Wolverinept recently wrote a fantastic piece about the history of the Man of Steel, which you can read here, but what you may not know about Superman is that he is half Canadian. What!? It’s true. Here’s the “origin” story that has often been overlooked since Superman was born.
Canadian Joe Shuster and American Jerry Siegel created one of my favourite superheroes and with it a legacy that doesn’t neglect Superman’s Canuck roots.
At the age of 10, Shuster and his family left Toronto for the United States, but the boy who grew up to become a legendary artist never forgot his connection to his birth country.
In 1992, Shuster spoke with the Toronto Star newspaper about how important Canada was to him and the Canadian fingerprints he gave Superman in what is believed to be his last interview. He died a few months later.
Shuster was a newspaper delivery boy at the Toronto Star, which at the time was known as the Toronto Daily Star. He originally named the paper where Clark Kent (Superman’s “mild-mannered” alter ego – how truly Canadian by the way) worked – The Daily Star, after his hometown paper.
“I still remember drawing one of the earliest panels that showed the newspaper building,” he told reporter Henry Mietkiewicz.
“We needed a name, and I spontaneously remembered the Toronto Star. So that’s the way I lettered it. I decided to do it that way on the spur of the moment, because The Star was such a great influence on my life.” An editor for the comic changed the paper’s name to The Daily Planet in 1940.
Shuster also pointed out that Superman’s city, Metropolis, was modeled after Toronto, not Cleveland, where he was living at the time he first drew the superhero.
“Cleveland was not nearly as metropolitan as Toronto was, and it was not as big or as beautiful,” he said.
“Whatever buildings I saw in Toronto remained in my mind and came out in the form of Metropolis.”
Check out the following “heritage moment” produced by the Canadian government in honour of Joe Shuster.
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Tags: Clark Kent, comic booked, Daily Planet, DC Comics, Krypton, Man of Steel, Superman, Superman is Half Canadian, Superman week
About the Author
Written by Comic Canuck
Great Article Canuck! As Always!
Thanks Agent Burgos!
It makes me proud to be Canadian! I love those Heritage moments too!
Good stuff man!
Ha. Daily Star. Editor probably has no idea he changed history so drastically!!! Eh?
Certainly explains his politeness…
Anyway I always knew bacon wasn’t by far the only good thing to have come out of Canada.
Wonderful work, as usual. Good times. Cheers!
haha, so strange! The production values on that make me feel like it’s part of an ongoing tv show. I’d love to see the adventures of Simon and Shuster.
This falls under ‘I learn something new every day’. Really good article!
I think a good solution to making an in-world continuity nod to Superman’s Canadian Heritage is to make Martha Kent’s Family, (the Clarks) immigrants from Canada when Martha was a young child.
Also the Smallville scenes in the 1978 Richard Donner film were filmed in Canada. Canada does have a link to the Superman mythos.
Hey there gang. Thanks for all of the fantastic comments and kudos so far. I love that Superman has Canadian roots and I’m happy to be able to tell all of you about it.
On another Superman note, I just finished reading War of the Supermen and I was quite pleased with it. Don’t worry, I’ll always try my best to never let spoilers get out. Not on my watch!
Cheers,
Comic Canuck
Good article. I love stuff like this. Especially about Superman.
haha, so strange! The production values on that make me feel like it’s part of an ongoing tv show. I’d love to see the adventures of Simon and Shuster.
Congratulations ZenMondo. You won the 12 issue Superman series. I sent you an email a few minutes ago.
Thanks to everyone who commented. Stay tuned for more articles and giveaways from some of my upcoming posts.
Cheers,
Comic Canuck
AWESOME!
long live the “big c”
Cool I never knew that. I love superman he is so cool! =) Although the only thing I don’t like is that he’s invincible. Which you might be like *WHAT!* But then it presents no challenges as a hero. Of course theres kryptonite to clear that away =)
Great article. That video at the end was pretty cool too.
From the beginning, Superman’s Canadian connection has had deep roots even to this day. Shuster starting it all: basing Metropolis on Toronto and naming its original newspaper after Toronto’s headline paper; The Daily Star. In the Richard Donner films, Smallville was filmed in Canada and they even made a trip up to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side to shoot a segment of Superman II. Today, Smallville is filmed in Vancouver, and half the cast is Canadian: Erica Durance (Lois Lane), Laura Vandervoort (Supergirl), Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen) all Canadian talent. In a sense when Superman fights for the American way, it gets lost in the shuffle that he’s got more Canadian roots then one would believe.
Interesting article.
You learn something new every day.
I wonder when the tag line, “Fighting for truth, justice and the American way/” came about. As part of the TV series starring George Reeves? Or maybe the early cartoons.
I thought Kal-EL was from Krypton…lolz
*Puts hand over heart and wipes away tear*