You can get super strength too!

While not every child can identify with Superman, “champion of the oppressed, the physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to helping those in need”, almost every reader is likely to identify with Clark Kent in some way. Part of the intrigue of Superman is the dichotomy between the larger than life superhero and his cowardly, quiet, and sometimes even despised alter ego. Readers, particularly children, are able to impose themselves upon the character of Clark Kent, as they too are misunderstood and do not fit in yet feel as though they are capable of great things. Kent takes on many of the characteristics of a middle school boy. He is quiet, nervous, awkward, is bullied, and most of all is continuously rejected by the woman whom he idolizes.

It seems as though Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are very cognizant of this appeal. They promote this connection with the reader by offering instructions that reveal the "secrets" to getting super powers in the final panels of chapters. In one instance the authors imply that young boys can acquire super strength by lifting furniture and in another super strength can be achieved by repeatedly rotating wrists with clenched fists. In a third panel boys are given instructions that will let them “peer more distantly than any of [their] friends.” The instructive panels at the end of chapters provide an outlet for readers who desire to be less like Kent and more like Superman, and encourage them to continue to impose themselves upon Siegel and Shuster’s protagonist.