Would it be possible for Superman to ever fall into obscurity?

[[]D[]/\/\[]D @ Nite/So-tite]

Take a look at Captain Marvel. He was the most popular superhero in the 1940's and he even outsold Superman. He was also the first comic book superhero to see a film adaption. The entire Captain Marvel franchise was so popular that Elvis (who was a huge fan) actually took his hairstyle, manner of dress and overall look from Captain Marvel Jr. Now look at where Captain Marvel is today.

Is it possible that the same thing could happen to Superman?

What do you think it would take for that to actually happen?

[ArnoldoAAD]

well looking at this last 2 years of superman i would say that he close to fall into the obscurity

[WorstThingUS]

Anything is possible but we know who The Lone Ranger is, so it's very likely Superman will survive.

[Captain Smith]

He is a well known cultural icon but his commercial success certainly can fade.

Look at his movies - blah. Iron Man - a relatively culturally unknown has a great movie success.

[CaptCleghorn]

Anything is possible but we know who The Lone Ranger is, so it's very likely Superman will survive.

Both Superman and the Lone Ranger will owe their eternal fame to Jim Croce.

[Mat001]

The reason Superman won't fall into obscurity is that so long as WB and DC continue to market the character, he won't fall out of favor. Captain Marvel did because his books were cancelled and for a time, no one really remembered him outside of his fanbase. Superman has had the serieals, four television series, a musical, five feature films, two spin-off films, multiple cartoon series, five monthly series at one point, many mini-series and OGN's and tons of merchendising. Not to mention is the subject of many songs and trivia questions. To put it mildly, Superman never went away. Captain Marvel did and has been unable to regain the popularity that he had. The average person on the street will recognize Superman before they will with Captain Marvel. If DC/National hadn't won the lawsuit in the 50's, Fawcett would've continued to publish Captain Marvel and his creator would've been able to market him just as well.

[Omegalith]

It would be possible, but it would take at least half a century or so to happen properly with slowly declining media presence, failed revivals and so forth. Pop-culturally, he has too much momentum for it to happen any faster than that.

[Spiffy]

Of course its possible. In fact, its inevitable. Eventually. Do we really think culture a millenium from now is going to resemble current culture in any way?

But the real question is if its realistic in the next few generations. Probably not. As long as there's living memory of a time when he was the premiere Superhero, then the change of his image slipping that much is unlikely. It would have to be several generations PAST the time when anyone alive remembered him even being on top.

[Omegalith]

Of course its possible. In fact, its inevitable. Eventually. Do we really think culture a millenium from now is going to resemble current culture in any way?

Not really, but we do still go on about legends such as Zeus and Thor now, and Superman has been one of the single most prevalent fictional characters whilst others come and go for three quarters of a century.

If he can keep going as an icon 'till about the three century mark, he'll likely be timeless in the same way as the old myths and never quite disappear as a commonly known name.

[Samy]

I concur with Omegalith, in pointing out how religious deities of the ancient world survived to this day and likely will survive for a long time to come. If and when similar cultural characters survive from the 20th century, what other fictional characters have more of a chance? James Bond, sure. The main Star Wars trio, ok. Indiana Jones, maybe. I think Superman and Batman are in the same weight class as the biggest names from last century, so I think they have a shot.

Having said that, "ever" is a long time, so if we look forward a million years then I'm sure all of these will have fallen into obscurity.

[daveageallen]

we still know other fictional characters from 2 thousand years ago. bible characters, beowulf, folklore.

superman will be around for a few hundred more for sure. he is a icon of the last century.

[trailfoot]

Though future generations might think we worshipped him and see Action #1 as the American Empire's major divine myth...

[WorstThingUS]

Not really, but we do still go on about legends such as Zeus and Thor now, and Superman has been one of the single most prevalent fictional characters whilst others come and go for three quarters of a century.

...except Thor and Zeus were once believed to be real and worshipped as such. Superman is fictional for the purposes of entertainment from day one. A more accurate comparison is popular fictional characters that have survived. Seen any revivals of The Scarlet Pimpernel lately?

[Samy]

I dunno, in many ways entertainment is the West's religion these days. When they're going to be excavating 20th century artifacts in the year 3001, they're going to end up digging up a lot more DVD cases than bibles. It's not really important whether entertainment is really believed to be real or not -- what's important to future archaeologists and historians is what the bulk of our leftovers are, and I would suggest entertainment will leave behind a lot more from the 20th century than religion will.

[Omegalith]

...except Thor and Zeus were once believed to be real and worshipped as such. Superman is fictional for the purposes of entertainment from day one. A more accurate comparison is popular fictional characters that have survived. Seen any revivals of The Scarlet Pimpernel lately?

Nice of you to snip the part of my post where I took that into account.

Superman is one of our largest cultural icons, having far more presence than his comics and movies would suggest. His symbol is everywhere, everyone knows his story even if they've never touched a comic book in their life, he's a household name used in conversation and analogy by pretty much anyone.

He might not be worshiped, but if he can keep that up for a couple of centuries his myth will gain just as much momentum.

People say that superhero comics are our modern day mythology. That's bull, almost nobody reads superhero comics. But a few icons like Superman and Batman? They have become our mythology by becoming such firmly ingrained icons of the public consciousness.