It's A Bird, A Plane... It's A Sequel

He was our first superhero.

A product of the depression, he lifted America's spirits from the moment he arrived on the scene. And we've been looking up to him ever since.

Look - up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!

Director Bryan Singer always felt a connection to Superman.

"You know, I'm adopted. I'm an only child. So, I kind of identified in some strange way with Superman," he says.

Now, the 40-year-old director of the first two "X-Men" movies is bringing his boyhood hero back to the big screen in "Superman Returns," a more than $200 million extravaganza.

"Superman Returns" is a loose sequel to the two movies from a quarter century ago.

After a five year absence searching for his home planet, Superman is back, but his world - and that of his alter ego, Clark Kent - has changed.

There's Lois Lane, the love of Superman's life, with a fiancé, and a young son whose paternity is in question. There's Lex Luthor - his archenemy - out of prison, with diabolical plans. And there are plenty of special effects.

The key thing for me was to not lose the emotional center with all the spectacle and all of that. And that instead of having the usual comic book film where the boyfriends have to drag the girlfriends to go see it, maybe this will be one that the girlfriends will drag their boyfriends to go see," says Singer.

Does that mean it's a chick flick?

"It's a chick flick," says the director, in an interview with CBS News correspondent Serena Altschul.

Superman has never left the pop consciousness. For 68 years, every generation has adopted Superman as its own.

"You meet Superman as a kid, but he stays with you all your life," says Kevin Burns, who directed a Superman documentary that Singer produced.

"Superman is a modern myth. It is our Hercules. It is our secular version of, you know, a Bible story," says Burns.

Burns believes the time is right for another telling of the Superman legend. "9/11 changed the landscape. It made us more open to the idea that there could be a hero."

The only two people, says Burns, who saw the potential of a post 9/11 Superman were Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

"Jerry and Joe were 16-year-old kids in Cleveland and they began to play with the idea of what a Superman would be," says DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz, looking back on the origin of the comic strip hero.

But they couldn't get their comic strip published. By their early 20s, Jerry - the writer - and Joe - the artist - were working on other characters when, in 1938, DC launched a new title, Action Comics.

"In those days, most comic books were anthologies, and there wasn't enough material to fill the issue out. Someone remembered Superman. 'Let's give it a try.' There wasn't a great deal of faith in it initially. But the minute it went out on newsstands, it sold out," says Levitz.

Within two years, Superman had his own comic book, a radio show, even a balloon in the Thanksgiving Day parade.

He spawned a galaxy of superheroes.

Max Fleisher, the cartoonist, brought Superman to the big screen with animated shorts during the 1940s.

And with each incarnation, the Superman legend grew.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster never reaped much reward for their comic book creation. They sold the rights to Superman early on, reportedly for $130 and a ten-year contract. Many years later, in their 60s, they were awarded a stipend, and recognition as the creators of Superman.

"Jerry and Joe gave birth to Superman, but he's the offspring of all of us, and he's been adopted by every creative artist, every comic book writer and illustrator, every film director, every television producer, every actor who's ever taken on the character," says Burns.

And there have been many. Kirk Alyn played Superman in a movie serial in the late 40s. Bud Collyer was the voice of Superman on radio. And on television in the 50s, it was George Reeves who stood for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

Not every Superman spinoff soared. There was a TV pilot called "Super Pup." That one was a dog. And there was a musical Superman, on television and Broadway.

Then in 1978 came "Superman: The Movie." A little known actor named Christopher Reeve nervously auditioned for the role.

Reeve got the part. And Superman got the girl.

Reeve would make four Superman movies. More TV shows followed: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" and "Smallville" - more comic books, and every kind of merchandise imaginable.

By some reckonings, Superman in all its incarnations has already earned more than $1.7 billion. That's before this summer's blitz surrounding the new movie, and Brandon Routh, the new Superman.

Why did Singer go with an unknown for Superman?

"If you had a star playing that role, it would sort of be such-and-such as Superman. And you-know-who in tights. It would be, you would be applying all that baggage to the character. When he steps onto that screen, he has to, he has to be Superman," explains Singer.

And what is it that continues to draw us to this character after all these years?

"I think the heart of the magic really is in the Clark-Superman-Lois relationship. I think my half of the human race is always sitting there feeling like Clark Kent, wishing that you would see the Superman inside of us. And I think your half of the human race has the enduring experience of having to put up with the Clark Kent in us while you're searching for the Superman. It's a very fundamental human experience," says Levtiz.

"The story of Superman is the story of America. He's the ultimate immigrant," says Burns.

"I think he represents not necessarily all that we are but all that we kind of aspire to be," says Singer.

His appeal is testament to perhaps Superman's greatest strength: his staying power.