Superman
Superman
By: Austin Foster
There are many superheroes. The fictional world is full of them. They often undertake many daring adventures; from saving damsels in distress to protecting the world from alien invasions. And for many, that is as far as they go. But a rare few manage to go beyond and become something more. That is what makes Superman so significant. More than just a man in tights, he has come to mean a host of different things to different people. However, there are three areas that Superman has defined significance in and that is historically, socially and culturally. This essay will explain why he is the superhero that has made the most impact on the 20th and 21st centuries.
From the moment he was created, Superman started making his mark on history. Inspired by the old time pulp heroes like Doc Savage and the Shadow high school kids Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sought to emulate the success other creators had had in the new booming medium of comic books. The beginnings of Superman date back to January 1933 and after a few years and a lot of revision, he was finally published in June 1938 in Action Comics #1 and it is his first appearance that is attributed with the commencement of the Golden Age of Comics. Despite the fact that heroes like Zorro and the Phantom already existed, Superman is considered the first “superhero”. They were just men who took on a masked identity, but the Man of Steel was the first with powers. Thus, his creation inspired the birth of more of these new superheroes, like Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.
The so called Man of Tomorrow also set a precedent for dual identities. The use of a secret identity as a device was not new, as Zorro and the Shadow had used them. But they were wealthy aristocrats. Siegel and Shuster decided that Superman’s secret identity should be in the form of a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, called Clark Kent. As fellow creator and industry legend Stan Lee says:
“Superman established
By: Austin Foster
There are many superheroes. The fictional world is full of them. They often undertake many daring adventures; from saving damsels in distress to protecting the world from alien invasions. And for many, that is as far as they go. But a rare few manage to go beyond and become something more. That is what makes Superman so significant. More than just a man in tights, he has come to mean a host of different things to different people. However, there are three areas that Superman has defined significance in and that is historically, socially and culturally. This essay will explain why he is the superhero that has made the most impact on the 20th and 21st centuries.
From the moment he was created, Superman started making his mark on history. Inspired by the old time pulp heroes like Doc Savage and the Shadow high school kids Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sought to emulate the success other creators had had in the new booming medium of comic books. The beginnings of Superman date back to January 1933 and after a few years and a lot of revision, he was finally published in June 1938 in Action Comics #1 and it is his first appearance that is attributed with the commencement of the Golden Age of Comics. Despite the fact that heroes like Zorro and the Phantom already existed, Superman is considered the first “superhero”. They were just men who took on a masked identity, but the Man of Steel was the first with powers. Thus, his creation inspired the birth of more of these new superheroes, like Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.
The so called Man of Tomorrow also set a precedent for dual identities. The use of a secret identity as a device was not new, as Zorro and the Shadow had used them. But they were wealthy aristocrats. Siegel and Shuster decided that Superman’s secret identity should be in the form of a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, called Clark Kent. As fellow creator and industry legend Stan Lee says:
“Superman established