Humble Beginnings: These Boots Are Made for Lacing

Much like our own embarrassing youths, superheroes can have odd or downright goofy aspects of their earliest adventures they'd just as soon forget. As the very first comic book superhero, that's especially true for Superman. With the exception of the Phantom (who'd been appearing in newspaper comic strips since 1936), there weren't any "costume standards" for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to follow as they created a look for Superman...so they turned to the past for inspiration. The result was a crazy-quilt of colorful wardrobe elements taken from circus acrobats, science fiction heroes, and ancient strongmen...most of which remains unchanged  seventy years later.  The only elements of the original costume that saw immediate change were its primitive triangular S-symbol (which continued to evolve through the 1940's) and....the boots!

Lasting only a few issues, the original boots resembled those used by performing strongmen (who were still quite popular during the 1930's).  I use the term "boots" lightly, since they appear to be more like sandals or slippers with crisscrossed lacing to secure them to Superman's lower leg.

Panels from Action Comics #1 (click on the panels for a larger view)

Some might argue that Superman's entire costume has always been a goofy anachronism ("He wears his underwear on the outside of his tights! Haw, Haw!"), but putting that aside, I think we can all agree that it a was a good thing to ditch the blue ballet slippers.

Comments

[Robby Reed]

The slippers -- which are actually supposed to be gladiator sandals -- are also visible on Supe's legs on the cover of Action #1.

[Mark Engblom]

The weird thing about the boots is that in some panels, they clearly have laces/straps....yet in others, the boots have sort of a gladiator-looking piece with slits in it. Clearly Joe Shuster wasn't clear on what he wanted to do here, up until he stuck with the red boots.

[Edna]

It is strange to think that some of the things we got used to so much that we don't think about anymore are mere chance - a certain passing mood of some artist and we years later are stuck with something that was really creates by chance

[suedenim]

I wonder how those leggings would look if they were red? Might not be a terrible look, though one that probably works better with bare legs than tights.