Superman and robots could also be new to the this movie’s advertising and marketing, and certainly, to Superman motion pictures typically. However they’ve a protracted historical past within the comics. In all through the Silver Age, Superman usually employed robotic clones of himself, generally to throw off individuals who suspect his secret id, and generally simply to mess with Lois Lane.
Since Disaster on Infinite Earths rebooted the DC Universe within the mid-Eighties, the robots tended to be extra insect-like assistants who tended to the Fortress of Solitude. The film model seems to mix the 2 approaches, as they look like caretakers of the Fortress with extra spindly options, however they nonetheless sport the defend and capes of their masters.
Nevertheless, the entire thought of robotic assistants and a hidden fortress goes again even additional than the Silver Age, even earlier than Superman even began the superhero comedian e book style with Motion Comics #1 in 1938. They’re ideas Superman inherited from pulp novels and magazines, excessive journey tales about folks with exceptional powers, who generally placed on costumes and took on alter egos.
Specifically, they arrive from the adventures of Doc Savage, created by Henry W. Ralston, John L. Nanovic, and Lester Dent, and debuting in 1933’s Doc Savage Journal #1. Dubbed the Man of Bronze, Doc Savage was a genius mathematician, scientist, and adventurer, who fought evildoers with the assistance of his crew of consultants. Savage operated largely out of his workplace on the 86th flooring of the Empire State Constructing, but in addition had a secret arctic hideout referred to as the Fortress of Solitude.
To be clear, Doc Savage didn’t fill his Fortress with robots. However within the 1935 novel The Implausible Island, Savage employs Robbie the Robotic as an artificial double to confound his enemies, identical to Superman would do twenty years later. However he did fill it along with his assistants and aids, a standard trope present in fellow pulp heroes reminiscent of Zorro, Tarzan, and the Shadow.
Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster alter that trope for the primary adventures of their hero, utilizing Superman’s secret id as Clark Kent and his friendship with Lois Lane as an alternative choice to the band of consultants on which the pulp heroes relied. However the trope quickly resurfaced, with Superman not solely getting assist from his pal Jimmy Olsen and boss Perry White (each additions from the radio present The Adventures of Superman), but in addition with fellow heroes Batman and the Justice Society of America.