Creation

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first created a bald telepathic villain bent on dominating the
entire world. He appeared in the short story "The Reign of the Superman" from Science
Fiction #3, a science fiction fanzine that Siegel published in 1933. Siegel re-wrote the
character in 1933 as a hero, bearing little or no resemblance to his villainous namesake, and
began a six-year quest to find a publisher. Titling it The Superman, Siegel and Shuster
offered it to Consolidated Book publishing, who had published a 48-page black-and-white comic
book entitled Detective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48. Although they received an encouraging
letter, Consolidated never published in the comic book market again. Shuster took this to
heart and destroyed all pages of the story, the cover surviving only because Siegel rescued it
from the fire. Siegel and Shuster have both reported this version of the character as being
comparable to Slam Bradley, a character the pair created in 1937 for the first issue of
Detective Comics.

By 1934 the pair had once more re-envisioned the character. He became more of a hero in the
mythic tradition, inspired by such characters as Samson and Hercules,[11] who would right the
wrongs of Siegel and Shuster's times, fighting for social justice and against tyranny. It was
at this stage the costume was introduced, Siegel later recalling that they created a "kind of
costume and let's give him a big S on his chest, and a cape, make him as colorful as we can
and as distinctive as we can."[12] The design was based in part on the costumes worn by
characters in outer space settings published in pulp magazines, as well as comic strips such

as Flash Gordon,[13] and also partly suggested by the traditional circus strong-man outfit.
However, the cape has been noted as being markedly different from the Victorian tradition.
Gary Engle described it as without "precedent in popular culture" in Superman at Fifty: The
Persistence of a Legend.[15] The pants-over-tights outfit was soon established as the basis for
many future superhero outfits. This third version of the character was given extraordinary
abilities, although this time of a physical nature as opposed to the mental abilities of the
villainous Superman.

The locale and the hero's civilian names were inspired by the movies, Shuster said in 1983.
"Jerry created all the names. We were great movie fans, and were inspired a lot by the actors

and actresses we saw. As for Clark Kent, he combined the names of Clark Gable and Kent Taylor.
And Metropolis, the city in which Superman operated, came from the Fritz Lang movie
[Metropolis, 1927], which we both loved".

Although they were by now selling material to comic book publishers, notably Malcolm Wheeler-
Nicholson's National Allied Publishing, the pair decided to feature this character in a comic
strip format, rather than in the longer comic book story format that was establishing itself
at this time. They offered it to both Max Gaines, who passed, and to United Feature Syndicate,
who expressed interest initially but finally rejected the strip in a letter dated February 18,
1937. However, in what historian Les Daniels describes as "an incredibly convoluted turn of
events", Max Gaines ended up positioning the strip as the lead feature in Wheeler-Nicholson's
new publication, Action Comics. Vin Sullivan, editor of the new book, wrote to the pair
requesting that the comic strips be refashioned to suit the comic book format, requesting
"eight panels a page". However Siegel and Shuster ignored this, utilising their own experience
and ideas to create page layouts, with Siegel also identifying the image used for the cover
of Action Comics #1 (June 1938), Superman's first appearance.

Alek Cappelletti • Final Exam