Would anyone like to superman in his original/first costume again?

[Restingvoice]

Nah. 40s costume works in the 40s. At present, I already think the S looks like random spray paint. I prefer the Kryptonian origin. Looks cooler, has its meaning, and can be used for a homemade costume without looking too homemade.

[Jim Kelly]

It's funny how a character design that might have only lasted one issue or only appeared on a cover or in one panel, nevertheless is given a greater importance simply because it was the first design that was tried out. Of course, in reality, the artist said, "Nah, I can do better" and came up with something better--or, in some instances, a design that was easier to execute when faced with deadlines and they didn't have time to ink in on all those details or use so much black (back when art was embellished with india ink, not computers). Designs that lasted for 5, 10, 20 years get swept under the rug--but these prototypes are elevated to glory.

[lotchj]

The Past is the past!! Let that old costume stay in the past !! His costume should change with the times!! I don't like the costume he's wearing now!! I liked the new 52 costume much better than the costume he's wearing now! It's time for the trunks to go!!

[Crabble]

The Past is the past!! Let that old costume stay in the past !! His costume should change with the times!! I don't like the costume he's wearing now!! I liked the new 52 costume much better than the costume he's wearing now! It's time for the trunks to go!!

Wouldn't the New52 costume also be considered something that should be left in the past?

I think it's okay to re-use costume designs, if you want to set a story in a particular era.

[Mr.B]

Maybe Kal L of Earth 2 can wear it again.

[Ascended]

I'd be happy to see the original suit appear again. Always fun to see that pop up.

As a permanent thing, the business side of the industry would shoot that down since the S shield isn't the one everybody buys on t-shirts. But I'd be happy as hell to see it used occasionally. Hell, I'd accept just seeing the suit in a display case at the Fortress!

I think they could get away with using it on an alternate earth or adaptation. Superman Smashes the Klan uses the old Fleischer shield and that book is the best Superman related thing to happen in years. I'd think a live action tv show or movie set in the 40's could get away with using the OG suit. And as Mr.B said, the Earth-2 Superman could definitely wear it, and I'd suggest they do just to make him a little more distinct and identifiable from other Supermen.

[JAK]

I'd love it - I'd also enjoy an Earth-2 or straight Golden Age series with that suit. Honestly, that kind of art is more simple - so just find someone that can draw "on model" and have them go nuts. It'd be great!

I'm pretty disillusioned with the idea of continuity or canon in general by now, but, I've had this idea floating around in my head that Superman, at least since Superman Reborn, should be able to remember his entire publication history through, I don't know, "Hypertime Memory," does that sound super-powery enough? Haha! And so if that was the case, then he should absolutely remember the Action # 1 suit as his first costume, and it'd give any writer license to flashback to his early days - and give Lois a pillbox hat and Clark a fedora while they're at it!

I also like this idea, to a degree. Maybe he can't remember all of it all the time, but there are certainly places where he has full "Metaverse Memory" (which, after Doomsday Clock, would be the best term imo). Or maybe it happens when the multiverse and Metaverse are in flux somehow (Crisis, etc), and the energies being discharged allow him to see them (he'd describe them as faded, where his current ones are solid) since he's the center of the Metaverse.

[marhawkman]

I even think the social crusader aspect is a bit overstated since it wasn't like he was always out fighting racism and other prejudices and the stories could sometimes be pretty uninspired with uninteresting subject matters that were probably only relatable to people who were around in the 30s and 40s. Now I'm not saying I would mind if they did go to the golden age look on a temporary basis, I just think there's no reason to turn Superman back into his early golden age self, although making Superman more of a social crusader isn't a bad idea as long as the things he deals with are more relevant than slot machines in a convenience store.

"Social Crusader" isn't a synonym for racism though. It's the most obvious possible social injustice to complain about. Relevant social ills don't wear swastikas and goose step down the street. they hide in the shadows disguised as ordinary parts of daily life. such as having an economy where debt is treated as a tradable commodity.

[Jim Kelly]

The petulant fan in me wants a proper timeline for the original Superman--something that the Earth-Two Superman (so-called Kal-L) never followed. In this chronology, new stories of Supes pre-ACTION COMICS 1 would establish how he adopted the S badge and why he abandoned it for the S triangle and then the other shields that came after that. And also why his footwear changed--and how he tried out different capes, some with an S on the back and some not.

