smallville superman costume vs DCnu Superman costume

**shingi70** · 04-20-2012, 03:51 PM

I was thinking about something rearing the lastest chapter of smallville season 11. Both have in common the idea of a proto suit before the trademark babby blues get pit on. But I wanted to comapre the superman costume of each. I personally prefer the armor superman of the dcnu but I notice a lot of classic superman fans don't. The biggest os things are they both aren't the classic suit but the smallvillesuit is more on common. A big thing Clark says fishes changed to a new suit after an incident with bullets made of kryptonite. Yet the suit still looks more cloth based compared to the armor and collar costume.

So what are your thoughts on the superman suits and the personalities between the two.

**ascended** · 04-21-2012, 09:58 AM

I dont think Im going to vote on this, because there are things about both that I like and dislike.

I really like the collar on the N52 suit. It just seems to add a bit of authority and nobility to the look, I think. But I hate the boots and belt, both of which are far to clunky and dont fit the otherwise streamlined aspects the suit carries. The seams are already being downplayed by artists, so I dont mind them that much. And I like the pointed sleeves with the red trim. I do wish that the artists would make up their minds about the texture though. Is this armor, or some form of highly resilient alien cloth? I side with resilient alien cloth, but DC needs to make up its mind on this one.

The Smallville suit is pretty damned good but I find I really miss the collar and pointed sleeves. And while I do like the two-tone blue, I think a thin red line between the two would make it pop more. Yes, I am saying I want a seam on the costume. Deal with it. :) But I think the boots are infinitely better here, and while I dont find the belt much of an improvement, it is an improvement.

**manofsteel1979** · 04-21-2012, 03:18 PM

I say SMALLVILLE suit hands down.

Superman should NOT wear armor as a regular choice, or at least something that LOOKS like armor. The overall design of the DCnU suit isn't bad, it's the concept that gives me pause. When Nicola Scott, Gary Frank, Jesus Merino or Ivan Reis draw it, it looks ok, mainly because they don't treat it as armor, just a cloth suit with a few seams and only the "S" is occasionaly given a metallic feel, which I actually kinda like. When Gene Ha, Yanick Panquete (the artist on the first issue of SWAMP THING, sorry if I misspelled his name) Mahmud Asrar or George Perez draw it, it looks awkward and wrong, mainly because it's drawn to look like armor. The only two that seem to draw it like armor and make it work so far are Jim Lee (as he designed the suit, and it's suited to his sensibilities, he just LOVES needless lines and busy-ness) and Dan Jurgens, (mainly because the guy can't draw a bad Superman if he tried. He made Electro Supes and mullet Supes look awesome!) The suit needs to be simplified a bit and/or the texture needs to be decided on. Is it armor? Is it cloth? There needs to be a decision soon. Hopefully they drop the idea of it being armor and go with it being Hi-tech cloth. Thankfully, that is the direction they seem to be going in.

The Smallville suit however, is a perfect updating that makes it look classic and modern, while getting rid of the trunks that everyone seems to be afraid of,but not going out of it's way to be "kewl". The red and yellow belt is a big improvement over the solid red, metallic DCnU version, and the boots are perfect. They are sleek, but do look like boots and not socked feet, as the old one's sometimes looked like. The two tone blue adds a bit of variety and breaks up the field of solid one color blue without dozens of unneeded seams. It just looks like the kind of outfit Superman should wear. It looks vaguely more alien than the classic, but keeps it's roots in his humanity as well. I've always seen the suit as an equal celebration of BOTH sides of his heritage. Both the SUPER and the MAN. This suit does that well.

What I also like more than anything, is that at least in the SMALLVILLE universe, he actually DID wear the classic suit for at least 6 months, meaning it does have some sort of historical importance in this universe as SUPERMAN's "first" official costume, and this suit is actually a new suit. In the DCnU, he went directly from the t-shirt and jeans look (which had it's charm) DIRECTLY to the armored look. It just rubs me the wrong way that at this point, the "original" suit doesn't have a place in DCnU history, when even Batman was able to keep a version of his "year one" suit in continuity, while Superman's get's tossed in the trashbin of continuity and disregarded as if it was some horrible thing and a mistake. I understand the need to move forward, but would it have killed them to have at least given a nod to what came before? Hell, even Knightwing kept his old disco collar look from the 80's as part of his continuity. (talk about outdated...) For all the sh!t SMALLVILLE took for it not respecting the original source material, I find it ironic that a comic based on SMALLVILLE's continuity seems to have more respect for what came before than even the current comics, which is sad.

But, yeah. SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 SUPERMAN costume > DCnU SUPERMAN costume

**Last Son** · 04-21-2012, 03:28 PM

I've seen illustrations of the New 52 suit that I like much better than the Smallville Season 11 suit. I don't like the Smallville suit's shade of blue or it's ugly Lee-esque S symbol.