by Chris Ryall
In the beginning, Superman merely leaps prodigiously from place to place, but by the 1940s, he is able to fly around in full defiance of gravity (the transition from leaps to flight was another by-product of the radio show, which used a loud wind-tunnel sound effect to express his flight). Eventually, Superman's ability to fly increases to the point that he is able to surpass the speed of light and break the time barrier, allowing him to time travel.
More powers develop along the way. X-ray vision first shows up in the 1940s, followed closely by heat vision and microscopic vision. Things get a bit silly by the 1950s, with the addition of powers like freeze breath and even, get this, “super-ventriloquism,” which comes in handy for the many times he needs to dupe Lois Lane into thinking Superman and Clark Kent are in the same place at the same time. Superman also becomes super-intelligent. A photographic memory and total recall, super-scientific know-how, and the ability to read and speak every known language on Earth are all added to his already incredible range of powers.
THE COLORS OF KRYPTONITE
BLUE: causes pain, power loss and eventual death for Bizarro Superman; created by the same duplicator ray that created Bizarros, this has no effect on the average Kryptonian
BLACK: splits a Kryptonian into two separate entities
WHITE: kills all plant life
Green: most common form, it causes pain, power loss and eventual death for Kryptonians
GREEN: most common form, it causes pain, power loss and eventual death for Kryptonians
GOLD: causes permanent power-loss for Kryptonians, although a 2008 issue of Action Comics posited the power-loss only lasted fifteen seconds
JEWEL: amplifies the psychic abilities of Kryptonians trapped in the Phantom Zone
RED: causes temporary and unpredictable physical and mental changes in Kryptonians, such as shrinking, growing, sleepwalking, hallucinations and loss of control of powers; created when Green K passes through a crimson cloud in deep space
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WEAKNESS?
Superman obviously needs an Achilles' heel, and for decades, there were only two: magic (on the rare occasions when he would run into wizards and sorcerers) and Kryptonite, those emerald-colored chunks of mineral from Superman's home planet that emit radiation lethal to Kryptonians.
Kryptonite first appeared on the Superman daily radio show in 1943, when it was used to put Superman into a weakened, near-death state for weeks at a time, allowing actor Bud Collyer to take off for a week's vacation. However, in recent years, unused script and art by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster has surfaced introducing “K-Metal,” which is, for all intents and purposes, Kryptonite. The story, which predates Kryptonite's radio introduction by three years, was never published because the story also featured Clark revealing his secret identity to Lois (a baffling move that would've removed one of the most popular themes of the series). It is unknown whether or not the radio writers came up with the Kryptonite concept on their own, or were perhaps handed it by the editors at National Comics.
The standard, run-of-the-mill Kryptonite, or Green K, can put Superman into a near-comawith close exposure and eventually kill him. Soon, Superman writers in need of new plot devices introduced all kinds of varieties of the deadly mineral, a veritable rainbow of Kryptonite.
LOIS LANE AND OTHER LOVELY LADIES
When it comes to romance for Superman, it's all about Lois Lane. The Lois character is introduced as a bit of a shrill harpy, but is eventually softened into a spunky reporter who has genuine affection for Superman, even if she is eternally attempting to prove that he is really Clark Kent.
The “suspicious Lois” routine is a running theme in the series for years, and Superman utilizes all kinds of ruses to discount Lois's accusations, including inflatable balloons, dummies and the ever-popular Superman robots (by the 1960s, Superman has amassed a small army of robotic duplicates to sit in for him if he needs to be in two places at once). He even gets a little help from trusted friends such as Batman and President John F. Kennedy, who once agreed to pose as Clark Kent during a television tribute to Superman in Action Comics #309 (cover date February 1964). By the 1970s, under the pen of writers Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, Superman and Lois enter into the beginning of an actual relationship when he admits his feelings for Lois, and that it is his fear for her safety that is keeping them apart.
