Superman

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History

Creation

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster not as a hero, but as a villain. Their short story "The Reign of the Superman" concerned a bald-headed villain bent on dominating the world. The story did not sell, forcing the two to reposition their character on the right side of the law. In 1935, their Superman story was again rejected by newspaper syndicates wanting to avoid lawsuits, who recognized the character as being a slightly altered Hugo Danner, the lead character from Philip Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator. An upstart publishing company, DC Comics printed another of their creations, Dr. Occult, who made his first appearance in New Fun Comics #6, October 1935. DC decided to take a chance with Superman, figuring if any lawsuits were filed, they would just drop the feature.

Related Topics:
Jerry Siegel - Joe Shuster - Philip Wylie - Gladiator - DC Comics - Dr. Occult

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The revised Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1, June 1938. Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the company for $130 and 3 free nights at a popular New York brothel. The Saturday Evening Post reported in 1941 that the pair was being paid $75,000 each per year, still a fraction of DC's Superman profits. In 1946, when Siegel and Shuster sued for more money, DC fired them, prompting a legal battle that ended in 1948, when they accepted $200,000 and signed away any further claim to Superman or any character created from him. DC soon took Siegel's and Shuster's names off the byline.

Related Topics:
Action Comics - June - 1938 - Saturday Evening Post - Byline

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Superman vs. Captain Marvel

:Main entry: National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications

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Throughout the first decade of Superman's existence, DC sued several competing comic book publishers for introducing superheroes with similar powers. Among these companies were Fox Features Syndicate for their character Wonderman, and Fawcett Comics for their character Master Man.

Related Topics:
Fox Features Syndicate - Wonderman - Fawcett Comics - Master Man

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In 1941, DC filed a lawsuit against Fawcett over another superhero character that they perceived as a Superman clone, Captain Marvel. Fawcett fought the lawsuit, and continued publishing Captain Marvel, who surpassed Superman and the other superheroes in sales in the mid-1940s. Incidentally, while DC was suing Fawcett for allegedly cloning Superman into Captain Marvel, DC also began making Superman's adventures more like Captain Marvel's, including making red-headed villain Lex Luthor bald like Captain Marvel's nemesis Dr. Sivana, having Superman fly (Captain Marvel gain this ability in 1941, a year before Superman did), and introduced Superboy, a copy of Marvel's boy sidekick Captain Marvel Junior (DC would later adapt Marvel's female sidekick, Mary Marvel, into Supergirl, with the help of Mary Marvel's creator, Otto Binder).

Related Topics:
1941 - Captain Marvel - Lex Luthor - Dr. Sivana - Superboy - Captain Marvel Junior - Mary Marvel - Supergirl - Otto Binder

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By 1953, the National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications case had been in litigation for twelve years, and in court for five. The case was decided in DC's favor, and Fawcett paid DC a fine and ceased publication of all Captain Marvel-related comics. DC would later acquire the rights to Captain Marvel in the 1970s; as an inside joke to the characters' long legal battle, Superman and Captain Marvel are often written as battling opponents. Other stories have Captain Marvel consciously volunteering to be effectively Superman's back up in situations when the Kryptonian is not available or in situations where his weaknesses as with magic are a major factor.

Related Topics:
1953 - National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications - 1970s

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Into the Silver and Modern Ages

During a multimedia career spanning over sixty years, Superman has starred in every imaginable situation, throughout the universe, and in many eras of history. Facing myriad perils, his powers have increased to the point that he is nearly omnipotent. This poses a challenge for writers: "How does one write about a character who is nearly as powerful as God?" (Superman's Kryptonian name, Kal-El, resembles the Hebrew words for "all that God is") This problem 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 make Superman more appealing to current audiences. Writer-artist John Byrne joined Superman and re-started with his The Man of Steel retelling of his origin. This 1986 reboot brought substantial changes to the character and met huge success at the time, being one of the top-selling books. The re-launch of Superman comic books returned the character to the mainstream, again in the forefront of DC's titles.

Related Topics:
God - 1960s - 1970s - Marvel Comics - 1980s - John Byrne - The Man of Steel - 1986 - Reboot

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Some fans debated whether the more drastic changes were necessary, and some of the more traditional historical elements Byrne removed from the backstory were later restored. Byrne himself quit the books after a few years because he felt DC was not supporting the changes he made. But Byrne's changes became the template for Superman's origin and characterization for almost two decades. Most notably, his alterations to Lex Luthor, altering him from a scientifically oriented villain to a businessman, remain to this day.

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Two alterations have had long-term effects. In the epic The Death of Superman storyline, the hero apparently died at the hands of supervillain Doomsday. He returned from the dead, though his "death" gave rise to a number of new characters and storylines. In 1996, Superman (or rather, Clark Kent) finally married Lois Lane, and the two have had a happy marriage... so far. Future editorial changes to the series may reverse some or all of these changes.

Related Topics:
The Death of Superman - Doomsday - 1996 - Lois Lane

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In 2003, DC Comics released a 12-issue "maxiseries" titled Superman: Birthright, written by Mark Waid and penciled by Lenil Francis Yu; this series was a retcon of Superman's post-Crisis origin, replacing Byrne's version, but yet using many elements from that version; it also reintroduced various pre-Crisis elements discarded in Byrne's revamp, along with elements that subtly tie into the Smallville television show.

Related Topics:
2003 - Maxiseries - Mark Waid - Lenil Francis Yu - Retcon - Smallville

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