Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…Well, you know how it ends, don’t you? It’s a sentence so iconic, there are probably kids shouting it in Swahili as you read this.

The most recognized superhero in pop culture, Superman has been elevated to mythic folkhero status. Rocketed to Earth from the dying planet Krypton, baby Kal-El was found by a farming couple who named the boy Clark Kent and raised him as their own. Discovering his enormous powers, they instilled in him strong moral values—and inspired him to become a hero.