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Superman

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Superman (fictitious character), is a superhero, present in comic books bearing his name from DC Comics. The character has also been in various television series and movies.

Note: For Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch ("superman" or "overman" in the German language) see Übermensch.

History

Superman was invented by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and originally appeared in Action Comics in 1938. They sold the rights to the company for $130 and when the popularity of the character led them to sue for more in 1947 they were fired. Superman has been more or less consistently popular throughout the 20th century.

Synopsis

Clark Kent is the the secret "civilian" identity of Superman. The story of Superman's origin is a science-fiction update of the common origin story of various culture heroes eg. Moses, Gilgamesh, who, to save them from death as babies, are placed in a basket to float downriver: born as Kal-el on the planet Krypton, while still a baby he was put into a spaceship alone by his father, Jor-El, and escaped moments before his home-planet exploded. His spaceship finally landed on Earth. He was adopted by a family in Smallville, and was raised there until, as an adult, he moved to Metropolis. As Kent he works as a reporter at the Daily Planet, a major newspaper in Metropolis. A co-reporter is Lois Lane, who also is the target of Kent's/Superman's romantic affections. A central part of the storyline is Lane's affection for the strapping superhero and rebuttals of all advances from the meeker Clark Kent.

Superman possesses a number of extraordinary powers, rendering him -- in terms contemporary to the 1950s -- "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". Other powers include X-ray vision, heat vision, near-invulnerability to damage, and the power of flight. The origin of Superman's powers is the solar radiation of Earth's sun, which differs from the radiation of the star around which Superman's native planet, Krypton, orbits. The yellow sun of earth grants him powers he would not have under Krypton's red sun. The remains of the shattered planet spread throughout the universe as a green crystalline or metallic substance known as kryptonite, which is harmful to Superman and robs him of his powers when it is in close proximity to him. A variant form of kryptonite is "red kryptonite", which does not usually damage him directly but has highly unpredictable effects on his psyche and powers (for example, red kryptonite exposure once transformed Superman's head into that of a giant ant). There have been a number of other lesser-known variants of kryptonite, introduced sporadically over the years whenever a particular plotline required them and then forgotten, but in a recent revision of the DC shared story universe they have been retconned out of existence.

With a series that has lasted for over sixty years (as of 2002), numerous comic book series, a radio series, cartoons, movies, and written novels, Superman has starred in an amazing number of adventures that have put him into every imaginable situation, on Earth and throughout the universe, in numerous eras of history. During his long history, as he has faced nearly every imaginable peril, Superman's powers increased to the point where he was quite literally an omnipotent being who could do anything. This posed an enormous challenge for anyone assigned to write stories about the character, as it provided a nearly insurmountable obstacle: "How does one write about a character who is nearly as powerful as God?" This, among other reasons, contributed to a decline in Superman's popularity, especially during the 1960s and 1970s when Marvel Comics brought a new level of character development to mainstream comic books. By the early 1980s, DC Comics had decided that a major change was needed to boost Superman's popularity and make him more appealing to the audiences of the time. Comic book writer-artist John Byrne was brought in to re-create Superman from scratch and re-start the series. The resulting retcon of Superman, which took place in 1986, brought a number of substantial changes to the character, some of which were less than successful (and were met with varying degrees of acceptance by comic book buyers). The re-launch of the Superman comic book series did succeed in returning the character to the fold of mainstream comic books, returning it to the forefront of DC's flagship titles.

Since the launch of the "new" Superman, the editorial staff at DC has introduced several drastic changes to the character, which boosted sales of the comic but also sparked debate among fans as to whether some of the changes were necessary. The two major changes to Superman that have had long-term effects included the "Death of Superman" storyline, in which Superman died at the hands of a supervillain named Doomsday. He returned from the dead to finally defeat Doomsday, though his "death" gave rise to a number of new characters and storylines. In 1995, Superman (or rather, Clark Kent) finally married Lois Lane, and the two have had a happy marriage that has lasted...so far. Future editorial changes to the Superman comic book series may reverse some or all of these changes.

Other characters

Famous characters in Superman include Lois Lane, the criminal mastermind Lex Luthor, the Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen, and a host of various supervillains.

Superman also had a cousin from Krypton, Supergirl; though she was killed in the comic book series Crisis on Infinite Earths. After the retcon of Superman, Supergirl was re-introduced into the comic book series, but her history is now far more confusing and convoluted.

Cultural influences

Both Superman's name and the premise of his character owe a large debt to the concept of the Übermensch, developed by the 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Superman is a staple of American pop culture.

The Superman character has made the transition to television and movies, both on multiple occasions. Among the actors who have played the role are George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and Dean Cain.

There have also been numerous animated cartoon series starring the Man of Steel. They can be summarized as follows:

DC Comics has copyrighted variations on the "super" theme, such as "superdog" and "supergal" to circumvent parody or product confusion. Nevertheless, a great many imitations and parodies of Superman have appeared over the years. One of the first Superman imitations, Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel, sparked legal action because of its similarities to Superman. Several famous spoofs of Superman have become famous (at least among children who grew up at the time of their popularity) include Mighty Mouse, Underdog, and Super Goof.

In the 1990s, comic book artist and writer Rob Liefeld created a Superman imitation and starred him in his own comic book series, called Supreme. The series sold moderately well at first, but sales dwindled until the series was taken over with issue #41 by writer Alan Moore. Moore produced about fifteen issues of Supreme that paid homage to the classic "Silver Age" Superman before his 1985 retcon.

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