When Superman flies back into theaters July 11, those buildings he leaps in a single bound will be familiar Ohio landmarks.
In writer-director James Gunn’s new “Superman” movie, starring David Corenswet, Cleveland stands in for the fictional city of Metropolis. Cincinnati’s Union Terminal is also the Hall of Justice, the headquarters for the superheroes.
That’s fitting, considering Superman’s Ohio roots. The character was created in Cleveland, and Union Terminal was the inspiration for the original HQ for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in the “Super Friends” cartoon.
Superman was created by Cleveland teens Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
The character Superman (and alter ego Clark Kent) debuted in the first issue of Action Comics, dated June 1938.
Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster had been working on the idea of a superhuman since 1932 when they were teenagers at Cleveland’s Glenville High School.
They sold the rights to Superman to National Publications (now DC Comics) for $130 (just $3,000 in 2025 money).
Superman became an enormous success, launching the superhero genre and a plethora of TV shows, movies, cartoons and merchandise. A rare copy of Action Comics No. 1 (original price: 10 cents) sold at auction for $6 million in 2024.
But Siegel and Shuster didn’t see much of all that money. After decades of legal battles by the creators and their heirs to get the rights back, the courts in 2012 upheld DC Comics’ ownership of the character.
They do get recognition, though. Every Superman episode, movie and comic book credits Siegel and Shuster as the creators.
A sign at Siegel’s boyhood home in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood reads: “This is the house where Superman was born.” A fence at the site where Shuster lived has comic pages of Superman’s first appearance.
And the state of Ohio offers a special Superman license plate with the “S” emblem and the phrase “Truth, justice and the American way.” DC Comics objected to the first phrase that was proposed, “Ohio: Birthplace of Superman.”
The reason? Because Superman was born on the planet Krypton.
TV’s Superman, George Reeves, was briefly in Spring Grove Cemetery
Actor George Reeves, who portrayed the strange visitor from another planet in “Adventures of Superman” on television from 1952 to 1958, was killed in a mysterious shooting in 1959. Many friends and fans refused to believe he took his own life and his mother believed he was murdered.
His body was taken to Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati where his maternal grandparents are buried, Spring Grove historian Phil Nuxhall told The Enquirer in 2014.
Reeves’ mother sent the cemetery instructions: “I would like to have a private mausoleum built for my son, Superman.”
There was no room for a mausoleum on the family plot, though, so Reeves’ body was cremated at Hillside Chapel in University Heights and sent to his mother in Los Angeles.
“So, I like to tell people, ‘We had Superman. He just didn’t stay,’” Nuxhall said.
Union Terminal was the model for the Hall of Justice
In making the Saturday morning show “Super Friends” in 1973, cartoon studio Hanna-Barbera took inspiration from Union Terminal, an icon in Cincinnati.
At the time, Hanna-Barbera was owned by Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting Co. Taft had just opened Kings Island to showcase their characters, such as Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear. (A “Super Friends” ride at Kings Island would have been awesome.)
Animator Al Gmuer was given the task of designing a headquarters for the heroes, and his drawing clearly resembled the distinctive Art Deco half-dome that studio heads would have seen when visiting Taft Broadcasting.
“In the long run, I hated that building,” Gmuer told The Enquirer in 2009. “The way it’s designed, it was not easy to draw. I had nightmares about that damn building.”
Now, in the “Superman” film, the actual Union Terminal bears the name Hall of Justice. One icon meets another.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Superman is rooted in Ohio. Here’s a look at all his connections to the state
Reporting by Jeff Suess, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
