2015 Comic Book News Archives

February 4, 2015: A Better Look at Superman's New Costume and New Power

With today's release of "Superman #38", IGN.com takes a look inside where Superman's new costume and new super power are shown in more detail.

Looks like we were a bit premature on the whole "fingerless gloves" thing, as the sleeves clearly don't extend that far (as you can see in the image below).

New Costume New Power

    In the pages of today's Superman #38, Superman's discovered he has a new "super flare" power where he expels all of the energy in his cells to create a bright, powerful blast capable of incinerating everything within a quarter mile. The downside - aside from the mass destruction - is that using the super flare ability depletes his cells, essentially making Superman human for 24 hours.

    The power emerged during a fight with Ulysses in the final chapter of "The Men of Tomorrow" arc by writer Geoff Johns and artist John Romita, Jr. Ulysses is a super-human who can absorb energy and use it to achieve Superman-level strength and flight in addition to a variety of other powers. When Superman blasted Ulysses with his heat vision, Ulysses began to absorb it, but suddenly Superman started to glow, setting off his new Super Flare power. The power was enough to end the fight, knocking out Ulysses and causing Superman to pass out.

    Later, Batman explains to a battle-worn Superman, "It looks like your heat vision is actually a precursor to another ability you possess. You unleashed the energy stored in every one of your cells. You created a solar flare, Clark. A super flare."

The costume change doesn't appear to be as drastic as first thought. The collar is still high on the neck, the cape attaches over Superman's shoulder into the region at the top of his pectoral muscles, while the belt (which still appears to be all red), has an oval "buckle" and dips slightly at the stomach. The red boots are now more like what many people regard a "classic" Superman look. Over all, the costume appears to be more fabric in appearance than the previous "armored" look, with less seems.

Newsarama.com also has some additional images from this comic book.

"Superman #38" written by Geoff Johns with art by John Romita Jr. is available now in print, Kindle or iBooks formats.



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