One of the most iconic superhero costumes of all time, the Superman costume has different properties according to the universe.
History
Earth-Two
Superman created his uniform from a fabric invented by himself, "which is immune to the most powerful forces"[1]
Earth-One
Originally just the normal Kryptonian cloth that infant Kal-El was swaddled with during his flight to Earth, Superman's costume becomes just as invulnerable as he himself is, if not actually more so, under the radiation of a yellow sun. Under Earth's yellow sun, Superman's suit cannot be torn, stained, cut, or burned. Superman's costume was created for him by Martha Kent. When young Clark began to display his powers as a baby, the Kents concluded that their clothing bill was going to go up at a horrendous rate if something wasn't done. When a fire occurred at the Kent's attic, only the discarded set of blankets made with Kryptonian fabric did not burn. After tests, the couple realized that the fabric was invulnerable. Unraveling the blankets, Martha knitted a special playsuit for the little Clark. After years, the fabric was continuously unraveled and re-knitted to fit current measures of the Kryptonian. The seat belt from the Kryptonian Rocket was eventually turned into his belt; The upholstery of the compartment became his boots. Superman can wrap a person or item in his cape, protecting from friction, cold, heat and rigors of the space, with enough air to travel interplanetary distances. The cape will block even radio frequencies. The Super Uniform is very stretchable. It will lose its properties while under a red sun.
New Earth
Superman's costume made by Martha Kent
Superman's costume was made by Martha Kent from ordinary Terran fabric. Superman's body is charged with a bio-electric "aura" that acts as an invisible "force field" radiating within a few millimeters from his skin. Of this way, very tight clothes becomes almost invulnerable in contact with Superman's aura. The same doesn't happens with his cape, which will rip constantly.
Prime Earth
During New 52 era, Superman's costume was actually a Kryptonian battle-armor that keys in on DNA of Kryptonians. In case of half-breeds like Kon-El, amplifying his physical powers while dampening the powers he received from non-Kryptonian powers like tactile telekinesis.[2]
Following Superman: Reborn that merged histories of both New Earth and Prime Earth Superman, he was shown to have worn the battle-armor for a while during his career, later adopting a cloth costume with a belt. Later, he went back to his original costume with tights.[3]
Variations
New Earth
Superman as Krypton Man
Main article: Superman: The Day of the Krypton Man
After being exposed to the Eradicator's mental outwits, Superman began to act like a true Kryptonian; cold with an uninterested attitude toward his friends and family. At the peak of his delusion, Superman started wearing Kryptonian ceremonial robes.
Main article: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite
Emil Hamilton's suit
During one of Mister Mxyzptlk pranks, Superman was exposed to "Krimson Kryptonite" created by the latter. This left Superman powerless, his friend Emil Hamilton developed a mech suit for Superman in the meantime.
Main article: Death and Return of Superman
Superman black suit
After Superman's death, the artifact known as the Eradicator that had battled Superman in the past, had actually returned and went to Superman's tomb to try to use his body as a new vessel. Sensing Superman's soul was still lingering inside, the artifact fashioned a new body from concrete in Superman's image and placed Kal-El's body in a regeneration matrix that was bombarded with sunlight, in hopes of controlling him once he was revived. Despite this plan, the Eradicator accidentally convinced itself it really was Superman. When Kal-El was finally revived in the Fortress, he woke up in a new black and silver costume.
Main article: Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey Vol 1
Mother Box suit
After weeks of returning to business-as-usual saving Metropolis, Superman received a tip that the monster that killed him, Doomsday was not dead and was being housed on Apokolips. Suffering from nightmares of the creature, Superman went to Apokolips for a rematch, but the beast had already escaped. before going after him, the Mother Box Superman was wearing started to sense the imminent fight with Doomsday, and it changed Superman's costume, giving him a ultra-sonic gun and a sword. Superman then pursued Doomsday to the planet Calatonand fought the beast to a standstill. Luckily, Superman was able to teleport Doomsday into the distant future—just before the universe came to an end. This allowed him to find a little peace of mind, although he regretted the creature's apparent death.
Superman blue
Superman experienced a weird power fluctuation that rendered him in the form of pure energy. Needing a containment suit, he found that he was considerably faster, intangible, and able to interact with computers in this energy form. He also lost his vulnerability to Kryptonite. However, he found that he was weaker to energy disruption and lost his super strength. Furthermore, when he changed back into Clark Kent, he was rendered powerless.
