Clark Kent chooses to be Superman because of his modest upbringing by the Kents, who instil in him certain values and a moral compass which guides him to this day. Many of us have read the else world stories where Kal-El is raised in different environments, such as in the Soviet Union or raised by the Luthors etc. These stories give us a look into how much Clark Kent is influenced by setting and the people around him.

Recently I read a very good Superman fan fiction where the author reinvented Supermans origin, keeping many things the same but also altering little details. One of which was the part where Jor-El and Lara send Kal-El from Krypton, and how and where they intended him to land on Earth. Upon the craft reaching our planet, Jor-El originally designed it to scan the Earth for a suitable and uninhabited part of the world to land, where the ship would then erect the Fortress Of Solitude around the baby Kal-El. He intended this to be the place that Kal-El would grow up, in solitude away from the humans, and I'm assuming that the Fortress would have built robots to care for the boy and would teach him about Krypton and how to use his powers etc.

While this doesn't actually happen due to the ship being damaged during its decent into Earths atmosphere, leading it to land at the Kents farm, it does make me wonder what kind of Superman would we have had if this DID happen. What would his personality be? What would his views be? Would he still care about the human race?

If we are just products of the environments and the people that raise us, Jonathan and Martha Kent must be among the Earth most unsung heroes for raising the Last Son of Krypton the way they did. If they hadn't, Earth's greatest hero could of easily become Earth's greatest nightmare.