Depending on the Artist in this franchise.
Comic Books
- Odds are you don't know that Superman traditionally has another S symbol on the back of his cape. This is because most artists (except in his own series — usually) either simply forget about that or honestly think it's unnecessary.
- Similarly, the S-symbol on the front is either a small emblem on his chest or large enough to cover his entire torso.
- It was especially bad the first 15 years of his existence when the artists could hardly agree on any details of his costume beyond the basic cape and tights with an S on the chest. The original chest emblem was a triangle with a simple bold 's' and his boots were laced up "sandals." You can even see some early merchandise where his tights are yellow instead of blue.
- The New 52 version of Superman's suit was described as Kryptonian armor. Despite this, artists can't seem to agree if it's actually metallic or just cloth that looks (or acts?) like armor.
- The biggest variable in modern depictions is his musculature which fluctuates from a lean runners' build up to Olympic bodybuilder. Really, most male heroes go through some of this.
- Superman's facial features have varied quite a bit historically. While more modern interpretations usually have a non-threatening, almost "perfect" look, his Golden Age self could look rather thuggish, with close-cropped hair, prominent laugh lines, and narrow, constantly squinting eyes.
- Exactly how different Clark Kent looks from Superman varies quite a bit. Sometimes, Clark is still portrayed as a muscular, rather attractive man, yet in other versions, Clark slouches, has an intentionally unflattering haircut and wears several layers of clothes a few sizes too big to look somewhat pudgy. Even crazier, in some Golden Age comics, Clark Kent was supposed to look like a completely different person, because of his (obscure and quickly forgotten) power to change his facial features.
Allies
- Power Girl shares She-Hulk's "varying musculature" issues; Alex Ross drew her as fairly muscular (but still curvy) in Kingdom Come, and it seems that's been either downplayed or exaggerated (I'm looking at YOU, Jimenez!) by most every artist since then. Her famous boobs also vary a bit; she's always at least a DD, but some artists go bigger. This can be applied to most any superheroine, though.
- PG in the white and gold outfit of the early 1990s was slim, athletic and of average height, sometimes. Recall Wally Wood originally drew her short (about 5'), zaftig and narrow-waisted.
- Another big variant is the size and shape of her boob window, which comes in a variety of sizes and is either round, square or shield-shaped.
- Some artists picture Supergirl as well-built or waif-like, but back when she was an adult in the Pre-Crisis comics, she generally looked curvaceous and athletic. Her hair has been depicted cropped-short and curly, long and curly, shoulder-length and straight, shoulder-length and wavy, and even waist-length and wavy. Also, her Post-Crisis suit included golden cuffs whose length fluctuated wildly. On the other hand, her Post-Flashpoint red cape was gold-trimmed until DC Rebirth started and artists forgot about it.
- In Superboy (1949): Although most of artists like Curt Swan drew Pa and Ma Kent as grey-haired old folks, illustrators like Bob Brown depicted them as a middle-aged couple. Some artists even missed their signature glasses.
- Krypto the Superdog is a small, white dog. This is the only constant between his designs. He's usually drawn as a vaguely Labrador-looking dog with floppy ears, but even that's not consistent.
- Cosmic Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes has an incredibly inconsistant eye color, with his eyes having been colored blue, black, grey or purple by different artists.
- Karate Kid from the Legion of Super-Heroes has a complicated history of this, since he was introduced as a curly-haired Mighty Whitey before being Retconned into possessing Japanese heritage. Sometimes he looks like a teenage Bruce Lee, while other times he looks like a generic white dude.
Villains
- Bizarro: Is his skin crystal-like, or just gray? Or white? Is his costume the same colors as Superman's, in darker shades, or in different colors altogether? Does he wear a medallion around his neck that says "Bizarro No. 1"? And is his costume dirty and tattered, or is it in relatively decent condition?
- Bizarro's size also varies. In most incarnations, he's roughly as big as Superman, but sometimes, Bizarro is freakishly huge, both much taller and way more muscular than his template.
- Lex Luthor: While everyone manages to get the "bald" aspect down, the guy's body structure ranges from emaciated to Kingpin-esque levels of girth. And on rare occasions, he's almost as jacked as Superman!
- Fun fact: in his first couple of appearances, he was indeed depicted with a full head of red hair. So not even the bald aspect is safe!
- This sudden shift was parodied in Supreme by Original Dax, the first incarnation of Lex Luthor Captain Ersatz Darius Dax to be revised and sent to the Daxia. He remarks with bewilderment that as more Daxes showed up, he notices all of them have hair and no beard, unlike him; he theorizes that some kind of higher power just decided it was better that way.
- Luthor's bout with obesity was not an art inconsistency. John Byrne re-imagined the character as a Corrupt Corporate Executive in 1986. Luthor stayed fat until 1991, when he faked his death and came back in a healthy clone body. He pretty much stayed that way since.
- Pre-Crisis, there was no mystery to it. Dude got himself in shape. Granted that continuity-loving writer E. Nelson Bridwell was probably the only one to bother lampshading it, but he did. Then the Crisis came, and John Byrne made him fat again. Eventually, Grant Morrison's reboot had a chunky Lex at the beginning of Supes's career, before Luthor is driven to a physical perfection regime by his inferiority complex.
- During The Death of Superman, Jon Bogdanove drew Lex Luthor Jr. with an enormous perm, while his hair style was more subdued under the other artists.
- Superboy-Prime: Superboy's Anti-Monitor based armor is drawn wildly different in each appearance. The absolute worst case of this was during the Sinestro Corps War storyline where Prime received no less than 3 seperate redesigns all within a few months.
