“Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s Superman!”
For generations, those words conjured up images of one of the world’s most beloved superheroes, fighting for truth and justice. These days, take a drive into the heart of Massac County to the city of Metropolis, and you will arrive in the hometown of Superman, a title given to this community by D.C Comics in 1972, complete with a towering 15-foot bronze statue of Superman guarding the town square.
If you want to know more about The Man of Steel, there is no better place than the Super Museum and Gift Store in southern Illinois.
“This happens to be the only Metropolis in the United States, so we’ve adopted Superman to be our hometown hero,” said Morgan Seibert, who owns the Super Museum and Gift Store. “This place is all about Superman. We sell Superman gifts, store items, toys, comics, clothes, trinkets, cups, anything you could imagine about Superman, we have it.”
Lunchbox, legacy, and a little boy named Jim
The Super Museum got its start from Morgan’s father, Jim Hambrick, who transformed his childhood fascination with Superman into a lifelong passion. Over his life, he amassed a collection of more than 100,000 Superman treasures, which eventually became the foundation for the world-famous Super Museum.
“This all got started with a lunchbox,” Morgan recalled, her voice carrying the warmth of a story shared with love. “My great-grandmother gifted my father a Superman battling a robot lunchbox when he was 5. My dad kept it in pristine shape, and everyone knew to get Superman toys for Jim when he was growing up.”
Young Jim Hambrick had the instincts of an entrepreneur before he even had a business card.
“He would charge other kids a nickel to come into his bedroom and see his Superman collection,” Morgan said with palpable pride in her voice. “So, entrepreneurship started at a very early age for my dad.”
The collection grew the way great obsessions do, with relentless joy and vigor.
“He kept collecting and collecting,” Morgan explained with a smile, “He ended up having the world’s largest Superman collection by his early twenties. Then he started traveling with his museum and meeting celebrities and booking conventions all around the country.”
While Jim was crisscrossing America with the world’s greatest Superman collection, Metropolis resident Bob Westerfield was laying the groundwork for his community to be the hometown of Superman. Westerfield is credited with recognizing that the man with the super huge Superman collection needed to be aligned with the town of Metropolis.
“Bob Westerfield, reached out to my dad in 1986, the year I was born, and he started talking to him about coming to Metropolis,” recalled Morgan. “We moved to Metropolis in 1993 to open the Super Museum.”
Morgan said she quickly warmed into a life tied to Superman.
“I started out watching cartoons running in the museum with Superman fighting robots and punching through lightning rods and things like that. And I just liked being around it, and I liked talking to people about it and hearing their stories.
“I made the choice to travel across the country and open this business with him,” grinned Morgan. “Who wouldn’t want to get to wear a cape to work every day as a kid?”
Morgan was nine years old when the Super Museum and Gift Store opened its doors. She said she wasted no time getting to work.
“Our retail store started with a six-foot plastic folding table,” Morgan recalled, laughing at her childhood memory. “I started painting rocks green to create Kryptonite for our gift store. At the age of nine, I was helping my dad run the cash register and taking museum admissions and answering Superman questions.”
In December 2024, Jim Hambrick passed away. The weight of that loss is present in every corner of the museum he built. But so is his spirit.
“I made it my mission to memorialize him in ways that I think he deserved, because I know how hard he worked,” said Morgan quietly. “If you come into our museum, you’ll see his urn. Through our City Council, I was approved to erect a historic marker (about Jim Hambrick) which sits in front of our store. You can read some information about what my dad brought to the community of Metropolis.”
A man who started this adventure with a nickel admission and a bedroom full of collectibles now rests, fittingly, among the greatest Superman collection on earth.
A global destination
Jim Hambrick built something extraordinary. But Morgan decided the Super Museum and Gift Store needed to be even grander.
“As proud as I am of my dad, I’ve brought some things to the business that I feel we needed,” Morgan said. “I’ve increased our online presence and do a lot of social media and stay connected to fans that way. I share a lot of behind-the-scenes things we’re doing.”
The fans, it turns out, are everywhere. Not just in Illinois or even the United States.
“Our customers come from all over the world,” Morgan exclaimed. “There’s a mixture between your standard tourist traveling and avid Superman fans. We’ve had people come here from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Russia, Ukraine. There are Superman fans all over the world.”
Visitors at this unique destination first walk through the gift store before checking out the Superman artifacts and memorabilia in the museum, and then they emerge back into the gift store, often with wallets open and hearts full.
