“No. He'll be a God to them.”

Some people have found religious connections in the story. For example, like Jesus, Superman was 33 years old when he set out to save the world.

Again, Marc Tyler Nobleman.

“Certainly with this most recent movie, with 'Man of Steel,' there is some very explicit Christ imagery. But Jerry and Joe, the creators, were both Jewish and there is also some Jewish allegory, in particular Moses. Both Superman and Moses were put in a vessel as a baby and sent away from their parents. Both were found by another family that didn’t know where this baby came from. And in both cases the baby grew up to become a savior.”

By the 1950s, Superman had become a household name with George Reeves further defining the character in a TV series. The series helped shaped the baby boomer generation, those born after World War Two.

“We were the first ones to have TV as furniture full time in the living room. Then there would be a quick shot of him like -- boom! -- punching a villain in the face, he's knocked out. Just one quick tap and then he goes to the next guy. It was pretty exciting! You had to be there.”

That is the voice of Howard Marshall, manager of AfterTime Comics, a well-known comic book store in the Washington area.

He also notes connections between the story of Superman and the Bible, but he does not think those similarities were intentional. Instead, he believes the comic book hero who was born in the 1930s in the middle of the Great Depression, was meant to represent the superhero in all of us.