First look at Henry Cavill as Superman

Posted Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:48 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 5:00 PM Central

by John Couture

With all the news that Batman has been getting lately, did you really think that Superman was going to sit back and let Justice League mate get the entire spotlight? Of course not.

Today, Warner Bros. released the first picture of Henry Cavill as Superman in 2013's Man of Steel. Warner Bros. is also the studio behind The Dark Knight Rises, so they are quite familiar with whetting the appetites of their audience.

Of course what is not immediately known is whether this was planned release or simply a tactic by the studio to deflect attention from all of the spoiler related images and videos that have been leaking out of Pittsburgh where The Dark Knight Rises is currently filming. We tend not to post leaked images from unofficial sources both out of respect to the studios and to prevent our readers from becoming accidentally spoiled, but trust me a simple Google search will yield the latest and greatest images.

As for today's image of Cavill, there's plenty to see and enough to not see that will keep the Internet speculation for many months, er days. Right away, you can tell that the suit is darker than previous incarnations and seems to be more "rubber-like," than the standard spandex of days gone by.

Henry Cavill himself looks nothing like his former self. No really, here's a before shot.

But back to the suit, the main question seems to revolve around Superman's, uh, manly regions and whether or not the suit features the red cod piece that previous incarnations have had. I could try and explain all the New 52 stuff and the Siegel & Shuster lawsuit, but I'm not a comics book guy, but suffice to say, that element of the suit is apparently crucial.

Interestingly (or intentionally as I maintain), that specific part of the suit is shrouded in opaque shadows so that we can't even get a hint at the resolution of this debate. I guess only time will tell.

Here's the shot released today by Warner Bros. (click for a higher resolution shot):

And how could we not include the previous incarnations of the suit for comparison?

And just because we love to laugh, he had to include the ridiculous (perhaps fake) mock-up shot of Nicolas Cage in the Superman suit for the failed Tim Burton take on the superhero.

Man of Steel is set for a June 14, 2013 release. What do you think of this first look?