For years, millions of people have looked up to Superman as the epitome of human and moral perfection. Countless scholars and fans have claimed that the character is an allegory for Jesus while others believe him to be a Moses allegory. However, during his inception, creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster drew inspiration from a variety of sources, ranging from religion to Greek mythology to science fiction pulp magazines, and novels like Philip Wylie’s Gladiator. Regardless of the character’s potential for interpretation, his adventures in the comic books, films, and numerous television shows have become their own sort of religious text, with readers and viewers clinging heavily to established canon as indisputable fact. The character’s adventures and morality have further been used to reshape peoples’ way of living life, as well as prompting many to pursue lines of work that they previously would not have considered without the character’s influence.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which Superman’s tales of triumph in the struggle of good versus evil have generated a devout fan following and initiated discussions of allegorical meaning. Further, this paper will seek to examine the myriad sources from which the character of Superman was derived. Finally, this paper will argue that Superman and his lore have created a new type of mythology, and remolded The Man of Steel into a modern day god on par with ancient mythological and biblical heroes such as Samson and Hercules.