# Is Superman Circumcised? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445 "2003-02-25T18:23:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/21 "2003-02-25T22:37:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mars Horizon \* > \*\*[Ignorance] > > What is this pre-crisis, post-crisis? > > [/Ignorance] \*\* Sorry about that. “Pre-Crisis” refers to DC Comics continuity (such as it was) from ~1937-1986. Over this fifty-year period, the “canonical history” and origin stories of various comics characters had been changed multiple times, timelines had been altered, and a number of alternate-reality dimensions had been created to resolve the tesulting paradoxes. By the mid-80’s, DC felt that their “comics universe” had become too complicated for the average reader to follow, especially in comparison to Marvel Comics, which was percieved as more streamlined and accessible. In 1986, DC launched a storyline called “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” which encompassed all the titles then published. The idea was to wipe out all the alternate Earths, contradicting storylines and silly stuff and rebuild DC continuity from the ground up into one seamless whole. (As it turned out it didn’t really work out that way, but that’s a whole other story.) In the process, they decided to make substantial changes to some of their star characters, the most prominent example being Superman. Writer John Byrne was entrusted with establishing a whole new backstory for the Man of Steel. Gone was the art-deco retrofuturistic Krypton, the adventures of Superboy with the Legion of Superheroes, Krypto the Superdog, etc. In the reboot, Clark Kent develops his powers slowly as a teenager, and Lex Luthor is not a brilliant criminal scientist, but a ruthless business tycoon. My snipe at John Byrne was directed at these and other, later changes. But that’s a whole other story.) Events occurring after the reboot are termed “Post-Crisis” because they adhere to the new history rather than any of the earlier material (which is regarded as having “never happened.” Or at least was, until Mark Waid introduced Hypertime. But that’s a whole other story.) Oh, and everyone knows Ma Kent got little Clark to help her with the tailoring for his costume. He used his heat vision to cut the indestructible threads. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/22 "2003-02-25T23:26:25Z")
In the 1977 theatrical movie, Kal-El arrives on earth completely nekkid. My vhs copy is old and grainy and it’s difficult to see properly (plus I’m not in the habit of staring at little boy’s peepees lol) but from what I can tell, he does appear to be snipped. He’s definitely got all the standard plumbing, in any case. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/23 "2003-02-25T23:59:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terrifel \* > **Superman was created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, and yeah, they were both Jewish. Much has therefore been made of the ostensible Jewish themes of the comic (baby cast adrift in small boat/rocketship, immigrant from a destroyed homeland, suffix of Kryptonian names ending with Hebrew “-el” [Kal-el, Jor-el], etc., etc.)** There was also that WW2-era Superman strip in which Supes confronted Hitler and Stalin, threatening der Fuehrer with a “strictly non-Aryan” sock on the jaw. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/24 "2003-02-26T01:38:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > \*\*In the 1977 theatrical movie, Kal-El arrives on earth completely nekkid. My vhs copy is old and grainy and it’s difficult to see properly (plus I’m not in the habit of staring at little boy’s peepees lol) but from what I can tell, he does appear to be snipped. He’s definitely got all the standard plumbing, in any case. \*\* lol, I forgot about that. That answers things pre-crisis, anyway. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tommyturtle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Tommyturtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommyturtle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/25 "2003-02-26T01:47:30Z")
I’ve always wondered when the Kents first get the baby Supe wouldn’t they take him to a doctor? If only for his vaccination shots and whatnot even if they weren’t inclined to get him snipped wouldn’t that of given the whole ballgame away when the doctor tries to give him his shots? ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/26 "2003-02-26T02:16:47Z")
IIRC Ma Kent knitted a play suit for baby clark out of the blankets he was padded in. I could be wrong, it has been a long time. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/27 "2003-02-26T02:53:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biffy the Elephant Shrew \* > \*\*There was also that WW2-era Superman strip in which Supes confronted Hitler and Stalin, threatening der Fuehrer with a “strictly non-Aryan” sock on the jaw. 😃 \*\* Wait a minute … ol’ Kal-El of Krypton confronted Hitler **and** Stalin at the same time?! But Stalin was counted among the U.S.'s **allies** during World War II! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/28 "2003-02-26T03:04:34Z")
I think it was before we got in, actually. He grabbed Hitler and then Stalin and then took them to (The League of Nations? The World Court? Some international tribunal), to "Stand trial for your crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/29 "2003-02-26T03:09:28Z")
**Booker57** : Your memory is absotootly, posilutely correct. Ma Kent made Li’l Clark’s playsuit out of three blankets made of indestructible fabric found in his rocket; he needed an invulnerable playsuit because, being super and all, he was always knocking the silo down on himself or what have you, which tended to wear out normal baby clothes rather quickly. Later the playsuit was unraveled and made into the costume we recognize today. The original baby blankets were colored red, blue and yellow, which explains the outfit’s color scheme. It’s a good thing for truth, justice and the American way that Kryptonians weren’t hugely into plaids. The interesting thing about the costume was that it was actually more indestructible than Superman himself; it didn’t lose its tear-resistance when exposed to kryptonite or red solar rays or whatever. This came in handy for Supes, since it gave him the equivalent of a bulletproof vest even when he was deprived of his powers for some reason. The