SUPERMAN

   In the same way that theories of EVOLUTION provide an imaginative context for sf stories about the ORIGIN OF MAN and LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS, so they govern attitudes to superhumans. There is a significant difference, though, between Darwin-inspired images of a "fitter"species and images inspired by Lamarckian and Bergsonian ideas of"creative evolution", in which the emergence of a superman might be the result of humankind's fervent desire to become something finer. Also of some relevance-although its direct influence on sf is minimal-is the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), with its heavy emphasis on the life-enhancing"willto [creative] power" which might be brought to full flower in the"Ubermensch", or "overman" .Early sf writers were surprisingly loth to make the superman an outright figure of menace, even where Darwinian thought was dominant: although they usually conceded that there was no place for them in contemporary human society, and generally disposed of them in one way or another, most were very much on the side of the superhumans. The reasons are simple enough: most of the early writers concerned were harshly critical of the contemporary human condition and wholly in favour of"progress"; moreover, writers frequently credit themselves with a proto- superhuman viewpoint. It is very easy to love the notion of the superman if we believe that we might become supermen ourselves, or at least be parent to their becoming; it is for this reason that Bergsonian ideas are more frequently echoed in superman stories than Darwinian ones, and some works-most notably George Bernard SHAW's Back toMethuselah (1921)-are based on an explicit neo-Lamarckism. Both the Darwin-inspired H.G. WELLS, in The Food of the Gods (1904), and the Bergson-inspired J.D. BERESFORD , in The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911), are allied with their superhuman characters, agreeing with their indictments of the follies of contemporary man. The same is true of two other classic SCIENTIFIC ROMANCES directly inspired by Beresford: E.V. ODLE's TheClockwork Man (1923) and Olaf STAPLEDON's Odd John (1935)-although the former carefully keeps its real superhumans (the makers of the eponymous CYBORG) offstage, as does Claude HOUGHTON in This was Ivor Trent (1935)whose hysterical climax represents the extremity of UK interbellum disenchantment. The fascination which writers of scientific romance had for the idea of superhumanity is displayed also in M.P. SHIEL's Ubermensch stories, The Isle of Lies (1909) and The Young Men are Coming (1937), Muriel JAEGER's The Man with Six Senses (1927) and Hermes Speaks (1933),John HARGRAVE's The Imitation Man (1931), Wells's Star-Begotten (1937), Andrew MARVELL's Minimum Man (1938), Beresford's "What Dreams May Come .." (1941) and Stapledon's A Man Divided (1950). Guy DENT's Emperor of the If (1926) is especially interesting in its sceptical examination of the hypothesis that a more challenging environment would have produced a fitter and better mankind.In France, Bergson's one-time pupil Alfred JARRY produced a comic erotic fantasia of superhumanity in The Supermale (1902; trans 1968) but The New Adam (1924; trans 1926) by Noelle ROGER, working under the inspiration of religious rather than scientific ideas, presents an emotionless ultrarationalistic superman as a straightforward figure of menace. In the USA Philip WYLIE put an ordinary human mind into a superhuman body in Gladiator (1930), and thus avoided the whole issue of INTELLIGENCE, but his heroic superman decides of his own accord that thereis no place for him in human society and invites God to strike him dead; God (no friend of evolution) obliges.In early GENRE SF the superman wasused as a figure of menace by John Russell FEARN in The Intelligence Gigantic (1933; 1943), but Fearn gradually relented: the short version ofThe Golden Amazon (1939 as by Thornton Ayre; rev 1944) is similar, but in the novel version, and even more so in its many sequels, superwoman Violet Ray is a comic-style caped crusader. The MUTANT superman in John TAINE'sSeeds of Life (1931; 1951) is also menacing, meeting his end in a particularly horrible manner; but there is some attempt to analyse his viewpoint with sympathy. In Stanley G. WEINBAUM's"The Adaptive Ultimate" (1936) a scientist who creates a superwoman has to kill her in order toprotect the world from her ruthlessness, but again there is a tentative expression of sympathy. Weinbaum had earlier written the posthumously published The New Adam (1939), a painstaking account of a superhuman growing up in the human world, treating the hypothesis objectively rather than intending to criticize the contemporary human condition. The superman suffers as a result of being a"feral child" among ordinary humans, but his death does not put an end to the history of his kind. Publication of this pioneering work was quickly followed by 2 novels that paved the way for a glut of superhuman HEROES: SLAN (1940; 1946) by A.E. VAN VOGT and DARKER THAN YOU THINK (1940; 1948) by Jack WILLIAMSON. In the former a persecutedsuperchild grows into mature command of his latent powers as he confronts a sea of troubles; in the latter the hero sets out to fight a species of the genus Homo which threatens to replace Homo sapiens, but discovers that he is