In 1975, after the announcement that DC's parent company Warner Communications was producing a multimillion-dollar Superman film, Siegel, who had been working as a file clerk, and the near-blind Shuster, along with artists Neal Adams, Jerry Robinson, and others, launched a PR campaign to protest DC's negligence towards Superman's creators. Shuster's career was more quixotic, and he saw little commercial success from a series of cartooning and illustration projects, eventually having to give up drawing due to failing eyesight.

He returned to National's successor company DC Comics in 1959 to write (uncredited) Superman stories until the mid-'60s, when he again unsuccessfully sued over the Superman rights. In the early 1950s, Siegel became comic art director for Ziff-Davis, and wrote comics for a number of publishers. Siegel and Shuster were no longer under contract, and National removed their byline from all comic books and newspaper strips. They were eventually awarded $94,000, though the courts concurred that National had legitimately purchased the character rights along with the first story. In 1946, with the looming expiration of their contract, they sued National over rights to Superman. The pair oversaw the Superman comic books and newspaper strip for a decade, earning a decent salary, while National reaped enormous profits-none of which were shared with Jerry and Joe. By cashing that check, Siegel and Shuster forever signed away all rights to Superman. National paid Siegel and Shuster $130 for the character rights, along with a 10-year contract to produce a syndicated newspaper comic version. When the caped crusader debuted as the cover feature in National's Action Comics #1 (June 1938), he was an instant smash, the first superstar superhero. In the mid-1930s they created an invincible crime-fighter with superhuman powers, calling him ' The Superman,' but it took several years to develop the character and sell the idea. Their muscular gumshoe Slam Bradley debuted in Detective Comics #1 in 1937. Because they had complementary skills (Siegel wrote, Shuster drew), they formed a writer/artist team and pitched ideas to National Allied Publications, who published their first characters, musketeer swashbuckler Henri Duval and supernatural detective Doctor Occult. The two shy Jewish teens discovered much in common, including a fascination with comic strips and science fiction pulps. Jerome Siegel (1914-1996) and Joseph Shuster (1914-1992) were classmates at Cleveland's Glenville HS.

In fact, his origins point to a more humble beginning in Cleveland. Superman is commonly perceived to be from the Planet Krypton.

Jerry siegel joe shuster superman