All the latteday stories that pay homage to the original Superman are scattershot--pulling from different sources that doesn't work with the publishing history of the character. This is not something I should be so fussy about yet it is. I guess there are worse things to obsess on.

[manwhohaseverything]

Nah. 40s costume works in the 40s. At present, I already think the S looks like random spray paint. I prefer the Kryptonian origin. Looks cooler, has its meaning, and can be used for a homemade costume without looking too homemade.

Yeah! I don't think convoluted kryptonIan 'meaning' is better than, superman using police badge s symbol for sending a message to the corrupt. It looks cooler because its a product of the corporate machine. I have no issues with that. But, i like this one for what it is.

[Patrick Gerard]

I just meant that in a lot of golden age stories, I guess I felt like they didn't live up to all the talk of Superman being a social crusader. So while I'm sure there were stories of Superman dealing with real social problems, I guess maybe there was a lot of trivial subject matter too. Looking through them, I guess I felt sometimes like Superman was dealing with things that were kind of beneath his skill set. Now I know fighting supervillains and big battles and catastrophes have become cliche in comics over the years, but I think those earlier stories could have used more of that. Like why not have more characters like the golden age Metalo(who didn't appear again until the bronze age) instead of 100s of gangsters and unscrupulous mine owners?

The whole point of Superman is for him to fight below his skill set.

Why do you think he has villains like Toyman and Prankster.

It wasn’t that they were evenly matched and he outgrew them. They started off below him and stayed there, growing alongside him.

Superman as the “champion of the oppressed” means he’s a bully in YOUR corner, fighting all those other bullies you couldn’t get away with fighting in real life.

He’ll kick the crud out of your landlord, your senator, and the cops to carry out any fantasies you may have of doing the same. And he’ll do it in bulletproof style and nobody can stop him.

[Powerboy]

I think it would be good for a little while or in a run set in the late 1930s or early 1940s although the boots in the images don't look like the original boots.

We've already got "Superman Smashes the Klan" where he's wearing the Max Fleisher insignia. But I think the original insignia would be best in a period setting.

As an addition to what I said, I wonder if part of this is based on a feeling by many fans, myself included, that Superman has generally moved so far away from his roots that people consider him irrelevant. But I don't think making him less powerful or putting his costume or temperament back to what it was long ago is going to help because those people who say, "He's too powerful", "He's too perfect", etc, will still say those things.

I did love the early "Nu" stuff circa 2011 with the bluejeans and the shirts he paid someone to make for him along with the recreation of some of his earliest exploits like beating up a wife beater. In fact, he was the Golden Age Superman except more thoughtful. It made him feel like a guy who lives in the neighborhood and is using his powers to make things better rather than a mythical figure up in the sky. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter. It's really the version I grew up on. But I think it's good to occasionally go back and again explore the original essence of the character.

[Ascended]

Superman as the “champion of the oppressed” means he’s a bully in YOUR corner, fighting all those other bullies you couldn’t get away with fighting in real life.

He’ll kick the crud out of your landlord, your senator, and the cops to carry out any fantasies you may have of doing the same. And he’ll do it in bulletproof style and nobody can stop him.

Exactly, back in the day it wasn't about Superman "not punching down" it was about him doing the stuff regular people wanted to do but couldn't. It was pure cathartic fantasy, getting back at those who wronged us and society, and moral quandaries and fair fights had no place in the narrative.

How many times have you wished you could take your local politicians (or the president) and throw them into the sun because they're corrupt and bad for your country/state/town? How many times have you wanted to knock your boss down a peg or two because they got fat off your hard work and their questionable adherence to expensive safety regulations? How many land lords have screwed you out of your security deposit, when you left the apartment in better shape than you got it?

And keep in mind, back in the late 30's and early 40's, there weren't legal protections for the little guy like we have now. No matter how poor and marginalized you are today, it was far worse 80 years ago.

Superman was there to bully your bullies, not have a fair fight against whimsical aliens and monsters. And he acted like a bully and made his own rules and if you didn't like it then f--- you. That was his attitude. "Treat people right, Metropolis, or expect a visit from me."

For my money, I think a Superman who got a little more involved in these types of topics, especially today, would be far more interesting and far more popular than the guy who stays above it all for reasons in-story that barely hold together and were forged by a corporation that wanted to be able to re-use his rogues gallery indefinitely and not piss off anybody.

