Talk:Superman

Superman Jewish?

I saw a Superman comic some years ago where Clark Kent was visiting his foster parents' graves. He was kneeling and saying a prayer, which the unwary would have assumed to be in Kryptonian, but was in actuality "El malei rachamim..." -- the Hebrew prayer for the repose of the soul of the departed. I knew the creators were Jewish and they were undoubtedly familiar with the golem legends and the -el ending of many Hebrew names, but I never expected to see anything so explicit.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.76.238.2 (talk • contribs) 20:37, 7 August 2011

Work needed

Hello everyone! This article currently appears near the top of the cleanup listing for featured articles, with several cleanup tags. Cleanup work needs to be completed on this article, or a featured article review may be in order. Please contact me on my talk page if you have any questions. Thank you! Dana boomer (talk) 19:34, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

I have fixed several of the tags (mostly dead links), but some still remain, including one major banner. There are also several areas that need referencing, such as the video game section, and Critical reception and popularity is rather trivia-heavy and would probably be more encyclopedic if shown in prose, rather than bullet points. Is anyone willing to work on this article? If not, I am planning to put it up for FAR within the next couple of weeks. Thanks, Dana boomer (talk) 17:47, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Origin of Superman - a New View Previously Not Mentioned

This is by Dr Edward Stim of Tokyo Japan who may be contacted by email at perry3505@hotmail.com The origin of the Superman comic character given in the Wikipedia article on the subject is incomplete and inaccurate in that it ignores the Argosy All Story novel "The Mental Marvel" by Fred MacIsaac published in 6 installment in August/September 1929 and which has many of the elements of the later Superman character of Siegel and Schuster. Here below is my summary and it can easily be checked. I have the 6-installments from the original Argosy All Story novel. Dr Edward Stim

Origin of Superman Here it is; the novel from which Superman came, as it appeared in Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1929 as The Mental Marvel by Fred McIsaac in 6 segments ending just 3 to 4 weeks before the great stock market crash whose origin’s it deals with. And no one knew it till I discovered it and you know it now too. Roger Thule is the Mental Marvel, so called because his dad by unorthodox education and child raising methods brought him up as the Mental Marvel and then exhibited him like Barnum and made millions. By age 21 Roger has thought every brilliant thought and with nothing left to conquer enters into a suicidal depression. Papa Thule hires a great brain specialist Dr Marvin who decides to introduce Roger to the beautiful ex dancer, Broadway ingénue Eloise Lane (cf. the Lois Lane) and makes Roger a million dollar bet he cannot woo and marry Eloise, who is reputed to have the hardest heart in town. To impress Eloise whose boyfriend is the world heavyweight boxing champion, Roger studies the art of boxing and enters the ring as the Mental Marvel because of his ability to psyche out his opponent. Several times in the story he is referred to as a Superman and the newspaper that follows his exploits is the Daily Planet. Also Eloise’s attitude toward Roger is exactly like Lois’s toward Clark Kent – contempt for his reliance on brain trickery and lack of real manliness like her boxing champ BF. My guess is that the creators of Superman, who were late teenage when this story came out, read it, were influenced and later came to legal agreement with author Fred MacIsaac whereby in return for his giving up rights and never revealing it, he was paid well. Take it out, read and see. It is an acey page turner. Submitted 5 December 2011 from Tokyo. Telephone from USA 011 81 3 3811 8124, ask for Dr. Stim — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.30.43.39 (talk) 17:03, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Maybe the article ignores the story is because it had no influence on Siegel and Shuster creating Superman. While I will concede that Argosy and Argosy All-Story Weekly would be something Siegel and Shuster would read, all of this information goes under original research and cannot be included. Also, I find it odd that Siegel and Shuster would be adept enough to force an established writer to give up rights to a character/story only to sell their creation to a comic book company for $130 and essentially a lifetime of being treated badly by said comic book company. Bhall87^{Four Score}_{and Seven} 19:55, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Image

The main image here, File:Superman.jpg, is up for deletion review. I think it may not qualify for fair use (I may be wrong), but if it doesnt qualify, we do have File:Superman-billiondollarlimited1942.jpg as a free use image, which while obviously not as well rendered, does give us most of the iconic features of Kal-El. Also, how come we dont have the "S" logo used as a fair use image? its a logo, so has slightly different copyright status than other images, and it is the most iconic image for the guy. Can't we grab the "S" logo from the DC website, like we use the DC logo?(mercurywoodrose)75.61.135.151 (talk) 18:40, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Appropriate credit to Doc Savage as heavy influence on creation of the character

The Street & Smith pulp magazine character Doc Savage, first published in 1933, was more than a minor influence on the creation of Superman. The characters's first name was Clark, he possessed amazing physical strength and abilities, dedicated his life and use of those abilities to the unselfish pursuit of super-criminals, and had a retreat in the Arctic called "The Fortress of Solitude." (http://www.oldsfbooks.com/dsm3810.jpg) Jim Steranko's book includes more than a "comparison" between Doc Savage and Superman, it includes an example of a printed Street & Smith house ad referring to Doc in bold type quite specifically as "Superman" years before the Superman strip appeared (http://www.shadowsanctum.com/doc/dovsavage_ad1934.gif), and, very likely, in fact, at the precise time when the original strips were first drawn. That Doc was called "The Man of Bronze" (http://www.epstudiossoftware.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Docsavage.jpeg) for years before Superman was referred to as "The Man of Steel," along with these other characteristics is all more than passing coincidence, yet these facts are glossed over or downplayed in the article, or, in the case of the origin of the name "Clark," the fact that Doc Savage's name was taken from Clark Gable (http://www.thepulp.net/the-links/docsavage/two-clarks/) is applied to Superman instead, and references to the noted shared elements, all of which have since become accepted as part of the Superman "legend," have been deleted when specifically added to the article. Why? Is the purpose of the article to be factual or serve the interests of agencies which might prefer it to be so that Superman was originated entirely from whole cloth? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ClarkSavageJr (talk • contribs) 10:31, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

We give Steranko's Doc Savage comments most of a paragraph and two footnoted quotes. If other reliable-source authorities have anything to add beyond speculation — we have no idea if Siegel and Shuster took from Doc Savage or if these were coincidences inspired by the same Zeitgeist — then they would seem valid to add. What you have above is original-research synthesis proposing a theory, and simply judging from your user name, there might be some fan bias involved. Why don't we see what other editors have to say?--Tenebrae (talk) 15:23, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Publication History Update

Publication History section should be updated to include the New 52 Reboot — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.181.16.23 (talk) 06:10, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Power And Abilities Raising Heat Temperature

In Superman 3, he raised the temperature of his hand to create coal to diamond while using super strength and plus his hand flashed yellow heat. In the Superman comic books when the sun was no longer useful, Superman wore a fire suit to use for his powers. Now this is definitely facts. AnthonyTheGamer (talk) 21:25, 27 January 2012 (UTC) AnthonyTheGamer