Superman vs. Übermensch! Never coming to a theater near you!

how two cultures took one idea and ran with it in vastly different directions

Where did Superman come from? Krypton, you might say, assuming everyone knows that. Or if you want to stay down-to-earth you might say Kansas, since that’s where Smallville, his boyhood home, was located. But today let us consider the origin of not one but two supermen and remember one of the great ironies of history.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th century German philosopher who was one of the most profoundly…