In 1933, high school students Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were hard at work promoting their fanzine Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization. In the third issue (dated January 1933), Siegel wrote a story entitled “The Reign of the Super-Man.” Shuster’s illustration showed the giant head of a bald villain resembling Lex Luthor looming over a city of skyscrapers.
The Superman in this story is Bill Dunn, a Depression-era vagrant who ingests a serum created by Professor Smalley (the bald villain in Shuster’s illustration). The serum gives Dunn the ability to read and control minds; see the future; and absorb “all the knowledge that exists in the universe.” He kills Smalley and tries to dominate the world – but his superpowers prove temporary and he becomes a vagrant again.
Critics find this Superman resembles the Nazi Übermensch. Originally an idea of German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche, the Übermensch is a human with a mind so advanced he can shape his own destiny without the need for God. Although Nietzsche stressed an Übermensch would not rule others, Adolf Hitler later distorted this idea for his Aryan master race.
Notably, neither Siegel nor Shuster – both sons of Jewish immigrants – stated why they named their character “Superman.” In his book Superman: The Complete History, Les Daniels suggests Siegel got the name from other science fiction writers.
The Forgotten Superman
Shortly after “Reign of the Super-Man” was published, Siegel decided a heroic version of Superman might be popular with a comic book publisher. Together, Siegel and Shuster created The Superman, a black-and-white comic book. According to Daniels, while this Superman did not have powers or a costume, he was now a crime fighter instead of a villain.
Unfortunately, the Chicago comic book publisher they created the book for rejected the comic book and went out of business. Years later, this new Superman would be recycled into Siegel and Shuster’s character Slam Bradley, a private detective who appeared in Detective Comics #1.
A New Superman
Siegel then decided to develop a new Superman newspaper comic. According to Gerard Jones' book Men of Tomorrow (2004), since Shuster was growing disillusioned with the character, Siegel created different versions of the new Superman newspaper comic with other artists, including cartoonist Russell Keaton. However, none of these collaborations worked out.
Eventually, Siegel and Shuster worked on Superman again, this time re-inventing him as an alien from outer space with superpowers. Siegel gave this Superman a dual identity as Clark Kent (named after actor Clark Gable) and created Lois Lane, who represented all the girls in school who ignored him.
Shuster worked off Siegel’s ideas, developing Superman’s familiar superhero costume and adding a cape to emphasize movement. Since this Superman was still intended for a newspaper comic, Shuster colored the superhero costume with primary colors that would look good in the Sunday comics.
Although the classic Superman elements were now in place, editors still weren’t interested. For four years, every newspaper syndicate turned Superman down.
Action Comics Superman
Then in 1938, DC Comics called the McClure Syndicate searching for material for DC’s new book Action Comics. The syndicate sent samples of Siegel and Shuster’s Superman newspaper comic to the comic book publisher, which were bought by editor Vin Sullivan.
Because of deadlines, the initial Superman comic books were created by cutting and pasting strips from the Superman newspaper comic onto the book’s pages, resulting in a crude construction. But that didn’t matter – by its seventh issue Action Comics sold more than half a million copies a month. When surveys indicated that most fans bought the book for its Superman superhero stories, Superman was given his own comic book. Soon, Superman was inspiring other superhero stories and characters, from Batman to the Flash to Green Lantern.
Since his turbulent beginnings, Superman has remained one of popular culture’s most enduring icons. Yet none of this would have been possible had Siegel and Shuster not persisted in promoting their constantly evolving character.
Sources:
Daniels, Les. DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes. NY: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.
Daniels, Les. Superman: The Complete History. CA: Chronicle Books, 2004.
Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. NY: Basic Books, 2004.
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