In my essay “The Man of Tomorrow,” I explained how Superman was originally envisioned by his creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster as a herald of humanity’s superhuman and utopian future.
Superman’s home planet of Krypton was characterized as:
…so far advanced in evolution that it bears a civilization of supermen — beings which represent the human race at its ultimate peak of perfect development!
And Siegel fancied that Earth may be destined to evolve into a New Krypton:
It is not too far fetched to predict that some day our very own planet may be peopled entirely by Supermen!
In 1958, two decades after Superman first saw print, a story about his youth (written by the great Otto Binder) expanded on this theme. Superboy gets a glimpse of the super-utopian future that he would inspire when three super-youngsters from the 30th century invite him to travel to their time to become an honorary member of their “special club” called the Legion of Super-Heroes. (This super-team, first introduced in this story, went on to become a popular franchise that would spawn a 2006 -2008 animated series and a 2023 animated movie.)
Using a “time bubble,” the Legionnaires transport Superboy to the world of tomorrow. And using jetpacks to fly just like Superboy, they give him a tour of 30th-century Smallville. Superboy is amazed to find that his once-quaint hometown is, after a millennium of progress, now full of technological wonders like flying cars, litter-removing robots, and a sight-seeing satellite named “The Jules Verne” that takes passengers “around the world in 80 minutes”—a nod to the classic novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” by science-fiction pioneer Jules Verne.
“Holy cow!” Superboy marvels, “Smallville is a super-city now!”
“No,” one of the Legionnaires corrects him, “it’s still just a town, Superboy! You should see the big cities of this future time!”
Superboy learns that humans have colonized the entire solar system when the four super-teens stop at an ice cream parlor serving “nine different flavors from nine planets.”
And human civilization has advanced to such a degree that human physiology itself is being upgraded. The youths in the Legion of Super-Heroes are in the vanguard of that march.
“Special serums,” explained the Legionnaire Cosmic Boy, “gave me magnetic eyes of super-power!”
While Cosmic Boy gained his power through super-technology, Saturn Girl became a superhero by tapping her mind’s inherent superhuman potential. “The scientists of Saturn,” she informed Superboy, “who are experts in telepathy, taught me how to read minds and also cast my mental commands anywhere!”
In this Superboy story, Otto Binder, who also wrote science-fiction novels, depicted a future world in the early stages of becoming what Jerry Siegel predicted in his early Superman stories: a planet “entirely peopled” by superhumans. Even Superboy’s hometown of Smallville was evolving into a place worthy of his home planet Krypton.
But the super-civilization of the future never forgot its great forerunner and continued to draw inspiration from him. The wonder children at its forefront were eager to pay homage to their great predecessor—the first superhero—by inviting him to join their super-club. They also showed him that his heroic life was being taught in history classes and the house he grew up in was preserved as a shrine.
In this lovely little tale, the boy who would become the man of tomorrow meets the children of tomorrow and learns that his heroic efforts would resound through the ages and inspire distant generations.
Let us all, young and old, be like Superboy and, no matter how dark it gets today, be the kind of people that the children of a brighter tomorrow would remember, honor, and emulate.
What we do in life echoes in eternity.
— Maximus Decimus Meridius in the film Gladiator