Celebrating the legacy of the first - and greatest - superhero

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Superman.  It was back in 1938 when the Man of Steel first came on the scene; his remarkable influence on society cannot be overstated.  Stephen Skelton, in his book, The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero points out, “One of People magazine’s listings of today’s most prominent pop-culture icons, featuring the likes of Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey, puts Superman in the Top Ten.”

In celebration of Superman’s anniversary, I want to present some information on this important fictional character.  I came across a website (http://999ktdy.com/ten-super-facts-about-superman-on-his-80th-birthday/) that mentioned 10 historical facts on Superman.  It was written by a man named Chris Meaux.  I’m not going to cite all of them here (although you can obviously peruse them yourself, if you are inclined), but I'm going to list 3.

I’ll begin with a point that some may have wanted to quibble over: the notion that Superman is the first superhero.  Meaux writes, “Before Siegel and Shuster introduced Superman to the world, there were no characters quite like him.  There were science fiction and pulp novel characters who had great strength, speed, and other abilities, but they didn’t wear a unique suit and a cape.  Characters like The Shadow were powerless, dressed in everyday clothes, and used guns and fists to fight crime. Superman was the first brightly-colored and super-powered character in fiction, the very first ‘superhero,’ an idea and term that didn’t exist before he was introduced.”

Secondly, I love the section titled “Trunks, Not Underwear”.  “Many people have mistakenly made fun of Superman’s uniform over the years,” Meaux writes, “saying that he’s wearing his ‘underwear’ on the outside.  Others say that Superman’s suit is inspired by the costumes of circus strongmen of the early part of the 20th century, which featured trunks.  

Both parties are wrong, as trunks are quite different from underwear and Shuster’s design wasn’t at all like what circus strongmen wore.  Most strongmen wore a sleeveless shirt with pants and trunks.  Superman wore a full body suit of tights and a cape.  Before Shuster’s design, there were no other characters in literature or movies that looked like Superman, whose uniform became the pattern for all superheroes who followed in the first few decades after Superman was introduced.” 

Third, this author brings up Superman’s “S” shield.  “Superman’s iconic /S/ is one of the most recognized symbols in the world.  Even those who don’t know a thing about Superman know that symbol.”  Stephen Skelton in the book mentioned before The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero writes, “The 2002 comic-book miniseries Superman: Birthright… reveals that the shield is both the family crest – and more than a family crest.  As Clark recounts in the story, “At first, I thought it was a family crest of some sort – but if it was, it certainly came to mean more than that to these people…Over the course of time, it became a…promise.  A sign of people fighting to make a better world.  A symbol of hope.”

 

This notion of Superman’s “S” being a symbol of hope was demonstrated beautifully in a storyline of the TV show Supergirl.  The inhabitants of her city, National City, were brainwashed into mindless automatons who only wanted to serve Non, the main villain.  Only Cat Grant, Maxwell Lord, and Supergirl were in their right mind.  In a touching scene, Cat Grant said to Supergirl: “If you’ve taught me anything, you’ve taught me that hope is stronger than fear.  And that is what I think of every time I look at that [pointing to the “S” shield on her chest].  I believe that you can change everyone out there.  Not through violence, not through fear, but with hope.”

Ultimately, the 3 of them do counteract the brainwashing by transmitting the image of Superman’s “S” shield.  I confess seeing this unfold brought tears to my eyes.  Indirectly, Superman saved the day just with his iconic emblem; an emblem that has come to mean so much to so many.

Kevin