Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Superman has become one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the world. But behind the cape, the shield, and the mythology is another story—one involving two young creators, a publishing industry, enormous sums of money, and a decades-long battle over who actually owned the character they created.
In his new book, The Superman Wars: A Battle for Truth, Justice and an American Icon, author William Bernhardt goes behind the legend to tell the complicated story of Superman's creation and the extraordinary legal and personal battles that followed.
Who really created Superman?
What did Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster actually receive for their creation?
How did a couple of teenagers from Cleveland create a character that would become a multibillion-dollar cultural phenomenon?
And why did the fight over Superman's ownership continue for generations?
Today, William Bernhardt joins us to talk about the history behind the superhero, the business of comics, the meaning of creative ownership, and the uncomfortable question at the heart of the Superman story:
Who gets to own an idea once it becomes bigger than the people who created it?
