Myths about Superman

[Powerboy]

And those characters of edger rice Burrough like tarzan and john carter have inspirations as well.For instance, Tarzan took inspiration from jungle book that much i know of. Does that mean they are rip-offs? We need something to build something. That's just how it is and modern scifi/fantasy owes itself to three people Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling,... Etc. From star wars to avatar, everything is inspired by what these guys created.

Finally on a side note, siegel and shuster didn't use weaker gravity as explanation. Siegel and shuster's explanation had superman's physiology being the reason. They compared superman to insects and bugs.Gravity was a later explanation.

Yes, the people from Superman's planet (not even named until the end of Year One) had reached the pinnacle of "human" perfection. The art showed them performing superhuman feats on their home planet, I believe.

Plus we have the gods of various mythologies. We have demi-gods like Heracles. We have Gilgamesh, etc.

The idea of people with human abilities taken to superhuman proportions (strength, durability, speed, leaping and even intelligence) hardly began in the 1930s. The idea of people wearing costumes and going by code names (The Shadow, Zorro), and having secret identities hardly began in the 1930s. For some people to single out Superman as somehow 95% original while everyone else was a "ripoff" is senseless if they claim everything he borrowed somehow doesn't count as the same.

The one thing that really generates this claim that Superman was anything but one of the boys in a long line is that he debuted in a relatively new medium called comic books. I love the character but if we just described Zorro or the Shadow or the Lone Ranger without getting into the medium, it would be a rather hard argument that Superman includes anything not already covered.

I once argued that Zorro is a man who puts on a mask and a cape, goes by a heroic code name to disguise his true identity and fights for the poor and oppressed against a corrupt government and other criminals. Someone seriously retorted that he wasn't from another planet and didn't have powers. At that point, the person is just making his argument so Superman-centric that nobody but Superman could meet the criteria. I mean, yes, Zorro's real name wasn't Kal-El or Clark Kent.

But I agree with you. Superman is not a ripoff of Zorro or John Carter or Heracles. I'm just saying that, if someone seriously wants to go similarity by similarity between Superman and Captain Marvel, we can do the same with Superman and a host of characters who were before him.

[Powerboy]

Again you're picking and choosing what to post. Like I said the previous links I've given shows that the courts declared Cap a ripoff twice.

They also declared it not a ripoff several times but DC kept refiling. It's also been reported that Jerry Siegal and National were a bit worried that Philip Wylie or his publisher might sue them for ripping off Gladiator and they decided that, if he did, they would just stop publishing Superman. Luckily, Wylie or his publisher didn't make an issue of it and this was before they realized what a hit Superman would turn out to be.

The only reason the accusation of Cap being a ripoff is even an issue is because National was the only one that decided to sue even though they were in a glass house. Fawcett should have just paid Wylie a token fee and said Cap was based on somebody who pre-dated Superman.

The limits of Hugo Danner's abilities were specifically stated.

Speed: Outrun a speeding train.
Leaping: An eighth of a mile.
Durability: Nothing less than a bursting shell could harm him.

These were specifically stated in the text.

Oh, and Danner worked as a circus strongman for a while and, of course, wore a Circus strongman's costume.

As I said, the only difference is that Wylie and his publisher didn't make a legal issue out of it while National decided to drag it through the courts for years and years, refiling again and again. Other than that, Superman is just another character in an endless line.

[manwhohaseverything]

superman gets stronger without working on it at all.This is false. Superman trains. Superman learns. Superman puts effort.

[Powerboy]

Okay, finally, some time free to get into the spirit of this thread.

Things about Superman that are not true.

I've heard people claim things like Thor or Captain Marvel are magical therefore they should kill him with one punch because his powers do not work at all versus magic. Clearly, his powers work against physical and energy powers that simply use magic as an explanation. Esoteric magic, spells, are another matter. Things like Transformation spells work against him the same as against anything else because he has no specific power to resist it. Magic mind control works the same as against anybody with overwhelming strength of will, which is to say, far less than against the average person.

Another falsehood is that Superman is perfect in the sense that he has no faults, he's "Too good to be true". The irony is that, as soon as he shows a fault, people, often the same people, slam it with "Superman wouldn't do that". Depending on the era, it can change. But even in the Silver Age, considered the height of his "perfection", he could be arrogant or enjoy playing a joke on someone. The attitudes in which he was "perfect" were the same attitudes that every superhero had and his being "too powerful" was mimicked by just about every character in some way. It's also kind of a Catch-22. He's Superman. He can't be fourth best in everything.

[90'sCartoonMan]

The Lois Lane thing is based on people applying real world standards to the stories. Superman disguises himself by wearing glasses. That's the world Lois lives in. She's not stupid just because she can't figure out who Superman is in that story setting.

Adding to that, a popular Superman myth is that Lois Lane never put two and two together to figure out that Superman is Clark Kent. That's not true at all. At least on the Adventures of Superman show and the Silver Age comics (and probably other places), Lois knew that Clark would leave just before Superman arrived, and she strongly suspected they were the same person. The problem was she could never find proof, and even when she was getting close, Superman managed to be one step ahead of her and was able to throw some doubt into the situation. It never fully convinced her, though.

