Cultural historians believe that this explanation for the superpowers of John Carter formed the basis of the Superman story.
Many people were caught up in Martian hysteria. The young Carl Sagan was enthralled by novels about Mars, such as the John Carter of Mars series. In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, famous for his Tarzan novels, dabbled in science fiction by writing about an American soldier during the Civil War who is transported to Mars. Burroughs speculated that John Carter would become a superman because of the low gravity on Mars relative to Earth. He would be able to jump incredible distances and outfight the alien Tharks to save the beautiful Dejah Thoris. Cultural historians believe that this explanation for the superpowers of John Carter formed the basis of the Superman story. The 1938 issue of Action Comics in which Superman first appears attributes his superpowers to the weak gravity of the Earth compared to his native Krypton.
