Even the Justice League will be jealous of these Batman and Superman themes

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Tell me … does your theme bleed awesomeness?

We’re ready to see Batman and Superman duke it out for a few hours before they team up to beat down Facebook founder lookalike Lex Luthor. They’re even bringing along a Wonder Woman we have a lot of hope for and an Aquaman that I’m gonna cheer on even if he’s not the Aquaman I’d prefer. (I’ll take as much Aquaman as I can, but could we get one with a sense of humor on the big screen once?)

While some Android phones can get Superman or Batman cases, maybe, if your phone is popular enough with casemakers, but we don’t limit our themes to a case. We’re not iPhone users, for Duarte’s sake. So we’ve assembled two themes to bring the badass of Batman to your icons, your widgets, and the rest of your home screen.

Let’s put some super in your phone.

Superman

Rise above mediocrity with this Superman theme

Superman Components:

  • Wallpaper
  • Zwart Icon Pack (Free)
  • House of El Custom Icon
  • Jack’s Music Widget (Free, $1.99)
  • 1Weather (Free)
  • KWGT Pro ($2.99)
  • SuperWidget KWGT Preset
  • Superman Ringtone
  • Superman notification
  • Launcher that supports both icon packs and individual custom icons; Sub-grid positioning (Nova) preferred, but not required
  • File manager app required for moving KWGT preset and theme elements into proper folders

Superman Theme Instructions:

  1. Download wallpaper and set using the wallpaper picker in your launcher.
  2. Download Zwart Icon Pack (Free).
    Set as your launcher’s icon pack in your launcher’s settings. In Nova, it’s under Look and Feel. In Action, it’s under Display. In Apex, it’s under Theme Settings.

  3. Download House of El Custom Icon to set as app drawer icon.

    Setting a custom icon in five simple screens

  4. Long-press your app drawer icon on your home screen and Edit it.
  5. Select Documents from the icon selection menu. If Documents is not available, select Gallery apps. If Documents is still not an option, select the gallery app of your choice.
  6. Find the House of El icon where you downloaded it and select it.
  7. Ensure the preview box is covering everything. In some launchers, the background is black, so you won’t be able to see anything but the white outer box. If the box is fully extended, hit Done in the top right corner.
  8. In the Edit Shortcut menu, tap Done (not needed in Action Launcher).
  9. Download Jack’s Music Widget (Free, $1.99)

  10. Add a 4×1 Jack’s Music Widget to the top of your home screen. If your home screen grid is larger than 4 columns, stretch it to fit across the top of your screen.

    Clean simple widgets with clean simple settings

  11. Open the Jack’s Music Widget app in your app drawer (don’t just tap the widget) to configure the widget.
  12. Set the 4×1 Widget Style to Clear. (If you haven’t already, give Jack’s Music Widget notification access so that it can see the info from your music app.)
  13. 1Weather (Free)
  14. Add a 4×1 1Weather Compact Widget to the bottom of your home screen.
  15. When the widget configuration pops up, select Transparent as the Background, White for your Icons, and either White or Black for the Accent.
  16. Tap Done in the top left corner to save the widget.
  17. If your home screen grid is larger than 4 columns, stretch the 1Weather widget to fit across the top of your screen.
  18. Download the Superman Ringtone and Superman notification to the Ringtones and Notifications folders on your device.
  19. In Settings, set man-of-steel as your ringtone and superman-dun-dun as your notification.

Now this theme looks great, but it’s missing a little superhero flair, n’est pas? So, we’re going to add some almost invisible shortcuts for Clark Kent to hide on his phone from prying eyes. To make this even easier, I’ve exported the widget as a preset that you can import and adapt as you see fit.

you don't need X-ray vision to see through your wallpaper to the hidden shortcuts on your screen.

Optional Super Secret Shortcut Widget:

  1. Download SuperWidget KWGT file to the Kustom/widgets folder on your phone.
  2. Download KWGT Pro.
  3. Add a 1×1 KWGT to your home screen. (If possible, resize it to 1.5×1.5 for a little extra padding.) Place it somewhere easy to reach, but not somewhere important to any gesture controls your launcher might be using.
  4. Tap the widget to configure it.
  5. Tap the Exported tab of the Preset gallery.
  6. Select SuperWidget.
  7. Save the widget with the floppy disc icon in the top right corner.
  8. Repeat steps 1-6 for every shortcut you wish to hide on your home screen.

To Change the App Shortcut:

  1. Open the widget in the KWGT editor
  2. Tap Superman Shortcut in the Items tab.
  3. Tap the Touch tab.
  4. Tap the Launch App box.
  5. Tap the App box.
  6. Select your desired app. You can also switch Launch App to Launch Shortcut or a media control if you want.
  7. Save the widget with the floppy disc icon in the top right corner.

