The most enduring American hero of the last century is someone
who lived half his life in disguise and the other half as the
world's most recognizable man. He is not Jack Kennedy or Joltin'
Joe DiMaggio, Batman or Jerry Seinfeld, although all of them
were inspired by him. It was on his muscle-bound back that the
iconic comic book took flight and that the very idea of the
superhero was born. He appeared in more movies than Marlon
Brando, who once pretended to be his father. He helped give
America the backbone to wage war against Adolph Hitler, the
Great Depression, and the Ku Klux Klan. He remains an intimate
to kids from Boston to Belgrade and has adult devotees who, like
Talmudic scholars, parse his every utterance. And he has done it
all with a confidence that let him appear publicly with
underpants over full-body tights and assume an alter ego who
kept pursuing the prettiest girl in town even though he seldom
got her.   We celebrate Superman now because he is turning 75
this year, and because Warner Bros.