour that doesn’t show a hint of skin below her neck.
    • X-23, while she dressed modestly in a black bodysuit in her first appearance in X-Men: Evolution, Laura’s immigration into 616 canon had her in a variety of Stripperiffic attire (she also happen to be a former prostitute). Even her least skimpy outfits showed off her midriff and cleavage, it wasn’t until All-New X-Men and All-New Wolverine where Laura traded her revealing leather outfits for armoured bodysuits. Incidentally she became a far less Darker and Edgier character too.
    • Inverted with Jean Grey in House of X before then Jean’s outfits almost entirely consisted of full bodysuits which have invoked Sensual Spandex less and less over time. In House of X Jean goes back to her iconic Marvel Girl outfit which shows off her bare legs, resulting in Jean ironically having the one of the more revealing outfits of the female X-Men whereas in prior comics it was the other way round.
  • Downplayed in Warlord of Mars. While nobody is ever full-blown nude like in source material (where males wore only leather harnesses and females wore jewelry and nothing else), Martians don't cover up much for that matter. The White Martians surprisingly invert this trope: the books state they are the most modest of people on the planet by wearing long robes, while the comics depicts them as scantily-clad as everyone else.
  • The Witchblade usually destroys its wearer's clothing, essentially leaving them in little more than a metal bikini. In the Lighter and Softer High School AU Switch (2015), this aspect is wisely omitted (since unlike Sara, Mary is underage).
  • Tim Drake's original version of the Robin costume replaced Dick Grayson's green trunks with green leggings under a red bodysuit, fully covering Robin's legs for the first time. This became the basis for Robin's costume in other media starting with Batman: The Animated Series.
    • In Batman: Noël, Robin has long pants, a rare case showing the classic costume worn by Dick Grayson and Jason Todd with pants in comic form.
    • Flashbacks in the New 52 show Dick and Jason with long pants, although like many New 52 changes, this has been reversed in subsequent Cosmic Retcons, with the Red Hood story in Batman: Urban Legends having flashbacks with Jason in the scale-mail trunks. That said, Batman/Superman: World's Finest and its spin-off World's Finest: Teen Titans, set while Dick is Robin, takes a page from Noel's Jason Todd and modifies the classic Robin costume to have long pants instead of shorts, a feat repeated with Garth during his days as Aqualad in the same series.
  • Ultimate Marvel
    • When Elektra operates as a vigilante, she uses a black jeans and top, and a red bandana. It's still a bit sexy, but not a red swimsuit like the prime earth Elektra. She was introduced in Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra, and then moved to Ultimate Spider-Man (2000).
    • Dagger has a full body white suit, but unlike the mainstream one it's not completely form-fitting and lacks any Cleavage Window. In fact, she even lacks breast size.
  • The Ultimates (2024):
    • This universe's She-Hulk isn't a Ms. Fanservice like her mainline counterpart, being more of a Brawn Hilda than a Amazonian Beauty, and she also doesn't wear the Sensual Spandex She-Hulk is known for, instead wearing a fairly conservative and traditional Pacific Islander style outfit.
    • This universe's Wanda wears a fully covering outfit that does not show off any skin, which is much more modest compared to the leotard Scarlet Witch originally wore in Earth-616.
    • While the outfit this universe's Emma Frost wears still shows off quite a bit of cleavage, it is significantly more modest compared to the dominatrix-style outfit her 616 self wore during her time as the White Queen.
  • Princess Sally Acorn has become more covered up as time goes on. She only wore boots in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)'s first season, wears an open vest in the second season and Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), and after the comic's Continuity Reboot she wears a closed vest, shorts, and White Gloves.
  • The Force Unleashed: In the video game, Shaak Ti wears a rather skimpy tribal outfit, which makes sense since she is living in a hot and humid jungle. In the comic book adaptation, she instead wears her normal Jedi robes.
  • Teen Titans: Earth One: Starfire in this continuity is more modestly dressed than even her 2003 cartoon counterpart, which may have something to do with her being 16 in this continuity.
  • Blood Syndicate (2022): Boogieman is depicted wearing a shirt, when he went bare-chested in the original continuity.
  • The Supreme Power incarnation of the Shape wears a full costume, when his counterpart in Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme comics had a pair of shorts as his only clothing.
  • Teen Titans: Year One, a six-issue miniseries adapted from the Origins Episode that concluded the original Teen Titans comic, features an appearance by The Flips, a trio of musicians the Titans encountered in issue 59 of Showcase. Band members Jack and Jill are depicted with more conservative clothing than how their original depictions dressed, where Jack wore swimming trunks and no shirt while Jill wore a leotard that left her arms and legs bare.
  • Kamandi: At Earth's End depicts Kamandi as wearing a jacket and jeans, when the original comic only had him wear shorts and shoes while going shirtless.
  • Absolute Universe:
    • Absolute Batman has Harley Quinn dress in a shirt, pants, and an oversized hoodie, rather than the Sexy Jester outfit she's famous for usually wearing.
    • Absolute Wonder Woman:
      • The titular character wears a far more covering outfit compared to her traditional self. Rather than the leg-exposing Leotard of Power or hoplite skirt she usually wears, this Diana has bandage-like wraps covering up her legs. She also wears wraps and armor on her left arm.
      • Queen Clea, rather than the golden bikini top and short skirt of her mainline self, instead dresses in a dress-like outfit that, at most, just exposes some of her midriff, alongside her also wearing stylized leggings.
    • Absolute Flash's depiction of Golden Glider dresses her in a high-tech combat suit, rather than the figure skater inspired minidress she wears in the main universe.
  • In A Wizard of Earthsea, Sparrowhawk is explicitly stated to be naked during the ceremony of Passage, but the graphic novel has him wading the river fully clothed.

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