They Tried to Make Superman Cool in the Late 90s. It Wasn't Pretty. 

I agree, I was 20 but I thought they should have just stuck it out and challenged the creative teams and audiences. But what did I know at 20? I vividly remember SNL's weekend update showing this also, and that Ron Frenz art. Norm MacDonald says "apparently, DC decided Superman's costume was "not Gay enough" " which had me taken aback when I saw it!

Mine too 😂

I guess it took a certain generation to not find that design absolutely heinous. The red is a tiny bit better for not being so washed out with a one-tone palette. And a lot of it is how it's handled, for one I even like Silver Surfer, who is so heavily contrasted with linework to go against the lack of color, almost being like a color into itself in the negative space. Same kind of thing like highlighting black leather with big, bright reflections of white light. That is what I find these largely lacking. Some of the actual panels look good but the pin-ups are realiably jsut awful, plus impacted with me not liking the lightning bolt thing just in general. I would ahve maybe used purple lighning and skin color for the Blue with Dr. Manhattan glowing eyes when using it, and highly emphasize the white so it looks almost like a painted on Justice Lords cape. In fairness that design probably benefits from lessons learned in this one.

When you were a kid, it was cool! Part of the magic of childhood is seeing things without baggage, cynicism, or experience. This was an exciting time in comics, too.

He stuck to it