[Stanlos]

Also, it's SUPERMAN!! The magnificence alone is enough to be distracting. People see things through filters. One of the reasons Clark is an effective disguise is the difference in the way he is perceived. I have often mistaken people who I worked with for strangers due to a radical change in styling or dress. It's that dynamic where seeing someone in a new environment or context can completely alter the way you see them despite having seen that person everyday for the last year. Another reason I find it not terribly unreasonable is given the extent to which people are what they want to see.

[PCN24454]

Adding to that, a popular Superman myth is that Lois Lane never put two and two together to figure out that Superman is Clark Kent. That's not true at all. At least on the Adventures of Superman show and the Silver Age comics (and probably other places), Lois knew that Clark would leave just before Superman arrived, and she strongly suspected they were the same person. The problem was she could never find proof, and even when she was getting close, Superman managed to be one step ahead of her and was able to throw some doubt into the situation. It never fully convinced her, though.

Also, it's SUPERMAN!! The magnificence alone is enough to be distracting. People see things through filters. One of the reasons Clark is an effective disguise is the difference in the way he is perceived. I have often mistaken people who I worked with for strangers due to a radical change in styling or dress. It's that dynamic where seeing someone in a new environment or context can completely later the way you see them despite having seen that person everyday for the last year. Another reason I find it not terribly unreasonable is given the extent to which people are what they want to see.

I would like to add that comic book art wasn't as detailed as it is now. The only difference between a lot of the men was what suit they wore.

Plus Clark used to wear a fedora.

[Stanlos]

I would like to add that comic book art wasn't as detailed as it is now. The only difference between a lot of the men was what suit they wore.

Plus Clark used to wear a fedora.

Well some artists today can still only draw one lady and one guy with different hair. LOL

[manofsteel1979]

I've not gone through this whole thread,but one weird misconception or myth I've seen is that some people think superman needs his cape to fly. Before I got into comics and such my Dad was convinced Superman needed his cape to defy gravity and was convinced he read it in the comics as a kid in the 40s. When I started to get into the character I gleefully debunked this misconception, but my Dad still insisted that's how it was when he was a kid. The only thing I can figure is that he may have read one of those weird one shot stories or something from the 40s or 50s that had something similar as a conceit.

[Jim Kelly]

On the cape thing, I remember a story in the news when I was a little kid (and this would have been in the 1960s), where another kid tried to fly with the cape on and he got hung up on the cape and strangled to death. It seems like every generation has heard the same or similar stories about a kid who wore the Superman cape and died as a result. Is this an urban legend, did it actually happen? I think there are cases where kids jumped out windows to their death, thinking they could fly--but maybe blaming the kid's death on Superman was just the newspapers trying to be sensationalistic.

[DochaDocha]

I've not gone through this whole thread,but one weird misconception or myth I've seen is that some people think superman needs his cape to fly. Before I got into comics and such my Dad was convinced Superman needed his cape to defy gravity and was convinced he read it in the comics as a kid in the 40s. When I started to get into the character I gleefully debunked this misconception, but my Dad still insisted that's how it was when he was a kid. The only thing I can figure is that he may have read one of those weird one shot stories or something from the 40s or 50s that had something similar as a conceit.

Sounds like Capeman from Inspector Gadget.

[manofsteel1979]

On the cape thing, I remember a story in the news when I was a little kid (and this would have been in the 1960s), where another kid tried to fly with the cape on and he got hung up on the cape and strangled to death. It seems like every generation has heard the same or similar stories about a kid who wore the Superman cape and died as a result. Is this an urban legend, did it actually happen? I think there are cases where kids jumped out windows to their death, thinking they could fly--but maybe blaming the kid's death on Superman was just the newspapers trying to be sensationalistic.

I think a lot of that can be attributed to Fredric Wertham and his crusade against comic books in the 50s. He sensationalized and outright made up stuff for his book ("Seduction of the Innocent") and one of those things were kids accidentally killing themselves attempting to fly. I'm sure there are some cases of it happening but he exaggerated it to bolster his case that comics were bad for kids.

[seismic-2]

Sounds like the sort of story that Edna Mode would tell.

[PCN24454]

On the cape thing, I remember a story in the news when I was a little kid (and this would have been in the 1960s), where another kid tried to fly with the cape on and he got hung up on the cape and strangled to death. It seems like every generation has heard the same or similar stories about a kid who wore the Superman cape and died as a result. Is this an urban legend, did it actually happen? I think there are cases where kids jumped out windows to their death, thinking they could fly--but maybe blaming the kid's death on Superman was just the newspapers trying to be sensationalistic.

Sounds like the sort of story that Edna Mode would tell.

I find it funny how people actually think that Superman would actually be hurt by his cape getting stuck. Batman, I can understand, but this is Superman.

[Jim Kelly]

You don't tug on Superman's cape.