But Lois isn't the only woman in Superman's life. In 1945, DC began publishing the adventures of young Clark Kent as Superboy in More Fun Comics and Adventure Comics, and the teenage Clark develops a romantic interest in redheaded neighbor Lana Lang. Much like Lois, Lana is more obsessed with discovering Superboy's real identity than having anything to do with Clark. In the 1960s, an adult Lana Lang shows up in Metropolis and becomes an ongoing rival to Lois for Superman's affections.
Our favorite of the Superman girlfriends is Lori Lemaris, because of the sheer goofiness of the storyline. Not familiar with Lori? She is Clark Kent's college girlfriend when he is attending good ol' Metropolis U. They have a brief but serious romance, until family obligations force Lori to leave college and return home. And oh, yeah, she's a mermaid. Yes, “The Girl in Superman's Past!” from Superman #129 tells the story of how Clark romances the wheelchair-bound Lori and even proposes marriage before discovering her secret. He does, however, get suspicious when he checks out the trailer she lives in off-campus and discovers no bed, only a tank of salt water.
Yes, Superman does seem to date a lot of women with the initials “L.L.” (Just how Lex Luthor fits into this fixation, God only knows.) The trend continues in Superman #141 (November 1960), “Superman's Return to Krypton,” in which Superman, stranded on his home planet Krypton some twenty-nine years before its destruction, finds work as an assistant to his father and falls in love with Lyla Lerrol, Krypton's most famous actress.
How does Superman open the really big door to the Fortress of Solitude? A really big key, naturally.
SUPERMAN #156 © 1962 DC COMICS. SUPERMAN™ & © DC COMICS. ART BY CURT SWAN AND GEORGE KLEIN.
THE REST OF THE GANG
Other than Lois, Superman's supporting cast is pretty sparse. There's Clark Kent's boss, Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and the Planet's cub reporter/photographer Jimmy Olsen, and that's pretty much it. The real focus of the series for decades is Superman and Lois; the Perry and Jimmy characters originated in the radio show and were only later incorporated into the comic strip.
Metropolis is nondescript throughout much of the 1940s and 1950s, with its only distinctive landmark being the Daily Planet building with its trademark globe at the top. Joe Shuster's hometown, Toronto, served as the original visual basis for Superman's adopted city.
The most significant supporting character introduced to Superman's world first appears in Action Comics #252 (May 1959), in “The Supergirl From Krypton!” written by Otto Binder and drawn by Al Plastino. While investigating a rocket crash outside Metropolis, Superman discovers a young girl from Krypton, Kara, clad just like himself. She explains that a large chunk of Krypton remained intact after the planet's destruction, bearing Argo City beneath a protective dome. The Argo City folk had survived because the girl's father, scientist Zor-El, covered the ground with sheets of lead to block the Kryptonite radiation. For years, they thrived; Zor-El married Allura, and they had a daughter, Kara. Unfortunately, when Kara is just a girl, a meteor swarm strikes the city and punctures the lead shielding, slowly killing the Argonian population with K-radiation poisoning. Before they perish, Zor-El builds a rocket to carry Kara safely to Earth, where they have spotted Superman through a telescope. Superman tells Kara his own story of coming to Earth, and they discover that Superman's father, Jor-El, was Zor's brother, making Superman and Kara cousins. Finally, Superman, long an orphan on Earth, has family.
SUPERMAN'S REFUGE
While Clark Kent no doubt has a place in Metropolis (at 344 Clinton Street, to be exact), he spends most of his downtime at the Fortress of Solitude hidden away in the Arctic. The d
oor to the Fortress is an enormous keyhole that fits a key so heavy, only Superman can lift it. Inside the Fortress are tributes to his Kryptonian parents and his foster parents, as well as museum displays of his friends at the Daily Planet, his friends Batman and Robin, Supergirl and, oddly enough, himself. There's also a trophy room containing mementos of his adventures, a high-powered telescope for observing threats in outer space, an interplanetary zoo, a protective vault containing all known varieties of Kryptonite and a storage room for his Superman robots, and much more.
