"His Barrel Is Apparently Bottomless"

"But he was a lonely, lonely man-god. Was he even a real superhero? On his native Krypton (now destroyed) he would have been normal, after all: it was only Earth’s “slighter gravity pull” that gave him his superstrength. And Lois might dote upon the all-conquering Superman, but she despised Clark Kent. Was there anyone out there who could love them both—love him, that is, in the totality of his being? Displaced religiosity swirled, still swirls, around him. He is Christlike in his virtue and singularity. He is also, according to Tye, Jewish, from his Judaic-­sounding real name, Kal-El, to the Moses-on-the-Nile echoes of his infantile voyage to Earth. Tye diagnoses Superman’s 'lingering heartsickness' as 'survivor’s guilt' and adds, 'A last rule of thumb: When a name ends in ‘man,’ the bearer is Jewish, a superhero or both.'"

James Parker in The New York Times reviews Larry Tye's Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero.