Quote Originally Posted by brionl View Post
"Under the Hood" refers to the stuff that's underneath the hood of a car, i.e. the engine, brakes, etc. The things that make it go zoom and/or stop. Lately it's been used in superhero comics to refer to what's under the mask, what makes the heroes "go". But it's still a reference back to the original usage.
...d'oh.

Of course. I was concentrating so heavily on the application of the phrase in superhero-dom that I completely forgot about that actual origin. Boy, do I feel dumb.