What saddens me is that the Man of Steel seems to be going the way of that mighty hero of the past, Hercules. Perhaps humanity can stand the superhuman only so long without laughing. At any rate, it appears that after all his Herculean labors, Hercules became for the ancients a figure of fun, brought on stage for comic relief….

[In] those early days—"It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's …!"—the Man of Steel stood on his own two feet. Superman was the star. He was enough.

But at some point Superman's drawing power must have faltered, as I used to think none of his other powers could. Like the bygone strong men in the current film Hercules, Samson and Ulysses, he was teamed with another comic-book hero, Batman. The Man of Steel and the Cowled Crusader joined forces to arrest any mutual decline in popularity...