Siegel created ten of the earliest members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of DC's most popular team books, which is set in the 30th Century.

[1][5] Siegel was born on October 17, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York in 1900, having fled antisemitism in their native Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.

Siegel described his friendship with the similarly shy and bespectacled Shuster: "When Joe and I first met, it was like the right chemicals coming together.

In the summer of 1935, still living in Cleveland, he and Shuster began selling comic-book stories to National Allied Publications, the primary precursor of DC Comics, in New York.

[11] Siegel and Shuster had been developing the Superman story and character since 1933, hoping to sell it as a syndicated newspaper comic-strip.

But after years of fruitless soliciting to the syndicates, Siegel and Shuster agreed to publish Superman in a comic book.

In March 1938, they sold all rights to Superman to the comic-book publisher Detective Comics, Inc., another forerunner of DC, for $130 ($2,814 when adjusted for inflation).

At the conclusion of the trial, Siegel and Shuster agreed to relinquish the copyrights of both Superman and Superboy in exchange for a settlement of just over $94,000 (equivalent to $1,200,000 in 2023).

[19][20][13] After leaving DC Comics in late 1947, Siegel and Shuster created the comedic superhero Funnyman, which proved unsuccessful.

Siegel's contributions during this time are difficult to determine because DC Comics did not generally give creator bylines.

[22] DC Comics ceased giving him work in 1966, when the company learned Siegel and Shuster were planning a second lawsuit to reclaim the copyright to Superman.

[23] Siegel again fell into hard financial times after this second dismissal, as he was unable to find regular writing work.

For a period of seven years, he worked as a typist in the mailroom for the Los Angeles Public Utilities Commission, later telling an employee newsletter "[w]ith all the troubles and prolonged litigation I have had over, I just wanted to hide out.

In response, Warner Bros, agreed to give Siegel and Shuster a lifetime stipend of $20,000 a year (later increased to $30,000) in exchange for not contesting ownership of the copyright to Superman.

The story is about a vagrant named Bill Dunn who gains vast psychic powers after taking an experimental drug.

Siegel's writing career there was interrupted in June 1943 when he was conscripted into the Army, though he continued to receive credit for stories written by ghostwriters.

[30] During his first tenure at DC Comics (1935–1943), Siegel created the following characters: During his second tenure at DC Comics (1959–1966), Siegel created several characters relating to the Legion of Super-Heroes, including members Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Triplicate Girl, Invisible Kid, Matter-Eater Lad, Phantom Girl, and Chameleon Boy; and enemies Cosmic King, Lightning Lord, and Saturn Queen, who are part of the Legion of Super-Villains.

This was unacceptable to DC Comics, so they instead made a deal with Magazine Enterprises, a comic-book publishing company owned by Vin Sullivan.

1963), introducing the teenaged Torch's high school girlfriend, Doris Evans; and, under his own name, a backup feature starring the X-Men member Angel, which ran in Marvel Tales and Ka-Zar.

[35] Siegel worked for Archie Comics in 1966, on series including The Fly, The Mighty Crusaders, The Web, and Steel Sterling, all starring characters revived from the 1940s.

In Stars and Stripes, he had a small humor column titled "Take a Break wit T/5 Jerry Siegel".

In Midpacifican, he wrote the comic strip Super Sam, in which an Army private gains superpowers after receiving a blood transfusion from Superman.

[40] In 1968, he worked for Western Publishing, for which he wrote (along with Carl Barks) stories in the Junior Woodchucks comic book.

A projected series, The Starling, about a woman struggling to raise her half-alien, shapeshifting son after his deadbeat alien father abandoned them, went unfinished due to Siegel's death in 1996.