KWGT to the rescue

To make a Superman Shortcut more/less visible:

  1. Open the widget in the KWGT editor
  2. Tap Superman Shortcut in the Items tab.
  3. In the Bitmap tab, scroll down to Opacity.
  4. To make your shortcut less visible, drag the slider closer to 0.
  5. To make your shortcut more visible, drag the slider closer to 100.
  6. To tilt the logo, move the Rotate slider.
  7. Save the widget with the floppy disc icon in the top right corner.

Batman

Because of course Bruce Wayne would use a Vertu.

Batman Components:

  • Wallpaper
  • Whicons Icon Pack (Free)
  • Assorted Bat Logos
  • Jack’s Music Widget (Free, $1.99)
  • 1Weather (Free)
  • KWGT Pro ($2.99)
  • BatWidget KWGT Preset
  • Batman Ringtone
  • Batwave Notification tone
  • Launcher that supports both icon packs and individual custom icons; Sub-grid positioning (Nova) preferred, but not required
  • File manager app required for moving KWGT preset and theme elements into proper folders

Batman Theme Instructions:

  1. Download wallpaper and set using the wallpaper picker in your launcher.
  2. Download Whicons Icon Pack (Free).
  3. Set as your launcher’s icon pack in your launcher’s settings. In Nova, it’s under Look and Feel. In Action, it’s under Display. In Apex, it’s under Theme Settings.
  4. Long-press your app drawer icon on your home screen and Edit it.
  5. Select Whicons Icon pack.
  6. Scroll down to B and select the Batman icon.
  7. In the Edit Shortcut menu, tap Done (not needed in Action Launcher).
  8. Download Batman ringtone and Batwave notification tone to the Ringtones and Notifications folders on your phone.
  9. In Settings, set batman_animated as your ringtone and Batwave-one-tone as your notification tone.
  10. Add a 4×1 Jack’s Music Widget to the bottom of your home screen. If your home screen grid is larger than 4 columns, stretch it to fit across the top of your screen.
  11. Open the Jack’s Music Widget app in your app drawer (don’t just tap the widget) to configure the widget.
  12. Set the 4×1 Widget Style to Clear. (If you haven’t already, give Jack’s Music Widget notification access so that it can see the info from your music app.)
  13. Download BatWidget KWGT file to the Kustom/widgets folder on your phone.
  14. Add a 2×4 KWGT to your home screen.
  15. Resize the widget to fill the top right portion of the screen next to the cowl.
  16. Tap the widget to configure it.
  17. Tap the Exported tab of the Preset gallery.
  18. Select BatWidget.

KWGT is worthy of a place on your theming utility belt.

This will load a widget preset I made for this theme. It consists of a simple weather/clock widget and three ‘secret’ shortcuts below it. Tapping the Clock and Weather Icon lead to Timely and 1Weather, and the Three shadowy Batman Logos below lead to Play Music (top), Google Keep (middle), and Google Maps (bottom). This widget preset is fully customizable, and you will probably want to change at least a few things in it. Please remember to always Save your widget before returning to the home screen. Here’s a few of the ways you can make this widget your own.

To Change One of the Shortcuts:

  1. Open the widget in the KWGT editor
  2. Tap the element you wish to edit in the Items tab. (For example, Batman Brave&Bold Shortcut)
  3. Tap the Touch tab.
  4. Tap the Launch App box.
  5. Tap the App box.
  6. Select your desired app. You can also switch Launch App to Launch Shortcut or a media control if you want.
  7. Save the widget with the floppy disc icon in the top right corner.

To make a Batman Shortcut more/less visible:

  1. Open the widget in the KWGT editor
  2. Tap the element you wish to edit in the Items tab. (For example, Batman Brave&Bold Shortcut)
  3. In the Bitmap tab, scroll down to Opacity.
  4. To make your shortcut less visible, drag the slider closer to 0.
  5. To make your shortcut more visible, drag the slider closer to 100.
  6. Save the widget with the floppy disc icon in the top right corner.

To change the Clock/Weather/Date colors:

  1. Open the widget in the KWGT editor
  2. Tap the Globals tab.
  3. Select the deceptively-named drkgrey Global.
  4. Select your new color from the color picker. Once you find the color you like, you can set it by tapping the preview color box or the checkmark in the top right corner.
  5. Save the widget with the floppy disc icon in the top right corner.

Put some super in your smartphone.

Now that you have these super superhero themes under your belt, show us how you make your home screen hero-worthy! Share your take on our theme in the comments below and in the forums! And when your fellow comic book fans ask where you got that sweet setup while you’re in line for Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice, tell them you got it from the good folks here at Android Central!