The Superman concept evolved over years. The character’s earliest incarnations were not heroic. In a 1933 short story called “The Reign of the Superman,” published in Siegel’s fan magazine, the title character was a telepathic villain—a bald man with mental powers who used them for malevolent ends. The visual and conceptual evolution from that villain to the caped hero of Action Comics No. 1 reflects years of rethinking, experimenting, and responding to the interests of the market Siegel was trying to sell into.
The hero version of Superman—the one who would eventually reach readers—drew on multiple influences for his visual design. Joe Shuster’s illustrations showed a figure built like a circus strongman or a classical Greek statue, with an idealized body that expressed physical power as a form of visible virtue. Shuster reportedly drew on images of Jesse Owens, the Black American athlete who had dominated the 1936 Berlin Olympics, for the character’s movement and physicality. The bodybuilder attire of the era—tights, boots, a cape-like garment—translated naturally to the costume that became one of the most recognizable visual icons of the twentieth century.
One biographical theory about the origins of Superman centers on a tragedy in Siegel’s family. In 1932, when Siegel was seventeen, his father, Michel Siegel, died during what police described as an apparent shoplifting attempt at his haberdashery. The circumstances were disputed: Siegel’s son later said that his grandfather died of a heart attack while armed robbers held up the store. The truth of the event is uncertain, but its timing—just as Siegel was beginning to develop the Superman concept—has led some scholars and commentators to suggest that Superman’s invulnerability, his imperviousness to the violence that could kill ordinary men, reflects Siegel’s fantasy of a father who could not be killed. This is a biographical interpretation, not a documented intention. It is nonetheless a resonant one.