one of the other species himself, and accepts the dictates of his genes. In both stories a superman is unhesitatingly offered to the reader for identification and, far from going to his destruction in the climax, becomes something of a MESSIAH figure. This new pattern quickly became a CLICHE of pulp sf. Van Vogt repeated it many times, other versionsincluding Earth's Last Fortress (1942 ASF as"Recruiting Station"; vt as title story of Masters of Time [coll 1950]; 1960 dos),"The Changeling" (1944), The World of A (1945; rev 1948; rev vt The World of Null-A 1970)and The Pawns of Null-A (1948-9 ASF as "The Players of A";1956; rev vt The Players of Null-A 1966) and Supermind (fixup 1977). Van Vogt abandonedwriting sf for some years when he became involved with L. Ron HUBBARD's DIANETICS movement, which translocated this cliche into a PSEUDO-SCIENCEwhich in turn transmuted into the RELIGION of SCIENTOLOGY. Williamson, too, repeated the formula in Dragon's Island (1951; vt The Not-Men 1968).Genre sf of the late 1940s and early 1950s abounded with storiesabout groups of noble superhumans-notably covert immortals (IMMORTALITY)-misunderstood and unjustly persecuted by their stupid,envious cousins. Great impetus was lent to the theme by the popularization of J.B. Rhine's experiments in parapsychology (ESP), which lent credence to the idea that there might be supermen already among us, not yet aware of their latent powers. Rhine provided a new archetype for the superhuman, outwardly normal but possessed of one or more PSI POWERS. John W. CAMPBELL Jr's interest in Rhine's research and in Dianetics helped to makeASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION home to a considerable"psi boom" in the early 1950s. Notable stories of persecuted Rhine-type supermen include Henry KUTTNER's Baldy series, published as by Lewis Padgett (fixup 1953 as MUTANT), Wilmar H. SHIRAS 's Children of the Atom (fixup 1953), Zenna HENDERSON's People series, assembled in Pilgrimage (coll of linked stories 1961) and The People: No Different Flesh (coll of linked stories (1966), and Wilson TUCKER's Wild Talent (1954). Sympathy for supermen was enhanced by the frequent use of CHILDREN as protagonists, as in SLAN, Children of the Atom, James H. SCHMITZ's The Witches of Karres (1949; exp 1966), Kris NEVILLE's Bettyann (1951-4; fixup 1970) and George O. SMITH's TheFourth"R" (1959; vt The Brain Machine 1968). (A cautionary note was sounded by Jerome BIXBY's"It's a Good Life" [1953], in which a superchild institutes a reign of terror directed towards the gratification of his every infantile whim.) Physically afflicted supermen were occasionally employed to the same sympathy-seeking end, as in Theodore STURGEON's"Maturity" (1947) and John BRUNNER's THE WHOLE MAN (fixup 1964;vt Telepathist 1965). Sometimes during this period there were secret organizations of criminal supermen fighting against the good supermen, as in James BLISH's Jack of Eagles (1951; rev vt ESP-er 1958) and George O. Smith's Highways in Hiding (1956; cut vt Space Plague 1957), but evenwhere the superman appears to be used as an outright figure of menace, as in Frank M. ROBINSON's The Power (1956), the good guy may only be waiting for his own latent superpowers to develop in order to bring about that menace's defeat. Similar leap-frogging accounts of confrontation include Jack VANCE's"Telek" (1951) and Theodore Sturgeon's".. and my fear isgreat.." (1953). The everyone-can-be-superman motif reached its ultimate expression in Poul ANDERSON's Brain Wave (1954), in which the Earth passes out of a zone of cosmic distortion which has been damping potential intelligence throughout history, so that even idiots and animals get smart. The attractiveness of the motif is exploited to the full by comics SUPERHEROES like SUPERMAN and CAPTAIN MARVEL , whose superness isconcealed by mild-mannered"secret identities". Superhero COMICS were popular throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and enjoyed subsequent boom periods in the 1960s-following the resurgence of MARVEL COMICS, whose heroes were more morally ambiguous, suffering wildly exaggerated versions of teenage Angst and alienation-and in the 1980s, when GRAPHIC NOVELS lent the format a new respectability, and when comic-book superheroes spilled over into narrative fiction in George R.R. MARTIN's WILD CARDS series of"mosaic novels" (fixups 1986 onwards) and in the Temps series created by Neil GAIMAN, Alex Stewart (1st vol 1991) et al.L. Ron Hubbard is by nomeans the only cult-creator to have sold a pseudo-scientific or quasireligious version of this motif. Many other contemporary cults offer their members supposed opportunities to cultivate transcendental powers as well as arcane knowledge. The idea of the superman, and its development in fiction, has always been entangled with religious notions of transcendence and personal salvation (ESCHATOLOGY), and the achievement of superpowers in sf stories frequently recalls transcendental imagery of various kinds. In extreme cases it comes to resemble an apotheosis. The transcendentalversion of the superman myth is particularly obvious in certain works by Charles L. HARNESS, including Flight into Yesterday (1949; exp 1953; vtThe Paradox Men), the memorable novella"The Rose" (1953; title story of coll 1966) and THE RING OF RITORNEL (1968), and it forms the bases of