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SVFinale-4330

The Superman Suit encased in the Fortress by Jor-El.

"So much better in Technicolor.'" - Lois Lane, Lazarus

The Superman Suit is an outfit worn by Clark Kent as Superman.

1st Generation[]

The original Superman suit was given to Clark, by his adoptive mother, Martha Kent. The outfit consisted of an unknown material. It brought back the original red and blue colors of the Blur. The main part of the suit was a blue unitard with red trunks and a yellow belt. Like Clark's earlier last two Blur suits, the suit sported the crest of the House of El on the chest. The outfit was completed with a large red cape, with another House of El crest in yellow on the back and red boots.

2nd Generation[]

About six months after he had donned the original Superman suit, Clark updated his look with a new suit. This new suit got rid of the red trunks. It had blue-gray bands running lengthwise along his sides from under the arms to his boots. It had a red belt with a gold buckle. The belt buckle had a built in communication device for Watchtower, and has a holo-computer. It kept the House of El crest of on back, but it was now in dark silhouette, rather than yellow. The new crest on his chest had lead built into it, to protect him from getting shot with Kryptonite bullets.

Speed Force Suit[]

Facing the threat of the Black Flash, Clark was issued a temporary suit by Emil Hamilton. Emil took the concept of sending Clark into the sun to remove his irradiation to fashion a containment suit. He then modified the suit to collect speed energy so Clark could be able to use it to constantly move fast enough to confront the demon. This costume is half black half electric-blue, covering all of his body and with a bright House of El emblem on the chest.

Green Lantern Suit[]

When Clark found himself drafted into the Green Lantern Corps, his Power ring issued him with a new black and green suit. The suit covered all of his body except from his face, underneath the energy contracted green details of his costume, which included bracelets, boots and the emblem of House of El, instead of that of the Green Lanterns, on his chest, which expanded into a big armor covering his chest, neck, belly and shoulders.

3rd Generation[]

By 2017, Clark had once more upgraded his suit. Little is known about this outfit. However, it saw the return of the yellow crest on the cape, while the suit itself got rid of the blue-gray bands.

Appearances[]

In the Comics[]

MOSSupermanByrne

Superman's suit as it traditionally appeared throughout much of his publication history.

Over the years since his introduction, Superman has had several versions of not only his origins and history, but also the creation of his costume. In some versions, Clark's uniform was normal material that became invulnerable through physical contact with his body, while in others the costume's invulnerability was a result of the fabric itself being from Krypton. However, nearly all versions have had Martha Kent acting as the designer behind the costume, either by her own imagination or through inspiration that she and Clark gained from his Kryptonian heritage.

Most recently, Clark's origins have been retold in Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns, which has been stated as the "definitive" origin story of Superman. Secret Origin combines various aspects of Clark's Silver Age origins while still incorporating various twists from John Byrne's 1986 The Man of Steel mini-series. As a result, Clark's costume origins have also be retold using a combination of each different era, including certain aspects from Mark Waid's 2003 and 2004 Superman: Birthright.

When Clark decided he was going to use his powers to help humanity, Martha creates the costume using the material from the red, yellow and blue blankets baby Kal-El was wrapped in when she and Jonathan found him. Martha does this because she realizes that ordinary clothing isn't durable enough for Clark when he's out there saving lives by using his abilities. Usually his clothes get ripped, shredded, stained, frozen and even burned in the process. The reason Martha uses the material from the blankets to form the suit is because it appears to share the same invulnerability properties as Clark which she had discovered when a small fire had occurred in the attic, Jonathan managed to put out the fire before it had a chance to spread out quickly and engulfed all of their possessions. He then made a startling discovery that Clark's red baby blanket shielded all of Clark's baby items that were wrapped around it, but everything else that wasn't wrapped in one of Clark's blanket was burnt up. Jonathan tells Martha about his discovery and Martha gathers all three blankets and stores them in her chest box for a time she believes they'll come in handy someday. Martha get the inspirational design for the look of the suit from the Kryptonian clothing style she had seen in the holographic imagery coming from the sunstone crystal that houses the entire Kryptonian heritage that Jor-El and Lara had placed in Kal-El's ship for him to learn about his heritage.

