• "Superman," 1941-43: Animators Max and Dave Fleischer defined Man of Steel’s art-deco look for generations with series of 10-minute short films, Superman’s first screen appearance.

• "Superman," 1948: Kirk Alyn wore the cape in first live-action adaptation of the comic book, played out in 15 shorts. A sequel shorts-series with Alyn followed in 1950 as "Superman vs. Atom Man."

• "The Adventures of Superman," 1952-57: TV series starring George Reeves, whose suicide ended show and launched "Superman’s Curse" legend.

• "The New Adventures of Superman," 1966-69: Cartoon series with Bud Collyer (host of the game show "To Tell the Truth") as Clark Kent and Superman.

• "Superman," 1978: "You will believe a man can fly" was the tag line for the movie that introduced Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Brought then-state-of-the-art special effects to the story of Superman and his efforts to thwart the scheming Lex Luthor (played with camp villainy by Gene Hackman). Box office: $134.2 million.

• "Superman II," 1981: Reeve returns to stop three bad guys from his home planet of Krypton from wreaking havoc on Earth. Box office: $108.2 million.

• "Superman III," 1983: More silly than super, sequel costarred Richard Pryor as a computer-programming scientist who creates synthetic Kryptonite. Box office: $60 million.

• "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace," 1987: The flop that killed the franchise. Pitted Reeve against Nuclear Man in a thinly veiled Cold War-era message about the dangers of nuclear weapons. Box office: $15.6 million.

• "Superboy," 1988-1992: Live-action syndicated TV series starred Gerard Christopher, who despite being 31 played a teenage Clark Kent studying journalism and fighting villains while in college.

• "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," 1993-97: Well-received ABC fantasy series starring Dean Cain as a modern-guy Superman and Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane. Program was notable for focusing not only on weekly villains, but their budding romantic relationship.

• "Superman: The Animated Series," 1996-2000: WB Network’s after-school cartoon series with Tim Daly (of the sitcom "Wings") voicing Superman and Dana Delaney as Lois Lane.

• "Smallville," 2001-present: Tom Welling stars as farmboy Clark Kent — and the term "Superman" is never used. Kent cannot yet fly, but has super-strength and is practically indestructible. Hides his abilities to blend in with his high-school friends, among them Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum).