Why Do Superheroes Wear Capes?

A superhero's costume must be skin tight, colorful, and come with a cape. But superhero costume designer Edna Mode says, "No capes!" and therefore the more modern superheroes don't. So why do the old school heroes like Superman and Batman wear capes? It's not just because they capes are cool. 

To get the real story, we have to go back to the pop culture that inspired the comic book superhero in the first place, back in the 1930s. Once a character has been designed, artists found all kinds of ways to use the cape to illustrate different aspects of the character or the story. As more and more superheroes came about, some went without capes just to be different, or as a statement that they aren't a slave to obsolete fashion unless the character was designed to be old-fashioned. (via Laughing Squid)