Subject: Superman
Culture: American comics fandom
Setting: DC Comics
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Slack/Vargas 2025-07-12 online
"Superman entered America without papers, a baby refugee fleeing a dying planet. Like countless immigrants before him, he changed his name from the foreign-sounding (in his case, Hebrew) Kal-El to the anglicized Clark Kent. He learned new customs, balanced his heritage with his adopted culture, and used his unique abilities to serve the nation that initially feared him.
"This isn’t subtext—it’s text. Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were children of Jewish immigrants who understood displacement intimately. In 1938, as Hitler rose to power, they created a hero who embodied their American dream: someone who could protect the vulnerable because he knew what it meant to be cast aside. Superman’s very essence springs from being what he called “a universal outsider.” This outsider status isn’t incidental to his heroism; it’s the source of it. Those who have known rejection become champions of acceptance. Those who have felt powerless fight for the defenseless.
"[....] No Jerry and Joe means no Superman. No Superman means no superhero genre. The children of immigrants who followed their lead—creating Batman, Captain America, Spider-Man, and at least 90 percent of all iconic superheroes—would have met the same fate. The modern mythology that defines American popular culture worldwide: all erased.
"Superman endures because he represents something larger than politics: the American paradox itself. We are a nation built by the displaced—willing immigrants and unwilling slaves, refugees and dreamers, all orphaned from somewhere else. Superman, the ultimate orphan, transforms this shared wound into purpose, proving that our greatest strength comes not from where we’re born, but from what we choose to become."
* Superheroes 2008 p25
"Superman, the creation of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster, was the first character to embody the definition of the superhero. Starting with Action Comics No. 1, June 1938, he established the principal conventions of the superhero genre, which the scholar Peter Coogan has identified as a heroic character with a prosocial mission, extraordinary powers or abilities, and a code name and costume that usually express his or her origin, powers, and character."
* Misiroglu/Roach eds. 2004 p538
"Superman is widely regarded as the first superhero. That's not entirely true: The Shadow, the Phantom, Doc Savage, the Spider, and a handful of others preceded him in the mid-1930s. Those costumed or superpowered crime fighters may have beaten Superman out of the gate, but not to the punch. This 'Man of Steel' and his astounding abilities caught an unsuspecting readership by surprise in 1938. Generations later, Superman has become indelibly etched into the annals of American folklore. Today, most historians call Superman the first superhero because he defined a distinct hero type, clearly breaking away from the masked adventurers who preceded him."
* White ed. 2013 p1
"Superman may not have been the first superhero, but ever since his introduction in Action Comics #1 in 1938, he has been the model for every superhero to follow. For the past 75 years, Superman has thrilled millions with his adventures in comic books, movies, and television shows. His legacy transcends national, cultural, and generational borders, mainly because he strikes so many universal themes. He's a strange visitor from another planet who longs to be human. He's a mild-mannered farm boy from Kansas who wins the heart of a cosmopolitan reporter from the big city. He's the idealistic big blue boy scout who befriends a cynical dark knight detective. Finally, he's the ultimate hero who serves as an inspiration for the rest of the world's costumed protectors -- and a few of its best philosophers."
* Cinema & fumetto 2006 p163
"Icona del fumetto mondiale, Superman viene creato dallo scrittore Jerry Siegel (1914-2001) e dal disegnatore Joe Shuster (1914-1992) sulle pagine dell'albo <<Action Comics>>. Il primo supereroe della storia dei comics è un essere proveniente, ancora in fasce, dal pianeta morente Krypton. Il razzo in cui viaggia arriva sulla Terra, e il piccolo alieno viene trovato da una coppia che lo adotta. Con la maturità, il timido giornalista Clark Kent (questa la sua identità segreta) prende conscienza dei suoi superpoteri, originati dalle diverse caratteristiche terrestri rispetto al pianeta natale. Praticamente unvulnerabile, può viaggiare nel tempo e nello spazio; unico suo tallone d'Achille è la kryptonite, un mieralie originario di Krypton, che lo rende indifenso."
