Superman Lost His Underoos

I'm dubbing this "The Summer Of Superhero Set Photos," as every day has brought a bevy of shaky cell phone video and low resolution stills from the various comic book movies filming around the country.  Dark Knight Rises just blew out of Pittsburgh, The Avengers are currently battling baddies in Cleveland and The Man Of Steel is now fending off foes around Illinois.  To be honest, I kinda hate this tidal wave of subpar media, as it's a really crappy way of seeing characters and action from highly anticipated releases for the first time, (much like the folly of pirated trailer leaks) and so I've been hesitant to really cover that kind of stuff here.  Yes, I included an Avengers battle clip in my D23 summary, but that was mostly because I felt bad for whetting your appetite with talk of a sizzle reel and not providing an actual reel to gaze upon.

That being said, I'm running these set pictures from Zack Snyder's Man Of Steel (courtesy of Coming Soon) because I do think there's something to be gained here.  First of all, while we've already gotten our first official still of Superman in costume, these pictures confirm a long-rumored detail that wasn't evident in that publicity shot: Supes has ditched the classic red briefs from his suit, following the trend set by DC in the latest run of comics.  While I dig the darker color, I like the way the shorts (or the belt in the new comic) breaks up all that blue.  Then again, a guy who wears his underwear on the outside feels a little dated these days and may cause criminals to dissolve into giggle fits, so I understand the reasoning here.  It's hard to tell from the distance of these shots, but the material of the suit seems vaguely shiny, almost like armor instead of cloth.  I shouldn't have to explain to you the absurdity of giving Superman armor, so hopefully this is just a trick of crappy photography.

Henry Cavill (who looks positively jacked!) appears to be facing off with some villains here, OK Corral style.  This is our first glimpse of Not-Ursa (capes for EVERYONE!) as well as...someone in a motion capture suit.  It's unclear whether the man in the rig is Michael Shannon or not, but I sort of doubt it.  Aside from the fact that it doesn't really look like him, a full mo-cap suit would seem to imply that whatever character we're seeing will be an entirely CG creation and that seems wholly unnecessary for Zod.  It could just be some sort of other beastly Kryptonian minion, but I'm also reminded of some early claims that Metallo would be making an appearance this time out.

I suppose only time (or another shitty cell phone pic) will tell...