Another Gerberism was the keystone for the idea of superhero as Jewish myth: Superman. At Marvel, Gerber created Wundarr the Aquarian, the superhero who is rocketed to Earth from a dying planet--except Wundarr arrives on Earth full-grown, with the intelligence of a child. With Mary Skrenes, Gerber created Omega The Unknown, a character that riffs equally on Superman and Captain Marvel--Omega is a hero come to Earth with a strange bond to a boy orphan. Later, Gerber went on to do several offbeat Superman projects. My favorite was the final issue of DC Presents where Gerber packed his entire pitch for Superman into one baffling Hail Mary: an insane Mr. Mxyzptlk destroys Argo City such that Metropolis is layered with a fine mist of kryptonite, and Superman, his power reduced, must live in pain and discomfort whenever he's Clark Kent, treading over the kryptonite impacted sidewalks of the city.

MICHAEL EURY: I'm curious about the proposed revamping of Superman you pitched to DC in 1985 with Frank Miller. What were your plans?

STEVE GERBER: That would take hours. Conceptually, what we wanted to do was recreate the character with a contemporary sensibility, while adhering as closely as possible to the spirit if the Siegel and Shuster original. That's vague, I know, but it had to do with Superman's place among humanity and his role as a force for social justice, a theme that, judging from the character's first year, was very important to Jerry Siegel.