The Lives of Superman and Jesus as Science Fiction Parables

The consideration is blasphemous for some. But does that mean any honest exploration of the matter is innately anti-religious?

Art by Photech

It’s an old comparison that has been around for years. Some say Superman is the Moses story retold. Others say Superman is nothing less than Jesus Christ in comic book form.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, children of Jewish immigrants, created Superman in 1933. The earliest version of the venerable character, however, bore no resemblance to the hero as introduced in Action Comics #1 and remains a multimedia force to this date.

Siegel and Shuster leaned heavily on their Jewish identity in the recognized iteration of the enduring character as introduced to the world in 1938:

Superman’s Kryptonian name, Kal-El, is written in Hebrew as קל-אל , translated as “voice of God.”

He was, in part, inspired by the Golem of Prague, the clay monster of yore created by Rabbi Judah Loew to defend the Jews from their enemies.

Samson was the strongest man in The Bible. Superman is the strongest man on earth.

Superman escaped his dying home planet of Krypton on a spaceship, as Moses escaped Pharaoh floating on the Nile River in a basket.

In the earliest days of Action Comics and subsequently Superman in his own title, the Man of Steel’s real world enemies were entities as diverse as Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, in addition to the usual comic book super villains.

But is Superman truly a metaphor for Jesus, as numerous academics have concluded over the years?