Referenced By / Superman

Works referencing Superman. See also Superman Substitute.

• The Death of Superman
• Supergirl
• Superman: The Movie
• Superman Theatrical Cartoons

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Anime & Manga

• In Osamu Tezuka's Unico manga, Unico ends up defending Corn (his older sister) and his younger siblings from getting kidnapped by a group of half goat/unicorn hybrids. After saving his siblings, one of the defeated members comments that Unico is "Just like Superman" as one of them replies with "Who's Superman?".

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, robots with costumes of Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are known to appear every once in a while.
• In the Lamput episode "Super Docs", Slim Doc wears a blue costume with a red-colored cape and upside-down trangle-shaped Chest Insignia, clearly meant to be Superman's outfit. His partner Fat Doc wears a costume meant to be Batman's, too.
• Motu Patlu:
  • The title card of "Super Duper Man" is meant to resemble Superman's insignia.
  • There's another reference to Superman in "Super Murgiyan", where, when Motu describes the super-powered chickens to Inspector Chingum, he says they ate Dr. Jhatka's special medicine and then became "super chickens like Superman".
• Right in the intro for Nana Moon, Keke changes into a red-and-blue superhero costume, complete with a faux Superman insignia on it. Keke actually uses that transformation in episode 18 to stabilize a wobbling building.

Comic Books

• Flare: On this page, Jimmy Dooley cosplays as Jimmy Olsen, complete with signal watch. Sparkplug, who is dressed as Wonder Woman, is not impressed.
• The Oracle Code: Yeong wears a denim jacket with Superman and Wonder Woman badges and Ben's jacket has a Cadmus badge.
• 2015 Malaysian comic book, created by satire cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, who goes by the moniker Zunar, which taking jabs at Prime Minister Najib Razak and allegations surrounding 1MDB, and its book title name... was "Sapuman: Man of Steal".^note Which is parody of "Supermen: Man of Steel" Banned in Malaysia.
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis:
  • An issue of Action Comics is among the comics that can be seen on Nerdanus XII.
  • Superman makes a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo alongside other superheroes from DC and Marvel in the final issue.
• Spider-Man:
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #204, when Spider-Man is fighting Black Cat, they say the following:
    Black Cat: This time, Spidey, take the hint—
    Spider-Man: Cat, Cat, Cat, you know I can't do that! After all, I represent truth, justice, and... Nope, that's someone else.
  • In Amazing Spider-Man #306, the cover is a homage to Action Comics #1. In the proper story, Peter Parker sees one copy of Action Comics #285 -the final issue of the "The Unknown Supergirl" story arc- and mentions he "had a crush on the girl in the mini-skirt".

Comic Strips

• In a For Better or for Worse comic, John is telling a young April about the Easter Bunny, and says he flies around and wears tights and has a friend named Lois Lane. April corrects him saying he's talking about Superman.

Fan Works

• Rise of the Minisukas: The title of the ninth chapter is "The Fortress of Soryutude", a nod to Superman's base the Fortress of Solitude.

Film — Animated

• Superman makes a brief appearance in Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, where he rescues Buster, Babs, and Byron as they fall down a waterfall. When Buster tells him, "Hey, pal, this is our story!" and Babs tells him, "Yeah, get your own video!", Superman says, "It's your call!" as he drops them out of the sky. In a later scene, where Buster and Babs are surrounded by the hungry passengers of the Delta Burke steamboat, Babs asks, "So where's Superman when you need him?"

