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This page covers the DC comicbook hero Superman also known as Clark Kent , Man of Steel , Kryptonian , Last Son of Krypton , Kal-L , Man of Tomorrow , Jordan Elliot , Superboy , Supes , Big Blue , Night-Wing , Nightwing , Nova , Man-God , Mighty One , Blue Boy Scout , The Traveler , Big , Big S . If this is not the page you were looking for check here.
Superman, the Man of Steel, is one of DC Comic's flagship characters. By day, reporter Clark Kent works at the Daily Planet. As Superman, the last son of Krypton is nearly unstoppable.
The Amazing Man Of Steel!
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Characteristics
Publication History
The cover of Action Comics #1, in which Superman was nationally introduced.
Superman was created by writer Jerry Siegel and designed by artist Joe Shuster in 1938, when both were sixteen years of age. The character first appeared in Action Comics #1. According to Shuster, the name Clark Kent was a simple joining of Clark Gable and Kent Taylor, two popular actors of the time.
Although Superman was originally conceived as a bald villain in the early 1930s, it was not till his formal introduction in 1938 that anyone knew about the character. Supposedly Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to Superman to Detective Comics Inc. for a mere $130. After Superman gained in popularity, getting his own book, a syndicated newspaper comic and several tie-in radio shows, the creative duo ended up suing Detective Comics Inc. for more money, arguing that the Superboy character they created was never sold to Detective and that they were illegally using the brand. The company settled for an undisclosed amount, but Siegel and Shuster are both thought to have received very little in the way of profits for their creation. After the success of the Superman movie in 1978, the two were given lifetime pensions of $35,000 a year as well as full benefits. Warner Communications also promised to credit them formally with the creation. But all this came too late to prevent a curse from being pronounced on Superman--a curse which is still claiming victims even after the turn of the third millennium.
Origin
The Golden Age Superman.
Golden Age / Kal-L
When a scientist named Jor-L discovered that Krypton was going to explode, he tries to convince the other Kryptonians to flee the planet. The other people refuse to believe such allegations but Jor-L decides to just save his son. He builds a spaceship to place his infant son, Kal-L, into the ship. He launches him towards Earth while staying on Krypton with his wife Lora. Kal-L lands in Smallville around the same time as World War I. John and Mary Kent were passing by when they saw a spaceship crash land. They would take the infant Kal-L in and raise him as their own, eventually adopting him. During the 1940s, George Lowther’s Superman novel changed Jor-L, Kal-L, and Lora’s name to Jor-El, Kal-El, and Lara. John and Mary would name their new infant Clark Kent. Clark grew up on the Kent farm, and he slowly discovers his super-humanoid powers while still unaware of his Kryptonian origins. John and Mary would eventually pass away, and Clark decided to use his newly discovered powers to help the world. He moved to Metropolis to start his new career as a super-hero; he also became a reporter and worked at the local newspaper, the Daily Star.
At the end of the Golden Age of Comic Books, most of DC Comics did not exist any longer, and it was nearing the launch of the Silver Age. The reason for this was to be able to bring back other DC characters and retcon them to be more modern. DC had decided that they wanted to abandon all the stories in the Golden Age and start from scratch. DC would soon introduce the Multiverse in order to start over while keeping stories from the Golden Age. It stated that Golden Age heroes would reside on Earth-Two, while the Silver Age heroes reside on Earth-One, and the two Earths are parallel. However, a problem resulted with the Superman continuity. As Superman’s stories were continued to be published without interruption since his debut in Action Comics #1 from the Golden Age through the Silver Age. This caused a big problem when they made Superman a member of the Justice Society of America while also being a Justice League of America member on Earth-One. DC would fix this by establishing that there were two Supermen, with Kal-L being the one to reside on Earth-Two and Kal-El would be the one on Earth-One during the Silver Age. They made a few minor details between the two Supermen to make them look obviously different. Earth-Two/Golden Age Superman would continue to be Kal-L with John and Mary Kent. His “S” would be slightly adjusted to look different from Earth-One, and he was given grey hair at the temples to make him look older, since Earth-One was where all the young heroes were.
