 Kal L/El is a "strange visitor" from another world sent to Earth as a child by his parents to spare him the destruction of his home planet. Our environment and yellow sun give him "powers beyond those of mortal men" which he uses to defend "Truth, Justice and the American way". He secretly lives among us as "mild mannered reporter" Clark Kent and uses the costumed identity of Superman, "the Man of Steel" to hide his true identity. Core Characters
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ArticlesDiscussion: Man and SupermenSuperman is traditionally an outsider, a mysterious benefactor who will use his awesome abilities to defend normal people from the forces of crime and corruption. To comic readers it appeared that Superman may have appeared fully formed in the paged of ACTION COMICS #1, but the archetype is much older. A number of commentators connected Superman with the figure of Moses - a figure cast adrift who is rescued and is later attributed with miraculous powers. Personally I would be hesitant in connecting a comicbook character with a religious figure, but I think he more clearly relates to the "sun-child" grouping of mythological figures. These are characters who live as mortals, but their parentage is actually devine (i.e. Merlin, Mithras, Hercules). So the archetype of such a character is well established within mythology. However Superman is a character of science-fiction rather than fantasy or mythology and it important to look for his roots elsewhere. Historically the concept of a "superman" begins in the fiction of the late 19th and early 20th century where writers start postulating on the possibility of something beyond normal men. In 1883 Nietzsche introduces us to the "Ubermensch" - the next stage of human evolution and in 1930 Philip Wylie shows our clearest concept yet of a normal man with extraordinary powers in "The Gladiator." The true leap that Superman represented was to take the Ubermensch and to transform him into a hero. Most popular heroes had been mortal humans until that point and reached a peak of ability with Lester Dent's Doc Savage (to whom Superman owes a huge debt). What Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster did was to take Savage to the next level and the "Man of Bronze" became the "Man of Steel". Add in a twist of secret identity from the other Pulp Heroes and you have yourself a pretty good approximation to the early Superman. Just as Superman was patterned after early characters it was not before long before he become source material for others. The earliest imitator was Wonder Man, but the most enduring was the character of Captain Marvel. Marvel was a much lighter character than Superman and played up more of the mythological connections rather than the science fiction. In 1945 Superman imitated himself when a spin-off character, Superboy, was created based on his earlier adventures. After the Golden Age of comics a new incarnation of the Superman character had established himself. The original was a silent benevolent loner who was just as much "man" as "superman". However the Silver Age Superman was vastly more powerful and had a clear case of survivors guilt over his origin. It is this Superman that is regarded by most commentators as the classic version. It is also the Superman that spawned a whole series of connected characters including his own descendants, a female version (Supergirl) and alternate realities (numerous what if stories). All of this is best represented by the title SUPERMAN FAMILY which was an anthology that featured Supergirl (female varient), Mr and Mrs Superman (alternate reality), the Private Life of Clark Kent (the secret identity), Jimmy Olsen (the sidekick) and Lois Lane (the love interest). In 1985 DC did away with all the previous continuity and restarted the character from scratch picking and choosing the best bits from the original Superman and the later Silver Age version. This modern version was to be the pattern for two of the most important additions to Superman mythology in over twenty years. The first was the character Steel, a black adult Superman, and the second was the Kingdom Come mini-series. Steel is important because he pushed the archetype past its white origins and the Kingdom Come Superman was important because he reintroduced a gravitas to the character that had been lacking since the Golden Age. Recommended Reading
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