The Man of Steel, The Big Blue Boy Scout, The Man of Tomorrow, The Last Son of Krypton. No matter what you call him, Superman has become an American cultural icon with movies, merchandise, and of course comic books flooding the market.

It would have been an injustice to the legions of DC fans if he weren't to be added to Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming DC Universe Online (PC, PlayStation 3) MMORPG. A fact that the developers must have realized from the get go so expect to see him in the game when it comes out.

The brain child of American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian born artist Joe Schuster, Superman made his debut back in 1938 in the very first Action Comics. The rest, as they say, is history.

Superman was born on the dying planet Krypton and given the name Kal-el. He was promptly placed into a ship and sent to earth where he was adopted by the Kent family and was named Clark. As Clark Kent, Superman acts as a mild-mannered reporter who works at The Daily Planet in the Metropolis alongside Lois Lane.

Superman's powers include super strength, freezing breath, invulnerability to most attacks (more on that in a second), heat vision, super speed, as well as flight.

The Man of Steel is so strong that he actually has to be careful when fighting is enemies to avoid any casualties as killing is something he doesn't condone.

On that note, here's a look at a fight between him in Darkseid from Justice League Unlimited which, while not considered canon in certain circles, sums this concept up quite well:

While he does live up to the "super" part of his name, he is by no means perfect. He has a weakness for Kryptonite (of various shades depending on which comic canon you decide to follow), red sun radiation, magic, mind control, and the ministrations of Doomsday (the character which killed Superman in The Death of Superman series of comic books) or any of the stronger villains *coughDarkseidcough* in the DC Universe.

We've only seen a smattering of Superman in the game but it appears that he may have most of the aforementioned powers in the game. Whether or not he will have the same weaknesses (which we assume will be exploited by some of the villains in the game) is yet to be seen.

So ends the first of the DC Universe Online Character Spotlight. Now, we've got Lex Luthor lined up for next week but if enough people post and request for a different character, then we'll be very happy to oblige you guys and put up an article on that character instead.

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DC Universe Online Articles:

• DC Universe Online: San Diego Comic-Con 08 developer walkthrough videos
• Sony: DC Universe Online to grab PS3 owners' interest
• E3 2008: DC Universe Online's first trailer