The Birth of an American Superhero

A detailed Summary of The Birth of an American Superhero

Heroes have been an important part of American history. They gave adults and especially young children something to strive for and believe in. Some heroes are real and some are imaginary. Real heroes can be presidents, soldiers, or even a parent. The imaginary hero's can be from books, comic books, or movies. One of the most popular hero's of our time is an imaginary hero created for the pages of comic books. The creation of this hero we all know as Superman took hard work, creativity, determination, and plenty of luck.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were the two Jewish-American teenage boys who created Superman. Jerry Siegel was the writer and Joe Shuster was the artist. Siegel and Shuster met at the age of sixteen while working on their high school newspaper. They made a number of attempts creating the Superman character. The first attempt utilized a bald middle aged man with advanced mental abilities. The next attempt was closer to the Superman we now know. He was younger and had hair but was not an alien with super powers. "The ultimate version of Superman was born one night in 1934, when Siegel found new ideas coming so fast that he couldn't sleep" (Daniels 21). Se

The stories about Superman in both publications mirrored the troubles of the times. Superman challenged wife beaters, fought lynch mobs and even more radically for the times fought corruption in the government. "Superman is the ultimate immigrant protecting the foster community in which he lives"(Nachbar 334). Being an immigrant and an orphan, Superman endeared himself to the American people. The American people identify with Superman because we are all immigrants in some way. Superman is one of us, yet he is better then us. He is better not just because of his superpowers, but because of the standards he up holds that we so easily forget.

Stern, Roger. The Death and Life of Superman. New York: Bantam, 1993.

Daniels, Les. DC Comics: Sixty Years of the Worlds Favorite Comic Book Heroes.

Siegel and Shuster had a wonderful story about a benevolent alien sent to Earth to save his life and ours. The problem was no one wanted to buy their story. "Seigel and Shuster offered their strip everywhere for four years, but newspaper publishers were unanimous in their lack of interest"(Daniels 21). Luck fell upon Seigel and Shuster and DC Comic the day DC's Jack Liebowitz called McClure Syndicates searching for material to put in a new publication called Action Comics. "Editor for McClure, M. C Gaines sent Seigel and Shuster's strips to DC's editor Vin Sullivan. Sullivan bought the strips nobody wanted just because it looked different"(Daniels 22).

Superman traveled a long way to reach the popularity he has attained today. Through the years his l

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Approximate Word count = 1068
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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