Superman is the most fabulous of the comic book heroes—part of our folklore already, one might argue. And the most engaging feature of the Superman stories was surely not the fellow's prowess at bending bridges into pretzels or dispatching felons with a flick of his cuticle—for, by definition, he was invincible, so what suspense could there be over the outcome?—but the fruitless romance between Lois and Superman-Kent.

First, any good logician would have to question the assumption, perpetuated by the comic strip itself, that Superman was real and Clark Kent was the put-on. It is important to recall the famous episode … describing how Superman got here from the doomed planet Krypton: "A scientist placed his infant son within an experimental rocket-ship, launching it toward earth!" A nice rumpled couple discover the baby who is shipped to an orphan asylum till that nice couple decides to...