Superman is the quintessential superhero. He was also the first. So when writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster created the character, they also invented a genre.
Superman debuted in 1938 in Action Comics #1. In a mere thirteen pages, his first story established almost all the classic superhero tropes: the dramatic origin story, the superhuman powers, the crusading mission, the outlandish costume, the secret identity, and more.
Siegel and Shuster were avid fans of science fiction, and they borrowed some of their themes from that genre. As a baby, Superman was rocketed to earth from a dying alien planet. And the first page features a “scientific explanation” of his super-strength.
A Marvel Amid the Mundane
But aside from the hero and his birthplace, the world of the story is quite ordinary. That is a key difference between the superhero and scifi genres. Science fiction tales often have extraordinary settings: like an alien planet or the distant future.
But, Superman’s first adventure takes place in an American city of the 1930s: in a world, not of flying saucers and ray guns, but of sedans and revolvers. Indeed in his first story Superman outruns, lifts, and smashes a sedan and proves to be impervious to revolver shots.
Thus, Superman is a marvel amid the mundane. That contrast enhances the wonder over his super-feats and has been an essential aspect of the superhero genre ever since
Not a Freak, but a Forerunner
Yet the superhero story is not only a fantasy of the world of today, but a vision of the world of tomorrow. And this too has been true from the beginning of the genre.
Siegel and Shuster’s Superman was not just an otherworldly wonder, but a representative of what we mere earthlings could someday become: a symbol of humankind’s superhuman potential.
Superman was not meant to be a freak, but a forerunner.
According to a caption in Action Comics #1, Superman:
“…had come from a planet whose inhabitants’ physical structure was millions of years advanced of our own. Upon reaching maturity, the people of his race became gifted with titanic strength!”
The implication of Siegel’s use of the word “advanced” is that Superman’s physical structure represents what humanity’s would become after millions of years of evolution.
Superman’s alien place of origin was first given a name in 1939 in Superman #1, also written by Siegel and drawn by Shuster. A caption in that issue read:
“Superman came to earth from the planet Krypton, whose inhabitants had evolved, after millions of years, to physical perfection!”
In the same panel, a drawing depicts a city on Krypton with Kryptonian super-citizens leaping tall buildings in single bounds.
Another caption adds that:
“It is not too far fetched to predict that some day our very own planet may be peopled entirely by Supermen!”
And in the 1939 comic strip, “The Superman Is Born,” Siegel wrote:
“Krypton, a distant planet 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!”
(For more along these lines, see my post “On the Evolution of Superman.”)
These passages make clear what Jerry Siegel meant when, in 1939’s World’s Fair Comics #1, he dubbed his creation “the Man of Tomorrow.” Superman was a vision of humanity at a future state of perfection.
A Finer World
And not just bodily perfection. Superman transcends mere mortals, not only physically, but intellectually and morally. As comics writer Grant Morrison put it, Superman is the “ideal paragon of human physical, intellectual, and moral development…” (See my post “A More Perfect Superman.”)
Superman not only overpowers his opponents but outwits them. He not only foils villains but teaches them a lesson. Siegel and Shuster introduced Superman as a “champion of the oppressed” and a scourge of oppressors, battling not only common criminals but corrupt elites. He is the herald of a more morally advanced civilization: a future finer world.
Superman is a visitor from Krypton, which in Siegel and Shuster’s vision represented peak humanity. The man of tomorrow is an emissary from the world of tomorrow where everyone is better: stronger, smarter, and nobler. Superman is, to use Morrison’s term, a “utopian role model,” not only for the fictional earthlings in his stories, but for the flesh-and-blood earthlings reading and watching those stories.
When written well, Superman is, as Morrison wrote, an “emblem of our highest, kindest, wisest, toughest selves.” And when taken in with reflection, the best Superman stories can help bring out our best.
As Superman was told by a vision of his dead father in Morrison’s classic comic mini-series All-Star Superman, “You have given them an ideal to aspire to, embodied their highest aspirations.” Whether or not that ideal is achievable or even approachable, aspiring to it has been helping the man of tomorrow’s fans become better future versions of themselves since 1938. And the way of self-improvement is ultimately humanity’s only path to a finer world of tomorrow.