With the Multiverse, DC was able to continue writing stories for the Golden Age Superman while not interfering with the mainstream Superman. Kal-L eventually reveals his identity to Lois Lane from Earth-Two during the Bronze Age of Comic Books; it was supposedly during the 1950s in comic time but was revealed during the Bronze Age. The couple would get married soon after and stories would be written to describe their early life as a married couple. When Superman started out his career, he was only the protector of Metropolis. Eventually he began to become more confident and he was able to place the United States under his protection. Next, Superman would watch over the entire world. Later they would reveal that Superman was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, but he would actually be just an “honorary member” because he did not participate in many adventures with the JSA. He eventually built a secret citadel in the mountains near Metropolis, similar to the Earth-One Superman’s Fortress Of Solitude.
Superman would meet more Kryptonians named U-Ban, Kizo, and Mala. They were three brothers and were part of the Science Council. They were exiled from Krypton and imprisoned in a suspended-animation vessel when they attempted to conquer the whole planet. Mala would create a counterfeit Earth where Bizarro would come from in the future. Eventually during the Silver Age, Superman’s cousin Kara (later known as Power Girl) was introduced onto Earth. Kara had arrived decades after Kal-L and her ship would educate her through a virtual reality, she arrives in her early twenties.
Superman in the Silver Age.
Silver Age
During the Silver Age, they had decided to create two Supermans instead of just updating the older version. Supergirl was first introduced as Superman’s cousin during the 1960s. Also there were many first appearances for villains such as Brainiac and Bizarro. Superman also helped found the Justice League of America. During the 1960s, his origin was finally explored. Superman was born on Krypton, was named Kal-El, and was the son of Jor-El by Lara Lor-Van. When Jor-El found out the planet was going to explode, he tried to warn the Science Council, but the other Councilors rejected Jor-El’s theory. Jor-El decided to try and build spaceships for his family to escape Krypton, but the disaster came much quicker even than he had expected. The only ship done by the time of Krypton’s destruction was only big enough to fit Kal-El and Lara. Lara elected to stay behind with her husband to give their son a better chance of escaping the explosion. Kal-El’s ship landed in Smallville where he would be discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent. (An earlier version identified them as Ethan and Sara Kent.) They named Kal-El Clark, after Martha’s maiden name, and would proceed in adopting him as their own son. While growing up, Clark discovered his super-humanoid powers, convinced his foster mother to design a uniform for him, and began to work as a super-hero under the name Superboy. As Superboy, he had several adventures in Smallville and became a member of the Legion Of Super-Heroes. When Jonathan and Martha Kent both died of a disease for which even he did not know a cure, Clark moved to Metropolis and went to Metropolis University. He would continue his career as a super-hero under the name of Superman during college, from which he eventually graduated with a degree in journalism; he joined the Daily Planet soon afterwards.
Bronze Age
Superman’s origin story was never altered that much throughout his entire history. The Bronze Age was during the 1970s where writers decided to just tone Superman up a little bit to be more modern. During this era, there were many spin-offs for Superman including “Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.” These were later incorporated into their own title, The Superman Family. Also, Superman movies and television series began to air. When the Daily Planet was bought out by Galaxy Communications, Morgan Edge reassigned Clark to television news as an anchorman and had him co-anchor it with Lana Lang. Since the Crisis on Infinite Earths had not taken place yet, the Golden Age Superman continued his stories through the Bronze Age, and it was during this time that he married Lois Lane and became the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star. Kal-L also discovered a Kryptonian spaceship with his cousin Kara Zor-L inside it.
The Crisis On Infinite Earths marked the end of the Silver Age.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
The Paradise Door is opened.
