It doesn't get more timeless than the Man of Steel. Superman has been a fixture of the pop-culture landscape for almost a century, and you don't need to look too hard to see why. The first real superhero to ever grave the pages of comic books, Kal-El of Krypton is faster than both a locomotive and a speeding bullet, he can leap tall buildings in a single bound, and is stronger than steel itself.

Yet Superman's most enduring quality is the hopeful and triumphant nature of the character. In spite of the awful things that happen in the DC Universe, he never fails to see the hope for humanity, and he's pretty good at inspiring that hope, too. He's a beacon of light in a sometimes too dark world, showing us all that can we can better, we can better super in our ways.

But did we also mention that he's really strong?...