Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 17, 2025 | 13 comments

A JERRY SIEGEL birthday tribute…

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We’ve got a three-fer for you! It’s both Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Lois Lane actress Margot Kidder’s birthday! So dig this piece — and check out two others, here and here. Far out! — Dan

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By JIM BEARD 

Superman’s a tough act to follow.

After his creation by a young Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and subsequent packaging in 1938 by National Allied Publications, the nascent comic-book industry sat up and took notice. Every comics company figured they could have their own Superman, but it wasn’t always as easy as just thinking and saying it — the Man of Steel was lightning in a bottle that tickled the imagination of boys and girls everywhere, and while the analogues launched almost immediately, not all of them made the grade.

It being Jerry Siegel’s birthday and all — he was born Oct. 17, 1914 — it got me thinking about how much of himself the writer put into Clark Kent, and how much of his dreams informed Superman. Siegel was an analogue of his creation in a way, an alter ego in the waking world. That got me thinking about all the copies, clones, and caricatures there’ve been about our beloved Kal-El over the decades and thus an article was born.

Not appearing in this story.

They say “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness” (OK, it was Oscar Wilde), but not all of the Super-Analogues were mediocre. Some of them became great characters in their own right… but yeah, a lot of them crashed and burned and were soon forgotten, probably rightfully so. And wow — a lot? There are a virtual ton of these wondrous wannabes, and I want to celebrate Jerry’s birthday by celebrating the stormfront of Super-people he and Joe Shuster paved the way for.

This isn’t all of them by any measure, but it’s a good cross-section of 13 ways Superman was flattered by the mighty and the mediocre. (And check out 13 alternate Lois Lanes over here!)

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Wonder Man (First Appearance: Wonder Comics #1, 1939, Fox). One-and-done… but created by comics legend Will Eisner. Too bad ol’ Wondy came into being to capitalize on Superman, because given some time, he might’ve been a contender. That is, if DC hadn’t sued him out of existence. Yeah, that’s gotta hurt.

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Mighty Mouse (“Mouse of Tomorrow,” 1942, Terry Toons). How much of an analogue was this rodent? He started animated life as, get this “Super Mouse” until he got a name change two years later. Cartoon animals as Superman stand-ins are sort of a dime-a-dozen, but I think MM is likely the greatest.

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Geezer (Superman #25, 1943, DC). “Look out, Ebenezar, here comes Geezer!” What? You don’t know Geezer? Well, listen, he wasn’t just any ol’ analogue — he was devised by Superman’s creators, Joe and Jerry. And if that’s not enough, the Geez was a comic strip character in Clark Kent’s world and his creator was… you guessed it, an analogue of Siegel himself.

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Regor (Superman #58, 1949, DC). Another one-shot clone, Regor was co-created by Superman stalwart Wayne Boring and had a background kind of the opposite of his role model: He was from Earth but raised on an alien planet. I think he deserves another chance at four-color life; can you imagine what someone like Grant Morrison could do with him?

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Mon-El (Superboy #89, 1961, DC). Were you expecting this one? Sure, he’s technically an analogue of Superboy, but I think if you squint a little, you’ll see that he counts. One of my most favorite creations of the Silver Age, a hero I always looked forward to following, along with the rest of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

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Thor (Journey Into Mystery #83, 1962, Marvel). Shush. Hear me out. In those earliest of early days of the Marvel Universe, Thor was absolutely the House of Ideas’ Superman. God-like being from another world with powers far beyond those of mortal men… and a big, red cape. He’s not normally at the top of the analogue list, but in my opinion he absolutely deserves to be on it.

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Ultraman (Justice League of America #29, 1964, DC). We haven’t had any villains pop up here yet, but frankly, once this guy appears, do you need any other evil Superman analogues? Plus, I always get a kick out of the fact that he wasn’t National’s first Ultraman, and he predates Japan’s national hero by two years. Co-created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.

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Hyperion (The Avengers #69, 1969, Marvel). Another Marvel denizen, this one fits the analogue mold pretty well, and holds a unique position as a Superman wannabe who made the transition from villain to hero. I also think he’s a prime example of a clone who’s made a pretty good artificial life for himself, despite his unoriginal beginnings.

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Gladiator (The X-Men #107, 1977, Marvel). Gee, Marvel certainly has a lot of Big Blue copies. Technically, he too began as a Superboy analogue, but I love how his real name, Kallark, is a mash-up of Kal-El and Clark, and how he could probably give the Man of Steel a run for his kryptonite in a slugfest.

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Supreme (Youngblood #3, 1992, Image). I’m gonna fess up and tell you I’m not overly familiar with this one, but he’s got a fantastic pedigree, having been created by Rob Liefeld and then later molded into one of the most dead-on Superman homages ever by none other than Alan Moore.

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Icon (Icon #1, 1993, Milestone). More than simply a “black Superman,” Icon debuted in his very own title, a sign that creators Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright had a lot of faith in the character to fly high and set his own legend in stone. That happened, more or less, but I still think it’s kind of a shame that he became a part of the DC Universe instead of maintaining the unique environment of the Milestone Universe with his super-hero compatriots.

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Samaritan (Astro City #1, 1995, Image). I couldn’t wait to get to this guy. I will never forget the day I first read the inaugural issue of Astro City and met Kurt Busiek’s Superman analogue — and realized that we had something really cool in the character to savor. I love how his hair is blue, by the way, a nod to the old process coloring of comic books of yore.

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Atomicus (Astro City: Local Heroes #2, WildStorm). What? Another Astro City dude? How many analogues can one major, metropolitan city hold? Atomicus is an arguable addition to the list, but if you look past his more-or-less Bronze Age powers and motif, he’s one of the cleverest nods to a particular aspect of the Silver Age Superman in comics history. I said what I said.

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MORE

— SUPER WOMAN: Dig These 13 Great LOIS LANE Alternates and Analogues. Click here.

— Thank You SIEGEL and SHUSTER for SUPERMAN — A Hero We Can All Look Up To. Click here.

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When JIM BEARD’s not editing and publishing through his two houses, Flinch Books and Becky Books, he’s pounding out adventure fiction with both original and licensed characters. In fact, he’s put words in the mouths of Luke Skywalker, Superman, Fox Mulder, Carl Kolchak, Peter Venkman and the Green Hornet… and lived to tell about it.

Check out his latest: Jack of All Comics! is 28 essays by some of today’s most engaging comic historians and fans on nearly every series Jack Kirby worked on for Marvel and DC from 1961 to 1978. It’s better’n a Boom Tube to Supertown, True Believers! Click here to order.