Superman and the immigrant metaphor - always Siegal & Shuster's intention?

[bat39]

Superman has, in many ways, become a metaphor for the immigrant experience - someone who came to another place in need of refuge, was accepted by its people, became one of them while using the skills he has as a result of his heritage to help the natives of his adopted world. In recent years, given the socio-politcal and cultural discource around immigration, especially in the United States, this metaphor has become perhaps more relevant than ever.

In a lot of political arguments about Superman, and discussions around this metaphor in particular, I see people bringing up the fact that it was Siegal and Shuster's intention that Superman mirror the immigrant experience.

But is that really true? Was that ever their specific intent?

I mean, if you consider the earliest Superman stories, his alien origin really has ZERO relevance beyond serving as a rationale to explain his powers. In fact, Clark himself was unaware of his Kryptonian heritage for much of the Golden Age, and only discovered the truth in-universe in 1949's Superman # 61...11 years into his existence!

Superman's Kryptonian heritage thus wasn't really a factor in the comics till the 50's. Before that it was confined to the origin story, and even that wasn't recapped as widely as it was in the decades that followed. Superman may have been a household name, but I doubt the origin story was as well-known as it is today.

So is there some other source for this belief that Superman was explicitly intended to be a metaphor for immigration? For instance, interviews with Siegal and Shuster later in life? Conversations they had with people? Notes? Because the stories themselves aren't really concerned with where Superman came from.

[manwhohaseverything]

The secret identity had an influence from them having to change their names and stuff.Also, siegel wrote superman #141 which was the story moore used as the base for "for the man who has everything". I believe, The reason kal el was passive in the old story is because they believed the here and now mattered more. Clark kent was a fake. Kal el was the past. Superman was the present and he was real. Doesn't mean the past wasn't missed. It was superman's privacy. Maybe it was creator's as well.

[Electricmastro]

It really had more to do with John Carter of Mars, which I recall being a main influence for Superman, specifically that a person who can’t jump that high on one planet can jump higher on another planet due to the difference in gravity. You can read into it as immigration and interpret any way you like, such as immigrants having supposed to feel empowered, and not powerless, when they move from their homeland, but to claim that Siegel and Shuster intended him to be read as “Krytonian immigration” and just how well Superman himself fitted in, would be another matter.

[manwhohaseverything]

It really had more to do with John Carter from Mars, which I recall being a main influence for Superman, specifically that a person who can’t jump that high in one planet and jump higher on another planet due to the difference in gravity. You can read into it as immigration and interpret any way you like, such as immigrants having supposed to feel empowered, and not powerless, when they move from their homeland, but to claim that Siegel and Shuster intended him to be read as “Krytonian immigration” and just how well Superman himself fitted in, would be another matter.

Tarzan is also an influence. He is the man of two worlds as well.Whether immigrant narrative was inbuilt or not. The conflict between two sides of him is builtin.

[The World]

As I understand it we'll never really see exactly what an untampered with version of the S&S early days Superman would have been like. They weren't big shots until they struck it big with Superman I think and because of that had to go through at least "some" compromises to get the character to print. I remember seeing somewhere that at the very least the pair had the intentions of the Krypton backstory being extended beyond the short intro we get in the Action Comics 1 and Superboy was suppose to be a component of the character from the get go instead of being reworked back into the character years later after Robin showed the kid superhero thing could actually work. Beyond that we know that when Siegel came back to work on Superman he wrote stories like Return to Krypton which did show him very attached to the possibility of living a life on Krypton.

[bat39]

Tarzan is also an influence. He is the man of two worlds as well.Whether immigrant narrative was inbuilt or not. The conflict between two sides of him is builtin.

That's the point. Early Superman, as Siegal and Shuster wrote him, really didn't have that conflict. He had powers and he used them to fight injustice. But its not as though he had any angst over his alien origins (of which he knew nothing anyway).

[Electricmastro]

Tarzan is also an influence. He is the man of two worlds as well.Whether immigrant narrative was inbuilt or not. The conflict between two sides of him is builtin.

Also Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro, as well as Li’l Abner and Harold Lloyd looking mild-mannered, but still being capable of extraordinary feats.







and if anyone feels inclined to key those in in the idea of being the equivalent of being “immigrants in a strange, foreign land” then go right ahead.

Source: https://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2012...-together.html

[manwhohaseverything]

That's the point. Early Superman, as Siegal and Shuster wrote him, really didn't have that conflict. He had powers and he used them to fight injustice. But its not as though he had any angst over his alien origins (of which he knew nothing anyway).

Angst doesn't need to be a factor. That's not how writers used to write back then(something i prefer). It was a story about swashbuckling adventurer/action hero. The over the top soap opera drama stuff became a thing with marvel entering the business. Why would superman be angsty about his past? As said, siegel himself wrote superman#141. So yeah! Take what you will of it. Furthermore, for the man who has everything doesn't work with clark kent. It works with kal.

[Vordan]

Siegel used Superman as an outlet for a lot of his own personal hang ups. Siegel’s father was murdered in a robbery so Superman fought robbers. Siegel was angry about war profiteering, corrupt politicians, and arms dealers, so Superman fought those guys. Siegel was interested in writing, social justice, and New Deal politics so Superman also has a lot of interest in those things:


Like said above, Siegel and Shuster were drawing mainly on pulp science fiction for their early stories, Superman takes a lot from John Carter, Doc Savage, and Tarzan, as well as some from Moses (baby set adrift who is found and raised as a member of a different culture and doesn’t know where he comes from), and Samson (strong man who fights injustice and has a peculiar weakness). I don’t know if Superman was consciously intended to be a metaphor for the Jewish or immigrant experience, but unconsciously? Siegel and Shuster were clearly putting a ton of themselves into their character and so the character acquired those kinds of experiences. Plus later creators came and put their mark on the character by being able to approach him from different angles thanks to their own experiences, like Yang did in Smashes the Klan. This isn’t even unique to Superman, just look at Batman. When he started out, Bruce was not insane. Yet later creators have made Bruce’s uncertain mental state a hallmark of the character. These characters are constantly being changed and redefined, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

[BBally]

Doc Savage had elements that probably influenced Superman's lore:

- The name Fortress of Solitude was also the name of Savage's secret lair.
- Doc Savage's first name was Clark.
- Savage had the title Man Of Bronze, while Superman is known as the Man Of Steel.
- Savage had a blonde haired female cousin who was also a capable adventurer. Sounds like a precursor to Kara.



Jerry Siegel acknowledged that the Popeye shorts was a big influence on Superman's creation.

[Adekis]

I remember hearing that one reason Superman was an alien was a certain misanthropic cynicism on Siegel's part. It took him imagining an alien for him to imagine that Superman might be a hero instead of a villain, as Bill Dunn from Reign of the Super-Man was. If that's the case, then I suspect that the immigration narrative may have been incidental, though I'm sure the allusion to Moses was deliberate.

The second Superman between Dunn and Kal-L was supposed to have been more like Slam Bradley, but I wonder if there may have been more to it than that, if his genius intellect and Herculean strength might not have been entirely natural, and if he might have been an immigrant somehow... but we'll never know.