the classic novels MORE THAN HUMAN (fixup 1953) by Theodore Sturgeon and CHILDHOOD'S END (1953) by Arthur C. CLARKE; the former tracks thematuration of a gestalt of misfit superchildren, and their eventual transcendental admission to a community of superminds, while the latter has an entire generation of Earth's children undergoing an apotheosis to fuse with the cosmic mind. The climax of Clarke's novel bears a striking resemblance to the ideas put forward by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) regarding the possible evolutionary future of humanity within a Bergsonian scheme, as expressed in The Future of Man (1959; trans 1964). A similar"cosmic mind" is featured in The UncensoredMan (1964) by Arthur SELLINGS, and superhuman apotheoses are also found in The Infinite Cage (1972) by Keith LAUMER and Tetrasomy Two (1974) by Oscar ROSSITER. Images of transcendental rebirth have likewise become common, as in several novels by Alfred BESTER: THE DEMOLISHED MAN (1953), in which a psychopathic murderer is"cleansed" of his madness; Tiger! Tiger! (1956; vt The Stars My Destination 1957 US), in which the superpowered protagonistmoves through time to appear to himself and others as a fire- shrouded vision, and is eventually cleansed in his turn; and The Computer Connection (1974; vt Extro), in which supermen recruit others to theirkind by the only process known to them, involving violent death. The survival after death of Ubermensch characters is featured in CAMP CONCENTRATION (1968) by Thomas M. DISCH, I Will Fear No Evil (1971) andTime Enough for Love (1973) by Robert A. HEINLEIN, and Traitor to the Living (1973) by Philip Jose FARMER. Religious imagery is overt in the many works by Robert SILVERBERG which couple the notion of superhumanity with the idea of rebirth, including To Open the Sky (fixup 1967), Downward to the Earth (1970), Nightwings (fixup 1970), Son of Man (1971), The Book of Skulls (1972) and"Born with the Dead" (1974). Silverberg's Dying Inside (1972) is another fantasy of rebirth seen in terms of the loss of asuperhuman power; the decline of ephemeral superhumanity is also a powerful motif in the classic FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON (1959; exp 1966) by Daniel KEYES. Messianic supermen whose deaths are redemptive appear in the2 bestselling sf novels of the 1960s, Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND (1961) and Frank HERBERT's DUNE (1965). The transcendence of superhuman figures is by no means always quasi-Christian; the MYTHOLOGY-rooted novels of Roger ZELAZNY delight in examining theexistential problems of godlike beings-shaped by the belief systems of, for example, the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, and of the Hindus-and the borderline between sf and FANTASY becomes very problematic in such works. A notable recent portrait of transcendental superhumanity, conventionallyreplete with quasireligious imagery, can be found in Jack Williamson's Firechild (1986).The idea of the superman has in recent times becomeentangled with ideas of man/machine hybridization and GENETIC ENGINEERING. CYBORG supermen and genetically designed superhumans have becomecommonplace. The notion of the emergent superhuman appearing in our midst-possibly as a MUTANT product of radiation-is not as significant a motif as it once was, but its various stereotypes continue to crop up. Recent stories of superchildren include David PALMER's Emergence (1984) aswell as young-adult novels like Alexander KEY's Escape to Witch Mountain (1968) and Virginia HAMILTON's Justice and Her Brothers (1978), all threeof which have sequels, as does a similar novel featuring an older central character, Carole Nelson DOUGLAS's Probe (1985). Timothy ZAHN 's A Coming of Age (1985) is a more sophisticated work in the same vein; Ann MAXWELL's Timeshadow Rider (1986), a pioneering exercise in the sf love story, seemsrather more juvenile than the juvenile novels. A more ambivalent view of emergent superchildren is taken in the STRUGATSKI brothers' THE UGLY SWANS (1972; trans 1979). More sober studies in superhuman existentialisminclude Wyman GUIN's The Standing Joy (1969) and Raymond Z. GALLUN's The Eden Cycle (1974)-although Gallun's later Bioblast (1985) is far moremelodramatic. The tradition of Beresford's The Hampdenshire Wonder is belatedly carried forward by George TURNER's Brain Child (1991), and that of Stapledon's A Man Divided by Robert Charles WILSON's The Divide (1990). The idea of emergent superhumanity remains highly significant in the worksof Ian WATSON, where it is intricately interwoven with the notion of CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH. Watson rarely imagines the breakthrough tosuperhumanity as an easy matter, and in such early novels as THE EMBEDDING (1973) and The Jonah Kit (1975) the attempts to achieve it fail, but inThe Martian Inca (1977), Alien Embassy (1977), Miracle Visitors (1978) and The Gardens of Delight (1980) advancement is possible; the easier transitions of the light-hearted Converts (1984) are less convincing.It is arguable that no other symbol in sf has evolved quite so dramatically as that of the superman, which has consistently pandered to the simplest and most basic form of human wish-fulfilment while sometimes carrying out far more sophisticated and ingenious analyses of our aspirations and our fears.