The Crisis On Infinite Earths story arc was written in order to erase the multiverse in 1985. It was agreed upon by DC that there had been too many Earths with too many mirror images of heroes. Therefore, it was decided to destroy the collection of several alternate realities at the hands of Anti-Monitor. There were five realities that were saved, but these were merged into one reality, becoming Earth-One. Kal-L was erased from history and only Kal-El existed as Superman now. All of Kal-L’s adventures would be replaced with another hero instead. Kal-L was one of the heroes that fought against the Anti-Monitor in hopes to save his reality. The battle took place at the dawn of time, and this was the reason that Kal-L was not fully erased from history. He remained in existence and retained all of his memories from Earth-Two/Golden Age. He became devastated when he realized that everything he knew and loved were erased from history, including Lois. However, this was not over when Kal-L discovers that Anti-Monitor was still a threat to the one reality still existent. Kal-L teamed up with Alexander Luthor Jr. from Earth-3 and Superboy-Prime from Earth-Prime to fight the Anti-Monitor. The three of them won, with Kal-L delivering the killing blow.
Soon afterwards, Alexander Luthor Jr. reveals that he had saved Lois Lane from Earth-Two before she could be erased from history and had transported her to a safe place. Lois and Kal-L were able to reunite, and Lois described the safe place as “beautiful.” Alexander offered the couple and Superboy-Prime the chance to enter this “paradise” since it would not be a good idea to return to an Earth where they had been replaced. They agreed and entered the paradise to avoid causing any havoc on the new Earth-One.
Prior to Crisis On Infinite Earths, it was revealed that Kal-L loved the paradise dimension and had no desire to leave until Lois became ill. Kal-L decided to build replicas of the Daily Star and eventually all of Metropolis. He believed that seeing their old home would help Lois heal, but instead her condition worsened. Alex convinced Kal-L that the paradise was eating away their souls. Eventually Kal-L would gain the desire to escape from the paradise because he began feeling like he was imprisoned. Kal-L would return in the Infinite Crisis mini-series.
Modern Age
As with most of the original super-heroes, especially DC Comics characters, Superman has had several origin tellings over the years. Mostly this was necessary due to the sloppy inconsistency in the first strips from the Golden Age, which never even granted Superman the power of flight for quite some time. These early comics also did not focus on the supernatural and science fiction elements that in time came to be considered part of the mythos. The early Superman fought mostly everyday humans like bank robbers and traffic offenders; most people would not believe this about him if it were not so well documented. It was not till the Silver Age that Superman had fleshed out his powers to what became widely known and began battling aliens, robots and other supernatural enemies. During the Crisis On Infinite Earths, every single DC hero was battling Anti-Monitor. They could not save most of the other dimensions, and this resulted in whatever dimension was left being merged with Earth-One. Following the Crisis On Infinite Earths, DC Comics decided to retire the Silver Age Superman and revamp him from scratch. There was a two-part story titled “Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tommorow?” This was basically a way of retiring the Silver Age Superman. In 1986, writer/artist John Byrne re-imagined the series and rewrote the history from scratch under the title The Man Of Steel.
The Man Of Steel, issue #1, published in 1986.
In all stories, though, the basics of his origin remained that he was born as Kal-El on the planet Krypton and due to a catastrophe that destroyed that planet, he traveled half a galaxy away and was found as a child in Smallville, Kansas, by Jonathan and Martha Kent. The elderly couple, who could have no children of their own, adopted the strange baby and reared him as a normal child by the name of Clark Kent. They kept his origins secret, even from him, till the boy's powers became too hard to hide. In John Byrne's modern retelling, his super-humanoid powers manifested themselves slowly, as opposed to earlier tellings that described Superman's innate gifts right away, which resulted in him never donning the Superboy identity. DC Comics had also intended to remove the Superboy stories from Clark’s early life. In Superman: The Movie, for example, Clark is seen lifting one end of a car as a toddler. Another change was that Jonathan and Martha Kent lived for a long time and are still currently living, unlike the previous versions in which they died before Clark moved to Metropolis. Another change to Superman was that DC wanted Superman to be a little weaker. So they toned down his strength and speed greatly. They also removed his ability to travel through time and also lowered his invulnerability. Instead of being invulnerable, Superman now created an “energy field” around his body when he was exposed to yellow sunlight. Byrne also revamped Superman's greatest enemy on Earth, Lex Luthor, from a criminal scientist and expert jailbreaker to a businessman. Later, Bryne would revamp Kal-El’s arrival on Earth again by introducing the idea that Superman was born on Earth through a “birthing matrix.” Many "Superfans" criticized Byrne for his drastic changes, which would later result in him quitting DC. Even though DC thought his changes were drastic too, they continued to use this origin for Superman.
