Hello ...

These photographs were taken in Metropolis, IL., last March 2007. I was driving from N. Carolina back to Colorado Springs, CO. then and decided to make a pit stop. Metropolis, the home of Superman.

“Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! A plane! It’s … it’s Superman!”

How many times have we heard those words growing up watching George Reeves on television always dashing into a broom closet, changing from mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent to the Man of Steel and jumping out a window to save the day.

Who would have ever dreamed that before the 1950’s, Superman would become an icon today. “For Truth, Justice and the American Way”.

It all started in 1932 when Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, two kids in school, would create a character that would take off flying for the next seventy-six years. Although Superman didn’t appear publicly until 1938 in Action Comics, Superman became an overnight sensation and came at a time when America needed a folk-hero. By 1938, Hitler was on the move. Roosevelt was getting programs lined up to get America finally out from under the Depression. The country was ready for a hero.

In those early days there were certain powers he didn’t have, such as flying, but he was able to “leap over tall buildings in a single bound”, he could run incredible speeds “faster than a bullet” and more powerful than “a speeding locomotive”, as in “bend steel in his bare hands”.

The imagination of Shuster and Siegel were amazing. They first created a bald telepathic villain bent on dominating the entire world. He appeared in the short story "The Reign of the Super-Man" from Science Fiction #3 that Siegel published in 1933. Siegel re-wrote the character in 1933 as a hero, bearing little or no resemblance to his villainous namesake, and began a six-year quest to find a publisher. Titling it The Superman, Siegel and Shuster offered it to Consolidated Book Publishing, who had published a 48-page black-and-white comic book entitled Dectective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48. Although the duo received an encouraging letter, Consolidated never again published comic books. Shuster took this to heart and burned all pages of the story, the cover surviving only because Siegel rescued it from the fire.

By 1934, the pair had once more re-envisioned the character. He became more of a hero in the mythic tradition, who would right the wrongs of Siegel and Shuster's times, fighting for social justice and against tyranny. It was at this stage the costume was introduced, Siegel later recalling that they created a "kind of costume and let's give him a big S on his chest, and a cape, make him as colorful as we can and as distinctive as we can." The design was based in part on the costumes worn by characters in outer space settings published in pulp magazines, such as Flash Gordon, and also partly suggested by the traditional circus strong-man outfit. However, the cape has been noted as being markedly different. Gary Engle described it as without "precedent in popular culture" in Superman at Fifty: The Persistence of a Legend. The pants-over-tights outfit was soon established as the basis for many future superhero outfits. This third version of the character was given extraordinary abilities, although this time of a physical nature as opposed to the mental abilities of the villainous Superman.

The locale and the hero's civilian names were inspired by the movies, Shuster said in 1983. "Jerry created all the names. We were great movie fans, and were inspired a lot by the actors and actresses we saw. As for Clark Kent, he combined the names of Clark Gable and Kent Taylor. And Metropolis, the city in which Superman operated, came from the Fritz Lang movie (Metropolis, 1927), which we both loved".  Although they were by now selling material to comic book publishers, the pair decided to feature this character in a comic strip format, rather than in the longer comic book story format that was establishing itself at that time. They offered it to United Feature Syndicate, who expressed interest initially but finally rejected the strip in a letter dated February 18, 1937. However, in what historian Les Daniels describes as "an incredibly convoluted turn of events", Max Gaines ended up positioning the strip as the lead feature in Wheeler-Nicholson's new publication, Action Comics.  Vin Sullivan, editor of the new book, wrote to the pair requesting that the comic strips be refashioned to suit the comic book format, requesting "eight panels a page". However Siegel and Shuster ignored this, utilizing their own experience and ideas to create page layouts, with Siegel also identifying the image used for the cover of Action Comics #1 (June, 1938), Superman's first appearance.

Superman was born on the planet, Krypton and his name was Kal-el. His father, Jor-el, was a scientist that spoke of impending doom, but other scientists scoffed at his theories of Krypton blowing up. Well it happened, but not before his father placed him, as an infant, in a prototype spaceship he was working on, and both Jor-el and his mother Lara-el saw him speed away moments before Krypton perished. Thus the legend began.

