How much is the "loneliness" angle important to Superman?

[Permanus]

When did Superman in the comics actually start saying "Great Krypton" and "Merciful Rao" and all that? As Al S. points out, it doesn't really make sense originally, any more than it would for an Australian brought up in England to say "Bonzer". When it does start making sense is during the Silver Age, when you have established that Superman has total recall and therefore remembers his infant days on Krypton (some stories of that period also have him leave Krypton not as a baby but a toddler, like the completely bugged-out one where Jimmy Olsen babysits for him).

Personally, I rather like to think that Superman is a bit affected when he invokes his Kryptonian origins, a bit like people who do some genealogical research and find out that they have an interesting relative or ethnic background (my own sister, when she discovered our Jewish origins, started using random Yiddish terms as a complete affectation). It would have been quite good if, when Kal-El discovered Kandor and started interacting with Kryptonians for the first time, he'd be peppering his language with terms like "Merciful Rao" until someone told him "Uhm, relax, man, nobody's really talked like that in 200 years, and even then it was in, like, plays and stuff."

[Super Monkey]

I belive it was in the 1970's or 1980's, he used to say "Great Scott!!" in the 1960's.

[Permanus]

I belive it was in the 1970's or 1980's, he used to say "Great Scott!!" in the 1960's.

I always thought that there must have been a story I missed in which Clark Kent started saying "Great Krypton" and then changed it to "Scott" just in time, and then stuck with it.

[Super Monkey]

From what I remember, I can only remember Superman saying "Great Krypton!" on the Super Friends cartoon show, which then perhaps made it to the comics, mostly for Superman of Earth-2.

[Uncle Mxy]

From what I remember, I can only remember Superman saying "Great Krypton!" on the Super Friends cartoon show, which then perhaps made it to the comics, mostly for Superman of Earth-2.

It was "great" everything on the Super Friends -- Great Gotham, Great Hera, Great Lightning, etc.  That's clearly what made the show great. 

I thought "Great Krypton" started with Julie Schwartz. 

[Sword of Superman]

Maybe the question can be:how much the loneliness angle is important to a superhero? Every major character have suffered for this problem,the feeling of being isolated/different from the people around him.
Comes to my mind the early issue of Captain America,or the entire Silver Surfer run,Ben Grimm is another example,all of this have touched even people like Tony Stark.Maybe because for special people is hard to find someone who can really relate to them?

[Superman Forever]

Certainly, Siegel and Shuster were reflecting their own loneliness and geekyness viewpoint in creating Superman and the love tringle with Lois and Clark Kent. But based on interviews and books like Men of Tomorrow, I don´t think it was intentional. What they always say is that they were trying to create the new mythological hero in the spirit of Hercules and Sanson. All the subtext was inintentional, they said even about the messianic/Moses/Christ analogies.

And yes, it is not only Superman that is a lonely character. The Superman on The Couch book have two chapters that deal with the issue. Accordind to the author, two of the more strong desires we have is to be unique, hence the orphan thing, and therefore the loneliness, and the exact opposite, that of being part of something, that would be a team like the JLA or the Legion of Super-Heroes. In the case of Superman, I just think it´s more important, and for his being the world´s greates superhero, he must be the loneliest, and also the best leader in a team.