After High School, Clark left the farm behind and traveled to the fictional city of Metropolis (whose skyline was based on Toronto) and got a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside editor Perry White, reporter Lois Lane and photographer Jimmy Olsen. The newspaper was somewhat modeled after the New York Times and was considered the bastion of serious journalism, with Lane as the go-getter story-breaker and Perry White as the uppity curmudgeon. Clark immediately fell for Lois Lane and over the early years had a hard time dealing with her with his two different personalities. Lois always loved Superman, but Clark never wanted to reveal his true identity. Later Superman would fight the Kryptonian criminals that arrived on Earth through a different dimension. (Whether this was the Phantom Zone, the twilight continuum to which Krypton exiled its criminals, is not known.) Superman was forced to use lethal force on the criminals and as a result, he killed them. Afterwards, Superman exiled himself into space because of what he had just done. Eventually Superman returned to Earth. As Clark Kent, he proposed to Lois Lane and revealed his secret identity to her, and she accepted his proposal.
In any case, Clark's move to Metropolis meant a huge upping of appearances for Superman as the "Man Of Steel" found himself battling all manner of enemies while attempting to protect Metropolis. Superman found some respite in his Fortress Of Solitude, which was a base of operations, most often located in the arctic. Byrne's version used the haven as a way for Superman to be normal and reflect and commune with his Kryptonian nature. Earlier versions had it as an almost zoo of alien artifacts, with a gold door and the usual super-hero trappings.
The Death And Life Of Superman
Superman #75: The Death Of Superman, published in 1993.
Publication History
In 1992, DC Comics published a new storyline called The Death And Life Of Superman that chronicled Superman's death at the hands of a powerful alien by the name of Doomsday, who also fell during the battle. There was huge publicity around the event with national news coverage and it was rumored that Superman really was being killed off for good. For a while there was a very real fear that this would indeed be the case due to declining sales of the once highly valued franchise in the early 1990s. The event instead revitalized the brand with huge sellouts of Superman #75, the issue where the Man Of Steel was finally killed by Doomsday, and the story arc Funeral For A Friend, which had various members of the Justice League grieving for their fallen brother. The coverage of the event was so prevalent in the media at the time that there was even a Saturday Night Live sketch of Superman's funeral that had the Justice League trying to fill in for Superman's many powers by splitting his duties over lesser-powered characters.
The death of an icon.
The renewed popularity of the character was milked for a full year when no less than four separate books with characters claiming to be the real Superman were released. There was a new Superboy, a Cyborg Man of Tomorrow, The Last Son of Krypton, and a character named Steel, who all claimed the Superman mantle. Whether or not DC realized that these new characters diluted the brand or if it was their plan the whole time, Superman eventually was brought back to life through the aid of Jonathan Kent and after battling a couple of his doppelgangers, returned to the hero business.
After Superman's death and life, the series saw a definite shift in focus and storytelling. The largest change was that Superman was now married to Lois Lane and she was also aware of his identity. Newer books focused much more on the life of Clark Kent and were almost similar to Spider-Man books in their super-hero by night, troubled husband by day themes. Another major change was that Lex Luthor, Superman's greatest enemy, became President of the United States and gained much more ambiguity in his moral compass. Many fans welcomed the new changes as they brought about a more serious and realistic Man Of Steel.
Plot
Clark's and Lois’s marriage had to be postponed when a monster named Doomsday arrived. Superman battled Doomsday in order to protect the city. They seemed to be equally matched and Doomsday was even able to cause Superman to bleed like a regular human. In the end, both Superman and Doomsday killed each other by punching each other with full force at the same time. Superman lies there dead as Lois came to his care. However, she feared that she might expose his identity, but that was the least of her worries because she would realize that Superman was dead. They had a huge funeral for Superman, with friends from the Justice League all gathered together. Right after the funeral four different Supermen arrived coincidentally. Superboy, Man of Tomorrow (a cyborg), Last Son of Krypton, and Steel were all introduced as Superman even though none of them actually were. This was the arc called Reign Of The Supermen. Near the end of the Reign Of The Supermen, Kal-El resurfaced with no powers and was using a battle suit. Steel and Supergirl (Linda Lee Danvers) destroyed the battle suit and it revealed Kal-El wearing a black uniform with a silver “S.” Superman would team up with Superboy, Supergirl, Steel, Eradicator, and Hal Jordan to stop the cyborg from destroying the world. Superman would be able to defeat the cyborg, and he revealed that it was the scientist Dr. Hank Henshaw who had been controlling it.