He landed in a cornfield and was found by an older married couple, the Kent’s, John and Martha, who somehow managed to adopt him, which was never fully explained how, but it didn’t matter. Before he grew to Superman, his exploits as Superboy began and it was during those teen years he began to understand the extent of his powers, and with the explanation of how he came to be by the Kent’s, he somehow began to see the past and what lay ahead for his future.

Superman was portrayed by Bud Collier on radio, from 1940-1951 (who years later in the late 50’s-early 60’s was a host on a game show called Beat The Clock). Collier was also cast as the voice of Superman in a series of Superman animated cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios for theatrical release. Seventeen shorts were produced between 1941 and 1943. By 1948 Superman was back in the movie theatres, this time in a filmed serial, Superman, with Kirk Alyn becoming the first actor to portray Superman on screen. A second serial, Atom Man vs. Superman, followed in 1950.

In 1951 a television series was commissioned, Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves, with the pilot episode of the series gaining a theatrical release as Superman and The Mole Men. The series ran for a 104 episodes, from 1952–1958. The next adaptation of Superman occurred in 1966, when Superman was adapted for the stage in the Broadway musical: It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman. The play wasn't successful, closing after 128 performances, although a cast album recording was released. However, in 1975 the play was remade for television. Superman was again animated, this time for television, in the series "The New Adventures of Superman" ... 68 shorts were made and broadcast between 1966 and 1969. Bud Collier again provided the voice for Superman. Then from 1973 until 1984 ABC broadcast the "Super Friends" series, this time animated by  Hanna-Barbera.

Superman returned to movie theatres in 1978, with director Richard Donner's Superman starring Christopher Reeve. The film spawned three sequels, Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987). In 1988 Superman returned to television in the Ruby Spears animated series Superman, and also in Superboy, a live action series which ran from 1988 until 1992. In 1993 Lois & Clark: The new Adventures of Superman premiered on television, starring Dean Cain as Superman and Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane. The series ran until 1997. Superman: The Animated Series was produced by Warner Bros. and ran from 1996 until 2000 on The WB Television Network. In 2001, the Smallville television series launched, focusing on the adventures of Clark Kent as a teenager before he dons the mantle of Superman. In 2006, Bryan Singer directed Superman Returns, starring Brandon Routh as Superman.

Superman over the years had many love interests, the most famous being Lois Lane, followed up with Linda Lee, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris, who was actually a mermaid with powers of mental telepathy, and Lucy Lane, of which Lucy is Lois’s younger sister. Lana Lang was Superboy’s love interest. Linda Lee though was his cousin, another survivor of Krypton who became Supergirl during the 1960’s. Also introduced in the 60’s was Krypto, the Superdog, and another survivor. Krypto lasted in the comic industry about seventeen years before he just vanished without explanation. Another LL was his arch-enemy, Lex Luthor.

Superman’s only downfall, was Kryptonite, the one substance that could kill him. Kryptonite were particles of his home planet, that once entered the earth’s atmosphere, would glow green and rob him of his powers until he died. There were other forms of kryptonite that did other things to him, but none of that evolved for a number of years. There were two other things Superman couldn’t overcome. With his x-ray vision he couldn’t see through lead. The other, he was powerless over magic. He had to use his intelligence, not his powers to overcome magic.

I stopped buying Superman comics just before I went into the Marines in late 1964. Several years later I went to look at one on a newsstand, and he had changed in appearance. It was a new era. New plot lines and ideas. Call me a stickler, but the Superman I grew up with was good enough for me.

It would be really great if we had a real “Superman” of today. So much would change. Wars, hunger, homeless ... would be but a memory. Drugs would be null and void. Crime would be way down. Terrorism would be all but gone. But our military is now our “Superman”.

Still, he became a pop icon before the phrase was ever coined. Here now that follows are clips of some of the Supermen that put on the big red “S”.

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... and now for the moment you have all been waiting for, uncovered for the first time anywhere, I give you none other than:

This post is dedicated to Cal aka Cal-el aka spaceeagle aka Friend