Superman (franchise)

The American comic book character Superman has appeared in many types of media. Since his first comic book appearance in 1938, Superman has appeared in radio, television, movies, and video games each on multiple occasions, and his name, symbol, and image have appeared on products and merchandise.

Adaptations of Superman in other media
Created by
Original sourceComics published by DC Comics
First appearanceAction Comics #1 (June 30 1938)
Films and television
Film(s)
Television
show(s)
Theatrical presentations
Musical(s)It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman (1966)
Audio presentations
Radio show(s)
Games
Video game(s)

Portrayals

Among the actors who have played Superman/Superboy (and/or his alter ego, Clark Kent) are:

Portrayed by

Voice only

Radio and audio
  • 1940s: The Adventures of Superman – radio series starring Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander
  • 1966: The Adventures of Superman – vinyl LP featuring Bob Holiday as Superman
  • 1970s–1980s: various Superman-related vinyl albums from Peter Pan Records
  • 1993: Superman Lives! – BBC Radio Light Entertainment, BBC Radio 5; Superman is voiced by Stuart Milligan
  • 1995: DC Comics Super Heroes – Attack of the Elementals – audio drama featuring the Justice League; Superman is voiced by David Earl Waterman
  • 2008: The Never-Ending Battle – Graphic Audio; Superman voiced by James Konicek

Film

Animated film

Live-action film
See also: Superman in film

Television

Adventures of Superman
Main article: Adventures of Superman (TV series)

The series premiered September 19, 1952 in black & white on the television network Syndication and ended April 28, 1958. George Reeves portrays Clark Kent / Superman with Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen, John Hamilton as Perry White, and Robert Shayne as Inspector Henderson.

Superboy
Main article: Superboy (TV series)

The series premiered October 8, 1988 on the television network Syndication and ended on May 17, 1992. John Haymes Newton portrays Clark Kent / Superboy with Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, Jim Calvert as T.J. White, Scott James Wells as Lex Luthor, Stuart Whitman and Salome Jens as Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Main article: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

The series premiered September 12, 1993 on ABC and ended June 14, 1997. Dean Cain stars as Clark Kent / Superman alongside Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane.

Smallville
Main article: Smallville

The series premiered October 16, 2001 on The WB and ended May 13, 2011. Tom Welling stars as Clark Kent and depicts the early days of Superman as Clark, before becoming the Man of Steel.

Arrowverse
Main articles: Arrowverse, Supergirl (TV series), and Superman and Lois

Clark Kent / Superman appears in television series set in the Arrowverse, portrayed by Tyler Hoechlin making his first appearance in the second season of Supergirl after the series’ network shift from CBS to The CW. He later appears in annual Arrowverse crossovers such as Elseworlds and Crisis on Infinite Earths. In October 2019, a spin-off of Supergirl, titled “Superman and Lois” entered development with Hoechlin reprising his role and Elizabeth Tulloch starring as Lois Lane.

Animated television

DC Animated Universe

Superman is a major character in the DC Animated Universe, under the portrayal of various different actors. Although still a very difficult character to beat, he is portrayed as being considerably weaker than he is in the comics. He also has a specific set of stylized sound effects whenever his powers are used. Additionally, his personality is very similar to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's original comics, the same one used by John Byrne in the reboot of the DC Universe from 1986: somewhat rough and aggressive, although remaining the personification of moral excellence.

  • Superman first appears in his eponymous series. As with the comics, he is the sole survivor of Krypton's demise, caused by Brainiac in this continuity. He is portrayed with the same powers and weaknesses, but like average people of Earth cannot breathe in space and thus requires a space suit. He also wears a special lead suit for protection against kryptonite. Superman's reputation becomes jeopardized in the two-parter finale Legacy, where he gets brainwashed by Darkseid and set upon Earth, losing the trust of many, including Professor Hamilton and giving Lex Luthor an advantage. His baby age, who only appears in The Last Son of Krypton, the first episode, is voiced by Jesse Batten. His teenaged self, who only appears in The Last Son of Krypton, as well as the episode New Kids in Town, is voiced by Jason Marsden. Tim Daly voices the adult character.
  • Superman next appears in the Batman Beyond two-parter The Call. He wears a different suit of black and silver, but is shown to have aged slower than anyone on Earth, due to his Kryptonian DNA, appearing as a man in his 50s instead of his actual age as Bruce Wayne jokes about. He is first shown disguised as a bystander that is taken hostage by Inque, but he quickly reveals himself and takes her out. He then shows up at the Batcave to recruit Terry McGinnis, Bruce successor's the new Batman, into the Justice League, apparently in order to help him find a traitor within the league. Bruce and Terry both discover the traitor to be Superman himself, and Bruce gives Terry a piece of kryptonite, referring to the events of Legacy. However, it is then discovered that Superman had been under the control of a starfish-like alien (Starro) many years after Justice League Unlimited ended, that he had saved a long time ago during his and Lobo's captivity under the Preserver. Terry frees Superman, and the two help the rest of the league send the aliens back. Superman was voiced by Christopher McDonald, the voice of Jor-El in the DCAU, due to an idea that Superman sounds more like his father as he ages.
  • Superman next appears in Justice League, now voiced by George Newbern. Daly was supposed to return, and had even done initial recordings, but was ultimately too involved with other television shows and had to be replaced. Superman, having already got back his reputation that Darkseid had put at stake, forms the league, along with Batman. He begins to wonder about what might happen to him after the events of the Justice Lords, what with his counterpart giving into the urge and killing Luthor. Superman was originally designed with a shine in his hair, along with wrinkles and squintier eyes in order to make him look more detailed, but was redesigned again with his look from Superman after it was not well received.
  • Newbern returns to the role of Superman in Static Shock, where he helps the title character battle against Toyman. In this series, Superman is given full eyes with blue irises, compared to his other appearances within the DCAU.
  • Superman is again voiced by Newbern in Justice League Unlimited. In this series, he nearly gives into the urge to become like his Justice Lord counterpart, attempting to lobotomize Doomsday, who he instead finally banished into the Phantom Zone, much to the questioning of Batman and the general public. His doubts about not being like his Justice Lord counterpart are fleshed out in Divided We Fall, where a mechanical duplicate of his counterpart points out about his trust from the public and his power. Superman insists that he is not like his counterpart at all. Most noteworthy is after Flash apparently died defeating the Lex Luthor/ Braniac hybrid, he brought Luthor to eye level and said: "I'm not the man that killed President Luthor. Right now, I wish to heaven that I were, but I'm not." It was because of this, Superman considered shutting down the Justice League, only to be talked out of it by Green Arrow. During the series finale, Destroyer, Superman briefly gets the upper hand on a resurrected Darkseid. He explains "I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard.", saying that he thus is always taking care of not to attack too hard or he might kill someone. With Darkseid, however, he says "But you can take it, can't you big man. What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose, and show you just how powerful I really am." and punches Darkseid hard into the sky, through several buildings, and knocks him back into the ground, creating a huge crater. Darkseid then stuns Superman using the Agony Matrix, which causes him to feel extreme pain in every part of his body, and is about to kill him with a kryptonite knife when he is saved by Luthor, whom had agreed with Superman to stop Darkseid, or in his case, get revenge on him for taking a piece of Brainiac from him.