“Having the museum has been a big driver for the gift store,” stated Morgan. “People will go through the museum, and then maybe they’ll come out in the gift store and they need to buy a cape, so that they have something to remember their visit by. I think visiting the museum inspires people to go into the gift store and get a keepsake from their visit.
“At the store, we sell T-shirts, coffee mugs, keychains, postcards, souvenirs, of course. We sell Kryptonite. Clark Kent glasses. Anything to do with Superman,” Morgan explained. “They like to find a nostalgic item, or sometimes people look at things as an investment these days. People collect comic books for different reasons now and toys for different reasons, and they hold on to them.”
Running the world’s foremost Superman destination is not a nine-to-five proposition, according to Morgan.
“For me and my husband, Adam, Superman is an all-day job. We’re working on it 24/7,” stated Morgan. “I handle all of the social media at night, and Adam does a lot of the retail and face-to-face, talking to people about Superman and buying and selling vintage toys.”
Morgan watched her father do interviews for years, saw him featured in books, on television, radio, and at conventions across the country. Now, she is stepping into similar shoes and carrying the family name forward.
“I’m kind of taking off, following in his footsteps. I get to travel to conventions and talk to people about Superman,” said Morgan. “I meet a lot of cosplayers. I’ve been featured in books, and so is my husband, Adam. I guess we’re kind of experts, too, now.
“It makes me very happy because I’m very proud of what we’ve done,” Morgan explained. “We get to interact with fans and get to do a lot of cool things.”
Ask Morgan why any of this matters, and why a museum in a small Ohio River town dedicated to a fictional character deserves to thrive, and her answer is unambiguous.
“This place matters because it showcases every version of Superman,” Morgan said. “Superman means hope. But also, he means looking out for each other and helping people when they need help and not giving up on people. Superman doesn’t even give up on villains. He always gives people a second chance. That’s kind of my favorite thing about Superman. He’s always kind of smiling and offering a hand to help.”
It is a description that fits the character. It also, quietly, fits the woman behind the counter. Morgan also knows her father would be very happy about the place he founded.
“I think if my father were here, he would be really proud at the ways I’ve honored him,” smiled Morgan. “On the retail side, I think he would be proud of how beautiful our store is, because we started with an old antique store and a hardware store, and we’re putting a lot of blood, sweat and tears and love into it, and I think it shows.
“I think he’d be proud that I’m keeping his legacy alive and the story of Superman,
Superhero help needed
Morgan stressed that in today’s economic climate, keeping costs under control is critical to retail success and that legislative support is also essential.
“If lawmakers of Illinois are reading this, I want you to know please, go easy on us small businesses and these tough districts with increasing sales tax,” explained Morgan. “We offer a novel product. You can only get this experience here in Metropolis. But we’re located directly across the river. So, any increase in sales tax can impact us. As far as shopping local, we are located across from Kentucky, where sales tax is less and gas is more affordable. So, these increases in taxes in Illinois do impact our small community.”
Morgan understands the unique challenges of being a seasonal retailer and has advice for others who want to achieve their business dreams.
If you’re thinking about going into retail, my advice would be to know your customers,” said Morgan. “Know if you’re in a seasonal operation before the season starts. Just make sure you’re putting some money aside and planning ahead, because if you’re in season, you need to make sure you’re hiding away some nuts, like a squirrel. Even Superman, even in this store, we are seasonal, and our season runs from mid spring until around the end of September. That’s our best season because school is out of session and kids and families are traveling. So, that’s when the most people are coming through the area.”
Superman inspires super smiles
There is a particular kind of joy that Morgan has experienced, which has nothing to do with price tags or profit margins. She has witnessed it countless times at the Super Museum and Gift Store. A grown adult, perhaps with a little gray hair, walks through the door, and suddenly stops with eyes wide open and their hand reaches for a Superman memento.
“The benefits of a life in retail has been connecting people to that object, that thing that they’re looking for,” Morgan said. “Especially when it comes to vintage toys, because somebody might have had something when they were four, and they come in our store and they get all excited at 55 years old and suddenly all those memories rush back to them. Getting to be on the side of that where you’re reconnecting somebody to their childhood is really special.
“I hope people walk away after leaving our place with a little bit of that nostalgia,” smiled Morgan. “I hope they feel a little lighter when they leave and a little more connected to who they were when they were kids.”
Only on the quiet banks of the Ohio River in Metropolis, can a beloved superhero create so many super memories for everyone. That’s just the way Morgan wants it.
