Does Superman have olive skin or is he white?

[LoneNecromancer]

I thought Superman was black.

[Mat001]

[The Frozen Reptile]

Maybe's he's like human beings, the more exposure to solar radiation, the darker (tanning) the skin...I mean, in the first photo he is above the Earth outside the filtering atmosphere and receiving more direct sunlight, thus making his skin "darker"...

[Mat001]

Nah, it's just different colorists.

[IronMagnus]

He has white skin like Christopher Reeve.

[Treqqor]

Are you sure you know what "olive skinned" looks like?

Your example looks more like a mild sunburn, more red than anything.

[ascended]

Yeah, odd thing to be thinking about. At least the OP doesnt seem to intend anything racist. I mean, its one thing to ponder a character's skin tone (especially if you're an artist. You can spend a lot of time on that) as he is doing, and another thing entirely to be all "Colored people suck! Racist stuff! Blarg!"

Being an artist, I have actually considered Clark's skin tone. And it seems to me that he likely falls into an ambiguous zone that *could* be considered tanned white, mixed, or whatever. Obviously, for people to believe that he is the Kents' child, he has to look more white than anything, but farmers are always tanned or burnt, so Clark could be a few shades darker and get away with it. Especially if either Jonathon or Martha had any Italian, Spanish, whatever, in their family tree.

I imagine Krypton was a bit like the real world was in the Matrix films; where all the races have inter-bred until there is no separation anymore and everyone has (more or less) the same well tanned, honey brown skin tone. So that's how I think of Clark.

[The World]

He's clearly getting ready for season 12 of Jersey Shore.

[ascended]

He's clearly getting ready for season 12 of Jersey Shore.

Arent we all?

[Quinnhop]

I think of Batman as being more Anglo-Saxon/White and Superman as being more Mediterranean/Tan, but that's probably just because I grew up with the Dean Cain Superman. Plus, the more diversity, even between "white" superheroes, the better.

[klinton]

He has white skin like Christopher Reeve.

That's my initial thought too. But Diana does have olive skin, despite the fact that she looks like Lynda Carter in my head.

I suppose it's up to the reader to decide. He's Kryptonian, and for all we know he could have any sort of pigment in his skin. Given that he spends time in close proximity to the sun, having off white skin as a result of that alone makes perfect sense.