I have yet to see an in-depth, well-rounded and firm journalistic exploration of the costume choices of the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt. Decades before Wonder Woman was allowed to run around in basically high-cut panties, the Atom did it in brown ones.
I’m trying to imagine the conversations between writer and illustrator to craft the painful vision of this superhero sliding down a banister nearly butt-nekkid. Oh, and can we make the banister a little more phallic? And this is isn’t an isolated incident… All-American Comics #22 (November 1940) featured panel after uncomfortable panel of Al’s butt cheeks.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!