Superman/Batman

Mitch Watson revealed that there was a planned Superman/Batman animated series which Clark as a cub reporter coming to Gotham City, where he meets Bruce and begins his career as Superman.[9]

Video games
Main article: List of Superman video games

Theatre and live performances

Literature and printed media

Newspaper
Main article: Superman (comic strip)

Superman was a daily newspaper comic strip which began on January 16, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. These strips ran continuously until May 1966. In 1941, the McClure Syndicate had placed the strip in hundreds of newspapers. At its peak, the strip, featuring Superman, was in over 300 daily newspapers and 90 Sunday papers, with a readership of over 20 million.

Attractions and theme park rides
Superman Escape at Warner Bros. Movie World

Art

Parodies
  • The cartoon Underdog in which Shoeshine Boy becomes "Underdog" with the help of an energy pill.
  • The cartoon series Groovy Goolies featured dimwitted Frankie as "Super Ghoul".
  • Walt Disney's Goofy did a parody of Superman with the help of "super goobers" {Peanuts} in which Goofy became "Super Goof" clothed in red underwear with "SG" and a blue cape and endowed with super ears, super sight, super strength, super voice and super flying. Goofy's crime fighting always interrupted his date with Clarabelle Cow.[14]
  • Warner Brothers' Daffy Duck did a parody of Superman as Stupor Duck.
  • The 2019 superhero horror film Brightburn is a dark deconstruction of the Superman character.

Merchandising
  • Sunnyland Refining Co., in 1981, marketed jars of creamy and crunchy peanut butter using the familiar image of Superman. In the 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great, it was noted that this was DC's first licensing deal for a brand of food.[15]
  • A Superman pinball machine was produced by Atari in 1979.[16]
  • Superman is part of the DC Deckbuilding Game by Cryptozoic Entertainment.

Notes
  1. "Soaky Superman and Tennesse Tuxedo". YouTube. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  2. "Steve Hudson". Udemy. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  3. Sands, Rich (January 18, 2016). "Roll Call: Meet the Cast of Justice League vs. Teen Titans". TVInsider.com. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  4. Perry, Spencer (July 26, 2016). "Justice League Dark Featurette Reveals Matt Ryan Returns as Constantine!". Superhero Hype.
  5. Vejvoda, Jim (November 15, 2016). "JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: TRAILER DEBUT FOR R-RATED DC ANIMATED MOVIE". IGN.
  6. "サイト名". dc-taka.com (in Japanese). Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  7. +Brandon_Tenold. "Brandon Tenold: Turkish Superman". Channel Awesome.
  8. Marston, George (Apr 5, 2019). "SHAZAM! Director Talks Sequel Plans, DCEU Connections (SPOILERS)". Retrieved Apr 7, 2019 – via newsarama.com.
  9. "EXCLUSIVE – SUPERMAN/BATMAN: Series That Could Have Been". Voices From Krypton. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  10. "Superman Day! – 1940". Superman Through the Ages. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  11. "David Herbert:Biography", Saatchi Gallery. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  12. Velasco, David. "Miami vices", Artforum, 8 December 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  13. "The Hague Sculpture", denhaagsculptuur.com, 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  14. Walt Disney Comics Digest #23, July 1970, "The Printing Park"
  15. Marx, Barry, Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas (w), Petruccio, Steven (a), Marx, Barry (ed). "Superman Peanut Butter Brand Licensing Pioneered" Fifty Who Made DC Great: 52 (1985), DC Comics
  16. "The Internet Pinball Machine Database". Ipdb.org. Retrieved 2011-03-12.

References
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