# Superman
Superman is the DC Comics superhero who debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938 and later became a running gag online. Fan sites, parody accounts and Reddit posts framed the Man of Steel as a secret jerk, with Superdickery archiving vintage comic covers as evidence.
## Origin
Superman was created by Cleveland high school students Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Siegel first used the name in a 1933 short story, 'The Reign of the Superman,' where the character was a bald telepathic villain. He and Shuster later reworked the concept with artist Russell Keaton into a caped, superpowered hero who debuted in Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938[3]. Screen adaptations followed in every decade, from the 1950s Adventures of Superman TV series to Christopher Reeve's four films, Smallville, and Henry Cavill's 2013 Man of Steel.
- **Platform:** Print comics (Action Comics #1) / Web fan sites (meme spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 1938
## Overview
Most Superman meme output plays with the gap between his heroic image and old comic panels where he looks arrogant, oblivious or petty. Superdickery, launched in 2005, compiled Golden and Silver Age covers on which Superman appears to bully Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen or the reader, treated as a straight-faced archive of his cruelty[2]. Parody Twitter accounts like @JerkSuperman ran short jokes in the same spirit, imagining the character boasting or belittling civilians.
Redditors and YouTubers took similar swings. A 2011 /r/funny comic by travosas showed Superman deafened by a bullet lodged in his ear canal, since his invulnerable skin blocked the shot but did not protect the eardrum[1]. YouTuber darosthemovie's 2012 parody film retelling the Death and Return of Superman arc, narrated by Max Landis, spun the entire storyline into a comedy[3]. The TV Tropes Franchise page catalogues him as a stock example of tropes like 'Last of His Kind,' 'Physical God' and 'The Cape'[8].
## How to Use
Most Superman meme content works by taking a straight-faced image or scene and cropping or captioning it so the hero looks like a jerk. Common conventions include pairing a vintage comic cover with a caption about him being petty, imagining a mundane power-limitation gag (a bullet stuck in his ear, x-ray vision being creepy), or writing satirical tweets in his voice.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Superman?
Superman is a DC Comics superhero and the subject of a long online tradition of parody content framing him as arrogant or petty[2].
### Where did Superman come from?
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created him in Cleveland, with his first heroic appearance in Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938[3].
### What does Superman mean?
Online, the name is tied both to the earnest fan communities like Superman Homepage[6] and to satirical takes like Superdickery, which reads old covers as evidence he is a jerk[2].
### How do you use Superman?
Common formats include captioning vintage comic covers as jerk-Superman material[2], writing satirical tweets in his voice, or drawing power-limitation gags like the bullet-in-ear comic[1].
### Is Superman still popular?
The character has stayed in wide circulation across films, TV and comics since 1938, with major online moments clustering around events like the 2013 Man of Steel release and its S-logo infographic on /r/movies[4].
## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/fjiuu/oh_superman_you_so_funny/]()
2. [http://superdickery.com/]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/superman]()
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1g0sgs/the_evolution_of_supermans_s/]()
5. [http://www.halloweencostumes.com/blog/post/2013/06/06/superman-infographic.aspx]()
6. [http://www.supermanhomepage.com/news.php]()
7. [http://www.supermansupersite.com/]()
8. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/Superman?from=Main.Superman]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/superman
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library