Henry Cavill's Superman with the black suit and red eyes in Zack Snyder's Justice League
By
Shaun Corley
Published 56 minutes ago
Shaun Corley is a Staff Writer for ScreenRant, a position he has held for five years. While he enjoys many types of comics and graphic novels, he has a particular interest in the licensed Star Trek titles.
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Superman needs to ditch his clean-cut image for good, and return to his roots as a ruthless champion of the oppressed. Superman has been a pop culture fixture for 87 years. In that time, he has undergone significant changes, both in power levels and in his mission. The story of Superman's gradual shift in priorities reflects American history.
Today, Superman is one of DC’s marquee characters, and part of its “Trinity,” alongside Batman and Wonder Woman. Superman’s colleagues view him as highly moral. Superman is averse to using lethal force on anyone, and his code of ethics has earned him the (sometimes derogatory) nickname of “the Big Blue Boy Scout.”
Superman struggles to get out of the Phantom Zone in DC Comics
Yet this was not always the case.
Superman's Origin Dates Back to Two Teenage Science Fiction Fans in 1933
Hard to Believe, But Superman Began Life as a Villain
The Reign of the Superman
When Superman arrived on the scene in 1938’s Action Comics #1, comic books were already popular with kids. The first comic books were merely reprints of newspaper strips, repackaged in a new format. By the middle point of the decade, however, publishers began experimenting with new material, which necessitated a constant search for new features.
Enter Cleveland, Ohio residents Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The duo, who had been life-long friends as well as dedicated science fiction fans, had collaborated on a number of projects, most of which failed to materialize, one of which was a 1933 short story titled “The Reign of the Superman.” The duo shopped the story around, but it was rejected.
While it may share a title with a classic Superman storyline, the character in “Reign of the Superman” is anything but a hero. Instead, he is a telepathic villain, bent on conquering the Earth. The “Superman” depicted in it is bald, almost as if he was a dry run for Lex Luthor.
Over the next few years, Siegel and Shuster developed the Superman concept further, turning him into the hero that eventually captivated readers around the world. After years of rejection, the pair finally sold the Superman character to National Allied Publications, the company that would one day become DC Comics. They were paid, adjusted for inflation, around 2,000 for the character.
Superman Fought Different Types of Villains in the Golden Age
In Superman's Early Years, He Fought More Grounded Opponents
Superman’s first adventure set the tone for the next few years worth of stories. The Man of Steel is today associated with powerful villains such as Lex Luthor and Brainiac, but his very first opponents were more down to Earth: slum lords, abusive fathers and husbands, low-level racketeers, and so on.
In Action Comics #1, Superman first helps clear the name of an innocent man on death row before rescuing Lois Lane from the clutches of a criminal gang. Finally, Superman investigates a corrupt United States Senator who is in league with a weapons manufacturer. Both were profiting off a war in a foreign country.
Re-reading these early Superman stories, it is shocking to see how cavalier he is in meting out punishments. In Action Comics #1, Superman thoroughly trashes the gang’s getaway car, and leaves one hanging for dear life on a pole. Superman also abducts the corrupt Senator, and shows him firsthand the evil he has unleashed.
The Golden Age Superman Was a Global Mover and Shaker
Later Superman Creators Have Explored This Side of the Character With Mixed Results
Golden Age Superman punching a plane.
The Golden Age Superman did not limit himself to street-level crime, as he intervened in world affairs as well. In Action Comics #2, Superman interferes in a war between two nations. The Man of Steel is successful in convincing the two countries not to fight, but unlike his modern counterpart, he is not nice about it.
While some aspects of the Golden Age Superman have fallen by the wayside, the idea of a character of his power levels taking an interest in human affairs has proven irresistible to creators. Most notably, two films: 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and 2025’s Superman were built around this premise.
