The Best Superman Costumes Across All Media, Ranked

Superman is as hot as the yellow sun he gets his power from. James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU is being built around the character, Superman and Lois was one of the best superhero shows of the year, and the Superman comics have been batting a thousand for some time, presenting readers with great stories from the best creators. DC fans are eating up everything about Gunn’s Superman, with the first poster and trailer giving everyone their best view of the new Superman costume.

Superman’s costume has been a key part of the character’s success for decades. It’s bright colors, simple design, and eye-catching logo have made it a pop culture icon. Little kids have been fashioning capes from any piece of fabric they can for years, all to copy part of Superman’s signature look. Over the years, Superman’s costume has gone through some changes, especially as the character moved to other media, and these changes have created some amazing variants of Big Blue’s iconic look.

To celebrate this new look at the iconic ensemble, we’re looking back at the Man of Steel’s all-time best costumes.

10) The New 52 Earth-2 Val-Zod Costume

DC’s New 52 was meant to bring in new readers, jettisoning decades of comic history for a fresh start in 2011. There were many, many changes to just about every DC hero — basically only the Green Lantern and the Batman comics continued without major modification — especially costumes. A lot of these costume changes aren’t exactly beloved and there’s good reason for that. They overdosed on the lines and armor treatment that had been made popular by the then-nascent MCU, automatically dating these supposedly “modern” takes. DC’s multiverse was also changed and readers got a new version of Earth-2. The history of the New 52 Earth-2 is a lot to get into, but the short version is Darkseid’s forces killed the original Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and then heroes based on Golden Age heroes of the original DC continuity came about. Eventually, a Kryptonian named Val-Zod took over as Superman.

Val-Zod’s Superman costume is stellar. It keeps the colors blue and red, but drops the yellow for the silver. In fact, the silver is where the red is usually — the cape and boots are silver, and the S of the S-shield is silver, with red in the place of the yellow on more conventional Superman S-shields. It gives the costume a totally different effect and grabs the eye immediately. The combination of silver and blue, with the bit of red, works wonderfully together, setting this Superman apart from others.

9) The Superman Returns Costume

Superman Returns was an attempt to return to the good old days of DC movies in the mid-’00s, building off the stories from the first two Richard Donner Superman movies. Brandon Routh was perfect to play the Christopher Reeve version of Superman, but the movie was basically just Superman: The Movie all over again. The film didn’t work for audiences for a variety of reasons, but the Superman costume was one of the highlights.

It wasn’t perfect; the S-shield felt small and the cape’s material looked like plastic more than anything else, but it looked great on screen. The muted colors worked with Superman’s attitude in the film — a sadder, more deliberate Man of Steel who was returning to Earth after years away — and it had the best belt. The texture was smooth, but it never looked like cheap spandex, and it showed that a more classic type of superhero costume could look great on the big screen.

8) The Synderverse Costume

The DCEU, the cinematic universe based around Zack Snyder’s trilogy of films — Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League — was a failure in many ways, but it did have a lot going for it. The casting of Henry Cavill as Superman was one of the biggest positives, and his costume was easily among the best Superman costumes of all time. The suit leaned into the tropes of modern live-action superhero costumes — changing the texture and materials — and had one of the best S-shields in the history of Superman costumes.

The costume played into the Kryptonian lore: it was a Kryptonian skinsuit that took on the symbol of the House of El. This followed the lore of the suit in the New 52 comics, but the Synderverse suit is vastly superior. It combines the classic and modern very well, doing away with the trunks and adding in interesting design flourishes at the wrists and waist while modernizing the belt, and went very long with the cape. If there’s any drawbacks to it, it’s that the colors are too dark — fans have recolored with brighter colors and it looks sensational — but it’s overall a great-looking suit.

7) The Season 3 Superman and Lois Costume

Superman and Lois was very popular during its four-season run, spinning out of the Arrowverse and presenting the Kent family in new ways to fans who weren’t then reading the comics. Tyler Hoechlin’s version of the Man of Steel caught fans’ attention right away, but the costume wasn’t always there. The original version of Hoechlin’s costume made the weird choice of having the cape connected at the shoulders, but the costume got better right when the show started and continued improving as Superman and Lois went on, leading to the version that would be seen in the last two seasons.

While it was without trunks, it kept the belt, coloring it red instead of yellow. The S-shield looked great and incorporated a lot of the best parts of the Snyderverse costume. It lightened up the texture and took away the more armored look, which definitely fits the costume better. The way that the cape tucks into the neck also looks really good. It definitely points more in the classic direction and that’s what makes it so great.

