100 free Superman trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free Superman trivia questions with answers. Superman has been saving the day since 1938, and almost every decade has added a new layer to the legend: a radio show that invented kryptonite, cartoons that taught him to fly, a TV star in a padded suit, Christopher Reeve making the world believe, a comic-book death that sold six million copies, and a 2025 reboot with a very badly behaved dog. This quiz covers all of it. The 100 questions run from easy warm-ups (where did his rocket land?) to genuinely hard ones about publishing history, box-office numbers and behind-the-scenes decisions. Play it solo, or use it to build a round for comic-night, movie-night or a pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary sources before it went live, and each explanation adds one extra fact you can use to win the argument afterwards.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Superman's birth name on the planet Krypton?
Kal-El
His birth parents, Jor-El and Lara, launched him toward Earth in a small spaceship shortly before the planet exploded.
Q 02In which US state is the town of Smallville, where the Kents raise Clark?
Kansas
The farmers who found the rocket, Jonathan and Martha Kent, gave the boy the name Clark Kent.
Q 03Clark Kent works as a journalist for which Metropolis newspaper?
The Daily Planet
Siegel made Clark a journalist because he had often imagined becoming one himself after leaving school.
Q 04Superman's secret hideout, located somewhere in the Arctic, is called what?
The Fortress of Solitude
The name of his home city, Metropolis, was borrowed from the 1927 silent film of the same name.
Q 05Which young newspaper photographer is frequently described as "Superman's pal"?
Jimmy Olsen
The character was one of several who began on the radio show rather than in the comics.
Q 06Who provided Superman's voice on The Adventures of Superman, broadcast from 1940 to 1951?
Bud Collyer
An apocryphal story claims kryptonite was invented to sideline Superman so the actor could take a holiday.
Q 07Which villain killed Superman in the famous 1992 storyline?
Doomsday
The two of them died together, each landing a massive final blow on the other in the streets of Metropolis.
Q 08Roughly how many copies did the issue depicting Superman's death sell?
Over six million
His funeral was attended by nearly every superhero, plus then-President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
Q 09Why did DC need a big new Superman event in 1992, leading to his death?
A planned Lois and Clark wedding was delayed for a TV show
The wedding was pushed back so it could line up with the romance on the Lois & Clark television series.
Q 10Which of the four replacement "Supermen" ultimately revived the real one using Kryptonian technology?
The Eradicator
The four pretenders headlined the follow-up arc "Reign of the Supermen!" before the original returned.
Q 11In what year did kryptonite make its debut, in a radio story called "The Meteor from Krypton"?
1943
It reached the comics only six years later, and the name is now in the dictionary as a word for anyone's fatal weakness.
Q 12Kryptonite finally entered the comics in Superman #61 in which year?
1949
That story was written by Bill Finger, better known as the co-creator of Batman, and drawn by Al Plastino.
Q 13An unpublished 1940 Jerry Siegel story featured a prototype of kryptonite under what name?
The K-Metal from Krypton
The shelved story would also have had Superman reveal his secret identity to Lois years before that became a plot point.
Q 21After their late-1940s lawsuit, Siegel and Shuster gave up the Superman copyrights for just over how much?
$94,000
The pair were then given no more freelance work, and Siegel spent decades away from the character he created.
Q 22Lois's surname was borrowed from which 1930s actress, who had played reporter Torchy Blane?
Lola Lane
Siegel simply liked the sound of the actress's name, and the character debuted alongside Superman in Action Comics #1.
Q 23In which year did Lois and Clark finally marry in the comics, in Superman: The Wedding Album?
1996
In modern continuity the couple later had a son, first seen in 2015, who grew into his own Superboy.
Q 14What was the cover price of Action Comics #1 in 1938?
10 cents
The 68-page anthology carried eleven features, and Superman was only one of them.
Q 15What is Superman doing on the cover of Action Comics #1?
Lifting a car over his head
The 13-page story inside was assembled from rejected newspaper-strip pages that Siegel and Shuster pasted into comic format.
Q 16In April 2024, a copy of Action Comics #1 set a then-record public sale price of how much?
$6 million
A 9.0-graded copy once stolen from Nicolas Cage reportedly changed hands privately for $15 million in January 2026.
Q 17Roughly how many copies of Action Comics #1 are estimated to still exist?
Around 100
Also debuting in that issue was Zatara, the top-hatted magician who casts spells by speaking backwards.
Q 18How much were Siegel and Shuster paid for the 13-page Superman story in Action Comics #1?
$130
That worked out to $10 a page, and it came with the rights to the character.
Q 19Siegel and Shuster met as teenagers at Glenville High School in which city?
Cleveland
They met in 1932, and Siegel's father died that same year after being punched by a shoplifter in his store.
Q 20In Siegel's 1933 story "The Reign of the Super-Man", the title character was what?
A bald vagrant with psychic powers who turns evil
The character was a man named Bill Dunn, and it took a rethink to turn the idea into a hero.
Q 24In real-world publishing history, why did Lex Luthor become bald?
Because of an artist's mistake
He debuted with red hair, and the hairless look stuck after it appeared in a newspaper strip and then Superman #10 in 1941.
Q 25Which office did Lex Luthor win in a 2000 comics storyline?
President of the United States
He ran on a platform of technological progress, having already built LexCorp into a company that dominates Metropolis.
Q 26Which Oscar-winning actor played Jor-El in the 1978 film Superman?
Marlon Brando
Fellow Oscar winner Gene Hackman was cast as Lex Luthor only days after him.
Q 27The 1978 film received a Special Achievement Academy Award for what?
Its visual effects
It picked up three other nominations, and John Williams recorded the score with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Q 28Who played General Zod in Superman II?
Terence Stamp
Zod's two Kryptonian accomplices were Ursa, his consort, and the mute brute Non.
Q 29Under Directors Guild rules, what share of Superman II did Richard Lester need to shoot for sole credit?
40 percent
Original director Richard Donner's version was finally assembled and released as "The Richard Donner Cut" in 2006.
Q 30In Superman III, what does Gus Gorman substitute for the unknown element when he synthesises kryptonite?
Tar
The botched rock does not kill Superman but corrupts him, leading to a junkyard brawl between the dark Superman and Clark Kent.