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Superman (real name William "Bill" Dunn) was a titular character that appeared in the short story The Reign of the Superman in 1933. Despite acting as the initial version of the DC Comics hero that's well known, this Superman, was in fact intended to be a villainous protagonist.
Bill Dunn was initially merely a vagrant who was waiting in a bread-line each and every day for food. However, he was singled out by a strange and misanthropic scientist named Professor Smalley, and took him for a hot meal which is a large toasted sandwich and some coffee.
He then recruited Dunn to be part of an experiment regarding a strange meteorite. The exposure resulted in him gaining cerebrally and genetically enhanced psychic powers. However, it came at the cost of corrupting the man, turning him into a supervillain and renaming himself the Superman.
He then aimed to conquer the entire world with his new powers upon experimenting with them. As preparations for the conquering of the entire world, he then proceeded to sow discord in the world via his mind manipulation abilities.
Professor Smalley, however, desired to gain those powers, causing them to have a final battle. Superman proceeded to kill his "creator".
Unfortunately, the victory was Pyrrhic at best, since it resulted in his powers being drained and the formula for retaining said powers being gone for good, he desperately tried to bring them back by looking at the formula on the blueprints but to no avail because his genius-level intellect is also gone.
Now back to Bill Dunn, he is forced to go back to the bread-line.
Appearance[]
Bill Dunn is a Caucasian male vagrant who looks raggedy-dressed, unshaven, and has stubble on his scalp (as seen on the official artwork). Given to him by Professor Smalley, Dunn was later clean-shaven and given a suit.
Legacy[]
Although Dunn's reign as Superman was short-lived, he is remembered as being the first to use the name Superman. The name was later adopted by The Superman, and finally by Kal-El.
Creation[]
The Superman was the first version of Superman ever to appear in print. His story was told in Jerry Siegel's sci-fi short story, 'Reign of the Superman'.
This early version of Superman was depicted almost entirely different than the modern version. First and foremost, he was poor, he was bald, and he was a villain.
Also, he was originally human, while the modern version was an alien raised on Earth.
Ironically, his physical appearance by the time he gains his powers strongly resembles that of the modern Superman rogues Ultra-Humanite and Lex Luthor.
There were two primary sources for the creation of this character. The first was the advent of the Great Depression, occurring in 1932 when Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster were being affected by it in terms of not being able to find a job. The second was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, more specifically his concept of the Ubermensch (which was German for "Superman", or more accurately "Overman") from his philosophical tract Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which both Siegel and Schuster criticized.
Trivia[]
As noted above, this is the first Superman incarnation, with most later incarnations being heroic.
Unlike the mainstream Superman, who was of alien origin and was more physical in his strength, this Superman was an enhanced human. Ironically, this rendition of Superman resembles the iconic Lex Luthor in terms of physical appearance.
His powers were mainly mental in nature, much like Darkseid's genius-level intellect, mind-control, telekinesis, telepathy and telescopic vision.
Even though he is the first Superman version, that doesn't mean he is the first Clark Kent/Kal-El, as that belongs to the Golden Age Superman origin.
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the men who wrote and drew the story and later the Superman character when he was reinvented as a superhero, conceived of the character and story initially as a criticism towards German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of the ubermensch (which translates from German into either "Overman" or, in this case, "Superman") that was voiced in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
