Superman "The Mark of Zorro" and "Robin Hood". The name of Superman's home city, Metropolis, was taken from the 1927 film of the same name. Popeye cartoons were also an influence. Clark Kent's harmless facade and dual identity was inspired by the protagonists of such movies as Don Diego de la Vega in "The Mark of Zorro" and Sir Percy Blakeney in "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Siegel thought this would make for interesting dramatic contrast and good humor. Another inspiration was slapstick comedian Harold Lloyd. The archetypal Lloyd character was a gentle man who finds himself abused by bullies but later in
Percy Jackson he make up new stories that combined existing mythological characters with new ones. This led Riordan to create the fictional character of Percy Jackson and the story of his travels across the United States to recover Zeus's lightning-bolt. Haley then suggested it be written as a novel. Riordan received input on the manuscript from some of his middle school students before taking the idea of Percy Jackson to a publisher. Riordan has said that Percy Jackson's original character was "inspired by my son's own struggle" at school. Haley and Percy have been cited as the "same age" and share several