Overview
Superman launched the Super Powers Collection in the spring of 1984 — the figure that opened the pegboard and set the tone for everything Kenner released across the next two years. He came packaged on a blue starfield card back with a Power Punch action, a mini-comic drawn by Jack Kirby, and the tagline that carried the whole line.
Kenner's Series 1 mold gave Superman the definitive 4 ¾-inch action-figure silhouette for a generation: block cape, sculpted S-shield, red trunks over blue tights, boots to the knee. Squeeze the legs together and both arms swing forward in a two-fisted "Power Punch" — a hidden lever mechanism buried in the torso, and one of the small engineering feats that made the line feel alive on a store shelf.
By the time Wave 3 arrived in 1986 the figure had appeared in Kenner catalogs, on Saturday-morning television, in a Super Powers–branded Colorforms set, and inside the pages of DC's own tie-in mini-series. The figure itself was never revised, remade, or repainted across the line's eighteen-month run — a rare distinction that speaks to how completely Kenner nailed Superman on the first try.
About Superman
The Superman character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in the 1930s. The now-iconic character originally debuted in Action Comics #1, published on April 18, 1938. Shortly after, Superman's popularity led to several other media outlets, including pre-television radio shows and novels beginning in the early 1940s. Later the Superman franchise would eventually develop into a live-action black and white television show, an animated series, and several blockbuster movies, all before the 1984 release of the Super Powers Collection toy line.
Superman (birth name Kal-El) was born on Krypton and escaped shortly before the destruction of his home planet. When his parents, Jor-El and Lara, discover Krypton's impending doom, Jor-El begins constructing a spacecraft to carry Kal-El to Earth. Unfortunately, Superman's parents perish along with the planet's destruction, as the spaceship transporting the infant barely escapes Krypton's destructive fate. The devastating explosion then alters the planetary debris into kryptonite, a radioactive substance that is highly lethal to Superman's superpowers.
The spacecraft found its way to the planet earth crash-landed in a rural part of the United States. Superman was then discovered at the crash site as a small child and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who took him in and raised them as their own. Kal-El was renamed Clark Kent and grew up with wholesome midwestern values as a testament to his adopted parents.
Clark Kent eventually discovered his powers and relocated to the city of Metropolis after learning of his true origin. He then became Superman, defender of justice, and works undercover as a placid-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet. Ironically, Superman becomes the subject of frequent headline stories written by his coworker Lois Lane. Over time, the two become romantically attracted to each other and find themselves caught up in many adventures. Honoring the traditional and moral values instilled in him by his foster parents along with the historical teachings of Krypton, Superman is a self-sacrificing hero devoted to promoting "truth, justice, and the American way."
