Superhero film as action, horror, fantasy, comedy etc. Almost immediately after superheroes rose to prominence in comic books, they were adapted into Saturday film serials aimed at children, starting with "Mandrake The Magician" (1939). Serials such as "Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941), "Batman" (1943), "The Phantom" (1943), "Captain America" (1944), and "Superman" (1948) followed. In the following decades, the decline of Saturday serials and turmoil in the comic book industry put an end to superhero motion pictures, with the exception of "Superman and the Mole Men", starring George Reeves, which was a trial balloon for the television series "Adventures of Superman", compilations
Superhero fiction detective the Clock, who debuted in Centaur Publications' "Funny Pages" #6 (Nov. 1936). Historians point to the first appearance of Superman, created by Jerome "Jerry" Siegel and designed by Joseph "Joe" Shuster, in "Action Comics" #1 (June 1938) as the debut of the comic-book archetype of the superhero. Outside the American comics industry, superpowered, costumed heroes such as Ōgon Bat (1931) and the (1930s), were visualized in painted panels used by kamishibai oral storytellers in Japan. In 1938, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, who had previously worked in pulp science fiction magazines, introduced Superman. (Siegel, as the writer,