Superhero Coloring Pages

Superheroes are mostly about helping, and these superhero coloring pages lean into that: fewer battles, more rescues, with the famous heroes and plenty of new ones for a child to make their own.

The famous faces come first. Superman lands on a rooftop in a cloud of pigeons, hovers above a park fountain, repairs a jetpack in a workshop, flies beside a flock of birds over the fields, stands in a laboratory of bubbling flasks and kneels to fix a broken swing. The Flash pulls a child up onto a fire escape, races down a street in a blur of speed lines, stops a runaway cart outside a market and balances on a high wire between two chimneys. Captain America deflects a beam of light with his star shield, and Batman fills a whole page in a close portrait, holding his cape around him.

The other heroes are yours to name. One swings on a rope above a street hung with washing, one lifts a bus while the passengers step out, one carries a sling of rescued kittens, one pushes a boulder off a mountain road, one holds an umbrella over an elderly neighbor, one climbs a pole to rescue a cat, one lifts a snowmobile out of a drift, one clears a fallen branch from a garden shed, one holds a farm gate for a flock of sheep, one untangles a kite from the power lines, one walks the coral reef in a diving suit, one soars over a harbor on feathered wings, and one eats a sandwich on a water tower above the skyline. A heroine guides schoolchildren across the road and another lifts a cart out of the desert sand. Four heroes line up on a bridge at sunrise, two bump fists on a helipad, and one trains on a rooftop obstacle course. At home, a boy fits a homemade mask in front of the mirror, and another runs along the beach in a cape with his dog. A chibi hero sits on a cloud, and a superhero mandala and a pattern of capes, masks and fists finish the set.

Superman, the first of them

Superman was created by two teenagers from Cleveland, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and he first appeared in Action Comics in June 1938, lifting a car over his head on the cover. He was so successful that he started a whole genre: Batman followed in 1939, The Flash in 1940 and Captain America in 1941. Most of the ideas every superhero still uses came from those first years: the secret identity, the costume, the emblem on the chest and, above all, the cape.

The emblem matters more than it seems. The S on Superman's chest, the lightning bolt of The Flash, the star on Captain America's shield: each one lets a reader recognize the hero from far away in a crowded panel, which is exactly why children love to draw them.

Design your own hero

Many of the heroes on these pages have a blank emblem or a simple star, and that is on purpose: they are waiting for a child to invent a hero. Four things make a hero:

• A name: short and easy to shout.
• A power: one is enough. Flying, speed, strength, talking to animals.
• Two colors: most famous heroes use two strong colors plus one accent. Red and blue, green and purple, black and yellow.
• An emblem: a simple shape anyone could draw in five seconds, a letter, an animal, a star or a flame.

Draw the emblem on the chest of the chibi hero or the kitten rescuer, and color the whole costume in the chosen colors. The boy in front of the mirror is the perfect page for the moment the new hero puts on the mask for the first time.

Colors of the famous heroes

• Superman: a blue suit, a red cape and boots, and a red and yellow S.
• The Flash: all red, with a yellow lightning bolt in a white circle and yellow lightning on the ears.
• Captain America: a blue top with a white star, red and white stripes, and a red, white and blue shield.
• Batman: dark gray with a black cape and cowl, or all black, and a yellow belt.

Quick heroes and busy city scenes

The simplest pages keep one hero large with plenty of space, like the Batman portrait and the boy running with his dog. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Batman portrait
• A boy hero and his dog
• Rescuing a cat

The detailed ones are packed with bricks, windows and market crates. Lots of detail begins with:

• The Flash on the fire escape
• Rooftop training
• Swinging over the street

A cape for the colored hero

Once a hero is colored, the costume can come off the page. An old pillowcase or a rectangle of felt, cut to size and tied at the neck, becomes a cape in the hero's colors. Cut the emblem out of the colored page, glue it onto card and pin it to the front of a T-shirt. It is a quick costume for a superhero party, where every guest arrives as the hero they designed.

Printing a team

Every page is a free PDF drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so the capes stay on the page. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a whole team into one file. Batman has his own collection in the Batman coloring pages, and other teams of heroes are in the Power Rangers coloring pages, the Ninja Turtle coloring pages and the Transformers coloring pages.