With Martha's amazing sewing skills and Clark's heat vision to heat-weld the seams together, the suit begins to take shape. The suit consists of a blue costume complemented by red trunks, red boots and a long, flowing red cape. A yellow belt encircles the waist, and there is a highly stylized insignia of the family crest of the House of El consisting of a large red letter "S" inscribed within a yellow pentagon shield, which is bordered in red emblazoned on the chest. The back of the cape bears the House of El insignia except that this one consists of a yellow letter "S" inscribed within a yellow pentagon shield bordered in yellow. Clark choose not to wear a mask with his hero outfit because he wanted to earn peoples trust and by seeing his face, no one would ever suspect he has something to hide.

In addition to making Clark's Superman suit, when Kara arrives on Earth and decides to follow in the footsteps of her cousin as a superhero, Martha designed a Supergirl costume tailor-made for her as well. Martha also designed a cape specifically for Krypto to wear around his dog collar with the traditional yellow pentagon "S" engraved on the cape. She also made it possible for the cape to be hidden beneath the collar for when Krypto wasn't on duty as the Superdog. It can be assumed that although Superboy (Conner Kent) no longer wears a tradition uniform (instead using a t-shirt and jeans), Martha is responsible for creating his black t-shirts with the S-shield on them.

For a period of time, Clark lost his normal Kryptonian abilities and instead gained electricity-based powers. In order to control these powers and to keep Clark from destroying himself as a result, Lex Luthor and his then-wife, the Contessa, designed a fabric that would contain Superman's then-uncontrollable abilities. Dr. Emil Hamilton had the fabric designed into a blue and white uniform. After donning the costume, Clark flew to the Kent Farm, where he showed it to Martha and Jonathan. Martha, while impressed with the suit, felt it lacked something, and suggested that Clark add an alternate version of the House of El shield, that looks more like a lightning bolt than a letter. Clark would use this suit for a short period, until returning to his standard powers and costume.

Superman 0115

Superman's suit in The New 52 was made of Kryptonian armor, while the cape was made from the blanket from his ship.

In the New 52 universe, Clark once again didn't begin wearing a costume until early adulthood. As a kid he only wearing his cape as well as a blue t-shirt and jeans when he helps people in secret. Becoming Superman before his powers are developed to the point of flight, he wears a cape over jeans and a t-shirt with his emblem which he wears when When he's working for the man on the street, doing every day stuff. Superman travels to the ship to find many alien bottled cities, Kandor included. The alien identifies himself as a being from the planet Colu where he was known as C.O.M.P.U.T.O and on Krypton he was called Brainiac 1.0. He claims that without Superman and the ship that brought him to Earth, his Kryptonian collection is incomplete, and for that he must pass a test: pulling the life support of both the Kandor and Metropolis bottles, he must decide which city to save, using indestructible Kryptonian armor he also preserved. Superman decides on neither and wears the Kryptonian armor (which instantly morphs in the familiar Superman costume and later only wears it when, but when he's facing intergalactic threats as well as when he's with the Justice League, the suit's durability comes in handy, and likewise symbolizes his family, his heritage).

Superman Rebirth Vol 1 1 Textless Variant

Redesigned Superman uniform for Dc's Rebirth continuity.

In DC's rebirth reboot continuity, The Original version of Superman (Pre-Flashpoint) has returned taken up the reigns after the death of New 52's Kal-El. His new suit is a mixture of the classic elements with an incorporation of his counterparts design. the suit is a one-piece outfit that is cloth fabric instead of armored. The red trunks are gone as well as the Red boots. The Cape once more house the yellow plated House of El insigna upon it. The Belt is red with equipped with a homing beacon and two-way communicator device.