BS

   See also: PARANOIA.

   SUPERMAN

1. US COMIC strip created by writer Jerry Siegel (1914-) and artist Joe Shuster (1914-1992), loosely based on Philip WYLIE's Gladiator (1930). Siegel was an sf fan, creator of several early FANZINES, including Science Fiction (5 issues from Oct 1932), in which illustrations by his friend Shuster had appeared. Their Superman idea was originally - over a period of years - rejected by almost every comics publisher in the USA before he was finally allowed to make his debut in Action Comics, June 1938, published by Detective Comics Inc, later known as DC COMICS; he got his own comic book with Superman Comics in 1939. Shuster and Siegel did not create many of the stories (perhaps just as well, since Shuster's style-though it had a charming simplicity-was very stiff), but their names continued to be used on the title pages. Under the editorship of Mort WEISINGER the series was given a more elaborate background, and wasexpanded to include additional superbeings and further comic titles. Many writers and artists, including Alfred BESTER, Edmond HAMILTON, Henry KUTTNER and Manly Wade WELLMAN, have contributed to the series, whichcontinues today.As sole survivor of a cataclysm on the planet Krypton, raised from infancy by US fosterparents, the character's dual identity as timid reporter Clark Kent and indestructible crime-fighter Superman has a basic appeal to readers. His dynamic personality has transcended the comics medium to become incorporated into contemporary Western MYTHOLOGY. Storylines have been varied, with themes including time travel,interplanetary journeys, alternate universes, etc., while subplots have been woven around attempts to unmask his secret identity and to engage him amorously.For many years the character became increasingly implausible, leading to his lampooning in Frank MILLER's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), where he appears in one sequence as an a raddled skeleton.DC COMICS began to perceive a need to rationalize the character, most notably through an epic storyline involving many of their characters:"Crisis on Infinite Earths" (1987), written by Marv Wolfman. Artist-writer John Byrne was engaged to take a completely new approach tothe characters. In his version, which began publication in Adventures of Superman \#424 (Jan 1987; the title had previously been simply Superman),the first step was the elimination from the mythos of all the other SUPERHEROES which had intruded over the years (Superboy, Supergirl, etc.).Superman's powers and abilities were reduced and given specified limits- e.g., he could no longer travel at the speed of light, survive in space longer than he could hold his breath, or travel through time. His long-time sweetheart Lois Lane discovered his secret identity, and the couple are to be married. At the time of writing (mid-1992) the publishers are planning to take them all the way to the altar and then show Superman facing up to the responsibilities of marriage and child-rearing.In order to achieve weekly appearance on the newsstands, 4 monthly titles are now published in sequence: Superman, Superman in Action Comics, Adventures of Superman and Superman, the Man of Steel.Superman has been the mostinfluential of sf comics heroes and has inspired many imitations, the most noted being CAPTAIN MARVEL. His adventures have appeared as a syndicated newspaper strip and as the RADIO programme, tv series, serial films and feature films described below. The character's sex life was guyed in Larry NIVEN 's"Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" (1971) and his old age inSuperfolks (1977) by Robert Mayer (1939). JE/RT 2. US animated cartoon series, prod Max Fleischer, dir Dave Fleischer for Paramount, 17 cartoons, Technicolor, 1940-43. 3. US RADIO series, usually pitting Superman againstcriminals, 1940-52. 4. Serial film (1948). Columbia. Prod Sam Katzman. Dirs Spencer Bennet, Thomas Carr, starring Kirk Alyn (Superman), Noel Neill,Tommy Bond. 15 episodes; later released (cut to 88 mins) as a feature film.