SCOTT SAYS
Here's where the story of Superman kinda falls apart for me. Follow along: Fifteen-year-old Kara has just lost her family and everyone she's ever known, and through an amazing twist of fate, Superman turns out to be her cousin, a blood relative, in a foreign and alien world. Superman promises to “take care of you like a big brother, cousin Kara.” The overjoyed Supergirl says, “Thanks, cousin Superman! >choke!< You mean I'll come and live with you?” And Superman, the hero of Earth, the model of morality, says no. He just says no.
“Hmm… No, that wouldn't work! You see, I've adopted a secret identity on Earth that might be jeopardized!” You heartless bastard.
Instead, Superman drops Kara off at an orphanage, where she's stuck in a dump of a room with a broken bed and a cracked mirror, and forced to wear a godawful brunette wig with pigtails as Linda Lee. (Yes, more double L's.)
Even as a kid, whenever I'd read a Supergirl story, I'd always wind up thinking, “Man, Superman's a real jerk. Here's poor Kara living with all the orphans, while he's cooling his heels up in his fat pad at the Fortress of Solitude building robots of himself. What a punk.”
SUPER ENEMIES
Though Superman's rogues' gallery of villains isn't quite as extensive as, say, Batman's or Spider-Man's, his list is choice. At the top is the original supervillain, Lex Luthor, whose origins in the series are a little muddy. Pre-dating Luthor is a bald evil-scientist character named the Ultra-Humanite, who transplants his brain into other people's bodies, such as movie actress Delores Winters's, among others, before finally settling into his final body of an albino gorilla. (Gotta love comics.) Luthor's first appearance comes not long after Ultra's. Early on, his assistant is actually the bald one, and Luthor has a head full of red hair. By 1941, however, Luthor becomes his standard bald self.
SCOTT SAYS
When John Byrne was preparing to revamp the Superman titles in 1986, longtime Superman editor Julius Schwartz was given the chance to publish a grand finale for his run on the titles, and say goodbye to the Superman that readers had known for almost fifty years. When word got out about the project, Alan Moore reportedly told Schwartz, “If you let anybody but me write this, I'll kill you.” Considering that Moore was currently in the midst of his groundbreaking work on both Swamp Thing and Watchmen, it's hard to imagine that Schwartz needed much convincing. The result was something special: “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”
The story is told by a now-married Lois, being interviewed by a Daily Planet reporter on the tenth anniversary of Superman's death. Lois tells of how all Superman's enemies came home to roost and how Superman (as well as several of his friends) made the ultimate sacrifice to save the ones Kal-El held most dear.
If this all sounds pretty somber, it is, and it gets worse. However, the story ultimately ends on a happy, hopeful note, and serves as a fitting climax to a story begun in 1938 by two kids from Cleveland. All great stories need an ending, and it's often been said that the continuous nature of mainstream comics characters is what keeps them from truly becoming great. Alan Moore and Curt Swan (in a fitting farewell to his decades on the character) gave us just that. It's hard to point to any single Superman story and say, “This is what the character is all about.” Not much comes closer than this.
By the 1950s, Luthor's appearance has changed into that of a portly businessman, but the focus of his power remains his mechanical genius. (He often utilized synthetic Kryptonite of his own invention.) A more lean and mean Luthor is brought about in the 1960s — one of the best Luthor periods — and he's so obsessed with killing Superman that he doesn't even bother changing out of his prison jumpsuit whenever he breaks out of jail.
By the mid-1970s, Luthor wears a purple and green jumpsuit with a truly fabulous disco collar, which, despite being more than a little garish, is one of the cooler supervillain costumes of the time. It's this outfit that TV viewers of that generation associate most closely with Luthor — he wore it on the Challenge of the Super Friends episodes as leader of the Legion of Doom.
Despite the hot threads, the Luthor stories of the 1970s tend to involve a cooler-headed, more calculating opponent. In 1983, Lex acquires an extraterrestrial combat suit (designed by George Pérez) that allows him for the first time to go toe-to-toe with Superman. The new suit establishes Luthor as a more vital, intense opponent than seen in years. Unfortunately, the Superman reboot by John Byrne in 1986 would do away with all of it.
