Sixty six years ago in Cleveland, Ohio two teenagers named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster came up with this idea of a hero. This hero is now world renowned as a staple in the world of comic books. He was the first of his kind and has a long list of followers. This hero was Superman.

Ever since that summer night in 1934 when Superman crept into the mind of Jerry Siegel, he has been changing ever so slightly into the masterpiece of a hero he is today. The history of Superman as he appears in comic books tends to prove one thing, that each decade has one substantially different version of the Man of Steel.

Superman was the creation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Siegel, a writer, and Shuster, an artist, were both very big science fiction fans. Siegel would invest much of the money he earned buying comic books such as The Adventures of Tarzan, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. Siegel and Shuster were both classic nerds: unathletic and shy around girls, that led Siegel to invision a man of unlimited might and power. This is where he first got the idea for Superman. One of Jerry Seigel's hobbies was writing short science-fiction stories. One of these stories was, The Reign of the Superman.

Aspects of Superman's adult life were now shown to have ties to his childhood. In Adventure #271 it states that the enmity between Superman and Lex Luthor goes back to when they where teenagers. Under Weisinger and Siegel, Luthor began to evolve into a truly three dimensional character. At times proving to be capable of the most self serving cruelyy imaginable, and at other times capable of the most noble sacrifice, depending mostly on whether or not Superman is involved. Luthor strives on wanting to prove that he has superiority of Superman.

In Febuary of 1945, Superboy made his first appearance. In this the idea that Kryptonians do not have super powers on Krypton was first expressed. Superboy is said to receive his powers from Earth's lesser gravity. The notion that Superman grew up in a small town is also mentioned in this story. In Superman #53 the full origin of Superman was printed for the first time in a comic book, but there was no mention of Superboy even though that feature had been running for about three years. Kryptonians are once again mentioned as being super powerful with no mention of Earth's gravity.

With the Superman of the Golden Age (1938-1948) many inconsistencies exist. He is supposed to be known as the Superman of the Earth-2 theory, but many differences exist. Such as Perry White appearing as Clark Kent's boss in Superman #7, even though the Earth-2 Superman never met Perry White until Clark Kent became the editor of the Daily Star in the 1950's. As an adult Clark Kent moved to Metropolis and worked as a reporter for the Daily Star, under editor George Taylor. But the some inconsistency happens in Action Comics #2 when Clark is portrayed working for the Cleveland Evening News. Other differences include the Earth-2 Lex Luthor, who is supposed to be a red head, being portrayed as a bald Luthor in Superman #10. Yet another inconsistency is the use of Superman's "super muscular control" to change his facial figures into any disguise he wishes, used in Superman #18 and on through the end of 1947, but this is a power that the Earth-2 Superman lacks.

Kryp and Tonn turned a world so unfit for life that early generations slept more than half the day and felt more comfortable crawling than walking, into a bustling super scientific civilized world. This race's physiology was altered, although outside appearance changed very little. But their muscle tissue became denser, motor reflexes became sharper, and their optic capacities widened.

The 1940's Superman spent most of his time saving people from natural disasters and corrupt businessmen. He would level slums to force the city to build decent housing, and he would use his powers to terrorize munitions makers. All while his powers grew rapidly to give readers bigger thrills.

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Approximate Word count = 3073
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)