   Although the production values were strictly Poverty Row, S was perhaps the most successful film serial ever made. The sequel was Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950), 15-episode serial, Columbia, with much the same cast,in which Lex Luthor the Atom Man (Lyle Talbot) was introduced.

5. US tv series (1953-7): The Adventures of Superman . ABC TV. First season (Feb 1953) prod Robert Maxwell, Bernard Luber; from season 2 (Sep 1953) to \#6and last prod Whitney Ellsworth. 104 25min episodes. First 2 seasons b/w, remainder in Colour.

   Superman was played by George Reeves, a former Hollywood leading man who had made his film debut as a suitor of Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind (1939); he had first taken the role in the film Superman and the Mole Men (1951; vt Superman and the Strange People UK), dir Lee Sholem, 67 mins, b/w, in which Superman saves from a lynchmob little glowing troglodytes who have emerged from a deep oil well. With the tv series (one of whose early producers, Robert Maxwell, had also produced on 3 and written and coproduced the 1951 movie) Reeves became typecast in the role; when the series ended (he directed the last 3 episodes himself) he was unable to find further work in films. He committed suicide in 1959, aged 45.Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the 1951 film and the first tv season only, being replaced for the rest of theseries by Noel Neill, who had played the part in the 2 Columbia serials (4). Other cast members included Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen and JohnHamilton as Perry White.The series was aimed primarily at children and, though mediocre, was extremely popular. Unlike the case in the comic strip, the stories rarely entered the realm of the fantastic: Superman was usually pitted against mundane, often bumbling criminals. 5 theatrical films were recut, each from 3 tv episodes, and released abroad (all 1954) as Superman's Peril, Superman Flies Again, Superman in Exile, Superman and Scotland Yard and Superman and the Jungle Devils.

6. Musical/made-for-tvfilm. A 1966 Broadway musical based on Superman and called It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Superman! was turned into a film for ABC TV in 1975with David Wilson as Superman. Dir Jack Regas. Script Romeo Miller, based on the musical by Charles Strouse and David Newman.

   JB/PN

7. Film (1978). Dovemead/International Film Production. Dir Richard Donner, starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Marlon Brando. Screenplay Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, with Tom Mankiewicz as"creative consultant"; based on a story by Puzo. 143 mins. Colour.

   Superman's visit to the wide screen was long delayed, but lavishly appointed when it did come. Screen rights to the most famous of SUPERHEROES had been bought by father-and-son producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind. They made S, the sequels SUPERMAN II (1980) and SUPERMAN III (1983) and the spin-off SUPERGIRL (1984), withdiminishing box-office returns, after which the rights were resold to Golan and Globus of Cannon Films, who made SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FORPEACE (1987).Expensive difficulties, largely to do with the flying scenes, delayed S, whose special effects vary from mostly excellent to occasionally awful. On the whole the end product is a triumph (it was awarded a HUGO), confidently walking the tightrope (though it stumbles once or twice) between playing it romantically straight and putting its tongue in its cheek, and much assisted by intelligent performances from Reeve, who plays Superman as a kind of Innocent Abroad, and Kidder, as aLois Lane whose passion for Superman appears as touchingly erotic. Indeed the Caped Crusader's career is given a resonance with other great US myths, especially his Midwest boyhood, luminously photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth as though in homage to the paintings of Norman Rockwell. Part ofthe film's success, oddly, may be that it is UK- made, so that its USA is given an attractively foreign, story-book quality. The plot involves arch-villain Lex Luthor (Hackman) threatening to nuke the San Andreas fault, thus sinking West California and making a fortune out of real estate in what will be the new West Coast.

8. The 1989-91 tv series SUPERBOY describes Superman's teenage years at university. It was againproduced by the Salkinds.

   PN

9.Another tv series permiered on ABC tv in the US in 1993, LOIS \& CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, (which see for details).

   PN

   See also: MUSIC.