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SUPER SUIT

I just finished reading Tom de Haven's IT'S SUPERMAN! novel, and I'm currently reading Geoff Johns' and Gary Frank's SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN. It got me to thinking about the origins of Superman's costume (or uniform, if you like).

SECRET ORIGIN brings back the original explanation of the super suit... it was Kryptonian cloth that was as indestructible as Superman. It's okay, but there would be times that Superman would get bruised or wounded by forces stronger than his skin, so wouldn't that mean the suit would be torn, too?

IT'S SUPERMAN! reveals that originally, Superman was using a suit made out of ordinary fabric, so it would tear up most of the time. He finally gets an indestructible suit courtesy of arch-enemy Lex Luthor. Who just mails it to Superman as a gift of sorts. This origin of the suit was kinda "meh" for me.

Out of all the different explanations on how Superman's suit is as invulnerable as he is, the one most plausible (for me, at least) is the one John Byrne cooked up for his THE MAN OF STEEL miniseries in the 80s. In the story, it was revealed that Superman had an aura which protects stuff that's really up close to his skin. Which makes his skintight suit almost as indestructible as he is. Of course, when going up against something that would hurt even his "invulnerable" skin, The suit would also get torn. It also mean that his cape could be torn, since it wasn't skintight, but that's okay. The only drawback is he can't protect people with his cape like he used to. The aura also explains away why a man would don spandex in order to fight crime. Since normal clothes would tear up, it only makes sense for him to wear something that could be protected by his aura, right?

Any Superman readers out there? Which super-suit origin do you like most?

(image from www.zimbio.com)