Main article: Our Worlds at War
Superman new costume
Imperiex, an embodiment of entropy, detected 'imperfections' in the fabric of the universe, and his ultimate plan is to destroy it and create a new, perfect universe, he heads to Earth, the planet which holds the universe together, in order to destroy it and thereby induce a new Big Bang. In the war to stop Imperiex every single super-hero on earth was involved, however it was Superman who delivered the final blow to end the treat of Imperiex. But the war left countless casualties, this left Superman deeply distressed, not knowing how he could continue his never-ending fight as if nothing happened, but Martha Kent come up with the idea to wear the classic suit with a black logo and a slightly darker shade of blue, in order to remember the victim of the war.
Additional costumes
Main article: Superman Family
Superboy first costume
Superboy (Kon-El)
Main article: Kon-El (New Earth)
Superboy, also known as Kon-El and Conner Kent, was a DNAlien designed to replace Superman after the hero's death touted as Superman's direct clone. His initial costume presented a leather jacket with a yellow Superman logo on the back, black boots and the classic Superman logo, later in his adventures he would get a pair of X-ray Glasses made by Emil Hamilton.
Powerless costume
Some time later, the villain Klarion would age all the young superheroes into adulthood, and age back into teenhood. Klarion was eventually defeated and everyone is restored to their natural ages. With his youth restored, Superboy mysteriously lost his powers as well, so Guardian encouraged him to take some time to grieve and experience the world as a "normal" kid. He tried to do just that, but in in the wake of his loss, everything he knew seemed to change at once; Dubbilex took a sabbatical from Cadmus, the Wild Men departed, Hex took Grokk to become a bounty hunter, and Heat Wave was now working for Guardian. Superboy decided he still wanted to continue the good fight, so he turned to the Gadget Guru to help him be Superboy once again. Superboy started using the Legion Flight Ring to fly, he was also given a near indestructible, size altering shield fashioned by Gadget Guru.
Suprboy found himself fighting the alien Kossak, who's intent was of retrieving an escaped slave. That slave turned out to have solar powers, which he used to give Superboy his powers back, Conner returned to use his very first costume for a while. Later Superboy had a talk with Superman, which gave him perspective and he decided to shake things up a bit, starting with a new costume.
Superboy second costume
Superboy in the meantime was working with the Young Justice, until they were attacked by an android from the future, leaving Empress, Argent, Cyborg and Jesse Quick hospitalized. Upon further pursuance of the situation, the unwitting android activates a dormant Superman replicate android that had been left in the care of S.T.A.R. Labs. The Superman android turns out to be hostile, and the resulting clash leads to the deaths of long-time Titans Lilith and Donna Troy, leaving both teams devastated. Wonder Girl, enraged at being unable to save either of them and particularly saddened by the loss of her friend and predecessor, comes to see herself and Young Justice ineffective as heroes, and turns away from her teammates. Young Justice finally dissolves.
Superboy third costume
Superman took Conner to live in Smallville, Kansas with the Kent Family, he also enrolled in the local school. At the same time Superboy ditched his old costume, completely changing his style, this time he was simply wearing a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt with the Superman logo.
The Eradicator
Main article: Eradicator (New Earth)
The Eradicator used to be a Kryptonian weapon, which eventually merged with a human body to form the Last Son of Krypton, an extreme vigilante who surfaced after the Death of Superman.
Eradicator as a device
In the distant past, Cleric was an alien missionary. His faith lead him to Krypton, where his peaceful message and denunciation of cloning quickly gained him a following. The Kryptonian Science Council was threatened by the preacher, and asked Kem-L to develop a device to kill him and to "prevent any similar act of heresy". Kem-L ultimately developed the Eradicator. With his isolationist views, although, Kem-L built the Eradicator so no more Kryptonians would leave the planet, and no outsiders would've come, preserving his ideal of Kryptonian culture. When it was used, the Eradicator merely incapacitated the Cleric, but it instigated a riot that left many dead. The surviving Cleric took the Eradicator and left Krypton. Years later, he encountered Superman on Warworld. With the device, the two exchanged memories, and the Cleric had a vision of Superman's death at the hands of Mongul. The Cleric wished to prevent this from happening, and the Eradicator transported them to his asteroid. He noticed that the device changed to protect Krypton's sole survivor, and they used it to heal their wounds, both physical and spiritual. Upon giving the Eradicator to Superman, Cleric rapidly aged and died as the link to the Eradicator extending his life was severed.
Eradicator as an energy being
Upon returning to earth, Superman threw away the Eradicator in the sun, but this turned out to be useless, as the Eradicator would return, this time as an energy being, wearing Kryptonian ceremonial robes, but Superman stopped it with help from Professor Hamilton.
