The world's first modern superhero was created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, a couple of Jewish kids with leftist sympathies after growing up being bullied and otherwise victimised for who they were. So of course their greatest creation, the Ubermensch, was a bit of wish fulfilment, a character who would stand up against not only those who had wronged them but all the perceived wrongs in society at that time. Superman, in his initial appearances, wasn't just a passive character who reacted to villainous wrongdoings and crimes, saving those who couldn't save themselves. He was an active force for change who sought out corruption, oppression and the like, and bloomin' well did something about it. Early issues of Action Comics saw the Man of Steel utilise his powers to put pressure on government officials making made decisions and laying the smack down on a husband who beat his wife. This Superman wasn't so much a hero going on high-flying adventures, more of a mouthpiece for Siegel and Shuster to address some of the societal imbalances and problems they saw in their own lives. If that doesn't sound anything like the Superman you see today, that's because...it isn't. There was a brief, shining moment when the character's reintroduction into the New 52 saw a young, brash Clark Kent coming to Metropolis to bring down nasty capitalist scum Lex Luthor, but that was quietly dropped in favour of more traditional genre fare, fighting big bad guys and the like. Superman still defends the weak, but he does so against enormous superpowered menaces, not from the all-to-real problems that grind the little people down. And to be fair, with the likes of Darkseid and Doomsday about, he has a lot on his plate nowadays.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
