Bold Fashion Choices--The Unknown Soldier! (No, Not That One)

You know, DC's Unknown Soldier wasn't the first war hero to use that moniker.

Ace Comics had one back in 1941...

His identity was never revealed, and it was sorta kinda implied that he wasn't a real person, but somehow a manifestation of America who appeared whenever needed--sort of like Astro City's Old Soldier.

He had a pretty good logo, for a Golden Age joint:

But his costume? Uh...

Honey, keep wearing that, and you will remain unknown!

They completely revamped his outfit for his second appearance, in Ace Comics #2 (1941):

Uhhh...OK?

The full-head yellow mask (under a hat?!) with the brown uniform? The short (short SHORT) shorts with the boots? Does the spirit of America really let you go out in public like that?

Yes...

Oh, yeah, he was super-strong, and could fly, and could make tornadoes!

Question about color scheme aside, he didn't look too bad from the waist up...

...but they seemingly took every opportunity to give us hinder shots:

A couple of issues later, they made some minor tweaks. They ditched the full head yellow mask in favor a a much smaller (yay) greyish face mask (uh...). But you know what?

The shorts got even shorter.

Somehow, they got even shorter.

Oh, by the way, the Unknown Soldier was an incredible bastard of a killing machine. When the Nazis try to invade New York City (they did that a lot in his stories):

But it always came back to the shorts. Those short, tight shorts...

At some point later in his career, someone finally decided to make his mask brown. And to give him full length pants!

Although this shot sure looks like he was drawn with shorts, and the colorist just made the rest of his legs brown...

Anyway, I guess the moral is: WEAR PANTS, DAMMIT!!