User:Doczilla/Sandbox/The Reign of the Superman


 * This was the last sandbox version of this article before creating The Reign of the Super-Man/The Reign of the Superman.

"The Reign of the Superman" (June 1933) was a short story by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who would later become famous for creating the superhero Superman. This short story was their first published use of the name Superman.

thumb|250px|"The Reign of the Superman" in the [[fanzine Science Fiction vol. 1, #3 (June 1933).]]

Publication
According to a 1983 interview with Jerry Siegel, he first wrote the short story "The Reign of the Superman" in 1932. The original story featured a bald telepathic villain bent on dominating the entire world. The character appeared in the short story "The Reign of the Superman" from Science Fiction #3, a science fiction fanzine that Siegel published at age 18 with accompanying art by Joe Shuster. For this publication, Siegel used the pen name Herbert S. Fine, combining the name of a cousin Herbert with the maiden name of Siegel's mother.

Subsequent evolution
Siegel re-wrote the character in 1933 as a hero, bearing little or no resemblance to his villainous namesake, and began a six-year quest to find a publisher. Titling it "The Superman", Siegel and Shuster offered it to Consolidated Book Publishing, who had published a 48-page black-and-white comic book entitled Detective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48. Although the duo received an encouraging letter, Consolidated never again published comic books. Discouraged, Shuster burned all pages of the story, the cover surviving only because Siegel rescued it from the fire. Siegel and Shuster each compared this character to Slam Bradley, an adventurer the pair had created for Detective Comics #1 (May 1939).

Siegel and Shuster would next use the name in 1938 for the Kryptonian superhero Superman.

Later references

 * After the "Death of Superman" storyline and before the character's return, four other characters take his place in the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline which ran through Action Comics and other Superman titles.
 * In 52 #35 (January 2007), numerous superhero characters abruptly lost their powers and fell from the sky in a story titled "Rain of the Supermen".