Superman is a fictional character created in 1932 by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster. Superhero comics became an icon of American culture.
Five years after his creation, Jérôme Siegel and Joe Shuster sold their character to DC Comics. It only took one page for his extra-terrestrial background to be described; sent by his father in a rocket, the newborn is the sole survivor of a dead planet. Invincible, fast and capable of jumping like a grasshopper, we're told the giant's powers come from his people who are much more advanced than the earthlings. Dressed in a suit, he protects those in need. A journalist at the Daily Planet under the alias of Clark Kent, he works alongside Lois Lane with whom he is madly in love. In the first issue, he is already wearing his iconic red cape, but it's noted that his boots, along with his tights are blue and that we can see quite clearly on his chest a gold badge very similar to a police badge.
The creation of Metropolis; Superman previously grew up in Cleveland, the city of residence of his two creators. In fact, in the original version, although Clark is adopted by the Kents, Smallville is merely the name of the orphanage in which a motorcyclist left in a child he found in a rocket.
With the publication of "The Adventures of Superman" novel, George Lowther offers a more detailed version of Krypton: the twin planet of Earth, whose inhabitants all have superpowers.
Supersonic flight is added to his rapidly growing list of powers. As well as this, in the radio soap opera, Kryptonite appeared for the first time. Red in colour, the mineral ore turns green.
With the release of the first cinema adaptation, Jérôme Siegel believed only his creation escaped being dressed up in a Superman costume. He threatened to throw himself off the top of a skyscraper as reported in his biography, The Comic Book Makers; Joe Simon, the Father of Captain America.
Jérôme Siegel gave his position to a new editor: Mort Weisenger. The latter gives Superman all the attributes we know today and introduces the will of Jor-El who will be the starting point of the 1978 film.
The orphanage Smallville became the welcome plae for superheros; from then on, the motorcyclist character disappeared in favour of a more simple version in which the Kents found Kal-El on his arrival to Earth.
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The version of Krypton situated beyond Saturn's orbit around the red sun definately required Rao. Due to very strong gravity on Kryton, it's not on Earth where Kryptonite's develop their powers. From this also comes the fact that Superman lost all his powers when he was exposed to the light of the red star.
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Christopher Reeve donned the red cape on the big screen with Superman The Movie in 1978, then Superman 2 (1980), Superman 3 (1983) and again another- Superman 4 The Quest for Peace (1987). Notably, playing the rôle of Jor-El, was Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor.
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Marv Wolfman revamps the entire DC universe in the series Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the interest of clarity and consistency, Superman's origins, powers and relationships with other characters are reworked.
Fooled by a pair of glasses for more than 50 years, Lois Lane finally learns the true identity of Clark Kent, in Action Comics #662 Jérôme Siegel had already anticipated these turn of events since 1941, but DC Comics were completely opposed to it.
Warner Bros created Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman with Dean Kain in the role of Clark Kent. The love life of the superhero, the identity crisis prevails which takes precedence of it's judgement. However, the writers of the comic decided during one of their super-sized summits, for Superman to be married. Forced to postpone the marriage in the comic to tie in with the TV series, they made the difficult decision to kill the hero and to then do a comeback from the dead.
Defeated by Doomsday, Superman dies. The news of the superhero's death even makes French news TV! This issue of Superman remains the most sold comic in the world.
Marriage to Lois Lane. The death of Jérôme Siegel. The rights of the superhero are permanently granted to the publisher, the successors are still in court to get the rights to Superboy and Smallville.
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Kal-El alias Clark Kent alias Superman, celebrates his 70th birthday. Now married to Lois Lane for 12 years, it is expected in the up coming episodes that the couple decide to have children.
