40 Things You Don't Know About Superman

Superman Returns Countdown Day 25

1. He started as a bald villain! One of the all-time greatest good-guy superheroes actually began life as a big, bad bald guy bent on world domination! Comic creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first drew him as a villain in a January 1933 story called "The Reign of the Super-Man," which appeared in an issue of their comic fanzine Science Fiction. It bombed, so they reimagined him as a superhero.

2. He couldn't fly, either. Right. Though he did possess super-strong legs that allowed him to "leap tall buildings in a single bound." His ability to fly was added in the early 1940s. And, when he returns to the Kent farm after his sabbatical in Superman Returns, he's wearing a dark-gray suit rather than the red-and-blue blanket we've come to know as the material for his super-suit.

3. The Comeback Kid. He returned in June 1938's Action Comics #1. That issue, which sold for 10 cents back then, today goes for more than $10,000 — for a worn copy. Fewer than 100 are thought to still exist.

4. Clark was named after Hollywood stars. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel came up with the name of Superman's alter ego by combining Clark, as in Clark Gable, with Kent, as in Kent Taylor, an actor who was also Siegel's brother-in-law.

5. That "bird/plane" catch phrase was a fluke. A 1940 radio serial actually introduced it as a marketing gimmick. Also introduced in the radio series: Clark's Daily Planet boss, Perry White, and sidekick Jimmy Olsen.

Head over to Movies.com to see the other 35 things that you did not know about Superman.