Superman: The Legacy of the Man of Steel
Superman:
The Legacy of the Man of Steel
By Bryce Hoobler
Superman is a pop culture icon and one of the most recognizable superheroes of all time. For Superman Day, June 12th I wanted to educate myself on a character that I don’t actually read a lot. In the comic book world he is often regarded as the image in which all other heroes were based on, and that tight suit, cape, and exterior worn undies sure are iconic.
1942
Shuster (seated) with Jerry Siegel
The character was originally created by two high schoolers from Cleveland Ohio, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Both teens were sons of immigrant families which played heavily into their design for Superman, an alien refugee immigrating to America from an entirely different planet. This alien looked like us but had super strength and couldn’t feel pain or get hurt. He would hide his true identity using an alter ego of Clark Kent to fit into society, only using his powers while wearing tights and a cape to help keep his secret identity separate while fighting crime and saving people in his new home country.
I believe the immigrant narrative was very important to the rise of Superman’s popularity. His debut in Action Comics No. 1 from 1938 under National Allied Publishing, which would later become DC comics, was close to the peak of immigration to the U.S. with over 12 million people coming through Ellis Island in New York between 1892 and 1954 according to the National Parks website. Many of these families and their children would have been those who would have had interest in comics and could have grown up with Superman as a strong character to relate to. During the 1940s with the onset of WWII, Superman’s popularity soared, he was the face of buying war bonds, he was used in propaganda posters, and DC comics shipped thousands of comics overseas to soldiers to help motivate them through the war. Many Jewish refugees also fled Europe to the U.S. at this time contributing to the large numbers of immigrants coming over from Europe. One of the comic writer's favorite themes during the war was depicting Superman beating down Axis leaders and getting back at them for all they had done, making him a favorite among soldiers and refugees alike.
Superman issue 6 1940
Another factor was just some really lucky timing on the debut of the character. He came out during a time that popular media was really taking off. Superman rose in popularity very quickly and fans wanted to be able to see and hear their favorite hero in all mediums of entertainment. Obviously books and comics were popular at the time, but radio shows with voice actors acting out scenes and doing regular shows like we would watch on tv now was hugely popular as well. Within just a couple years of his comic debut Superman had a radio show! During this period of radio shows many of the aspects of Superman from the comics were changed or added to. It was in this medium that flight was added to Superman’s repertoire as well as the introduction of the powerful crystal kryptonite which could sap Superman of his powers. It also took only four years for Superman to make his film debut in the famous animated cartoon by Fleischer Studios that came out in 1941 Titled simply “Superman”. By 1948 Superman was in live action as a series of movie serials (episodes of a series played in theaters), and by 1951 he made his full length movie debut in “Superman and the Mole Men”. The movie was controversial but heartfelt as it depicted Superman protecting a group of underground beings from being attacked by a town full of scared Americans. The film premiering in 1951 puts the film in theaters during the height of McCarthyism, a period of widespread fear of communism in America where many people were scared of their own neighbors. It was clearly meant to showcase compassion in a time of great fear and was very successful. Many other films followed this one and in barely over a decade Superman had become the face of comic book heroes everywhere.
In more modern times Superman has mostly lost the top spot of the comic book world. In the 60’s Marvel Comics started giving DC more competition and by the 70’s they were outselling them. Superman had become hard to relate to for many readers who did not identify as immigrants anymore and children had a hard time relating to the older adult Superman/Clark Kent, this would lead to a number of spin off series coming out featuring younger characters like Jimmy Olsen and Superboy as the main focus. By the 80’s Batman had an influx of great writers coming in and books like Batman: Year One and Batman: The Killing Joke, followed by the Tim Burton film gave the Bat the boost he needed to surpass Superman in Popularity at DC, a spot that The Man of Steel has just never really been able to snag back since then.
Despite Superman’s popularity experiencing ups and downs, he has ultimately withstood the test of time, and the character's comic sales have many records to show for it. Just this year, in early April 2024, an 8.5 graded copy of Superman’s debut comic, Action Comics No. 1, sold at auction for 6 million dollars, breaking the record for the most expensive single comic book sale ever. This sale beat the previous record held by a copy of Superman No. 1, which had sold for 5.3 million in 2022 [fortune.com]. Sales of this magnitude prove that Superman is one of the most significant comic book characters of all time and still holds demand and relevance today. According to Screenrant.com, new Superman comics have broken sales records as recently as 2018, with 504,203 copies sold of Action Comics No. 1000, a major milestone issue. So while he might not be the best weekly seller, the character has made such an undeniable impact on the world that I don’t believe he will ever lose relevance.
While the golden age of Superman may be in the past, his legacy in comics is not singularly present in 90 year old collectors items alone, there are still a ton of great modern series out there to look for if you are a fan. I personally recommend World's Finest, the Superman and Batman team up series that has a ton of great action and dives pretty deep into the relationship between the two heroes and their differences in their approaches to saving the day and having to work together. Any fans of Alex Ross’ art work should also check out Kingdom Come, a four part mini series that came out in 1997. This series is set in an alternate future where a new generation of heroes has grown out of control and an old graying Superman and several other Justice League members must come out of retirement to set them straight.
Superman (Kingdom Come)
Art by Alex Ross.
The entire series is done in gouache art style by Alex Ross and is beautiful. I hope you find this article interesting and that it inspires someone to read some Superman comics or watch a Superman movie to celebrate Superman Day on June 12th. As a comic book reader who considers myself mostly a Marvel fan it has been really fun and enlightening to explore the origins and history of such an iconic character.
Sources
https://fortune.com/2024/04/09/superman-action-comics-sells-for-6-million-auction/
[National Park Website-Ellis Island]
https://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm
[Screen Rant]
