Superman rose from popular culture --comic books, newspaper strips, radio, television, novels, and movies-- but people have so embraced the character that he has now become

part of folklore. This transition from popular to folk culture signals the importance of Superman to fans and to a larger American populace. Superman's story has become a myth dramatizing identity, morality, and politics.

Many studies have examined the ways in which folklore has provided inspiration for other forms of culture, especially literature and cinema. In Superman in Myth and Folklore, Daniel...