In all the hype leading up to his return in “Superman Returns,” I keep reading how Superman never changes. “Polite. Selfless. Noble,” Entertainment Weekly writes. “Exactly the kind of guy Superman has always been since his debut in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938.” Even the film’s director, Bryan Singer, has gotten into the act. “The world may change,” Singer told the Associated Press, “relationships change, things change, but Superman endures."

Well, sure he endures — he’s Superman — but never-changing?

Superman was a fugitive from a chain gang
Superman’s done nothing but change. Before DC Comics instituted its “code of conduct” in the 1940s, he was a roughneck who tossed criminals around for fun. If they died of heart failure as a result, it was no skin off his nose. A rejected princess tried to stab him; he spanked her. A would-be assassin was crushed between a boat and dock, and Lois recoiled in horror. His stoic response: “But he deserved it.”

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He was a social reformer out of the gritty 1930s Warner Bros. school. He battled war profiteers (Action Comics no. 2) and greedy mine owners (no. 3). He tore down slums (no. 8). He became a fugitive from a chain gang to expose a sadistic guard (no. 10).

His powers kept changing. He ran faster than an express train, then a speeding bullet. He could change the course of mighty rivers, then time itself. The line about leaping tall buildings in a single bound is beside-the-point since everyone now knows the dude can fly.

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By the 1950s he’d become as muscle-bound as his adopted country. In the introduction to the George Reeves TV series, the American flag unfurled behind him as he stood there, chest out, our most famous illegal immigrant, ready — like so many immigrants before him — to fight for Truth, Justice and the American way. But who could fight him without kryptonite? Invulnerability is conceptually cool but dramatically dull, so writer/artist John Byrne downgraded his powers in the 1980s. So did the producers of “Lois & Clark” in 1993, and “Superman: The Animated Series” in 1996. They wanted to give the villains — and drama — a chance.

Even his origin kept changing. Initially Krypton was populated by a race of supermen whose physical structure was millions of years more advanced than our own. Eventually the red sun/yellow sun dynamic was introduced. As for why Krypton died? It was old (Action Comics No. 1) . No, it was being pulled closer to its sun (“Superman: The Serial”). No, it was...whatever. One constant: Superman’s father, Jor-El, the planet’s leading scientist, warned the Kryptonian council (i.e., its politicians) of the coming disaster but his findings were ignored. “Upstart scientists with apocalyptic visions!” is how one Council member put it in “Superman: The Animated Series.” Imagine, politicians ignoring scientists on matters of global doom. Glad we’ve progressed beyond that.

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Do you think 'Superman' has changed over the years?

Sex & the single superhero
Really, what didn’t change in the Superman storyline? Lex Luthor morphed from evil scientist to a billionaire industrialist (where the “evil” is implied). In the 1948 serial, Perry White kept a picture of Abraham Lincoln in his office; in 1993’s “Lois & Clark,” he kept a picture of Elvis Presley. The “S” on Superman’s chest: Did he mean it to stand for “Superman” (i.e., did he give himself that immodest name?), or is it simply his Kryptonian family crest, which happens to bear a resemblance to our letter “S,” allowing others — namely Lois Lane in “Superman: The Movie” (1978) — to anoint him a “super man”?

Yes, let’s talk about Lois. Let’s talk about sex. Let’s talk about the most famous romantic triangle in comic book history. The X-Men series has the Cyclops/Jean Grey/Wolverine deal, but that’s a fairly common romantic triangle in which the men are two basic types: good guy and bad boy. If you’re male, you’re made to identify with one of these types. If you’re female, you have to choose one of these types. It’s all fairly simple. Which is why it doesn’t resonate.

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Superman’s romantic triangle resonates. Clark loves Lois, who loves Superman, who wants Lois to love him as Clark. This is the true origin of Superman. Superman’s creator Jerry Siegel once told the New York Times that back in high school, “I had crushes on several attractive girls who either didn’t know I existed or didn’t care I existed.” But what if he could do super things? he wondered. Wouldn’t they like him then? Superman was thus borne out of sexual frustration. He was borne out of adolescent fantasy.

This fantasy has meaning even into adulthood. Clark Kent is everyman not because he’s meek and mild but because every man feels he’s super in some way. I’m super-smart with numbers. I’m super-nice to animals. I have this superness inside me. Why doesn’t anyone see it? You could even make the metaphor explicitly sexual: When I take off my clothes, I’m super. When I take off my clothes, I make her fly. No one else can make her fly.

As a male, in this romantic triangle, you’re not one or the other; you’re both. That’s why it resonates. As a female, in this romantic triangle, you don’t have to choose between one or the other; you get both. Both the quiet Midwestern family man and the exotic superhero. The man you love is the man who loves you, and the only question is whether you’re smart enough to realize it.

CONTINUED: How Clark Kent got his groove back

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