Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Superman, who's S is the second most recognized symbol in the world next to the Cross, has no mention whatsoever in Variety Magazine's 100 icons of the last 100 years. Other fictional characters made it in, but not our favorite Man of Steel, nor his mild mannered counterpart.

Here's the list: http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=variety100&content=jump2&jump=iconIndex

Do you have a link that mentions this?

I have no idea of how well-known the "S" is in, say, China.

And screw Variety magazine...

Very well known in China. Superman was even mention in Kung-Fu movies (not dubbed ones, subtitled) when people get superpowers.

Superman the movie was released in China:



I have never heard of anyone who didn't know who Superman was, even if they never seen a Superman comic before.

I got it from this thing I read online awhile ago, I'll try to find it again. Also the Oprah people did a nationwide poll that showed her as the most recognized pop culture icon (yeah right) and Superman as number 2. So even though logic tells us they lied to make her look good, that Superman is number 2 on their list really says something about his recognizability.

At one point Superman was officially recognized as the 3 most famous fictional characters along with Tarzan and Mickey Mouse. That was BEFORE the 1st Superman movie.

WHAT, the "Death of Superman" arc wasn't what made him famous? :twisted:

One really great example of Superman's fame in China is possibly one of the greatest Shaw Brothers' movies ever, INFRA-MAN, whose original title was INFRAMAN: THE CHINESE SUPERMAN.

INFRA-MAN may not be as well known as Superman, but well, he ought to be.  :rotfl: That was one great creature movie. Who can forget lines like "We're doing this for the children of the world," and "Gentlemen, the situation is so bad, it is the worst in human history."

Though Variety leaving off Superman was a pretty cheesy oversight - if they left off the Coca-Cola logo, they'd be doubly cursed.

I'm not going to repeat what we already know: we're going to learn squat from magazine lists. There was a music industry magazine reader poll held in the 1980s where "History's Greatest Guitarist" was given to the guy from the Bay City Rollers.

These polls also tell a lot about the prejudices of the magazines themselves. MAXIM, that bastion of misogyny and homophobia run by perpetual middle school boys, voted as the greatest movie villains of all time, the rednecks from DELIVERANCE. While they were spooky villains, I think naming them the most frightening villain of all time (over Dracula, Hannibal Lecter, and Basil Rathbone's Sherriff of Nottingham) says more about the neuroses and fears of the perpetually immature Maxim editorship.

That is the Amercian title, not the original one.
Those lines are only in the dub version, the Amercian company that released it here tried to make in campy like Batman. They renamed the characters and gave them weird and campy lines to say.

The original title is Jung-Gwok chiu-yan which translates to The Super Inframan.

It was a knock off of Japanese superheroes Ultraman and Kamen Rider, but it's pretty awesome on it's own, and is a huge cult classic. Even Roger Ebert went back and gave it more stars.

Any fan of Ultraman and/or Kamen Rider, should check it out.

I remember that Harlan Ellison liked to mention this factoid but I never saw the actual source of this info.

I did, this was way back, I remember when it was 1st mention, it made the news, during a second survey, in the 80's. Mickey and Superman made the top ten, the rest were real people.

But I thought it was a list of fictional characters?

Robin Hood was in there, I recall.

Robin Hood was loosely based on 1 to 3 real people.  Variety Magazine (like Time Magazine) has nothing but contempt for anything related to Superman.  Tell most people about Variety's list (of icons from the past century) not including Superman's "S" emblem, they might ask what kind of magazine Variety is.  Or where it's from.  Or they might admit to having never heard of Variety Magazine. :twisted:  :lol:

I know Jerry Siegel was a reader (and correspondent).

Oh, now that you reminded me, I looked for Siegel and Shuster and they got no mention either.