It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Superman! The most popular caped crusader turns 75 this month and DC Entertainment has unveiled a new logo to commemorate the anniversary. The logo is in the Superman colours — blue with a dash of red.

DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers are also working on a short animated film on the development of Superman through the 75 years. The short will be steered by Zack Snyder, the director of Man of Steel, scheduled to release on June 14.

Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman was first seen in Action Comics #1, in June 1938 and was an immediate hit.

In February 2010, an original Action Comics #1 was sold at auction for $1,000,000.

The characters

Superman: Born Kal-El on planet Krypton, he was sent to earth on a rocket by his father Jor-El where he was found and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, a couple in Smallville, Kansas. He has many superpowers — flight, strength, speed, X-ray and heat vision, invincibility, hearing and intelligence. Plus he has a high moral quotient, thanks to his upbringing. The saviour’s only weakness? Green Kryptonite, a radioactive material from his home planet, prolonged exposure to which can kill him. The one thing that can protect him from Kryptonite is lead.

Clark Kent: Superman’s human avatar is the bespectacled and mild-mannered reporter of the Metropolis newspaper Daily Planet. The name is derived from actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor. Clark is an antithesis of the superhero and helps Superman keep his identity a secret. In some instances, Superman considers himself to be Clark Kent first and Superman second.

Lois Lane: Superman’s love interest. Lois is also a reporter for the Daily Planet. The tough-as-nails reporter spurns Clark’s affections as she is in love with Superman (in some storylines she ends up marrying him). There is some professional rivalry between Clark and Lois. In some storylines she is also portrayed as a damsel in distress.

Perry White:

Clark and Lois’s boss, Perry White is the editor-in-chief of Daily Planet. He is extremely gruff and tough but very fair.

the villains

Lex Luthor: Superman’s arch-enemy. Luthor in the origin series was depicted as a mad, evil scientist of immense intellect who was out to destroy Superman. He was later (and more popularly) shown as a super-intelligent, cut-throat industrialist and the head of LexCorp.

Doomsday: A genetically engineered Kryptonian who is a mindless killing machine with no emotions apart from hatred and rage. Doomsday is the only one in the Superman continuity (that is all the different storylines/ universes) to have killed Superman. How? He just beat Superman to death.

Brainiac: A green-skinned humanoid from planet Colu, Brainiac is one of the principal enemies of Superman. The super-intelligent being shrinks cities and planets and stores them in bottles in his spaceship.

General Zod: A general in the Kryptonite army, Zod was banished to the Phantom Zone for disrespecting the Krypton Council. Having escaped the planet’s destruction, Zod comes up against Superman as he tries to take over Earth. He is the antagonist in Superman’s Friday film Man of Steel.

the actors

Christopher reeve: George Reeves may have played Superman on the big screen before him but

Reeve, all blue-eyed and chiselled, was The Face of the superhero for decades. He played Superman and the bumbling, clumsy Clark Kent in four films — Superman, Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

Brandon Routh:

Donned the suit for the 2006 film Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer. Though Brandon fit the Superman bill as far as the comic-book character goes, the film failed to fly at the box office.

Henry cavill:

Labelled the “unluckiest man in Hollywood” for his misses — Superman Returns went to Routh, Cedric Diggory (Harry Potter) and Edward Cullen (Twilight) went to Robert Pattinson, James Bond went to Daniel Craig — till he was picked to play the superhero in Man of Steel. The film and The Tudors star look really promising.

the costume

The iconic Superman suit — bright blue with the ‘S’ shield, red underwear (we have no other word for it), red boots and a red cape with the same ‘S’ logo, has undergone a major transformation in Man of Steel. The new suit is a textured deep-ocean blue with blood-red boots, an ‘S’ glyph, no logo on the cape and... no red underwear!

Text: Chandreyee Chatterjee

CELEBRATE The Man of Steel’S 75TH YEAR WITH SUPERMAN MERCHANDISE. t2 DRAWS UP A SUPERGUIDE

Text: Pramita Ghosh

Pictures: Bhubaneswarananda Halder

Which Bollywood hero would make the best Superman?Tell t2@abp.in