The same day we post our 12 favorite iconic movie costumes, FX guru Steve Johnson has revealed the costume that could have been Superman's suit in Tim Burton's unmade Superman Lives.

It is a truly amazing and unprecedented sight to behold. The metallic, exoskeleton look would have been way beyond anthing anybody had imagined for the look of Superman.

No details are added to the photos, but it's hard to imagine Burton would have dumped the red and blue entirely. Either way, this is truly inspired design work. I guess they did do something with the alleged $30 million Warner Bros. spent before canning the project.

Check out some of the photos below. It's kind of bizarre to see these visions of a Superman that never existed on film. I wonder how it would have turned out had Burton never "forgotten to film it."

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The rest of the photos can be found on Steve Johnson's Facebook page.

The Superman Super Site has a page dedicated to Burton's Superman Lives with an image that appears to be along these same lines. In it, Superman sports his signature red cape, but the futuristic armor replaces the spandex suit. Could that be the finished look Johnson's team was going for before the film was halted?

I'm starting to wonder if Burton's Superman would have outdone his adaptation of Batman - as good as the latter was. Kevin Smith was to write the script and Nic Cage would play Superman. In fact, the photos show a mold of what appears to be Nic Cage's head. So, if you had any doubts that the one photo of Nic Cage in a Superman suit was fake, this should be final proof that was more than rumor.

But in the end, this film remains in the "what-if" category and we have to wait for Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder's version of Superman. That's not such a bad replacement after all.

What do you think of these molds of Tim Burton's Superman? What would you say to this look in 2012's Man of Steel?

Source: Steve Johnson's Facebook