The Myth of Superman

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers[Edit][Delete]: The Myth of Superman, Wired [Edit][Delete] May 25, 2006
Today's article in Wired tells a story about Superman. "His real-world origin is more humble: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish kids from Cleveland, created him as a character in a newspaper comic strip. But the strip didn't sell, so they reformatted it and flipped it to a publisher hungry to buy content for one of the first comic books... It's a classic American success story on a couple of levels. Two outsiders create a new art form, and Superman 'an alien in a strange land' takes off."
Wired is reiterating the myth. The reality, though, is more illustrative. The story of 'Superman' probably begins with Nietzsche's Ubermensch and the name is popularized in Shaw's Man and Superman. Canadians know that Joe Shuster was born in Toronto and moved to Cleveland as a child. More...