The Superman

The Superman is an early incarnation of one of the most popular superheroes of all time, Superman. The creators linked him to their later creation Slam Bradley. The comic book was destroyed in a fire by Joe Shuster, but luckily the cover was saved by Jerry Siegel.
== The Character ==
This version of Superman was described as being simply a strong, crime-fighting hero, as opposed to the bald, telepathic villain Superman who appeared in Reign of the Superman, and the modern version of Superman who appeared in Action Comics. He can be considered an intermediate character. It is unknown what the occupation or other characters were like in this prototype. Unlike the modern version, this Superman was said to wear plain street clothes.
== Development ==
After Humor Publishing published Detective Dan Secret Operative No. 48 in early 1933, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster modeled the Superman cover very similar to the previously mentioned issue. Humor Publishing took interest in the comic with an "encouraging" letter. Despite this, Humor Publishing stopped publishing comic books, thus not publishing their heroic character. It wouldn't be another five years before DC published their concept in Action Comics.
== Trivia ==
* This version of Superman was not an alien, but rather a crime fighter like the later Batman.
* This can be considered one of the first comic book formatted issues ever made.
* It has something to do with Scfi, as shown: "A Science Fiction Story In Cartoons."
* As it's format was based on Detective Dan, The Superman has at least 40 pages missing.
* On the bottom of the cover, it has a copyright of 1928, Jerry Siegel wanted to make it look like they put "five years in the making."
* During an interview in 1983, Jerry Siegel said: " In later years-maybe 10 or 15 years ago-I asked Joe what he remembered of this story, and he remembered a scene of a character crouched on the edge of a building, with a cape almost a la Batman. We don't specifically recall if the character had a costume or not. The publisher who turned it down published Detective Dan. The sketch that was published in Sterkano's book was one of the sketches that Joe made at that time for this story-to show the publisher. In that particular sketch, the character is not in costume; but Joe and I-especially Joe-seem to recall that there were some scenes in there in which the character had a bat-like cape."
== Gallery ==
Superman 1933.gif|This concept art by the creators themselves depicts the Superman having incredible strength, and genius intelligence.
Savage.jpg|Pulp publisher Street & Smith's advertisement for Doc Savage's launch in 1933 bears similarities to Siegel and Shuster's alternate cover rough for the Superman.
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Category:Superman Heroes
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Category:Protectors of Innocence
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Category:Superheroes
Category:The Hero
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