Superman

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the debut of Superman, one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the world, ranking right up there with Mickey Mouse and Sherlock Holmes. In honor of the anniversary I read Larry Tye's "biography" of the character, Superman: The High Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero.

I've never been a big Superman guy. I was more of a Marvel Comics guy or, if it were a DC hero, I preferred Batman. Superman was too bland and uncomplicated for me. But Tye's book was very engaging, and it is unquestionable that Superman is an essential bit of Americana.

He was created by two Jewish teenagers who lived in Cleveland. Jerry Siegel was the writer, and Joe Shuster the artist. Many of the great American comic book heroes were created by Jews--in addition, Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, was Jewish, as is Stan Lee, who created many of the Marvel heroes. Tye puts it: "The Jewish writers were outsiders by birth. They were conflicted, with one foot in their parents' shtetl and another in their brave new universe of opportunity. They gave life and shape to heroes whose very names, from Batman to Captain America, reflected their creators' reach for the otherworldly and the all-American. Yet the themes and the characters they brought to life grew out of the very past they were trying so hard to escape."

Siegel's father died when Jerry was a kid, and so the origin of Superman, sent by his parents from a dying planet to Earth, resonated when compared to Jerry's story. He was a wunderkind of science-fiction and fantasy, and his first incarnation of the "Super-Man" was as a villain in a pulp magazine he produced himself. Tye points out his resemblance to other characters who came before him, notably Doc Savage, but eventually the Man of Steel took unique shape, and was published by two former smut peddlers, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz. It was an almost instant sensation.

Here is where the story gets complicated, not only in Superman's story but Siegel and Shuster's as well: "On March 1, Jack mailed Jerry and Joe a check for $412...and, almost as an afterthought, $130 for Superman. It was double what they were used to and a fair rate--$10 a page--for the era and their experience, so Jerry and Joe cashed it and split it down the middle. It was also a swindle on the order of the Dutch West India Company's 1626 purchase of Manhattan from the natives for $24."

For years, until their deaths and after by their descendants, Siegel and Shuster have battled National Publications, later called DC, now owned by Warner Communications, for a share of the possible billion dollars that Superman is worth. This even while Siegel continued to write for them.

The character was a big hit, with Joe DiMaggio counted among his fans. At first it was a comic book and daily strip, then animated films made by the Fleischers,  then a radio show. In fact, it was the radio show that introduced some of the character's features, such as the ability to fly (the comic book Superman could only jump long distances) and his vulnerability to Kryptonite. It also introduced the doggerel that is still familiar today:  "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman! Strange visitor from another world, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands! And who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-bending battle for truth, justice and the American way!"

Eventually there would be film serials and a popular television series starring George Reeves, which Tye covers in detail (including Reeves' mysterious death). Then there is extensive coverage of the big-budget films produced by Alexander Salkind, who had no idea who Superman was until his son suggested they make a movie about him. As the films declined in quality and success, the comic book continued, with the publicity-garnering killing off the character in the '90s (of course, he didn't stay dead for long).

Tye's narrative goes right up to Man of Steel, which at the time was in pre-production, but proved his point that Superman is America's most-enduring hero, for even after 75 years, millions of dollars are spent on being entertained by the man in cape and tights.

Where Tye's book moves beyond simple biography the religious aspect--Superman has penumbras of both Judaism and Christianity, given his origin (on one hand, he is Moses-like, sent off as a baby only to become a leader of the chosen people, on the other he is the only son of a man sent to Earth to save them). "Superman had even stronger cultural ties to the faith of his founders. He started life as the consummate liberal, championing causes from disarmament to the welfare state. He was the ultimate foreigner, escaping to America from his intergalactic shtetl and shedding Jewish name for Clark Kent, a pseudonym as transparently WASPish as the ones Jerry had chosen for himself. Clark and Jerry had something else in common: both were classic nebbishes. Clark and Superman lived the way most newly arrived Jews did, torn between their Old and New World identities and their mild exteriors and rock-solid cores. That split personality was the only way he could survive, yet it gave him perpetual angst. You can't get more Jewish than that."

Tye attempts to explain why Superman has been so popular for so long, but I think the answer is elusive. Still, this comes pretty close to the mark: "He is an archetype of mankind at its pinnacle. Like John Wayne, he sweeps in to solve our problems. No thank-you needed. Like Jesus Christ, he descended from the heavens to help us discover our humanity. He is neither cynical, like Batman, nor fraught, like Spider-Man. For the religious, he can reinforce whatever faith they profess; for nonbelievers, he is a secular messiah. The more jaded the era, the more we have been lured back to his clunky familiarity. The outcome of his adventures may be as predictable as those of Sherlock Holmes--the good guy never loses--but that too is reassuring."

This is a wonderful book for the comic book geek and the student of American cultural history, as it covers print, radio, TV and movies. We follow along as the comic book soars and then declines in popularity (as Tye points out, now they are bought mostly by adults in specialty shops at prices much too high for kids). Those who were at the helm of those entities are a wonderful menagerie of characters, who all were passionate about keeping Superman alive in the imagination. Judging by the robust (if not stratospheric) box office numbers from Man of Steel, Superman isn't going away anytime soon.