Henry Cavill has shared a sneak peek at his Justice League costume in the wake of Superman’s 79th anniversary. The iconic superhero was created by comic book legends Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the early ’30s, and he made his debut in Action Comics #1 in May 1938, though the cover was dated for the month of June. Since then, the character has appeared in numerous comic books, television shows, video games, and of course, movies – and it looks like it’s only going to get bigger from here on out.

Cavill debuted as Clark Kent, aka Superman, in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel four years ago, and he reprised his role in the director’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice last year, which officially kicked off the burgeoning DC Extended Universe. The actor will be appearing in Snyder’s Justice League later this year alongside the rest of the world’s finest heroes. While people are surely looking forward to all of the upcoming projects in the DCEU, Cavill doesn’t want people to forget where it all started.

To commemorate Superman’s 79th anniversary this month, Cavill has posted a new photo on Instagram (below) that teases the bottom half of his costume from Justice League, while also sharing the origin of the character’s history.

Hi Everyone! I’ve been doing some Super Ruminations because this month is the 79th anniversary of Superman in Action Comics and thought it fitting to pass on this little fact. Who knew eh?? In January 1933, Jerry Siegel wrote a short story titled “The Reign of the Superman”, which was illustrated by his friend Joe Shuster and self-published in a science fiction magazine. It told the story of a bald villain with telepathic powers. Trying to create a character they could sell to newspaper syndicates,Siegel re-conceived the “superman” character as a powerful hero, sent to our world from a more advanced society. He and Shuster developed the idea into a comic strip, which they pitched unsuccessfully. National Publications was looking for a hit to accompany their success with Detective Comics, and did not have time to solicit new material. Because of the tight deadline, editor Vin Sullivan was forced to make it out of inventory and stockpile pages. Sullivan asked former coworker Sheldon Mayer if he could help. Mayer found the rejected Superman comic strips, and Sullivan told Siegel and Shuster that if they could paste them into 13 comic book pages, he would buy them. #SuperRuminations #Superman #ActionComics A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill) on Jun 5, 2017 at 10:56pm PDT

It’s true that, although Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938, his origins date back to 1933. Siegel and Shuster originally conceived the character while they were still high school students in Cleveland. Together, they created the short story, The Reign of the Super-Man. The name was hyphenated because the title had to be split between two pages, though the character is referred to as Superman in the actual story. It was only after they published that first story that they attempted to sell the character to a comic book publisher, and that is how Superman ended up in DC Comics.

Because Siegel and Shuster were young and unknown at the time, it took them several years to sell the character to the right publication. No one could have known how popular and influential Superman would become over the course of the next century. The character became the archetypal superhero, and he inspired the creation of countless other comic book characters from publishers across the board. It’s virtually impossible to narrow down the sheer cultural impact that Superman has had on society – and not just in entertainment. Of course, the character himself has evolved over the years, and we’ll likely see more of that evolution in the upcoming Justice League film.

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Source: Henry Cavill

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