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Batman has been wearing his underwear on the outside, off and on, ever since he first stepped on to the comics page. The idea of the Dark Knight sporting trunks is kind of a controversial one - some fans view them as a necessary part of his look, others view them as ridiculous and outdated, and most notably, he's never been spotted wearing them in a live-action adaptation. Bruce is wearing them in the current comic book run, however, and now we know who's to blame. That is, legendary Batman writer and DC staple Tom King.

King was recently at Baltimore Comic Con, where he was one of the speakers on DC's "Batman at 85" panel. During the audience Q&A portion of the panel, King was asked about his favorite Batman design, which he said was José Luis García-López's from the 70s. He made mention of García-López's blue trunks in that design, and then took credit for the status of Batbriefs in modern comics.

"I brought the trunks back to Batman," said King, "[Greg] Capullo had done this beautiful design, but I liked the older style. I wanted classic Batman trunks. I do love Capullo though."

Even before the Greg Capullo design King was referring to, Batman had been without his trunks for a handful of years. Specifically, the New 52 reboot introduced a trunks-less Batsuit (originally designed by Jim Lee), which Capullo would update in 2016. DC kept this purple-gloved, still trunks-free suit for their mainline Batman titles well into Rebirth and the Tom King run, not going back to the classic, black-trunked duds until Batman #51, which artist Mikel Janin changed (apparently on King's suggestion) after Catwoman infamously broke off her marriage plans to the Dark Knight.

I guess we all handle breakups differently.

Batman is the most well-known superhero in the world — surprisingly, given how much he loves hanging out in the dark. But between his comics, TV shows, movies, games, and more, DC's Dark Knight is the hero this city/country/world/universe needs, and we have all you need to enjoy him even more: 

• All the best Batman comics
• The best Batman villains, ranked
• How to watch all the Batman live-action movies in order
• How to watch all the Batman animated movies in order
• All the Batman actors, ranked
• All the Batman TV series, ranked
• All the Batman movies, ranked