![Action_Comics_1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/SAZ8GFc.jpg "Action_Comics_1[1].jpg")
So after taking a closer look at golden age Superman, I noticed something kind of cool. This might be a big "no shit" to some of you, but I thought it was interesting.
When Superman was new, so was the modern metropolitan lifestyle. Rural farmland still dominated the American landscape and big cities with modern technology were still the exception, not the rule. But around this time I get the sense that people were starting to feel like machines were taking over their lives, or at the very least were quickly becoming superior to them in many ways. A car is faster than a horse. A lightbulb is brighter than a candle. A skyscraper towers over a farmhouse. And more and more, machines were beginning to accomplish human tasks much faster and more efficiently.
What's interesting is that in the earliest days of his creation, Superman is almost constantly being compared to modern technology.
>faster than a speeding bullet
>more powerful than a locomotive
>able to leap tall buildings in a single bound
>it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman
Let's not forget the iconic imagery of Superman deflecting bullets off his chest or bursting out of chains. Hell, Superman's very first public appearance, the cover of Action Comics #1, is Superman lifting a car over his head.
I don't know if Jerry Siegel meant to include it or not, but there's this theme running through golden age Superman that no matter how advanced machines become or how much we rely on them in the future, nothing is more powerful than the human spirit.
cool
neat
I like it
>>82945952
That's actually makes sense, never yhought about that until now OP
Shameless self-bump
Bamp
Thank you for this anon
Not a bad observation, nerd.
>>82945952
really dig this idea
>>82945952
Or perhaps it's the other way: these comparisons were used because people were fascinated with modern technology, and a man beating said technology would surely get their attention.
>>82945952
Thanks for the symbolism, Zack.
But is he able to see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
>>82948952
Snyder couldn't write something that thoughtful if his life depended on it.
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-05.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/5jDofPe.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-05.jpg")
Let's do this.
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-06.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/rSApqph.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-06.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-07.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/5kLtlxB.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-07.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-08.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/TDzFSRh.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-08.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-09.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/J2F7OC4.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-09.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-10.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/okxwPL6.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-10.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-11.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/78bB0PP.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-11.jpg")
so the concept of this is awesome, I wonder if we could reignite it in new supes books?
what symbols could we use for current comparison? or would making superman stronger than those symbols add too much weight to the "superman is too powerful to be written well" theory?
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-12.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/YHtvpy1.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-12.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-13.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/VR9JxsH.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-13.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-14.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Gggpdlt.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-14.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-15.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/pZq2YWS.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-15.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-16.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/vatCzob.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-16.jpg")
![Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-17.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/aB7N4OI.jpg "Action 001 [Famous First Edition C-26]-17.jpg")
>>82950886
Thanks for the storytime anon
>>82950881
>Superdickery starts from the very first issue
Marvelous
>>82945952
HOL UP
So what you're tying to say is...truly, he is the Man of Tomorrow?
>>82950791
>>82950798
>>82950806
>>82950813
is this where the STAS team got their idea for "The Late Mr. Kent"?
>>82945952
nice catch
>>82950798
>>82950806
M
A B S O L U T E
D
M
A
N
>>82950819
>If I can't find about Superman no one can
Clark you smartass fucker.
>>82950845
>Faster than a speeding snapchat! More powerful than the leading broadband provider!
>>82950845
I don't think you'd need to update it. The technology might not be modern but it's one of the most timeless taglines of all time and still gets the point across.
>>82945952
There's an early chapter in Morrison's book 'Supergods' that goes into similar analysis of golden age superman and batman if you're interested in this. Rest of the book is pretty interesting too.
>>82945952
SuperLuddite, the Amish Avenger.
>Superman was conceived in a time where humanity had cemented the beginnings of its complete conquest of nature. Towers were edging closer to the heavens and imposing factories unveiled assembly lines and pulsing pistons. Speed and technology were now the highest of all virtues. But when the cold metal of the machine had surpassed the fragile flesh of the human worker, what could the proletariat look up to?
When the world first saw Superman, his organic might was depicted crushing a mechanical automobile against a gigantic rock. While they had been mass produced for some time by 1938, extreme disparity of wealth, not to mention a severe economic depression, meant that the car had become a carriage strictly for the wealthy and bourgeois class… painstakingly engineered and assembled by workers who could almost certainly not partake in the fruits of their labors.
>>82950791
So he's like an ant
>>82948909 (me)
Now that I think about >>82950791 , OP might have a point. The very first panel tells us how the forces of nature can still surpass modern technology.
I still don't get the cover. Why is he lifting the car. I first thought that one guy on the ground was underneath and Superman was rescuing him but that does not seem to be the case. The car is already broken and there is not a single person inside the car so why does Superman lift it, where does it come from and the biggest question: What is that explosion and where does the explosion come from? It seems to be happening in the background. As cool as it may seem the entire cover doesn't make any sense at all.
>>82945952
I also like how Golden Age supes very much was proactive clashed with the fbi crooked senators and the like
And he had story arcs
>>82953582
He is spookin the crooks
Nice OP. I wish I could analyze things like this.
>>82948360
This
>>82950845
New technology isn't really about being big and fast and powerful. In order to reignite the concept, you'd need an entirely different type of character.
>>82945952
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit.
I can dig it.
>>82953582
It's funny because this is a rare case of the cover actually depicting what happens inside. He grabbed a car of gangsters that kidnapped Lois, shook them out, and then smashed their car against a rock.
>>82953582
The exact scene happens in the comic showing how and why it happened. How do you not get it?
>>82945952
Yet he's the most boring character in all of comics. Hmm.
>>82950848
>Butch's car leaps forward like a released rocket, but is easily overtaken by Superman 64
Looks like all that flying through rings training paid off.
>>82950791
>leap 1/8th of a mile; hurdle a twenty-story building...
>raise tremendous weights...
>run faster than an express train...
>and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!
I kind of want to create a brick-type character who has specific limits in the spirit of this page right here.
no flight, not literally invulnerable, just fast, very strong and pretty damn tough.
could have been nice if they had explored that more when they did pic related.
>>82953582
Superman is basically saying 'fuck your car'
>>82950791
>Jerome Siegel
I never in my life thought about what Jerry was short for. Feels weird.
>>82950813
The clock in the corner of the panels is pretty cool.
>>82945952
saved
>>82945952
Hmm, never thought to look at it that way phamilio.
>>82959216
Haven't you ever seen Seinfeld? Elaine calls Jerry "Jerome" all the time.
Grant Morrison had a similar analysis on one of the Kevin Smith podcasts.
>>82951900
Oh. Also that.
>>82953712
I wish that modern Superman writers had the balls to be that political.
>>82950791
Where Ma & Pa Kent?
>>82961477
In Superman #1
>>82960924
>I wish that modern Superman writers had the balls to be that political.
Yeah, Truth initially was very well received when it seemed like the enemies were crooked cops. But the whole Shadow Beast thing immediately seemed to kill interest on it.