fabric also had other, less often used powers; it could be stretched to virtually unlimited distances in case Superman had to rig up a firewall or something. Obviously he just used his cape for this, not the whole outfit, or else we’d have an answer to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/30 "2003-02-26T03:44:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*1. Heat vision and a mirror. \*\* Post-Crisis explaination. \*\* > [@](#): > > Or, his hair doesn’t grow under the yellow sun. I forget which. \*\* PRE-Crisis explaination! See **Ike**? You were right twice with one answer! \*\* > [@](#): > > 1. She made it out of the swaddling clothes he wore while lying in a manger…whoops, 'scuse me…the baby clothes he was wearing when he was in the rocket. I think they stretched or something. I’m not sure how she got the needle through to do the alterations. \*\* She unravelled the blankies. L’il Kal cut the threads with his heat vision. Ma used a needle made from a shard of the rocket. And I’m guessing that Kryptonians practice circumcision. A) Seigel and Shuster were Jewish. B) There’s hints of the Moses story in the Superman origin. C) There’s other Jewish bits (“El” means “son of” in Hebrew" for example. D) Plus some of their religious rituals have a Jewish…flavor. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/31 "2003-02-26T04:30:16Z")
Is Superman circumsized? Well, considering his creators are Siegel and Shuster, I’d say most definitely yes. And considering that Stan Lee’s birth name is Staney Martin Lieber, I’d bet that Spider-Man is too! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/32 "2003-02-26T05:11:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > **Jewish…flavor.** What exactly does Jewish flavor taste like? ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/33 "2003-02-26T05:28:33Z")
I was going to ask about the pre- and post-crisis thing, but someone else beat me to it. Terrifel, thanks for the explanation! Could you also explain hypertime? Never heard of it before, but the name intregs me. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/34 "2003-02-26T05:50:04Z")
I’m not Terrifel, he might know more about it than I, but since you ask I’ll tell you what I know about Hypertime. The concept of Hypertime, in essence, was to reintroduce the mulitversial element of the DC Universe that the Crisis did away with. The idea is everything that DC ever published really happened (Well, maybe not Mad Magazine . . .) in some alternate dimension or other, including all the Pre-Crisis stuff, all the Vertigo titles, all the Elseworlds stories all the intercompany crossovers, all the stand-alone titles outside the main DC superhero universe that they ever published. I’m not sure about the mechanics of it all, but I think at its core Hypertime is about infinite branching timelines representing infinite possibilities whereas Pre-Crisis was about a limited number of alternate Earths/dimensions, connections between which I know nothing about. ---
**Author:** ![RawkStah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@RawkStah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RawkStah)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/35 "2003-02-26T05:58:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Michael Ellis \* > \*\*What exactly does Jewish flavor taste like? \*\* Bacon, strangely enough. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/36 "2003-02-26T06:04:06Z")
Most likely, Hypertime was invented because Gen-X types were getting nostalgic for the Red Kryptonite stories they’d read as kids in the seventies and early eighties. What happened to Vartox, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/37 "2003-02-26T07:04:53Z")
It’s irreleveant whether Kryptonians practice circumcision. Superman wasn’t born on Krypton, he was born on Earth. Kryptonian women didn’t carry their children, the children gestated in a chamber designed for that purpose. Kal-el was sent in his gestation chamber to earth, where he was born shortly after the rocket carrying it crashed. I’ve always read this revision of the origin as the writer’s way of saying Superman is an _American_, not an illegal alien. The Kent’s farm was snowed in for months following his arrival, so Ma was able to claim Clark as her own child. It makes sense to assume that he’d be treated the same as any other male child born in Kansas in the 50’s or 60’s, which means he very likely is circumcised. ---
**Author:** ![Matt\_Decker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Matt\_Decker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matt_Decker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/38 "2003-02-26T08:31:01Z")
Here’s my completely and totally nerdy answer to the “quandry”: In the “old” Pre-Crisis continuity, Superman couldn’t have been circumsized by any normal method since he was invulnerable the moment he arrived in a solar system with a yellow sun. In the “new” Post-Crisis continuity, he could be, because his invulnerability and super powers were “soaked up” from the yellow sun over a long period of time. He didn’t start noticing his super strength, ability to fly, invulnerability (etc.) until he was in his late teens. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/39 "2003-02-26T11:36:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Matt Decker \* > \*\*Here’s my completely and totally nerdy answer to the “quandry”: > > In the “old” Pre-Crisis continuity, Superman couldn’t have been circumsized by any normal method since he was invulnerable the moment he arrived in a solar system with a yellow sun. \*\* But Pre-Crisis, he was about three years old when he was sent to Earth, and he would certainly have been circumcised before then. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445/40 "2003-02-26T11:53:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Yeah, basically in current continuity it’s possible that Superman is circumcised, but like other such questions (Does the Thing have orange rocks on his dork? Can Mr. Fantastic stretch his wang as readily as the rest of his body? The Vision was married to Scarlet Witch, but does he have the equipment to fulfill his marital duties? Some sort of special attachment maybe?) we’ll never know the answer. Not officially. For some reason as I read this paragraph the phrase" Go Go Gadget Wang" popped into my head [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-superman-circumcised/157445.md?page=3)