* Superman 2023 p6 (Richard Jerome, "Introduction: Man of Steel, man of hope" p5-7) = Life 2025 p6 (Richard Jerome, "Introduction: Man of Steel, man of hope" p4-7)
"Superman's emblematic power has changed along with the country over the past eight decades. 'The truth is that he has always evolved to reflect the zeitgeist and America's idealized self-image of the time,' says Roy Schwartz, author of Is Superman Circumcized? The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero. When he debuted in 1938, he was known as 'Champion of the Oppressed,' a firebrand New Dealer promoting immigration reform and racial equality. When America entered World War II, Superman changed from rabble rouser to role model and became a national icon. In the 1950s, he became a patriarchal authority figure and a 'Big Blue Boy Scout,' which is the version people remember from The Adventures of Superman TV show starring George Reeves. Then in the 1980s, he became a Yuppie 'Super Republican,' embracing the Reagan Revolution and the era's aesthetic. But, for all the changes, he's still the same guy Siegel and Shuster created. A hero who preaches tolerance for all but the intolerant, and who personifies the indomitable human spirit."
"Superman might be faster than a speeding bullet, but thanks to another slogan he picked up in the 1940s, “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” he comes weighted down with more political baggage than any of his fellow superheroes — the kind that requires threading the needle in portraying this “visitor from another planet” as anything more than an indestructible Boy Scout.
"[....] In that regard, Superman represents a sharp departure from his equally famous DC stablemate Batman, who, for all his orphaned angst, has always benefited from simplicity: Driven by his parents’ murder, Bruce Wayne becomes a costumed vigilante, pummeling and intimidating criminals.
"After Tim Burton’s 1989 take on “Batman” brought the darker vision of the comics to the screen — and jettisoned the “Wham! Bang! Pow!” campiness of the 1960s TV show — the Dark Knight model, barring hiccups like the Joel Schumacher-directed sequels, has been pretty much cemented in place.
"Superman, by contrast, has undergone various forms of reinvention complicated by those ready to take offense at anything that departs from their image of the character, usually exhibiting only modest awareness of its history and, not incidentally, a fair amount of bad faith.
"Some of the blame for that can be traced to the phrase “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” which was introduced not in the comics but rather the Superman radio serial of the early 1940s, an appropriate-sounding slogan in the midst of World War II.
"While the sentiment was understandable (Captain America was shown punching out Hitler in the comics during the same era), that motto saddled Superman — who is, after all, an American by the accident of his spaceship landing in Kansas — with a patriotic identity that ran counter to his role as a citizen of the world.
"The slogan nevertheless followed Superman to television in the 1950s — he even stood in front of a waving flag in the credits — and hung over the character through the years.
"The strength of that association meant DC caused a stir by seeking a more expansive designation of for whom and what the transplanted Kryptonian fought his never-ending battle. That included a minor uproar when Daily Planet editor Perry White asked Superman if he still stood for “truth, justice, all that stuff” in the 2006 movie “Superman Returns,” and a larger one after DC officially swapped in “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow” in 2021, unleashing predictable tirades from conservative quadrants eager to bash Hollywood."
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Costume
* Superheroes 2008 p25
"Superman's costume, made from the blankets in which he was swaddled on his journey from Krypton to Earth, became the standard upon which successive superheroes were styled. With its flowing cape and skintight unitard, inspired by sources as diverse as the costumes worn by circus acrobats and Douglas Fairbanks in his period pictures of the 1920s, it combined the male fantasies of an idealized classical nudity with a flamboyant, performative intemperance.
"Beyond its components, the iconicity of Superman's costume lies in its colors and 'S' emblem, both of which serve to abstract and amplify Superman's representation in comics as well as in film and television. The 'S' emblem inscribed on his chest and cape functions as a simplified statement of his identity. As the artist Chipp Kidd observed, 'The "S" on Superman's chest is the monogram made monolithic, the family crest as modern logo.'"
* Superman 2023 p7 (Richard Jerome, "Introduction: Man of Steel, man of hope" p5-7)
"Siegel and Shuster both acknowledged that their youthful yearning for unattainable women played into the creation of this square-jawed hunk. As Saunders points out, there is certainly an undeniably erotic component to Superman's lasting appeal. 'One thing I think doesn't get talked about enough is the sexual nature of the superhero fantasy,' he says. 'Superman and other superheroes aren't just powerful. They are gorgeous and glamourous, and they wear costumes that might as well be painted on. These fantasy figures of glamour and power are then spliced into stories that emphasize ethics, morality, decency, sacrifice. It's a heady brew.'"
* Life 2025 p96
"[T]he majestic red cloak -- which has been an essential part of Superman's attire since Joe Schuster first designed the character in the 1930s -- has helped give the Man of Steel an aura of power and prestige. Over the past 85 years, there have been various explanations for its creation, the most common being that, like the rest of the costume, it is made of a special Kryptonian material that's nearly impossible to cut or pierce."
