Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ), will release its screen version of the decades-old origin of the Marvel Comics superhero, with Dr Pepper, a unit of Cadbury Schweppes (nyse: CSG - news - people ), along for the ride as a promotional partner.

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Now that a court case has ensured that DC Comics superhero Superman will keep flying at Warner Bros. in the foreseeable future, the studio is readying their plans to move forward with the oft-mentioned Justice League film project and release the movie in 2015, according to sources who spoke to the L.A. Times.

FORBES: Warner Bros Preparing Justice League Movie For 2015

That's what made money for the big pulp-comics companies: superhero stuff, mostly, but sometimes horror or romance or science fiction or crime comics, each of which has its own familiar codes and formulas.

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In August 1962, Marvel Comics introduced a new kind of superhero.

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Mr Fingeroth, author of the upcoming Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero, admits the Superman myth has "echoes of religious lore".

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In 2010, DC Comics sued the brother and sister of Shuster, the artist responsible for Superman, on the basis that they relinquished their ability to reclaim the superhero's copyrights in exchange for annual pension payments from DC Comics.

BBC: Warner Bros retains all rights to Superman