MAN OF STEEL

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a
plane! It’s…Well, you know how it ends,
don’t you? It’s a sentence so iconic,
there are probably kids shouting it in
Swahili as you read this.
The most recognized superhero in pop
culture, Superman has been elevated to
mythic folkhero status. Rocketed to
Earth from the dying planet Krypton,
baby Kal-El was found by a farming
couple who named the boy Clark Kent
and raised him as their own.
Discovering his enormous powers, they
instilled in him strong moral values—and
inspired him to become a hero.
Superman has super-everything—
strength, speed, flight, invulnerability as
well as his renowned X-ray and heat
vision. The most powerful being on the
planet, his amazing abilities are also a
melancholy reminder of how different he
is from the people he’s dedicated to
protect.
A universal icon, Superman means
different things to the many diverse
people he inspires: He’s an alien; an
immigrant from a faraway land just
looking to help; a country boy fighting
the never-ending battle for truth and
justice. And recent comics have truly
spotlighted his role as the people’s
hero: Following a neophyte Man of
Steel still learning his powers’ limits,
Superman fights the evil corporate
tycoons and corrupt one-percenters that
have overwhelmed the establishment.