A Superman who pisses off nobody is also a Superman who inspires nobody.

[marhawkman]

Exactly, back in the day it wasn't about Superman "not punching down" it was about him doing the stuff regular people wanted to do but couldn't. It was pure cathartic fantasy, getting back at those who wronged us and society, and moral quandaries and fair fights had no place in the narrative.

How many times have you wished you could take your local politicians (or the president) and throw them into the sun because they're corrupt and bad for your country/state/town? How many times have you wanted to knock your boss down a peg or two because they got fat off your hard work and their questionable adherence to expensive safety regulations? How many land lords have screwed you out of your security deposit, when you left the apartment in better shape than you got it?

And keep in mind, back in the late 30's and early 40's, there weren't legal protections for the little guy like we have now. No matter how poor and marginalized you are today, it was far worse 80 years ago.

Superman was there to bully your bullies, not have a fair fight against whimsical aliens and monsters. And he acted like a bully and made his own rules and if you didn't like it then f--- you. That was his attitude. "Treat people right, Metropolis, or expect a visit from me."

For my money, I think a Superman who got a little more involved in these types of topics, especially today, would be far more interesting and far more popular than the guy who stays above it all for reasons in-story that barely hold together and were forged by a corporation that wanted to be able to re-use his rogues gallery indefinitely and not piss off anybody.

A Superman who pisses off nobody is also a Superman who inspires nobody.

DCAU played to that by having him act as "jailer" to the smoking hot(in multiple ways) Volcana.

One problem I see is that far too many writers take the "go big or go home" approach. It's fine... as a special event. Far too few writers actually sHOW why many characters in-universe characterize Superman as a guy who uses phenomenal powers to save cats from trees.

[SuperCrab]

I even think the social crusader aspect is a bit overstated

Doesn't he both side with a wife being abused by her husband and save a guy from being executed in the first issue of Action Comics in 1938? If those aren't both in the first issue, they are both in early issues. I'd say for it's time, those are definitely both social crusader type things. Back then a lot of people thought husbands had the right to hit their wives- it was frowned upon, but often considered nobody's business. Capital punishment was also much more popular than it became in later times. So, those were actually even more social crusading stories then in their societal context than they would have been considered retroactively.

One could say that the capital punishment thing isn't really that much of a social crusading thing because the guy who was going to executed was really innocent, but they did show a guy sentenced to death who was innocent and make that the crux of the story, which is still a point of view that might cause some people to rethink the death penalty, and contrary to the view of some pro-death penalty extremists that innocent people are never executed in the US (Which is demonstrably untrue, BTW).

There were also some anti-corruption stories where Superman stood up to bad politicians and mob bosses and the like.

There was at least one where Superman got the leaders of warring parties together and at least hinted at the futility of war and the importance of peace (Says the guy who punches someone in every issue, but still ). Actually, I can't think of the issue off the top of my head, but sometime in the last decade there was a big time homage/recreation of that using a modern Superman (Not sure which one, but it'd be either New52 Superman, Rebirth Superman, Reborn Superman, or, if we're considering him separately, Bendis Superman (He's really Reborn Superman, but Bendis writes him better). Maybe it was a brief aside in the arc where Jor-El manages to cause thousands of crisis situations all at once simultaneously on earth and Superman keeps rushing to put out the fires (Literal and figurative) at once, but even he can't keep up with it all (Did Jor-El ever apologize for that or explain himself in a way that diminishes his culpability, BTW? Seems odd to send your son off for the summer alone with your biological father who likes to start problems that kill people just to prove rhetorical points. I realize that he had his past extensively altered and that he was sort of made evil by being exposed to circumstance and rhetoric he never would have encountered without extra-dimensional meddling, but it's not like he had his past changed back by the time he took Jon out to see the galaxy- Did he?).

Finally, Clark being an investigative journalist kind of works as a progressive occupation.

All that said, I know it wasn't like, say, every issue 1938 Superman was specifically standing up for the poor or doing something that touched on a progressive issue or position. And nothing was quite as direct a real world political stance as Captain America punching Hitler (That came out before Pearl Harbor was bombed and the US entered World War 2, so it wasn't just par for the course). But this Superman was a little different from some of the more conservative Superman we saw later IMO.