To be fair, there’s a bit of a debate as to whether Kappler’s conversion was real, or if he did it to try and get out of jail (or possibly just to shut the priest up). I don’t think the Monsignor would have been hoodwinked or baptised him if he was though. As for not hearing about it before… well, that’s the joy of the internet – spreading knowledge and cute cat videos!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the look of the comic. I can totally see where the inspiration for his look comes from. He’s the one with the muscles on the team, and those type of character get costumes that emphasise that trait. I’m thinking Drax, Hulk, Thing and (to a lesser extent) Beast and Collosus. They also tend to be characters who are more ready to act and react with violence, and the lack of clothes subliminally hint at both an ignorance or rejection of society values and a more primitive, barbaric methods of dealing with situations.
None of the characters really need the physical protection clothing offers, but their motivations are interesting. Drax and Hulk simply don’t care about society. Collosus gets screwed around with by a variety of writers, so his motivations to do anything have (for me at least) get confusing. Thing and Beast have at times put clothes on, but they always seem to go back to ones that maximise showing how different they are to normal humans. They challenge their society to accept them as they are. In Henry McCoy’s case, he’s smart enough so it’s probably deliberate, and we can see him dress to minimise his differences when it comes to things like government meetings. In Ben Grimm’s case, although he’ll “dress for the occassion”, he’s not depicted as the most introspective of guys. I’ll suggest he’s smarter than he behaves, though, as to be a test pilot you need brains as well as guts. Still, I suspect his “superhero suit” choices may be subconscious most of the time. The Fantastic Four are accepted by the mainstream marvel public (where the X-men are rejected) because Mr Fantastic (in a monolog to his baby daughter) explicitly states he manipulates public opinion to stop them being rejected as freaks (and keeps it secret from his team so they don’t start acting oddly and get labelled as “fakes”), so Mr Fantastic would certainly be aware of the psychological impact of the Thing’s clothes (or lack of them). It could be argued that a lack of clothes suggests an emotional vulnerability (“baring all”) that Mr Fantastic uses to market Ben Grimm to the public.
Which brings us back to Hartmann. The artwork is fantastic, and really brings out his emotional vulnerablity. The lack of clothes spotlights this. And maybe this is what Hartmann is subconsciously doing. He doesn’t need clothes, He needs acceptance by the group. Pack mentality predator animals (like dogs) when looking for acceptance by higher ranked members (which for Hartmann is just about everbody in the room, including the teenage Max) make themselves as vulnerable as possible. Now, rolling on to his back and displaying his stomach would look a bit ridiculous (for those of you that think this is just an invitation for a tummy rub miss the fact that the easiest way to kill a mammal is by disemboweling with tooth and claw). This could be a subscious effort to explicitly maximise his vulnerability though his body language (and choice of clothes).
Then with have something I touched upon in my previous post – the unspoken messages society gleans from the way you decide to dress. It’s why Irene Addler chose to be naked when first meeting Sherlock in the recent BBC series – clothing identifies you. Hartmann wants to disassociate himself his past, so he can’t dress as a Nazi soldier or German cilivian. Obviously (and understandably) he hasn’t been accepted by the US Army yet, as they’ve only given him a pair of shorts (and hopefully clean underwear)… So what choices is he left with? He can’t dress as an American cilivian – what right as he to those clothes? It would also separate him further from the group. It would identify him as non-military, and the comic (in line with what I know of the military mindset in general) shows them as “other” at best and obstacles to overcome at worst. Instictively he would try to avoid that. With his animalistic mindset he may even think of himself (subconsciously) as less than human and not deserving of clothes (until someone higher in the “pack” decides he’s worthy). So this could be why he’s not dressed himself yet in something less revealing…

Just an aside about uniforms – they invariably go to the lowest bidder, which makes for cheap materials. I’ve never worn a uniform that didn’t didn’t itch to high heaven for the first few weeks (until I’d “broken” it it).

Sorry to have gone on a bit. Hopefully you’ve humoured me and not got bored halfway through….

As for Bennet, in a war all soldiers have to allow their leaders to make decisions for them and hope that the leaders are up to the task. But looking at the team in their costumes, he’s gotta think it’s all crazy. It’s a valid question.

Ah, yes, the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. As I recall from what little I saw it could just as easily have been called Malice, Stupidity, and Death. After the main characters. Yes, I know it’s a terrible pun.

I agree with WillMayBeWise about the clothes thing. It looks kind of odd for Hartmann to be sitting through an official briefing in…well…briefs!! At least get him a uniform tank-top undershirt or something similar. Those were a thing at the time right?

I agree with you. It allowed him a point of view he otherwise would never been able to have.

Chaos all part of the universe, and probably all the others, so it must not be missed in our perceptions. Eris and Nergal, two characters rendered in a cartoon about two children who control Death. Love that tv series. Canceled three times brought back twice.

Without that outside physical change I don’t think Hartmann wold be on this road.

People should at least be given a second chance.

I would think a minimum of clothers or break away clothes so that he can leap into action without being hampered by them or become a Doc Savage poster of the torn shirt all of the time. Even Beast and the Thing wear a little bit.