Notes[]

  • As an homage to his colors of red and blue, Clark wore a new costume at the end of Shield, which consists of a blue shirt and dark-red leather jacket with an embossed House of El emblem, all shades being similar to the Superman Returns suit. However, the emblem used on this new suit seems to be the traditional \S/ shield, not the sharp, modern updated 3-D version used since 2006. This whole gesture seems to be a nod towards Clark moving on from his dark times after Doomsday and Season Nine, and finally coming into the light to make the final steps to fulfill his destiny.
SupermanRevealed

Lois Lane's view of Superman.

  • In the finale, it is clearly seen that the Superman suit is almost like the traditional suit from the comics that features the classic House of El family crest emblem in yellow embedded into the cape.
  • The changes to the Superman costume - from the traditional/Superman Returns-inspired look in Finale, Part 2 to a look similar to the "New 52" style featured in the then-current DC Comics Superman titles - are explained during the first few chapters of the first arc, Guardian. The main visual changes include the removal of the suit's red trunks, altering the yellow belt to a mostly red counterpart where only the round buckle remains yellow, and the yellow \S/ on the back of the cape now tweaked to a simple black outline. These changes do cause continuity issues with the red trunks and yellow belt being present in Clark's vision for the year 2013, in addition to the yellow \S/ on his cape in the year 2017 (along with Jordan Cross's vision of Kal-El's final fate), thus it remains to be seen if the comics will either return Superman to these traits or ignore the emphasis in the show itself. the suit sometimes is seen drawn with the classic House of El crest depicted by Dan Jurgens, and the collar being more reminiscent of the classic superman suit's collar. The suit itself also seems to resemble the Rebirth costume Superman wore in 2016-2017 in the comics

Trivia[]

Superman insignia

The Superman Shield.

  • It is unknown what exactly the suit is made of. In the comics, there were two instances. One, where the suit was made of invulnerable Kryptonian fabric from the sheets Lara Lor-Van sent with Clark, and one where it was made of an Earthly material, which becomes invulnerable when it's skin-tight against Clark's skin.
  • Clark's costume has two different versions of the S shield. On his torso is the Superman Returns S shield, while on the cape is the classic S, like the one seen on his Blur jacket.
  • The suit seen in Season Ten's Lazarus and Finale, Part 2 is the Superman costume worn by Brandon Routh in Superman Returns.[1] In the Smallville universe, however, the major difference is that the suit has the emblem of the House of El on both the chest, and the cape, while the suit seen in Superman Returns only has the symbols on the chest and the belt, and on the soles of the boots.
  • Although Tom Welling is seen wearing the upper half of the Superman suit in two rear shots (when checking on Lois in Air Force One) and the climatic shirt-rip by the final reveal of the shield, he never wore the entire suit. Including the mentioned shots, all shots of Superman's suit are CGI. The only exception to the CGI is Tom's face, when the closeup shots of Superman are done.
  • Although it appears different on screen, based on continuity, the cape was the one given to Clark by Rachel Davenport.[2] The confusion about the cape has arisen due to many factors; when the suit was in the box, the cape was bright red and made of a fabric, but when Jonathan Kent's spirit handed the suit to Clark, the cape was different (maroon leather) reminiscent of the Returns cape (most likely because the Returns suit is fixed the way it is and cannot be altered). Nevertheless, despite the change in its appearance throughout the show, the origin of the cape remains.


Clark Kent in Smallville
Family Kents: Martha , JonathanHouse of El: Jor-El (ai, clone), Lara, Kara, Zor-El, Conner Kent
Relationships ChloePeteOliverEmilJohn JonesLex (destiny) • LionelBrainiacJimmyTessDavisZod
Romantic interests Chloe SullivanLana LangKyla WillowbrookAlicia BakerLois Lane (destiny)
Work Smallville TorchJustice LeagueDaily Planet
Details Powers (loss, vulnerabilities, training) • secretattireglassesbloodfighting style
Homes Krypton (knowledge) • Kent Farm (house, cellar, barn, loft, truck) • FortressApartment (telescope)
Other KalKal-El (ship) • Superman (suit, crest) • aliasesdestinyvisionNo tights, no flightsNear-death experiencesEpisodes

References[]

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