Film — Live-Action

• In Breaking Point (1976), Andy pretends to be Superman while he leaps onto his bed.
• Spider-Man: When Peter tries to figure out how to shoot web out of his hands, he exclaims various lines, one of them being "Up, up and away, web!" Later, while he's visiting Aunt May at the hospital, she tells him that he's already doing too much and adds "You're not Superman, you know."
• In Voyage of the Rock Aliens, Dee Dee says, "I guess it's not surprising that I'd fall for an alien. I mean, Lois Lane fell for Superman."
• In Wonderwall, Penny's boyfriend brings Superman comics to her flat. Oscar has a dream where the boyfriend is wearing a Superman costume, with a slightly modified logo.
• In Zig Zag (2002), ZigZag wonders if they have the "noise," his word for cancer, where Superman comes from.
• The Drummer and the Keeper: Gabriel tells Christopher that during his manic phases, he feels like he can do anything, like Batman. Christopher points out that that sounds more like Superman.
• In Eternals, Phastos' son excitedly compares Ikaris to Superman.
• In the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf film Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: I Love Wolffy, Pi Zong's superhero outfit is an obvious parody of the one donned by Superman, with the Chinese character "皮" ("pi") in the middle where the Superman symbol would be.

Literature

• anachronauts: Carrie "Astro Gal" Lane is a Supergirl expy with Superman's catchphrases.
• Anathem: One of the Iconographies the sæcular world sometimes associates with the avouts involves Superman.
• Brown's Pine Ridge Stories: In the 18th story, Gary at first says that he "felt like Superman," but later comes to compare himself with Charlie Brown when he finds out his attempted "rescue" of a woman and the children in her care from a fire ended up destroying her house over a burnt pot roast.
• The Dresden Files:
  • "Last Call": Molly has dyed her hair Kryptonite green, and she wears a Superman T-shirt along with it.
  • Cold Days: Harry freezes a large chunk of lake and comments that the resulting mass of ice looks kind of like the Fortress of Solitude.
• In Evidence of Things Not Seen, Superman is one of the comic books Chuy used to learn English.
• You Look Different in Real Life: Justine thinks that in Manhattan, small-town popular boy Nate is like Superman back on Krypton - he has no powers here.
• Jack from Navigating Early brings Superman comics with him to boarding school.
• Social Queue: In an article Zoe writes, she refers to her creepy date Leo as Luthor.
• Erin from The Nowhere Girls is Obfuscating Stupidity while the principal questions her about who stole the other students' email addresses. When the principal says that she can be a hero if she turns the other kids in, Erin says, "Like Superman?" and asks if she'd get to wear a shiny red cape.
• In Things I Should Have Known, Chloe describes her boyfriend James as looking like Clark Kent after he takes off the glasses but before he puts on his costume.
• In Orange Clouds, Blue Sky, Starr dashes into the dressing room and changes into a prom dress with a speed that reminds Skye of Clark Kent changing in a phone booth.
• The Boy Who Drew Monsters: During Jack's former obsession with comic books, he and Nick used to read Superman together.
• In On the Spectrum, Clara buys Alastair a Superman backpack to help him fit in.
• In The Pants Project, Enzo goes to a movie dressed as Superman. He doesn't have a full Superman costume, so he wears a Superman pajama top, red underpants over blue shorts, and blue socks with little red capes.
• In Takashi Yanase's children's anthology book Twelve Pearls from 1971, both Superman and Batman make a cameo appearance◊ in an older version of his Anpanman story.

Live-Action TV

• CSI: NY's episode "Super Men" has a guy in a superhero costume and as many references they could possibly cram in including glass with traces of krypton, and the guy's street clothes and glasses left in a phone booth.
• The Doctor Who episode "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" is a full-length Silver Age Superman parody/tribute. In a prologue, a boy called Grant Gordon swallows a mystical gem due to a misunderstanding. The wish-fulfilling gem grants him superhuman powers, and when he grows up he becomes the Ghost, a Flying Brick superhero with a geeky alter-ego, who has a Loves My Alter Ego triangular relationship with the female journalist who employs him as her child's nanny.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In "Home is Where the Heart Attack Is", Carlton visits his father in the hospital following his heart attack from an unhealthy diet, and he admits that he can't bear to see him in such a vulnerable state, saying "You're like Superman to me."
  Phil: Yeah, and cheesecake my kryptonite.
• In The Golden Girls episode "It's a Miserable Life", when the girls are trying to pick out a coffin for a recently departed and disliked neighbor and the funeral home director keeps trying to sell them an extravagant casket without admitting the price at first, Dorothy eventually slams the lid close while stating "We're not burying Superman. How much?"
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "Like Angels Put in Hell by God", when Daniel Molloy asks if Lestat de Lioncourt can fly "Like Superman?", Louis de Pointe du Lac answers, "Not like Superman. Superman is a fictional character."
• In Jupiter's Legacy, the front page of a newspaper has a picture of Lady Liberty carrying a car the same way Superman did in his very first appearance.
• In The Monkees episode "Find the Monkees," the Monkees hog a phone booth for several minutes while the line outside gets longer and longer. Once they're done, the first person in line enters the phone booth, takes off his shirt to reveal a Superman costume, and flies off.

