The super-codpiece actually has a rich and interesting history that goes back more than thirty years.
During pre-production on director
Richard Donner's
Superman,
Christopher Reeve was sporting a simple spandex-style costume that put his every physical attribute very much on display, and the groin area prompted much internal debate. Executives at Warner Bros were reluctant to sexualize the iconic American creation in any way, and wanted costume designer
Yvonne Blake to create a codpiece that would, like
Joe Shuster's comic book Superman, remove any phallic impressions and make the hero more like a Ken doll. As explained in a behind-the-scenes documentary on the
Superman DVD and Blu-ray, producers
Alxander Salkind and
Ilya Salkind, on the other hand, vehemently maintained that the superpowered physique must have a correspondingly oversized bit of manhood, with Ilya saying, "Either he has a big one, or he has nothing!"
The eventual metal codpiece that Blake created after much testing was between the two extremes and suited all parties. Except, on several occasions, for Reeve. When filming scenes with
Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, the actress would jokingly flick the metal accessory with a finger, eliciting much mirth from the crew and consternation from the more serious-minded actor.
When
Bryan Singer brought the cinematically-dormant hero back to screens with
Superman Returns, the crotch of
Brandon Routh's costume proved to be a similarly troublesome issue. Well before the film's release in 2005, costume designer
Louise Mingenbach detailed the process of finding the right junk to suit the new Supes. There was more discussion about Supermans package than anything else on the suit, she explained in a
Newsweek preview piece at the time. Was it too big? Was it not big enough? Was it too pointy? Too round? It was somebodys job for about a month just working on codpiece shapes. It was crazy.
So the
Man of Steel codpiece is no exception.
t:
LOL. 
