Superman costume fetches thousands

George Reeves played Superman 12 years after the comic appeared

An original Superman costume fetched $129,800 (£81,000) at a Los Angeles auction on Thursday.

Complete with S logo and red underpants, the red and blue wool and polyester costume was worn by the man of steel from the 1952-1957 US TV series, George Reeves.

Reeves committed suicide in 1959 while episodes of "The Adventures of Superman" were being shown.

The sale of the costume fell short of the higher end of auctioneers' estimates at $150,000 (£92,500).

But admirers of Reeves and his super-human character were not disappointed.

"It is extremely valuable because Reeves was such an icon in television and comic book history as well as in pop culture," said Brian Chanes of Los Angeles-based movie memorabilia auctioneers Profiles In History.

"It's also the most complete and best preserved Reeves costume ever to reach the auction block."

"I can't think of a more important TV show costume," added Joseph Maddalena, the auctioneer's chief executive.

Other movie memorabilia auctioned included Mel Brooks' handwritten lyrics for the song, Springtime for Hitler, from his 1968 comedy The Producers, which went for $26,550.

Jim Carrey's "Riddler" costume in 1995's Batman Forever sold for $10,620.

One of the company's auctions last year saw a fan spend $305,000 (£188,000) on Captain Kirk's Command Chair from the USS Enterprise.

A ship from the first two Alien films, priced at around $50,000, and a Blade Runner costume at around $40,000 were also up for grabs.