Superheroes with beards have long existed in comic books and TV shows, yet they've only really come into fashion in cinema over the last two decades. Obviously, there were live-action superheroes with facial hair before 2000, but for the most part the screen versions of crime-fighters like Batman and Superman were usually clean-shaven up until that point. If anything, though, the reactions to Tyler Hoechlin's scruffier Clark Kent in a recent poster for The CW's Superman & Lois TV series illustrate just how controversial the topic of "super-manscaping" still is to this day.
In the comic book world, the Man of Steel has proven capable of growing a beard since at least the late 1950s. In the beginning, he would occasionally have help shaving, like when he had Supergirl and Krypto the Superdog use their heat vision to trim his beard in 1960's Superman #139. However, in the decades since John Byrne's 1986 limited comic series The Man of Steel, Clark has typically kept clean-shaven by reflecting his own heat vision off a mirror. What's more, the visual of a scruffy Superman has sometimes carried a negative connotation; most notably, his evil persona in 1983's Superman III has visible facial hair.
Clark eventually got a beard on the big screen in Zack Snyder's 2013 film Man of Steel, in which the up and coming Superman was shown sporting proper facial hair early on in his journey. Of course, Clark was clean-shaven well before the end of the movie and has stayed that way in the DC Extended Universe ever since. Infamously, though, the franchise's commitment to keep the superhero scruff-free caused problems when Superman actor Henry Cavill had to have his mustache digitally-removed during the reshoots on 2017's Justice League. As a result, the character had an uncanny valley look for much of the movie's theatrical cut.
The timing of the Justice League snafu was all the more ironic, given the increased prevalence (and popularity) of on-screen superheroes with facial hair around that time. Over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther revealed his tidy beard a year earlier in 2016's Captain America: Civil War while the MCU's Thor and Iron Man have always had some facial hair. Similarly, the DCEU's Aquaman unveiled his thickset beard in 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and, just a year after Justice League, Captain America debuted his beloved beard in Avengers: Infinity War.
As much as beards evoke a general sense of masculinity, they've come to serve an important storytelling purpose in superhero cinema. While Aquaman's beard is representative of his unruly manner and loner attitude in the DCEU, it also creates a clear contrast between him and his half-brother Orm that reflects their differing principles. Elsewhere, Thor's beard has evolved throughout his appearances in the MCU, becoming bushier and more unkempt as he's accumulated trauma and matured over the course of his adventures. Cavill's beard from Man of Steel was similarly a visual metaphor for where the character was at emotionally at that point in his personal journey.
This brings us back to Hoechlin's Man of Steel in Superman & Lois and why his super-stubble has caused a bit of a commotion. Putting facial hair on a superhero is now recognized as a deliberate aesthetic choice that says something about the character; as such, Hoechlin's Kal-El having unrefined scruff suggests he may hew closer to the Snyderverse's Superman on his show, which some feel is a questionable direction for the series to take. Still, the mere sight of facial hair on superheroes has come to symbolize different things over time, so it's possible its meaning will once again change with Superman & Lois.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. The series premieres Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.