The following contains sensitive themes and graphic descriptions of violence, including abuse.

Action Comics #1 is iconic. It was written and drawn by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938, features Superman and Lois Lane's first appearances and is widely considered the first superhero comic book. A first printing of Action Comics #1 is the most valuable comic book in existence as copies have sold for millions of dollars at auction. Action Comics #1’s cover artwork, the drawing of Superman smashing an automobile as men nearby are fleeing in shock, has seen countless homages on comic book covers across publishers and genres.

The place held by Action Comics #1 in comic book history is undeniable. And yet, its deep legacy goes even beyond comic books and superheroes. Action Comics #1 is also one of the greatest works of progressive, anti-fascist art ever made.

The Modern Superhero Blueprint Came From Action Comics #1

What Makes a Character a Superhero?

From the modern standpoint, a superhero is defined by a series of tropes. While a superhero story doesn’t need all the superhero tropes, it at least has most of them. Superheroes usually have costumes. If they don’t, they probably still have a symbol, like the Punisher, or a signature piece of clothing, like Jessica Jones. If a superhero doesn’t have superpowers, like Batman or Hawkeye, they still have exceptional skills. If they don’t have a secret identity, like most superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they still have a dual identity between their superhero self and their alter ego. Most of all, a superhero is a hero. They fight for those who can’t fight themselves.

Action Comics #1 was published by Detective Comics, now known as DC, near the end of the Great Depression and three years before the United States entered World War 2. It was an anthology of comic stories and not exclusively about Superman. It also contained two westerns, a boxing story, a crime comic and the first appearance of Zatara, who would later be shown as Zatanna’s father in DC comic books. Nonetheless, the Superman story in Action Comics #1 is why the comic book is remembered so fondly. Its iconic cover work has seen homages on the covers of everything from The Amazing Spider-Man #306 to Archie Comics’ Kevin Keller #5 to Lady Death: Apocalyptic Abyss #1.

Pre-Golden Age superheroes were featured in comic strips or illustrated stories in newspapers and pulp magazines. Action Comics #1 was the first of its kind because it wasn’t a pulp magazine or a comic strip but a comic book – and widely considered the first to feature a superhero. Siegel and Shuster originally pitched their Superman story to newspapers as a comic strip but were turned down. This is why every page of the Superman story in Action Comics #1 has the appearance of three comic strips stacked on top of each other.

Superhero fans have argued that The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written piece of fiction, and the Ancient Greek myth of Hercules, are superhero stories. Costumed heroes from the pulp magazines of the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s such Flash Gordon, the Phantom and the Shadow also predate Superman. Nonetheless, Action Comics #1 was still the blueprint for the superhero genre. All the familiar tropes that superhero fans know and love today can be traced back to it.

Superman Fought Sexism, Unfairness in the Justice System and Washington DC Lobbyists

He Couldn't Fly, but He Could Could Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound

Described in the narration as a "champion of the oppressed," Action Comics #1 began with Superman breaking into the governor’s estate while he was sleeping in his bed. Superman told him that Evelyn Curry, a woman on death row, was to be executed for a crime she didn’t commit in 15 minutes. He gave the governor a written confession from the real murderer, causing him to pardon Evelyn. In another scene, Superman saw a woman lying on the floor as her husband whipped her with a belt. Superman grabbed the domestic abuser by the neck and threw him against the wall like a dart. In the last two pages of the comic, Superman grabbed a lobbyist in Washington DC, and jumped high into the air over and over again as the lobbyist screamed.

Superman! Champion of the oppressed, the physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to helping those in need!

It was revealed in Action Comics #1 that Superman’s secret identity was newspaper journalist Clark Kent who worked with Lois Lane. In one panel, Lois was typing on a typewriter in the newsroom, showing that she was also a newspaper journalist. In Action Comics #1, Lois reluctantly agreed to go on a date with Clark. While they were out dancing, a man named Butch Matson interrupted them to insist that Lois dance with him instead. Lois slapped Butch when he refused to take no for an answer. Clark shouts "Lois, don’t!” after saying quietly under his breath, “good for you, Lois,” establishing the duality between Clark and Superman.

The newspaper wasn’t named The Daily Planet in Action Comics #1. It was The Daily Star.

Lois called Clark “a spineless, unbearable coward” and left the date. Seeing her go, Butch instructed his two unnamed friends to follow Lois, referring to her as “that skirt.” Butch and his friends grabbed Lois and shoved her into a green car, the one on the cover of Action Comics #1, and drove out of the city into the countryside. Fortunately, Superman stopped the car with his bare hands, removed the men and smashed the car. This was the context to Action Comics #1’s iconic cover – Superman defending Lois Lane from a creepy man who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Superman then gave Butch a wedgie and strung him up on a telephone poll.

Even though much of today’s Superman iconography involves him flying through Metropolis, he couldn’t fly in his first appearance. He wasn’t shown to have this ability until three years later in Superman #10. What Superman could do in Action Comics #1 was jump 1/5th of a mile high. He had super strength that the narration compared to the proportional strength of an ant or a grasshopper. Also, the domestic abuser broke his blade when he tried to stab Superman. And when the governor’s butler shot a gun at him, the bullet bounced off his chest.

Action Comics #1 Was a Jewish Power Fantasy During Global Antisemitism

In an Era of Jewish Refugees, Two Jewish Comic Creators Imagined Superman

The superhero genre has been criticized as being stories about power fantasies. The implication, if not an outright pronunciation, is that power fantasies are inherently bad. While some superhero stories in comics, movies and television have been about superpowered beings enforcing the status quo, that’s not the genre's origin in Action Comics #1.

Superman’s original creators, Siegel and Shuster, were Jewish men from Cleveland. It was a dark time to be a Jew. Adolf Hitler’s regime in Germany, known as the Third Reich, lasted from 1933 until 1945. Hitler compared the Jewish people worldwide to rats and other vermin, and he blamed them for the hardships of Germany’s working class. It’s easy for someone to say they’d be on the right side of history nearly a century later. However, keep in mind that the horrific details of the Holocaust weren’t known in the United States when Action Comics #1 was published in 1938. Americans understood that Jews were fleeing Europe and seeking refuge in the United States. However, it wasn’t until the Allied Forces found the concentration camps in 1945 that the world understood that approximately six million Jews had been exterminated.

In 1939, a year after Action Comics #1’s publication, 83% of Americans opposed the admission of refugees. Most refugees were Jews fleeing Europe. As a point of comparison, in 2022, only 28% of Americans opposed taking in refugees, according to the Pew Research Center. In other words, American attitudes towards refugees were much more negative in Siegel and Shuster’s time. And when they created Superman, the character was an alien refugee. His superhero costume was red and blue, like two of the colors on the American flag, representing his new home. Action Comics #1 was a Jewish expression of solidarity for everyone else who was also being kicked around by society. Superman, a Jewish power fantasy, was here to defend the oppressed.

While Krypton wasn’t named yet, the narration in Action Comics #1 said Superman landed on Earth in a "hastily devised spaceship" from a “distant planet” that was destroyed.

When something is as prominent in popular culture as Superman, fans sometimes forget the character’s roots and the message of the original creators. Instead of Superman being a champion of the oppressed, a story about him will avoid alienating supporters of oppression. All too often, Superman is viewed as a brand mascot for DC Entertainment. Too many writers feel it's not their place to tell a Superman story that speaks truth to power. However, this is a disservice to the character's legacy. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were Jewish anti-fascists with something to say about sympathy for refugees, pushing back against male entitlement and the immorality of lobbyists. Politics can't be divorced from superhero comic books. It's been a part of its DNA since the very beginning.