As I’ve mentioned before, in other contexts, I’ve been listening through the old Superman radio show from the 1940s, starring Bud Collyer as Clark Kent/Superman. What’s interesting is that, although the opening narration is very similar to the familiar litany from the TV show, it’s not identical. In particular, on the radio, Superman fought “a never-ending battle for truth and justice.” No mention of the American way. So it has not always been part of Superman’s mission.
I don’t know this for a fact, but I would not be surprised if they added “the American way” in the 1950s, as part of the McCarthy scare.
Yes, traditionally foundlings are treated under the law as locally born. And remember when the character was created: it would have been unusual but not abnormal to report a foundling.
The Smallville variation about the fake papers is an acknowledgement that if you move the scene to the end of the 20th century, you get a whole lot more bureaucracy to work through and the presumptions are different.
I remember way back on TV syndication back home in PR catching the George Reeves Superman shows on Spanish dub, and it was reworded in Spanish to be “La Verdad, la Justicia y la Libertad”.
And it was never the “official” motto of Superman because it wasn’t from the comics and so wasn’t canon:
It was the radio show which first coined the use of “truth, justice and the American way”, at a time when all three things seemed in short supply. By then, America was embroiled in World War II with no clear victory in sight. Interestingly enough, the “the American way” was apparently dropped by the radio show in 1944, after the tide turned in the Allies’ favor. However, it would be revitalized in the opening narration of the 50’s George Reeve television show, which often saw Superman fighting Communists and other threats. Superman himself didn’t actually say the line until 1978, in the Christopher Reeve classic film.
Remember that the Adventures of Superman series debuted in the depths of the McCarthy era when again everything had to be super-American.
It’s culturally interesting how thoroughly the radio and television openers stuck in everybody’s minds for generations after they went off the air even though the ongoing comics didn’t pick it up except occasionally. Superman has been treated as Earth’s hero rather than just America’s for a very long time in the comics.
To me, a liberal Wisconsin progressive of the 70s, “The American Way” meant the freedom to pursue whatever path you wanted without the government interfering, unlike those godless commies. As long as it didn’t hurt anyone, you could (try to) be anything you wanted, move anywhere you wanted, be an inventor, rock star, president. The only limitations were your own.
As an aside, legally speaking, this makes Superman a natural-born citizen. A foundling is legally treated as if they were born in the place where they were found, unless that status is challenged, and it can only be challenged before the child turns 18. So Superman could run for President if he wanted (without any of the convoluted sci-fi rationalizations the comics have invented for that).
Clark Kent certainly could, but Superman’s status was, until he was granted citizenship status by an act of Congress, a little more nebulous. Basically he would be an undocumented immigrant with a pretty strong case for refugee status, given that there’s no place he could be deported to.
Note: the above quote is actually from the link Exapno_Mapcase provided, not from Exapno himself.
The episodes that I’m listening to now are from June 1941, so before the U.S. actually entered the war (though they do feature a German villain–so German, indeed, that his name is Mr. Deutsch!). The opening narration here is definitely just “truth and justice.” So the American way probably comes along once the US was actually at war.
The narration has changed a few times over the course of the radio series, as far as I can recall. Early on, he fought against “crime and oppression.” In 1941, rather than being “faster than a speeding bullet,” he “can race a speeding bullet to its target.”
As I understand it, a lot of things that we indelibly associate with Superman actually had their origin in the radio show. Stuff like “Up, up, and away!” or the existence of Jimmy Olsen, not to mention Kryptonite.
This one can be tricky. In my home jurisdiction’s Civil Code, the definition of a natural person is “any human being”. You’d have to go into some meaty legal arguments as to whether only a natural person can be a natural born citizen.