31 Days of Scans, day 23: Least Favorite Costume - Superboy's street clothes.

[lonewolf23k]

Okay, this is a pet peeve of mine, but I have a low tolerance for the "Street clothes as Superhero Costume" trope. Especially with Superboy. I cannot stand his "t-shirt and jeans" outfit.



To me, this is a Superboy costume:


And so is this:


And I'll even grudgingly accept this:


But this? This is not a Supeboy costume:


This is a guy in street clothes wearing a t-shirt with the S-Shield. This is the least creative, imaginative or inspirational costume you could ever give Superboy. And that's why it's my least favorite costume ever.

Comments

[q99]

When did he use the second one?

[lilacsigil]

I do like street clothes costumes...but for street level heroes, not for Superboy. It seems pointless.

[night4345]

What about Superman's shirt and jeans costume?

[starwolf_oakley]

Superboy started as a mash up of 1990s fashion don'ts but became a real hero. Part of it was Superman realizing Superboy needed a "secret identity"

[mrstatham]

Personally, I could never get behind the original Superboy costume. The haircut, glasses and leather jacket were horrific. I did like the one they eventually put together for him in Young Justice, though.

[squirle]

I am generally a fan of normal clothing outfits for superheroes, and after that horrendous 90's haircut and the odd black-red bodypaint, I quite like the normal outfit of Superboy.

They put more effort in the AU costumes for Hyper-Time

[7dialsmystery]

I think the idea behind the street clothes was that Super-Boy wasn't really a member of the Super Family because in that run Clark was a dead beat daddy.

I like the ones they did in the Hyper-Time arc for the Superboys from other realities best.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081114140420/marvel_dc/images/f/f4/Superboy_Vol_4_64.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/Superboy_v2_61.jpg

[kenn_el]

T-Shirted Superboy coincided with the artists drawing him as a buffer late teen (often looking about college-age), so, for me, it helped to rank him with Kyle Raynor and Nightwing as one of the best looks for guys out of the two major companies. It helped to ground him in a way that wasn't true of the other Supers, and also seemed a bit of a commentary on the then ongoing Smallville, where the push to keep Welling out of tights became near parody. I'd applaud a return. Maybe with a hat. Ironically.

[rainspirit]

Superboy's original costume is horrible, but one thing it isn't is boring. I'll always have a fondness for it, even if he'll never get away with looking like that again.