Reconceived by Byrne and Marv Wolfman, Luthor is no longer a scientific genius, but a ruthless billionaire magnate whose thirst for power drives him to eliminate Superman. But this never seems like sufficient motivation, and many of the new Luthor plots and schemes ring hollow. The classic Superman Luthor relationship is unique, especially how it has evolved over decades, and we've never understood the decision to throw that out in favor of a more pedestrian crimelord-type villain.
In recent years, Superman writers have tried all sorts of things to spice up the Luthor character: he dies of Kryptonite poisoning from overexposure to his Kryptonite ring then comes back from the dead in a cloned body posing as his own son. He's rejuvenated by the DC Universe's resident version of Satan, and even serves a term as president of the United States. Yes, that's right. In the world according to DC, Luthor for president. Ironically, his election was less controversial than Dubya's.
SCOTT SAYS
One of my favorite early Luthor appearances comes in 1940, when the red-headed Luthor offers Superman a challenge: his scientific genius vs. Superman's strength. In a fast-paced and funny sequence, Luthor tries to beat Superman at long-distance racing, altitude, weight lifting, sturdiness and even lung capacity. Luthor admits defeat when Superman offers to test Luthor's strength by bashing the scientist's head against his own airplane.
2 Batman
“I shall become a bat”In 1939, artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger were looking for work. After the unprecedented success of Superman, Kane was told by National Comics editor Vin Sullivan that he was looking for another costumed hero character for his series Detective Comics. Kane immediately set to work.
Using the Superman-style tights as a basis, Kane came up with his new character, Bat-Man, sporting red tights, a black domino mask, and bat wings inspired by the designs of Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter, a bat-winged flying device. Kane took his designs to Finger, who suggested changing the mask into a full-headcowl-type hood with bat ears, the wings into a scalloped cape and the red tights to a more moody gray. Finger also suggested the pointed scallops that were eventually added to Batman's gloves.
LI'L SCOTT SAYS
Time for a time-travel trip in the Wayback Machine. Set the dials for the year 1975. Li'l Scott has been forcibly called inside from playing in the front yard. Visibly miffed at this development (though not able to verbalize it at age four), Li'l Scott is plunked down in front of the TV while dinner is prepared. It's 4:30 in the afternoon, and the dial is turned to Channel 2. On the screen, Adam West and Burt Ward are duking it out with Cesar Romero and his hapless henchmen (probably named “Tee” and “Hee” or something like that), while giant colored graphics fly across the screen. “Pow!” “Thunk!” “Biff!”
Li'l Scott has been introduced to Batman and things would never be the same.
BATMAN'S INFLUENCES
Kane and Finger found inspiration from a variety of sources in the creation of the character. According to Les Daniels's book, Batman: The Complete History, Kane w
as inspired by two films — The Bat Whispers (1926), about a costumed killer known as the Bat, and the Douglas Fairbanks version of The Mark of Zorro (1920). The swordsman Zorro's posing as foppish dilettante Don Diego inspired Batman's wealthy (and wimpy) secret identity. Finger incorporated a dose of swashbuckling derring-do as inspired by D'Artagnan in Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, as well as the detective style of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. The pulp hero the Shadow was also an influence — notably his black flowing cloak as well as his double life split between the Shadow and his alter ego, socialite Lamont Cranston.
Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) in “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.” But the story bears a byline by “Rob't Kane,” and Kane alone. What's up with that?
The omission of Bill Finger from much of the public credit for Batman has been a decades-long sticking point for comics historians. Essentially, Kane was contracted to provide Batman for National, with Finger as his employee. It was common practice in the early days for newspaper comics and comic books to only credit the artist and not his writers or assistants. But considering how much Finger contributed and would continue to contribute to the Batman mythology, the omission remains galling.
Notoriously bad at standing up for himself, Finger was perpetually insecure about his reputation and his ability to land work, in part because of his struggles with writer's block and deadlines. Kane, however, had no such insecurities. Unlike Siegel and Shuster, Kane was a shrewd businessman, and negotiated himself a deal for Batman that ensured the continued appearance of his byline, as well as a much richer contract for future Batman stories than Siegel and Shuster ever had for Superman.