Music

• The Genesis song "Land of Confusion" has this verse:
  Ooh, Superman, where are you now?
  When everything's gone wrong somehow
  The men of steel, the men of power
  Are losing control by the hour
• Sanrio TV Original Songbook: Ureshi SONG!! is an album Sanrio made in the mid to late 1990s that featured original songs performed by popular Sanrio Characters and then brand new characters. The music video version of 恋してパッツ～ン！娘♪ ("Koitte! Patzn Musume♪") starring Badtz-Maru's sister Tsunko/Tzunko briefly featured her dressed in a similar outfit to Superman complete with the same coloring.

Pinball

• The Burn Rubber map in The Getaway: High Speed 2 includes Smallville and Otisburg.

Puppet Shows

• On Sesame Street, Grover's superhero alter-ego, Super Grover, is an obvious parody of Superman.

Video Games

• In Everybody Edits Flash, one of the Digital Avatars is named Superman and comes with black hair and red and blue clothes.

Webcomics

• Girl Genius: In the Heterodyne Crypt, there is a grave marked only "Zod".
• Hark! A Vagrant: Kate Beaton is incredibly fond of Lois Lane and used some Alternative Character Interpretation for a bit of humor while introducing reader to the never published Lois Lane, Girl Reporter by Dean Trippe on the page "Lois Lane, Reporter".

Web Original

• The Angry Video Game Nerd has reviewed various Superman video games for the Atari 2600, NES, Commodore 64, and Nintendo 64, including the infamous Superman 64.
• history of the entire world, i guess references the famous "It's a bird!" line when introducing the Seljuk Turks.

Western Animation

• Looney Tunes:
  • The 1940 short Goofy Groceries features a parody called Superguy.
  • The 1943 short Super-Rabbit features Bugs Bunny as the eponymous hero, who gains powers through eating special carrots.
  • The 1955 short Stupor Duck features Daffy Duck as an inept superhero trying to thwart an adversary who doesn't exist.
  • The 1996 short Superior Duck is another parody with Daffy as a wannabe superhero, complete with Supes himself appearing near the end to bail him out.
• In an episode of Milo Murphy's Law, Melissa puts forth her fan theory about The Doctor Zone Files while waiting in line for the movie:
  Melissa: So, Doctor Zone's mom knew that their planet was going to explode. So she wrapped her babies in one of those blankets that babies are always escaping exploding planets in. But the getaway rocket only had room for one baby. So, the other baby was caught in the implosion and sucked into a time vortex that turned him into a transchronological being, who's appearance would make our heads explode!
• Popeye:
  • In Nix on Hypnotricks, Popeye's spinach-powered climax shows him turning into a parody of Superman, complete with the "S" from the can's label being stuck to his shirt.
  • The short Fleets of Stren'th opens with Popeye reading a Superman comic book.
  • In She-Sick Sailors, Bluto disguises himself as Superman to impress Olive.
• Private Snafu: The short "Snafuperman" has Snafu becoming the titular hero to better fight in the war (complete with the theme from the Paramount cartoons on the soundtrack).
• The Patrick Star Show: Patrick's house has a miniature city made of glass named Schmandor, referencing the Bottle City of Kandor from the Superman comics.

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