ci (l~~~t?vt If;/~,-t;M /M:&~' :t: r / 1?11 v/ 6~du e is unquestionably the first multimedia superstar of the 20th century. His appearance five decades ago in America caused a sensation. Yet, despite his age, he is not superannuated. He is still faster than a bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap .tall buildings in a bound. The Man of Tomorrow, also known as Superman, made his debut on the cover of Action Comics Number I dated Jone 1938, ushering in the era of the superhero fantasy and establishing the comic book as a distinct, native form of American art and literature. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., joined in the celebration of Superman's 50th birthday last year with a yearlong exhibition, titled "Superman: Many Lives, Many Worlds." The idea of a hero endowed with powers and abilities far beyond those of a mortal human was not new in the early 1930s. But applying that concept to a comic-book character was. Superman was the brainchild of two teenagers from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who did free-lance work for the company that later became DC Comics. the Superman character instantly gained wide popularity and, in 1939, he became the first costumed hero to have his own regular comic-book title. The stories revolved around three fantasy themeÂť: The visitor from another planet; the superhuman being; and the dual identity. Superman easily moved from comic books into other media, especially radio and animated cartoons. His amazing feats seemed even more fantastic accompanied by sound effects or the sight of the Man of Steel actually outrunning bullets. The radio drama, which began airing in 1940in the United States, helped define the character of Superman, according to Jenet-. te Kahn, president and publisher of DC Comics. "The kryptonite angle was introduced on the radio show, kryptonite being a potentially deadly fragment of Superman's home planet," Kahn explains. "Since Superman was invincible, the writers needed to come up with something that would allow the actor possessing the voice of Superman to go on vacation. They dreamed up a plot , where Superman would be exposed to kryptonite, causing him to fall ill. The result was anonymous offstage moaning , for two weeks as the sho\Ycontinued witho1:itits hero. The concept was then picked up and expanded in the comic books."
Cub reporter and sidekick Jimmy Olsen was a major character on the radio show before he appeared in the comics. But the idea of Clark Kent changing into Superman in a phone booth originated with the writers of the mid-1950s television shows. The series was a pioneer in its own right. During its last few seasons, it was one of the earliest color television shows ever produced. While the basic story line was altered slightly to fit a particular medium, graphically, Superman's appearance has undergone little variation over the years. "Superman's costume has been refined, and his physique has become more streamlined," Kahn points out. "The'S' emblem on his chest has become more stylized. He's always had that blue-black hair and his cos.tume has always been drawn with bold, pure colors, giving him a very strong, patriotic look." Dozens 'of artists have worked on the Superman comics, Kahn adds. "In the early days, the character was drawn with a blocky look. Now, the trend is to define every mustle." Since soaring to stardom in 1938, Superman h~s become firmly entrenched in American folklore. "The Superman comics were a welcome diversion to America's Depression-era kids," says Carl Scheele, curator of the Division of Community Life at the National Museum of American History. "And he quickly became identified as the champion of the oppressed and downtrodden. At that time, there were two kinds of lawlessness for the all-American superhero to deal with-the homegrown variety in the form of gangsters and organized crime and the emergence of the Axis leaders on the international scene." These were formidable foes indeed for Super-
man, who offered the hope that truth and justice would always prevail. In the comics, Superman spent the first half of the 1940s defending those values and battling America's war-time enemies. "Superman's character has consistently reflected the times," Smithsonian historian Ellen Roney Hughes observes, "and during World War II, his image was warriorlike." The postwar decade saw Superman dispatching bad guys with names like Atom Man. In the early I960s, Superman focused on an idealized America, meeting President Kennedy and visiting the United Nations. During the 1970s, he touched upon social issues, such as environmental pollution, women's liberation and drug abuse. Scheele thinks that there was nothing out of the ordinary about organizing an exhibition around a comic-book character. "The museum is interested in the history of everyday life in America. To understand American society, one must look at all representative aspects. And Superman is certainly a unique slice of Americana. Literary characters play an important role in American society. They take on a certain reality. Superman's images and adventures become 'real' in many people's minds-as real as their knowledge of the major battles of the (U.S.) Civil War, for instance." The Smithsonian exhibition focused on the myth of Superman and his changing roles regarding such cultural and technological upheavals as crime, political corruption and war. It featured public service posters, buttons, comic and colorin~ books; radio, television and movie scripts; bubblegum cards, and from the Superman film series, a cape and a pair of mildmannered Clark Kent's glasses (used to disguise Superman's true identity). Most of the exhibit's artifacts were donated by DC Comics, and some were on loan from private collections but, generally, Hughes said, Superman paraphernalia was hard to come by. "We acquired some valuable objects concerning the Superman character, but not all of themsay, scripts, for example-may be considered visually exciting. Few tangible objects from the old television serial could be found. There was an interesting photo of the television character in Superman regalia. However, many items were routinely discarded or altered and reused on other shows. The same fate often befalls costumes and props in films," Hughes la-
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4 % 1'. '1\ Li 1 l'nented. "Naturall~ne involved in ,,,;'laking a movie hopes that film will be,\ come a classic. But everything can't be ';saved for posterity." Artifacts of the legendary do-gooder were never superabundant in the first place. Shortly after Superman was rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, World War II erupted, producing shortages of materials for nonessential items, meaning few war-time Superman collectibles. It is also rare to find early, prewar editions of those Superman comics. They, along with other books of the era, were printed on cheap, acidic paper that all but disintegrates with age. And, many simply did not make it through the war years. It
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seems Superman and many of his comic peers of the 1930s and 1940s made their most heroic contributions to the war effort in paper drives .. Actor Christopher Reeve, an expert of sorts on Superman, predicts the character will continue to appeal to future generations. "Superman represents basic values admired by society," the star of four Superman movies says. "And, despite his superhuman powers, he's not a show-off. He displays a real decency of character and a kind of romantic optimism toward others as he goes about his business of foiling criminals and their evil deeds." D About the Author: Vicki Moeser is a writer with the Smithsonian News Service in Washington, D.C.