VARTOX's Super-Costume page

As I collected vidcaps for my Superboy page, I realized that there have been a lot of other people to wear the famed costume other than those with whom we're most familiar. Some authorized, some perhaps unauthorized, many just for fun.

Here's one who still kicks up a minor controversy from time to time. As the late Mayo Kaan told it, without him there would be no Superman. Supposedly his incredible physique inspired the look of the Man of Steel we're all familiar with today.

Too bad his story has more holes in it than your favorite sweater at a moth convention. At one time I said here I thought it possible that he might have been a live model for Fleischer Studios animators when they were in pre-production for their series of animated shorts - which begs the question, "What the Hell was I thinking when I wrote THAT?!?!?!".

Even if his claim were true, this guy would've been merely a historical footnote. An implausible story shows him only to have been a huge publicity hound. Who just got way more space here than he deserves.

But doesn't Mayo's costume look a heck of a lot like this one...? (Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....):
*And don't you know there's always* gotta be someone with ruffled feathers trying to get in on the act?**

On the other hand, this was a legitimate wearer of the "S", if extremely obscure.

Superpup was, along with Superboy, one of the projects considered to fill the void left by the untimely death of George Reeves. It's so bad, it's hilarious. Easy to understand how this pilot never sold.

Here is a Superman of the highest-profile project you may have never heard of.

Well, you might have heard about the project, but you won't know this guy's name.This is Bob Holiday, who played the title role in Broadway's "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman" (which starred the late Jack Cassidy and former star of "Alice", Linda Lavin).

The play ran 129 performances at the Alvin Theater from March 29, 1966 to July 17, 1966.

One of the writers of the play was David Newman, who was on the writing team of Superman - The Movie. Apparently, he adapted some aspects of the play into the film, but as I only saw the ABC late-night presentation (starring Lesley Ann Warren) once over 20 years ago, I couldn't tell you what those elements were.

Nope, this isn't one of those parallel universe episodes that pop up in the genre from time to time. This is from an episode of Superboythat introduced the character of Bizarro.

In this scene, Clark's roommate Andy McAlister, who was attending a costume party disrupted by the Thing of Steel, is filling Superboy in on the events that had just transpired.

This series had more than its share of costume wearers. Mostly during dream sequences. During the first season's "Little Hercules", Leaf Phoenix dreams that he's about to give some bullies the final trashing of their lives.

To the right is wrestler Lex Luger, at the time WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion, who is the "new" Superboy in our hero's alien-induced nightmare in the episode "Mindscape".

(And once again, the concept of a SuperBOY defies standard concepts of chronology...)

Dream sequences have been known to pop up on Lois & Clark also.

In "I'm Looking Through You", Clark's nightmare involves his co-workers donning version of his costume (above) with Lois even getting into the flying act (below).

Why, I'm frankly not sure.

(For all I know, it could've been so cast and crew could tell Tracy Scoggins she had a nice "S"...)

(Top, left to right: Michael Landes, Lane Smith, Tracy Scoggins. Below, Teri Hatcher.)

Alas for Clark, Lois' interest in Superman had a similar real-life manifestation, as he discovered a couple of scenes later at an impromptu late-night meeting at her apartment.

October 2001 brought us a new version of the Super-story called "Smallville". Though the catchphrase of this new show is "No tights, no flights", the costume managed to manifest itself in at least a couple of ways in the series pilot.

Here, Clark Kent (portrayed by Tom Welling) and Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), following a rather watery auto accident have been provided red blankets by Smallville EMTs.

Might be crazy, but those blankets look pretty cape-like to me...

But more to the point of the theme of this particular page, check out the Smallville varsity jacket worn by Whitney Fordman (so named as a nod to longtime Superman comic editor Whitney Ellsworth, and played by Eric Johnson).

I said, check out the jacket, not the completely charming new Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk)...ok, you're forgiven...

Strangely, no dream sequence here.

But possibly a time-travel episode?

Who is this mild-mannered young man, racing from his phone booth to an apparent mission in a bygone era?

None other than Michael J. Fox of "Spin City", shown here in a masquerade ball episode. When Deputy Mayor Fox inadvertently inspires a city official to become a real-life costumed hero, only super-action on his part can contain this public relations nightmare.

Stay tuned, who knows when another "S" will appear...???

You are Visitor # to the costume page.

Updated May 24, 2004

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This page debuted February 16, 1997

Superman and related characters and indicia are trademarks of and copyrighted by DC Comics, Inc.
Don't really know who owns the rights to Lucy's image. I'm guessing the Lucille Ball estate or Desilu.
At any rate, all images on this page are used for educational and historical purposes only, without challenge to those copyrights.

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