This book does a great job of covering the most popular version of the Superman story and how it has been shaped to parallel the Gospel story. Rather than being selective--or cherry-picking--Skelton draws from the who's-who of Superman stories. At the beginning, he clearly presents his sources: early Siegel and Shuster comics (1938), the Superman novel by George Lowther (1942), the George Reeves TV show (1952), two Christopher Reeve movies (1978, 1981), the Death of Superman comic books (1992), the Smallville TV show (2001) and Superman Returns movie (2006).
About the two Jewish creators, contrary to some of the criticism here, Skelton plainly states that Siegel and Shuster did not intend to draw from the Christ story--although they did name Ma Kent "Mary" and apparently gave Pa Kent the middle name "Joseph".
Given Skelton's sources, those that object to the Christ imagery in the Superman story should take it up with people like Tom Mankiewicz, the screenwriter of Superman: The Movie, who said, "The metaphor was clearly there when Jor-El sends Superman to Earth with God sending Christ to save humanity." Or David Nutter, the director of the Smallville pilot, who said, "I thought there were a lot of metaphors between Clark and Jesus actually. And I tried to throw in as many of them as I could." As another reviewer alluded to, even Bryan Singer, the Jewish director of Superman Returns, said, "Superman is the Jesus Christ of superheroes."
In charting the seventy-year history of the Superman story as it was modeled on the Gospel story, this book reveals a blow-by-blow account of how the Superman story has truly become "The Greatest Story Ever Re-Told."
