superman

   A transferred name, referring to the refugee, from the planet Krypton, of superhuman powers, created by Jerome Siegel and Joe Schuster in the 1930s. One of the most famous American comicbook characters, whose biography, as with most modern fictional characters, can be read in David Pringle’s excellent book, Imaginary People.

   The name is typically transferred to anyone who is claiming to be better than average, or thought to be so by the speaker. Festival, by N.J.Crisp, has:

   ‘Like everyone else, I was born with a brain, a body, and my own talents,’ Cramer said. ‘The only difference between me and the rest is I know that’s all I need, or ever will.’

   ‘Well, good luck, Superman,’ Valerie said.

   In The Taste of Too Much, by Clifford Hanley, one boy says to another: ‘Take it easy, Superman,’ with nothing having been said previously to inspire the friendly use of the term. In Truman Capote’s short story The Headless Hawk, a man is annoyed by two girls sitting at the table in a diner where he is eating with a friend. ‘Vincent said if they didn’t shut up…“Oh, yeah, who do you think you are?” “Superman. Jerk thinks he’s superman.”’ This is an interesting indirect vocative, since the speaker is both answering her friend’s rhetorical question while addressing the man in front of her.