Superman is Still Flying High

Eighty-seven years after he first flew off the pages of Action Comics No. 1, the birth of Superman was finally honored in the city where he was created. A statue of the Man of Steel, poised to take to the sky, his broad cape billowing behind him, was unveiled in Cleveland, Aug. 2.

A few steps away from the statue, which was cast, appropriately enough in stainless steel, stood his creators. They were both near the metal telephone booth where the superhero had changed into his iconic costume.

Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were students at Cleveland’s Glenville High when they first began exploring the birth of a superhero, who, like Moses, would appear, seemingly from nowhere, to save his people.

Both creators were the first generation sons of European Jewish immigrants. Their personalities meshed easily. Shuster was the shy introvert, who had a talent for art but had such poor eyesight that he would be nearly blind later in life. Siegel was the gregarious, emotional idea man, whose father had died of a heart attack during a robbery at the family’s clothing store.

One of the early strips the pair drew was of Superman saving a man who is being held up. The victim looked a lot like his father. The character’s alter ego, a mild-mannered reporter named Clark Kent, was patterned after Siegel’s childhood dream of becoming a famous journalist.

It would take the pair nearly five years of tinkering with the Superman idea to finally sell it in 1938 to a recently organized firm, which was publishing the first issue of Action Comics. The initial press run of 200,000 copies sold out quickly and the Superman character was launched forever into the American imagination.

The latest version of the Superman legend has been one of this summer’s hits in the nation’s theaters. In just over a month, it has racked up $500 million in revenues here and abroad.

The film, which is the first to star a Jewish actor, David Corenswet, as the Man of Steel, hews pretty close to the original spirit of the comic book hero. This Superman is a likeable and earnest hero taking on the bad guys with the help of Lois Lane, the love interest. She’s played by Rachel Brosnahan, who is well known to Jewish audiences as Midge Maisel in the Amazon series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” He’s also aided by Krypto the Wonder Dog, who’s owned by Supergirl, a character that’s featured in a film being readied for release next year.

Much of the sound stage work on the film was shot at Atlanta’s Trilith Studios, with outdoor scenes shot in La Grange and Macon.

It was homecoming of sorts for Superman, who was highlighted in a major exhibit at The Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum that ran from Fall 2004 through Summer 2005 and was provided in the AJT in October 2004. Their “ZAP! POW! BAM! THE SUPERHERO: The Golden age of Comic Books, 1938 to 1950,” paid homage not just to Superman, but Batman, Captain America and Wonder Woman and their creators, most of whom were Jewish — men like Bob Kane, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, whose impact on popular culture during that golden age and later are immeasurable.

That exhibit was created by The Breman’s first executive director, Jane Leavey. She pointed out in the exhibit catalogue that was written with Jerry Robinson, that the superheroes of the 1930s and 1940s were very much a part of the Jewish ethos of tikkun olam. They were repairing the world and safeguarding it from destruction. A 1943 cover of Captain America, shows the hero personally going up against Adolf Hitler. Leavey points out that the success of the comic book superheroes convinced many Americans, particularly young people, that they, too, could be heroes. And, if they were Jewish, that had powerful allies in the fight against antisemitism and discrimination.

For their first illustrated Superman story, which ran 13 pages, Shuster and Siegel were paid $130, for which Action Comics also acquired all the rights to the Superman character. The magazine went for a dime. Such has been the success of their creation that last year that one of those dime comic books sold for $6 million!

The cover of that iconic first edition shows Superman lifting over his head an automobile, which belonged to the villainous gang he was fighting. Fighting evil and righting wrongs was an integral part of the character from the start.

This year’s Superman is the tenth version of the filmed saga, since Christopher Reeve first pulled on his red and blue tights in 1978. And with the encouragement of solid box office returns, like this summer’s film, it’s likely to be up, up and away for much of the next decade.