In this book Martin Lund challenges contemporary claims about the original Superman's supposed
Jewishness and offers a critical re-reading of the earliest Superman comics. Engaging in
critical dialogue with extant writing on the subject Lund argues that much of recent popular
and scholarly writing on Superman as a Jewish character is a product of the ethnic revival
rather than critical investigations of the past and as such does not stand up to historical
scrutiny. In place of these readings this book offers a new understanding of the Superman
created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the mid-1930s presenting him as an authentically
Jewish American character in his own time for good and ill. On the way to this conclusion
this book questions many popular claims about Superman including that he is a golem a
Moses-figure or has a Hebrew name. In place of such notions Lund offers contextual readings
of Superman as he first appeared touchingon among other ideas Jewish American affinities
with the Roosevelt White House the whitening effects of popular culture Jewish gender
stereotypes and the struggles faced by Jewish Americans during the historical peak of American
anti-Semitism. In this book Lund makes a call to stem the diffusion of myth into accepted
truth stressing the importance of contextualizing the Jewish heritage of the creators of
Superman. By critically taking into account historical understandings of Jewishness and the
comics' creative contexts this book challenges reigning assumptions about Superman and other
superheroes' cultural roles not only for the benefit of Jewish studies but for American
Cultural and Comics studies as a whole.
