Thursday Super-anniversary in Man of Steel's hometown Cleveland
CLEVELAND (AP)
Superman's 75th anniversary is giving his creators' blue-collar hometown a renewed chance to claim the superhero as its own.
Fans hope Thursday's anniversary, including lighting city hall with Superman's colors, will raise the profile of co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The city is making a start with a Superman day proclaimed by the mayor and giving out birthday cake at the airport's Superman display.
The June release of Hollywood's latest Superman tale, "Man of Steel," also should renew fan interest. The film offers a fresh start for the kid from Krypton, with Henry Cavill as the boy who falls to Earth and becomes its protector.
Siegel and Shuster labored on their creation for years in the throttling grip of the Great Depression before finally selling Superman to a publisher.
The Man of Steel became a Depression-era bootstrap strategy for the Siegel/Shuster team, according to Brad Ricca, a professor at nearby Case Western Reserve University who uses Superman in his classes.
"They really just saw it as a way out," he said.
In his upcoming book "Super Boys," Ricca says the story of Superman's creation is mostly about their friendship: two boys in the city's Glenville neighborhood dreaming of "fame, riches and girls" in a time when such dreams are all the easier to imagine because of the crushing economic misery.
Ricca said Siegel and Shuster reflected Cleveland's ethnic mix: both were sons of Jewish immigrants, struggled during the Depression and hustled to make something of themselves.
Superman's first appearance, in Action Comics No. 1, was April 18, 1938.
The first and greatest superhero has gone on to appear in nearly 1,000 Action Comics and has evolved with the times, including a 1940s radio serial, a 1950s TV series and as a reliable staple for Hollywood. Pop culture expert Charles Coletta at Bowling Green State University said Superman ranks globally with George Washington and the Super Bowl as American icons.