One obvious difference between the "Hugo Danner" of the novel GLADIATOR and the comic book and strip character, "Clark Kent" ....is the costume. One wonders if the costume is entirely fictional. After all, the first cover and story of Superman Siegel and Shuster did he had no costume, just a t-shirt and regular pants. Certainly as Hugo Danner, he coped without any multicolored emblazoned uniform.

Yet when one looks at Siegel's early stories, we see that at least one part of his costume filled a very functional role---i.e., the cape.

Acrobats have been known to use "gliding capes" to angle their fall. Yet when you have the ability to leap two hundred feet in the air, such an ability, which seems so limited in acrobats, can become a real factor, when you have hundreds of feet to play with and no fear of falling that entire distance.

We see it in action at least three times. In a Superman Sunday comic strip, he stopped his upward ascent by "spreading the sides of his cape like wings to brake his upward flight".

In a daily newspaper strip, Superman saved a baby that he had taken from a building just before it exploded---even though the force of the explosion tore the baby from his hands---by catching up to the falling baby and then "maneuvering his cape as a sail, Superman spirals downward, slowing the speed of his fall".

Finally we see it in the third comic book story in Superman #8. After causing two planes to avoid collision, Superman "loosens his grip on the plane and plummets earthward like a leaden weight...but as spectators rush toward the spot where he will land...'The fools! I'm likely to fall upon them and crush them...'"

...Then we see the aerial maneuver in the picture at the top of this article.

So there is something in the old idea of many kids that "it's the cape that makes him fly". That's not literally true---he's making giant leaps---but with the cape he can angle his fall better than he used to as Hugo Danner, or better than the Incredible Hulk, another high-leaper, can.

The cape is entirely functional.

Of course, the costume served another purpose. It kept him clothed---despite acid baths, leaps through lava, and all manners of bullets and explosions. If he didn't have such clothing, he would be nude throughout nearly half his adventures.

Later writers, such as Otto Binder, said his foster-mother unravelled and rewove the blankets he came in, and wove his costume out of that. Still later writers, such as John Byrne, said that Superman projected some sort of mysterious aura that protected anything that was in close proximity to his body.

Yet Siegel's original origin for the costume was much different. To quote from the Sunday strip,

"This costume is constructed of a specially treated material which I myself invented."

All in all---it is the simplest and most elegant explanation.

Evidently, during the decade between GLADIATOR and Siegel and Shuster's trying to sell the concept of Superman, Clark learned enough science to do this---at the skilled hands of such scientists as Prof. Abraham Erskine and Dr. Hans Zharkov, if my sources are correct. Nor should we be surprised that Jor-El's son made at least one great scientific discovery in his lifetime.

Certainly the costume afforded him freedom of movement, much as an acrobat in his tights is free to move without restraint....much more so than normal clothing.

One might question the garishness of the costume, the lack of subtlety or stealthiness, or the lack of a mask--- but one cannot doubt its effectiveness, the way it allows him to angle his great leaps with its cape, or keeps up with its owner's toughness--- the way it even draws the eye away from the face of the one wearing it.

"Hugo Danner" spent some time as a strongman in a circus, inbetween college semesters--- where he was also asked to don a garish costume. It was probably from that which he got the idea of using a costume when he fought crime in earnest, decades later.

He may have even looked at acrobats who used gliding capes, either in that carnival, or at other carnivals.

Certainly it became an icon the world over....a fantastic fashion statement.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES:

Of course, TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE by Philip Jose Farmer.

SUPERMAN ARCHIVES Volume 2.

SUPERMAN: THE SUNDAY CLASSICS 1939-1943.

SUPERMAN: THE DAILIES 1940-1941.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. Superman is owned by DC Comics, Warner Communications, and the Siegels. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.