What is this allusion referring to? "he was so strong, i expected him to tear off his shirt and reveal an "s" on his chest." famous literary work pop culture fairy tale history

pop culture.

It's referencing Superman.

You could argue that Superman stems from a body of famous literary work (that is, the source comics), but that's probably not what they're looking for. As Superman is best known from a combination of comics, cinema, TV and merchandise, it's basically a pop culture reference.

B) Pop culture.

Explanation: allusion is a literary device that consists in making a brief reference to a person, an event (historical, political, cultural, etc), or a place. In the given sentence, we can see an example of an allusion to pop culture (corresponding to option B), specifically the speaker is referring to Superman (tear off his shirt and reveal an "S" on his chest), which is a symbol of pop culture.

heritage? culture? religion? gene? trait?

the answer is both an appeal to ethos and logos (if that's what your question options were)