Superman is probably the most famous comic book super hero in the world. It seems pretty apparent to me that Superman is an American character. Sure his creators were Jewish immigrants who weren't born in America, but that doesn't mean that Superman can't be classified as an American character. Superman really represents the dream that many people come to this country for. Superman really lives the American dream in a sense. After he he is found on earth, he is raised out on a farm and then moves to the city of metropolis. Here he uses his super powers to battle evil and protect the citizens. Superman swept the nation and became extremely popular. Today there are movies and tv shows about him. His creators may be immigrants to the country, but in America who isn't? America was built on people immigrating to the country. I'd say this makes superman even more American. Seigel and Schuster were really living the American dream. They were unpopular and un-athletic high school kids and they became some of the most successful comic book writers at the time and created arguably the most iconic character ever made. Superman is definitely an American character, and an American hero.
Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...
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