Superman was a custom Ford monster truck owned by FELD Motorsports and licensed by DC Comics, based on the comic book character of the same name. It's best known for being piloted by Chad Fortune from 2005 to 2011, while Sean Duhon and Joey Parnell would take his place in its later years. Under Chad, Superman became a staple of Monster Jam events and proved to be a popular truck among fans, appearing at many televised events over its near-decade long lifespan, including eight World Finals appearances.
Superman would be replaced by Man of Steel, which only ran for the 2014 season before the DC license expired. However, it would make a brief, one-off return in 2017 in Saudi Arabia under Tony Ochs, as part of that year's international tour. The Superman body still remains at the FELD Motorsports studio, long after its retirement.
On January 8, 2005, Superman made its competition debut in Atlanta on the former Power Forward/N-GAGE chassis, driven by Chad Fortune. The truck makes its first World Finals appearance in March of that year.[1] Chad continues to run Superman for the following season, though a few other drivers would temporarily take his place; Marc McDonald in Detroit, after Chad suffered a back injury from a violent flip in Jacksonville;[2] Bryan Winston in Franklin, as part of the Summer Heat tour; and rookie Bobby Parr, who'd make his driving debut in Stafford Springs. In 2007, Chad's freestyle run at World Finals 8 ends with the truck rolling over backwards and balancing on its nose.[3] At the next World Finals, Chad would park the truck inside a large container after breaking the front tie rod on the first hit.[4] Superman would compete in the 2008 European tour. Its chassis would run as BiFi for one show in Brussels.
2009-14[]
At World Finals 10 and 11, Superman would crash early in freestyle both times;[5][6] at the latter event, however, Chad would stay in the lead for the next six runs, due to the difficult nature of the track taking out many other trucks early into their runs. 2011 would be Chad's last year in Superman, as he would switch over to the new Captain America truck, licensed by rival comic publisher Marvel, for the 2012 season. Sean Duhon would become Superman's primary driver for the year, while Dustin Brown would drive the truck in Laredo. That year's World Finals event would be the first since 2004 to not have Superman as a competitor. In 2013, Duhon moves onto the new Zombie truck, while Superman would become apart of Randy Brown Motorsports, touring with Randy Brown in Grave Digger and being driven by Joey Parnell. At World Finals 14, Jon Zimmer runs the body on Wolverine's chassis, since the original chassis' engine had blown in qualifying. Jon would get third place in freestyle, being Superman's highest result of its eight World Finals appearances.[7] Morgan Kane drives the truck in East Rutherford for an encore with Jon Zimmer in Batman.
The following year, Superman would be converted into the Man of Steel truck, based on the movie of the same name. The licenses for both the DC and Marvel trucks would expire by the end of the year, retiring all of Monster Jam's superhero trucks for the time being.
2017-19[]
On March 17, 2017, Superman made an unexpected return in Saudi Arabia, driven by Tony Ochs on the Soldier Fortune Black Ops chassis for two shows. This was made possible by the renewal of DC's contract, which involved the reveal of a new Wonder Woman truck at World Finals 18. Since then, the Superman truck's last appearance was in a promotional video from 2019, in which Shaquille O'Neal visited FELD studios to have an old Superman statue of his repaired.[8]Bari Musawwir was present.
Chad posing on Superman during intros in Washington, Jaunuary 2009.
During intros or at the end of a freestyle run, Chad would usually stand on top of the truck (or a tall obstacle) and perform the "Superman pose", putting his hands on his hips and acting like he was overseeing the crowd from above.
As a former wrestler and football player, Chad Fortune's height (6' 5'') and musculature also made him resemble the character; Scott Douglass would refer to him as "one of the most physically imposing drivers in the sport".[9]
At Belgium 2004, roughly four months before Superman's debut, Chad ran the N-GAGE body for its only four shows. Since the chassis and wheels had already been prepared for Superman, N-GAGE ran with support beams on the back of the chassis (intended for Superman's cape),[11] while its yellow wheels were given to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the time being.[12]
Batman, based on another DC Comics superhero, was intended to debut in 2005 alongside Superman; however, difficulties involving the 3D body delayed the truck by one year.
Both DC trucks were featured in the 2005 Yearbook, where Superman was rendered over an image of Devastator.[13][14]
In the 2006 European tour, Superman had a special intro that involved Chad being dressed up as Clark Kent. He'd then "sense danger" and begin running while taking off his shirt and glasses, revealing the Superman firesuit before the actual truck would come out. Depending on the show, this was presented either in a pre-recorded video (likely shot in a closet at a Clear Channel office) or in-person; if it was the latter, Chad would run behind wall protection before a Clear Channel driver drove the truck into the arena. Chad would then climb up and stand on top of the protection whilst facing the truck.[16]
Additionally, in arena shows, Superman would always be the last truck to come out during intros, with even Grave Digger being introduced before it.
Considering the vast amount of censorship present at Saudi Arabia 2017, it's likely that Ochs was not allowed to run the U.S. military-themed Soldier Fortune Black Ops, so Superman was used as a fill-in identity on Black Ops's chassis to take advantage of the renewed license.
The original Superman Hot Wheels toy from 2004 had a red chassis, yellow windshield, motion lines on the hood, and no logo on the plastic cape. Every subsequent rerelease of this toy would have the exact same design until 2011, when the motion lines and windshield were removed and a yellow logo was added to the cape; the red chassis remained on all subsequent releases.
All of these features (sans the motion lines) were present in the initial concept art of the truck, alongside yellow suspension and a hair curl above the windshield.[17]
In 2020, Spin Master released their own version of Superman, with a custom pickup casting and the character's laser eyes as headlights.
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