“As a distant planet was destroyed by old age, a scientist placed his infant son within a hastily devised space-ship, launching it toward Earth!”
So begins the first issue of “Action Comics,” the debut of Superman. It’s an iconic origin story, but the real story — the one that takes place in Cleveland, Ohio — has been largely ignored.
In recent years, however, there has been a renewed effort to assert Cleveland’s role as the birthplace of Superman — and, by extension, the entire superhero genre. Thanks to the efforts of Superman fans across the globe, soon the city will feature a plaza dedicated to its most beloved hometown hero’s humble beginnings.
It started with a simple dream: Like many children, Jerry Siegel always wanted to fly. According to legend, Siegel took it a step further by walking off the edge of his garage holding an umbrella, hoping to take flight. While that attempt failed, the idea of a man who could fly stuck with him. While at Cleveland’s Glenville High School in 1932, he imagined a character with extraordinary abilities who could use his power as a tool for good: someone “faster than a speeding bullet” who would fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves as a “champion of the oppressed.”
Siegel sought out his friend Joe Shuster to help start the comic by sketching out Siegel’s ideas. Both boys had already successfully sold comics to publishers, and were inspired by science fiction and folk tales. They also found camaraderie in their shared heritage as children of Jewish immigrants.
“Jewish people in Northeast Ohio were having a hard time finding jobs,” Leigh Goldie, the founding board secretary of the Siegel and Shuster Society and a cousin of Joe Shuster, said. “But the drawing and comic book industry was something that they could do. Nobody could stop them from doing it.”
For several years, Siegel and Shuster wrote comic strips for Nickelson Publishing Company while trying to sell the Superman story. Publishers worried that readers would not be interested in Superman because they would be unable to relate to his superhuman abilities. In 1938, though, Detective Comics took a chance on the Man of Steel.
It was an instant hit. Much like their protagonist, the Superman comics flew right off the shelves. All 200,000 copies of Action Comics #1 sold out, and each subsequent installment saw higher sales than the last. Soon, the Action Comics issues featuring Superman would sell close to one million copies each month, primarily to an audience of adolescent boys.
Superman became a symbol of hope to readers struggling during the Great Depression, and other publishers were keen to get a share in the superhero craze. Timely Comics, for example, published the first Marvel Comic in 1939, just one year after Superman’s first appearance.
“A lot of people don’t know that Batman, Captain America, all these people, Wonder Woman — they all came later after they saw the success of Superman,” Gary Kaplan, president of the Siegel and Shuster Society and a cousin of Jerry Siegel, said.
Cleveland was prominently featured in early issues of the comics before transforming into Metropolis as the series went on. Masquerading as Clark Kent, Superman’s first job was with the Cleveland Evening News. As a reporter, he investigated corruption, and as Superman, he fought against injustice.
“The early issues especially are thinking about very local issues,” Dr. Valentino Zullo, American editor of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics and board member of the Siegel and Shuster Society, said. “They’re dealing with corrupt coal barons. They’re dealing with car companies that are manufacturing cars that are faulty that are causing deaths.”
Compared to the larger-than-life villains who Superman would soon battle, his earliest antagonists were more complex. In the eighth issue, for example, Superman intercepts the arrest of a group of young thieves. Recognizing that they are trapped in a cycle of poverty, Superman forces Cleveland city officials to replace the slums with affordable housing options.
Zullo added that, especially in the early days of the comic, Superman serves as a role model in the fight against corruption and bigotry.
“He fights for truth, justice and the American way, right?” he said. “I think there is an element there always that it’s about social justice … He represents the possibility of what can happen if we have a more equitable society.”
In the 1940s, Superman was fighting Nazism even before the United States joined the war effort.
“The public didn’t want to get involved. And Superman comics [were] showing Superman trying to fight the Nazis in the comics on the covers. And a lot of Americans didn’t like that,” Kaplan said. “[But] it was the American way to fight for freedom and democracy and against dictatorship.”
By the end of the ‘40s, though, Siegel and Shuster had lost control of their creation. After DC Comics used their idea for a “Superboy” character without purchasing the Superman rights, Siegel and Shuster attempted to sue for the rights to both characters. While they reached a settlement, Siegel and Shuster lost the rights to Superman along with their jobs and accreditation on future issues. Both men fell into poverty over the course of the next 30 years.
“It’s one of the saddest things that Siegel and Shuster lost the rights to the character that they created,” Zullo said. “Superman didn’t come out of nowhere, right? Who’s going to be inspired by a story that a corporation just came up with this character? No, two real people that had real experience, that were trying to tell a story that meant something to them, came up with this character.”
The next era of Superman was markedly distinct from Siegel and Shuster’s original creation. The introduction of a censorship agreement called the Comics Code scrubbed the character of his commitment to social justice in an effort to make the stories as inoffensive and widely palatable as possible. A team of new editors also increased his powers so radically that many felt the suspense was lost.
The newspaper strip was then briefly canceled in 1967, but the character lived on in the comic books, albeit with significant revisions. Starting in 1971, editors curtailed Superman’s powers and did away with kryptonite.
DC Comics eventually agreed to give Siegel and Shuster a pension and credit for their work in 1975, thanks to a campaign publicizing the injustice of their situation. Years later, in 2007, appreciation for Siegel and Shuster still seemed lackluster to Mike Sangiacomo, a reporter for The Plain Dealer.
Sangiacomo campaigned for the city of Cleveland to embrace its status as Superman’s original hometown, eventually founding the Siegel and Shuster Society. The nonprofit seeks to honor Siegel and Shuster’s legacy and commemorate Superman’s origins in Cleveland. A major goal of the organization has been to erect a Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster Tribute Plaza in downtown Cleveland. After years of negotiations to obtain permission from DC Comics and various Cleveland organizations, the project is set to be completed by April 2025.
Plans for the plaza depict statues of Siegel, Shuster and Joanne Siegel, Siegel’s wife and the original model for Lois Lane. Clark Kent’s signature changing room — a telephone booth — is also included, and the central statue features Superman flying overhead. Organizers hope that the plaza will bring international attention to the city. The organization is currently fundraising to support the project. With the filming of a new Superman movie in Cleveland, the city is humming with energy and renewed enthusiasm for their hometown hero.
“I love the fact that Superman was created right here in Cleveland,” Goldie said. “We need to celebrate that creation here and show that people in Northeast Ohio can do things that can be known worldwide … We all get one life, and so we need to make it super. And I think Superman provides that hope.”
