Saturday, November 9, 2013

75 Years of Superman

When I was in high school, I started reading and collecting comic books.  While there were lots of different characters and teams that I liked, my favorite was always Superman.  Superman is the reason that superheroes exist, being the first one.  He first appeared in 1938, which means the character has existed for 75 years.



Even though I haven't collected comics for several years, I still like the character.  Yeah, he's ridiculously powerful, but that's not what makes him special.  The reason I liked Superman best is because he fights bad guys and saves bystanders simply because he's a good guy.  While so many comic book characters have tragic back-stories (Batman, Wolverine, Spider-Man, the Flash, the list goes on and on), Superman is the one hero that doesn't look weird with a smile on his face.  He sees the world for what it could be and tries to inspire others to live up to that ideal.

Here's to you, Superman!

1 comment:

Jordan said...

So what did we just see? Here are the various incarnations that were depicted.

-Action Comics #1 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
-Max Fleischer cartoon serials
-Golden Age Comics
-Adventures of Superman with George Reeves
-Silver Age Comics
*Jimmy Olsen, Giant Turtle Boy
*Brainiac
*Bizarro
*Supergirl and the Super pets: Krypto the dog, Streaky the cat, and Beppo the monkey (usually depicted as a chimp)
*Mr. Mxyzptlk
-Super Friends
-Bronze Age comics with boxing match against Muhammad Ali (Superman was depowered somehow)
-Superman with Christopher Reeve
-Superman video game on the Atari 2600
-Modern Age comics
*Fight with Doomsday
*The Death of Superman
*Rise of the Supermen
*Rebirth
*Superman Red/Superman Blue
-Superman: The Animated Series created by Bruce Timm
-Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (they kind of allude to Smallville, the TV series)
-Nu52 Superman (that's really what he's called, by the fans anyway) fighting the new Darkseid
-Man of Steel with Henry Cavill

All of that was from memory, by the way. But what did they miss? Here are some of the bigger omissions:

-Kirk Alyn, the first actor to portray Superman in live action serials
-Gerard Christopher, who played Superboy in a TV series from the late 80s (I actually vaugely remember that one)
-Dean Cain from Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman from the mid-90s
-Tom Welling from Smallville
-Brandon Routh from Superman Returns
-When they showed the Super pets, the left out Comet, the horse
-Superman had a daily comic strip for over twenty years
-Lex Luthor is nowhere to be seen