6) The DCU Costume

James Gunn’s Superman is the most anticipated superhero movie in years. Every bit of news about the film has been devoured by the public, and they got their first look at David Corenswet’s Superman in early 2024. The costume was different from the comics, the DCEU, and Superman and Lois, borrowing from several different eras of Superman to create a unique new look for the Man of Steel.

This Superman costume embraces the trunks, and adds a more comic-accurate belt than most other modern Superman adaptations. It takes some design flourishes from the maligned New 52 costume, namely the raised collar and the lines, but actually makes them look really good. The logo is amazing, taking its cue from Kingdom Come, the classic 1996 DC miniseries. It completes the more modern feel of the costume and differentiates it from other costumes. It’s an excellent design, paying homage to what came before while also having its own look.

5) The Silver and Bronze Age Earth-Two Costume

DC’s old multiverse could be a little confusing. Earth-One was the mainline DC Universe, the one that started in 1956’s Showcase #4, the comic that birthed the Silver Age of Comics. Earth-Two was the DC Universe that started with 1938’s Action Comics #1, including the original Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice Society of America. Since it came first, Earth-Two should have been Earth-One, something that no one really commented on. Earth-Two’s heroes would begin to crossover with the Justice League with Justice League of America #21 and in issue #73, the original Superman would join these crossovers.

The original Superman costumes were based on the costumes that circus strongmen would wear in the early 20th century, and Earth-Two Superman’s costume incorporated that, especially when one looks at the cuffs. The cape was shorter than Earth-One’s Superman’s and it looked really cool. The most obvious difference between the two costumes is the S-shield. It’s more stylized than the regular version and fits the more optimistic world of Earth-Two, an alternate Earth defined by more innocent versions of the world’s greatest superheroes.

4) The Timmverse Costume

The Timmverse, named after artist/animator/writer/producer Bruce Timm, began with the classic Batman: The Animated Series and continued with Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. The Timmverse was known for taking the superheroes’ looks off the page and animating them. Superman’s costume in Superman: The Animated Series is basically the costume that was being used in the comics, and that’s why it looked so great.

The S-shield is huge, taking up most of his chest, the trunks are in full force, and the cape is massive. The colors are nice and bright, which fits the tone of the show and who this Superman is. It’s not the best animated Superman look, but it definitely grabbed the eyes and never let go.

3) The Max Fleischer Cartoon Costume

The Max Fleischer Superman cartoons are among the most beloved pieces of Superman media ever. Released between September 26, 1941 and July 31, 1943, the shorts were produced by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios. They were popular from the beginning and have been re-released many times over the last eight decades. They also contain one of the best Superman costumes of all time.

Superman’s early days saw his costume in flux, with the logo being changed several times, and the Fleischer Superman suit has the best early Superman logo. The costume looked brilliant in animated action, its bright colors grabbing the eye immediately. The logo is the best part and it’s been used several times over the years in the comics and other media, including Superman and Lois and in Action Comics #1067-1069. Its staying power shows just what a big effect on Superman that Max Fleischer’s Superman has had on fans.

2) The Kingdom Come Costume

Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, took place in an alternate future where Superman had retired after the people of Metropolis chose a hero who killed over one who wouldn’t. The rest of his generation followed him, leaving the world in the hands of heroes with little morality. He came back after a superhero-caused disaster destroyed Kansas, bringing with him a new costume that matched Kingdom Come‘s darker sensibilities.

The costume immediately draws the eye, each of the little differences subconsciously informing readers of who Superman has become. The red and blue are darker, and the yellows are replaced with black. The S-shield fits the future setting, and the black there and in the belt shows readers that the light in this Superman’s life is gone. The costume is amazing, working with the book’s styles and themes to create an unforgettable look.

1) The Christopher Reeve Costume

1978’s Superman: The Movie is a near-perfect adaptation. Even in the modern era, full of MCU domination, many critics and fans still think that Superman: The Movie is the best. There are many reasons for this, and Christopher Reeve as Superman is the key to nearly all of them. Reeves played Clark Kent and Superman brilliantly, understanding how to use the differences between Kent and Kal-El to make it seem like one could never be the other. The movie’s tagline — “You will believe a man can fly” — fits because of Reeve. The costume plays a huge role in his performance.

Nowadays, superhero movie costume designers don’t believe that comic costumes work on the big screen, which is why we get costumes that look like molded plastic armor with lines and visible textures. However, Superman: The Movie and its sequels show that a costume can come right off the comic page and look beautiful. Superman’s costume has always worked so well because right when someone looks at it, they understand who he is: a bright, cheerful presence that is there to save the day. Reeve’s costume embodies that. Reeve was a large man — 6’4″ and well-built after two months of training with Darth Vader actor David Prowse — and he filled out the costume wonderfully.

There are very few things in adaptations that can be called perfect, but Christoper Reeve’s Superman costume deserves that appellation.