Superman's Emphasis on Social Justice Was an Extension of His Creators
Superman's Creators Endured Much in an Era of Rampant Antisemitism
Superman creators Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster
Superman’s earliest stories depicted him as a blue-collar superhero who fought social ills more than villains. Superman’s early concerns about the problems of his day originated with his creators: the aforementioned Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The political climate of the day also influenced Superman’s creation, as did a number of other pop culture characters, such as Gladiator.
Important to any analysis of Superman’s origins is that both Siegel and Shuster were Jewish. Siegel and Shuster’s parents were also immigrants, moving to America in the early 1900s to flee the rampant antisemitism that had gripped Europe. The two families no doubt encountered even more anti-Jewish sentiment in America.
Antisemitism, always a problem, escalated considerably during the 1930s. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany added fuel to the fire, but there was also a considerable antisemitic streak in American society as well. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster ran up against it time and again.
It is widely speculated that these frustrations were channeled into Superman’s creation. In his landmark novel The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon drew a connection between early comic book characters, most of them originating with Jewish creators, and the golem. The golem, a fixture of Jewish folklore, is a creature that arises to defend Jewish people in times of persecution.
What Led to the Shift in Superman Stories? It's Complicated
World War II and the Cold War Led to a Shift in Superman's Priorities
Silver Age Superman DC
Regardless of Siegel and Shuster’s intentions, the Superman of the late 1930s is vastly different from the Man of Steel of 2025. Siegel and Shuster’s Superman openly flaunted the law, taking it into his own hands, dispensing it usually with a sarcastic joke and sometimes even lethal force. So what led to his transformation into the “Big Blue Boy Scout?”
Some analysts cite the Second World War as one of the reasons for Superman’s change in direction. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was a greater emphasis on eradicating social ills, such as poverty, crime and domestic violence, all of which Superman fought head-on in the Golden Age’s early years.
Yet after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the entrance of the United States into the Second World War, national priorities shifted. The country was now in “war mode,” and any talk of fixing social problems went on the back-burner, and Superman’s adventures changed to reflect this as well. Covers to Superman comics showed him stopping tanks and planes.
The aftermath of World War II further impacted Superman’s development. Almost immediately after the War’s end, another one began, but this time fought differently. The “Cold War” between the United States and the Soviet Union was now on everyone’s minds. The early 1950s saw a “Red Scare,” in which people believed Communists had infiltrated American society.
As a result of the Cold War, Superman became even more good and wholesome. During the War, America tried to foster an image of a “united front” against the Soviet Union, and talk of social ills was once again tabled, oftentimes labeled as “communist talk.” Needless to say, Superman’s days as a blue-collar vigilante were finished.
Absolute Superman Was a Return to Siegel and Shuster's Vision for the Character
Absolute Superman Has Been a Smash Hit With Fans and Critics
While Superman today is known worldwide as a paragon of virtue, there have been fans who have clamored for a return to the Man of Steel of old. DC Comics gave them exactly what they wanted with the premiere of Absolute Superman. This book has seen Superman fight corrupt corporations and liberate workers.
DC has advertised its Absolute line as what might happen if its biggest icons did not have their usual advantages. This approach strips a character down to their essentials, and builds them back up in new and exciting ways. For the Absolute Superman team of Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval, they leaned back into Superman’s origins.
DC is Unlikely to Ever Return Superman to His Blue-Collar Vigilante Roots
Superman Stories Today Have Grand, Larger than Life Ambitions
David Corenswet's Kal El looks up in a Metropolis street in James Gunn's Superman
Absolute Superman is the closest fans will get to a version of the Man of Steel that honors the vision of his creators. The book takes place on a different Earth than the mainstream DC Universe, which allows the publisher to take bolder risks with their characters. In Superman’s case, it returns him to his roots.
The possibility of seeing a return to Superman’s gritty and more grounded adventures is nil, particularly when it comes to beating up slum lords and abusive husbands. Decades of cosmic, big-concept adventures have shaped the public’s mind of what a Superman story is, and fixing social ills with his fists is not one of them.
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