Eradicator first costume as a vigilante
During the period that Superman had been killed in battle with Doomsday, the Eradicator had returned, his energy body having been spread across the Fortress and just recovered. Upon learning of Superman's death, the Eradicator raced to his tomb to take over Superman's body and preserve Krypton's heritage. However, the Eradicator couldn't possess Superman's body and instead was forced to create a facsimile body to use and took his body back to the Fortress, where he would be put into a Healing Matrix to revive him and take energy from his body. The creation of the new body was imperfect and he was forced to don a special set of shades to protect his eyes. Donning his own version of Superman's shield and cape, he later was apparently killed to protect Superman from the Cyborg Superman.
Following Superman's return, the Eradicator's apparently dead body was examined at S.T.A.R. Labs, and merged with Dr. David Connor. The merged Eradicator joined the Outsiders, and occasionally teamed up with Superman. His costume was pretty much unchanged, aside from the fact that he had removed the Superman logo.
Eradicator second costume (right)
The original Eradicator program was revealed to still exist in the Fortress of Solitude's computers and, following the destruction of the Fortress in Superman's battle with Dominus, the Eradicator took the form of Kem-L, and again attempted to brainwash Superman. The David Connor Eradicator realized that the program was still active, and merged with the remains of the Fortress to control it. The Fortress-Eradicator took the form of a gigantic Kryptonian battlesuit, and gained a form of multiple personality disorder based on his conflicting programming. When it learned of the origin of Krypto, Superman's pet dog, a creature with amazing powers, the shock to the original directive of Kryptonian purity was enough to correct its programming.
The Eradicator eventually returned with an humanoid form to help an apparent crisis on earth, this time the Eradicator was wearing an almost all-black costume with an altered Superman logo, red cape and silver details, resembling the traditional Kryptonian robes.
Supergirls
Supergirl (Matrix) costume
Main article: Matrix (Pocket Universe)
Matrix was a protoplasmic, shape-shifting life form created by an alternate Lex Luthor. She was Supergirl for a while. Lex sent Matrix into the mainstream universe to recruit Superman. Her efforts were successful, and Superman did aid in stopping the Kryptonian criminals, but the alternate Earth had been ruined, and was now lifeless. Superman took the orphaned Matrix, now turned into a humanoid form of protoplasm, back to the mainstream DC Universe with him.
Supergirl berserk costume
In that period, Supergirl started dating Lex Luthor, much to Superman's dismay, but her biggest shock came when she learned that Lex had cloned her, making thousands of his own personal "Supergirls". She went berserk, and destroyed his lab, his clones, and almost killed Lex before he fell into a coma due to flaws in the cloning process that had created his new body, her shapeshifting abilities changed her costume for a short period of time.
Main article: Linda Danvers (New Earth)
Eventually she happened upon a dying girl named Linda Danvers. Matrix's shape shifting ability merged the two into the new Supergirl and Mae became the Earth Angel of Fire, simultaneously losing her shape-shifting abilities as she subconsciously defined herself as just Linda and Supergirl. She wore the classic Supergirl costume for a while, until she changed it with a white t-shirt and a shorter blue skirt.
Linda Danvers costume
Cir-El costume
Main article: Cir-El (Futuresmiths)
Cir-El assumed the identity of Supergirl for a short period of time, she was from a dystopian future made by the Futuresmiths, a group led by Brainiac 12. She believed to be Superman's daughter, in reality she was supposed to be a trojan horse against Superman, upon realizing this, Cir-El sacrificed herself to save the world from Brainiac 12. Her costume was all-black with a blue cape and a red S.
Kara Zor-El costume
Main article: Kara Zor-El (New Earth)
Following the Superman: Birthright reboot, Kara Zor-El was introduced as Superman's biological cousin, after some initial confusion, Superman and Batman found Kara and placed her in training with Wonder Woman. Kara was later was captured by Darkseid, and after being brainwashed, attacked her own cousin. Superman defeated Kara and returned her to Earth, where he faked her death so Darkseid would not come looking for her. She wears a slightly changed Supergirl costume.
Power Girl costume
Main article: Kara Zor-L (Earth-Two)
Power Girl is the Earth-Two counterpart of Supergirl and first cousin to Kal-L, the Superman of Earth-Two. Power Girl took her cousin's place in the Justice Society of America after he entered into semi-retirement to focus on his personal life. Her survival of Crisis on Infinite Earths and adapting to a new world caused her some confusion as to her roots. She believed for a time she was descended from Arion, Lord of Atlantis, but following the Infinite Crisis she learned her original legacy still held true. Her costume is white, has blue boots and a red cape, it's notorious for its keyhole turtleneck.
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See Also
- Appearances of Superman's Costume
- Item Gallery: Superman's Costume
- Images featuring Superman's Costume