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Bv F neur Lovncn
OOK Up in Qh, you know the rest. And

n
the air- that's the point. Superman
waves And and almost everything about
the movie him the big "S," Kr5rytonite,
o screen And Lois -Lane are pieces of
Americana-as recognizable
o
ot the Broad-
.f way stage worldwide as Mickey Mouse,
lr
uJ
And the cowboys, Coca-Cola and.ham-
d) printed burgers.
o
F page It's With extraordinary adapt-
o Superman " ability to changing times
o
toz Yes, it's
Superman, strange visitor perhaps his Superman
-superpower most potentfor
l from another planet Cleve- -
60-plus years has remai4ed a
U)
At 63, why does Superman have the power land who, created -there by symbol for part of how Ameri-
t -
mild-mannered cartoonists cans see themselves. For while
o Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he's popular throughout the
a
=
zU
o eaptivate us? It's the American way. fights a never-ending battle
for...
world, this seminal superhero,
the first, the progenitor of all

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5/27/2018 "StillGoingStrong":DCComics'Superman franchise-slidepdf.com

The Man of Steel has had

many incarnations and
continues to answer our

need tor a hero as he

changes with the times.
At left, it's Christopher
Reeve to the roscuo.

That territory has been home

to the most enduring of the
superheroes created since Super-
nlan's hirth in Action Conrics
N<1. 1, cover-dated .June 1938.
Batman speaks to the darker
impulses we all hitvc, the Hulk
to our inner rage. Spider-Man
could just as well be Ever;rman,
the well-meaning guy whose
dreams get dashed by life no
matter how smart and talented
he secretly may be.
Superman is the flip side of
that. If Spider-Man is who we
probably are, Superman is who
we'd like to be.
"It's just something that hap-
pens in most civilizations, that
there's a terrifically strong,
heroic frgure people feel
brave,could rally around, that
they
exemplifres what they want
from their culture," says Les
Daniels, a novelist and the
author of several books on com-
ics, including "Superman, the
Complete llistory: The Life and
Times of the Man of Steel"
(Chronicle
others, sprang from an art form notion of learning about and "Most of Books, 1998).
those legendary
comic books that is as coming to grips with superpow- heroes, Samson, Hercules, are
-
native to -
America as jazz. ers is directly associated with
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in the past. Superman was not 3/6
The latest incarnation of th'e coming-of-age stories with the only the Man of Steel but was
5/27/2018 STIII GOING STRONG
"StillGoingStrong":DCComics'Superman franchise-slidepdf.com

he was the first made show, for instance, that

him popular in the Gold- gave us the character of
period cub reporter Jimmy
en Age"
- the
from about 1938 to 1946, Olsen and the phrases

tainingcomic
when new books con-as
material, "IJp,
"Thisup andlike
looks away " and
a iob for
opposed to comic-strip Superm.an " (Future TV
reprints, defined them- game-show host Bud
selves as a unique story- Collyer provided Supe's
telling idiom. voice on radio and in the
That uniqueness cartoons; actor-dancer
evolved from a marriage Kirk Alyn was the first to
of form (comic strips, embody him on film.)
which stories in 1950s us,
anddepend-
single tell
or sequential The
'60s brought early
panels of art and text) ing on one's point of view,
and content (heroic ad- either the silly Superman
venture fiction in the or the sci-fi Super-
' tradition of Robin Hood man and in this way,
folk tales, Tarzan, cow- from -the ridiculous (the
boy magazine stories and impish Mister Mxyzptlk)
the protagonists of the to the sublime (the utopi-
then-current rage, the an vistas of
Krypton), legendary
Superman
1O-cent pulp magazines).
Yet whereas pulp heroes stayed with the times.
such as the Shadow and "Adventures of Super-
Doc Savage were extraor- man,' the highly popular
dinary men, they were TV series starring George
still only human. Reeves, kept the charac-
Superman creators ter going strong during
Siegel and Shuster, two this.time.
The image ol the original Superman as he
high school sci-fi fans, in DG Comics, starting in 1938. Over During the'60s and
made the leap to a super- appeared early'70s, when DC
human hero, albeit in the years he has also soared on radio, in mov' Comics found itself out-
more than a single ies and on television. paced in the public con-
bound. With inspiration sciousness and eventual-
from, among other things, Philip Wylie's 1930 ly in sales by rival Marvel and its revolutionary
science-frction novel, "Gladiator," a naturalistic 'buperheroes in the real world" approach,Super-
tragedy of a man with a degree of superhuman man remained a steady presence, joining Bat-
strenglh and invulnerability, they first envi- man and others in the animated superhero car-
sioned an evil, non-costumed Superman in the
' January toons in vogue at the time.
1933 isSue of a sci-fi fanzine they pro- Pushed to new prominence with the hit 1978
duced. Christopher Reeve movie and its sequels, Super-
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By the following year they created a Super- man underwent a tie-the-loose-threads-together 4/6
1986 anil has continued in popularity
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$u GFmil Wffimwffiffimw
June 1938: First appearance, Feb. 12, 1940: First radio show, January 1945: Superboy's first 1966: Broadway "Superman"
"Action Comics" No. 1. "The Adventures of Superman" appearance, "More Fun Comics." musical, "lt's a Bird, movie opens.
(syndicated). 1948: First movie serial. It's a Plane, lt's June 19,
Jan. 16, 1939: First daily comic
Sept. 26, 1941: First of 17 March 1949: "Superboy" comic Superman." 1981: "Super-
strip (through May 1966).
Summer 1939: First issue of theatrical cartoons. book debuts. Sept. 10, 1966: First man ll"
"supermhn" comic book.
Au9.31,1942: Radio show goes Nov. 23, 1951: First feature film, animated TV series, 0pens.
network. "Superman and the Mole Men." "The New Adven- June 17,
Fall 1952: tures of 1983: "Super-
First TV Super- man lll"
series, "Ad- man." 0pens.
ventures ol Sept. 8, Nov. 23,
Superman" 1973: 1984: "Super-
(first-run Animated girl" opens.
syndication TV series,'"Super July 24, 1987: "Superman lV:
through Friends." The Quest for Peace" opens.
1
e57), Dec. 15, 1978: Fall 1988: "Superboy" syndicat-
March 29,

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ed TV series debuts commercial airs during Super

Sept. 12, 1993: "Lois & Clark:
Bowl XXXIl.
The New Adventures of Super-
man" TV series debuts. 0ct. 16, 2001: "Smallville"
September 1996: Animated TV debuts on The WB.
series "Superman" debuts.
January 1998: Superman lJerry
Seinfeld American Express

WB Photo / Brian Cyr

The Man of Steel has had

many incarnations and
continues to answer our
need hero he
lor a as
changes with the times.
At lelt, it's Ghristopher
Reeve to the roscuo.
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