# Superman **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2000, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568 "2000-01-21T02:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/21 "2000-01-21T20:59:00Z")
**tanstaafl** , that’s exactly right. And the reason they did not record in advance in those days is because tape recording had not yet been invented. Only 78 rpm recording was available and with all the scratches and pops in the sound, it was used only for certain sound effects, and, most of the time, even SFX were done live, as well as the music. The radio actor who played Superman was Bud Collyer. He also voiced Superman in the Fleischer Brothers cartoons of the 40’s and the Saturday-morning cartoons produced by Filmation in the 60’s. He died in 1969 at 61. * * * \>\< DARWIN \> \_\_ **L\_\_\_L** ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/22 "2000-01-21T21:24:00Z")
Bud Collyer was also one of the hosts of the '50s TV game shows “Beat the Clock” and “To Tell the Truth”. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/23 "2000-01-21T22:46:00Z")
I’m no comic book expert, but I thought it was that anything very close to Superman’s body would share the same properties as he does; bullets bounce off him, bullets bounce off his clothes. This explanation touches: -why his cape will get torn but his suit stays in tact (and, in the Return of Superman storyline, why the new Superboy’s leather jacket would get torn to shreds and his costume wouldn’t) -why his suit is so skin-tight -how they were able to sew the S on there 😛 maybe this is part of the new history? * * * Mayor of [Snerdville](http://fathom.org/snerdville), the home of Mortimer Snerd “I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.” –Wayne Knight ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/24 "2000-01-21T23:04:00Z")
I like Stan Lee’s “unstable molecules” literary device for explaining indestructable costumes. I’m waiting for some supervillain to develop “unstable moths”. * * * Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/25 "2000-01-22T02:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Elmer J. Fudd: > **I like Stan Lee’s “unstable molecules” literary device for explaining indestructable costumes. I’m waiting for some supervillain to develop “unstable moths”.** Yeah, Elmer’s just _dying_ to see some naked Marvel superheroes. Deadpool, right? 😉 * * * Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99. “We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/26 "2000-01-22T20:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > what does the big red S stand for? If you see “the big red s” it means that Superman is in front of you, and he is _not wearing his costume_. 😃😃 * * * With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D, and you still have the frog you started with. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/27 "2000-01-24T19:16:00Z")
One might also add: Flying, instead of leaping, was invented when the first animated cartoons came out (the ones by Fleisher, still regarded as some of the best animation ever made). Leaping looked OK in a comicbook, but in action, it looked stupid. Since Byrne, the cape has not been indestructible, since it is not protected by his body. He keeps a bunch of spares. * * * John W. Kennedy “Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.” – Charles Williams ---
**Author:** ![Bobby\_O](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bobby\_O](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobby_O)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/28 "2000-01-24T21:47:00Z")
Does he need the cape or does he just like the way it looks? I think I remember him using like a shield in something, but I’m almost positive it was a movie or TV since I don’t read comic books. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/29 "2000-01-25T01:11:00Z")
He likes the way it looks, though in the comics, pre-Byrne, he did use it as a shield to protect Lois from bullets and debris, to protect her from air friction when flying her around at supersonic speed and so on. He also had a pocket sewn into the cape where he kept his Clark Kent clothes. He was able to compress them down to the size of a soda cracker and tuck them away. Yes, they were chemically treated to withstand such treatment, sort of a super-permanent-press! * * * \>\< DARWIN \> \_\_ **L\_\_\_L** ---
**Author:** ![TBone2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/30 "2000-01-25T21:25:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* Yeah, Elmer’s just _dying_ to see some naked Marvel superheroes. Deadpool, right? 😉 > > \*\* It’s been a lot of years since I bought a comic book, but PLEASE say it ain’t so! Superman in Marvel comics? I spent my hard-earned paper route money on DC comics. * * * _I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…_ T ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/31 "2000-01-26T04:58:00Z")
No, Superman is DC, not Marvel. But Stan Lee (of the “unstable molecules” mentioned) is Marvel, not DC. ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/32 "2000-01-26T21:29:00Z")
The discovery of Uranium predates the discovery of Krypton (the element, not the “planet”). It was known by 1789 (!) that there was an element in pitchblende which didn’t match the characteristics of any other known element, though the metal wasn’t actually isolated for another fifty years or so. Neptunium and Plutonium were both discovered in 1940, but I think it’s more likely that they were just continuing the “obvious” series started a hundred years previously than that they were getting ideas from Superman comics. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/33 "2000-01-26T21:43:00Z")
Here is a good essay on the history of Superman, and how his origins have been rewritten over the years: [http://www.fortress.am/History/VersionI.html](http://www.fortress.am/History/VersionI.html) So, bottom line is comic books practise revisionist history the same way historians do. ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2000, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568/34 "2000-01-27T13:41:00Z")
Actually, Mjollnir, it’s been going on for millenia. Ancient mythologies constantly rewrote the previous mythology; you can find storie in the bible that are thinly disguised Babylonian myths. The Romans co-opted the Greek mythology and rewrote it to suit their needs. All comic books are doing is what others have done before them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superman/6568.md?page=1)