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It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a costume change!
Superman enters his blue period
March 12, 1997
Web posted at: 5:00 a.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Jeanne Moos
NEW YORK (CNN) -- We interrupt our regular programming with this major development in superhero couture.
He is still faster than a speeding bullet, but now he sports lightning bolts pouring out of his eye sockets. Oh, and he is ... blue.
"He" is Superman, and he has a new look that is not exactly drawing rave reviews. One would-be critic proclaimed that Superman "doesn't look normal."
Well, it's hard to say he ever looked or acted normal in the past. There he was, flying across television screens, movie screens and comic book pages in blue tights and red booties, with a cape fluttering behind him long after capes had fallen out of fashion.
First his powers, now his cape
It's all gone now, though. Superman has turned blue and lost his cape after almost 60 years of the same look. And the "S" emblazoned on his chest is so stylized most people are hard pressed to recognize it.
No trunks, no booties, no cape? No way!
Superman has been wearing those blue tights since 1938. But recently he lost some of his powers. The Man of Steel became the Man of Energy, and it was seeping out of him, or so goes the storyline in the pages of D.C. Comics' Superman saga.
"His old suit literally cannot contain his being anymore," said D.C. Universe's Executive Editor Mike Carlin. "He's dispersing into the cosmos. And if you've ever done that, you know how painful that can be."
Man of Steel makeover
Dispersing readers are what really have D.C. Comics worried. Superman's creators figure he needed a makeover to appeal to the younger set. D.C. was tired of pint-size critics passing up their comic-book mainstay with comments like "he looks tired." So on with a fresh coat of paint.
"He looks scary," one comic book store customer told CNN. "He doesn't look like an American hero ... like a guy you'd want to see on the street come and help you."
So it looks like people find more to object to in the new Superman than just the loss of the fabled flowing cape.
Carlin poo-poos the cape as passe: "Well, when was the last time you wore a cape?"
But who could imagine Superman stepping off a rooftop without a cape? Remember the thrill of the Man of Steel's exit from Lois Lane's rooftop terrace in 1978's "Superman: The Movie?"
What next, blue kryptonite?
Superfans aren't fretting, though. Superman aficionados know that the change is unlikely to last. They still remember the "death" of Superman a few years back, when D.C. Comics killed him off in an effort to drum up super sales upon his return from the dead.
Just don't expect the old Superman to flash his red briefs and booties on a D.C. Comics page again. One can only guess what the big guy's next look will be.
When the change does come, however, CNN fashion diva Elsa Klensch is sure to be on the case. And she's one person who does approve of his new duds.
Says Elsa: "The result (of Superman's makeover): modern, wearable clothes that have a strong spirit."
Related story:
- It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an animated Superman! - November 14, 1996
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