Aftermath
Right after Superman returned to life, the Green Lantern (Harold “Hal” Jordan) went insane and became the villain Parallax. In 1996, Clark Kent finally married Lois Lane in the special issue titled “Superman: The Wedding Album.” During this period, Superman began sporting the long hair with the ponytail. During the late 1990s, Superman was turned into pure electromagnetic energy and gained new abilities such as the ability to phase through solid objects. He could see energy frequencies, and he also drew power from an electrical source. If Superman did not draw power from any electrical source, he would lose his physical electric form. He solved this by wearing a containment suit in order to keep the energy flowing. Whenever he was in Clark Kent form, he would not be able to use any powers. A few months later Superman’s energy would split into two with one being red and the other being blue. Superman would eventually revert to normal and regain his original powers and clothing during the story arc “Superman Forever.”
Superman’s latest retcon
A drawing of Superman and Lois Lane by Jim Lee.
The Saga was updated yet again in 2004 when another retelling of Superman's origin, titled "Birthright," was told by writer Mark Waid. The series mostly tried to clear up loose ends from John Byrne's Man Of Steel series while adding some pre-Crisis elements in them, which was now two decades old. During Birthright, they replaced the “birthing matrix” with Superman being born on Earth back to the spaceship that flies across the galaxy and towards Earth. They also re-introduced Lex Luthor as Clark’s childhood friend. Birthright also brings in story elements from the TV series Smallville, which introduced many teenagers to comics.
Another retcon was in 2005 when DC comics launched the All Star Superman series written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely. This was an attempt by DC to retell Superman's origin without disrupting the current continuity. DC claimed, “This series will strip down the Man Of Steel to his timeless, essential elements.” Morrison had stated that it was loosely based on the Pre-Crisis Silver Age Superman.
Superman vs. Superman.
Infinite Crisis
During Infinite Crisis, Earth-Two Kal-L broke free of the paradise dimension, accompanied by Alexander Luthor Jr. and Superboy-Prime. Kal-L had become desperate to save Lois, and Luthor Jr. convinced Kal-L that the only way to save her was to rid history of the “corrupt” Earth-One and re-create Earth-Two. They escaped and Kal-L tries to recruit Batman, who refused. Meanwhile Luthor Jr. had gone to the Fortress of Solitude and built a machine that would re-create Earth-Two. It worked successfully and Earth-Two was re-created, an act which also transported Kal-L and Lois to the planet. Lois seemed to have revived when she returned to Earth-Two, however she would collapse and die. Kal-L began to attack Kal-El as a reaction due to the death of his wife. Eventually the two would stop fighting when Wonder Woman arrived to stop them. Kal-L finally realized that Alexander Luthor Jr.’s plan to restore the multiverse would kill millions of millions of people. The two Supermen teamed up to stop Luthor Jr. They would confront Luthor Jr. to stop what he was doing, but Superboy-Prime would protect Luthor Jr’s plan. The two Supermen fought Superboy-Prime and drag him to Rao, where a red sun similar to Krypton was located. Next they would take him to Mogo, a Green Lantern planet, and defeat him there. Kal-L was unfortunately wounded during the fight and he died in his cousin Power Girl’s arms. They would bury Kal-L and Lois next to the recently deceased Superboy (Conner Kent). Later DC would release “Infinite Crisis: Secret Files And Origins 2006,” where it revealed the reason the DC Universe had so many continuity errors. It was all caused by Superboy-Prime when he was not happy living in the paradise resulted in him banging on the barrier wall of the paradise. This caused the revisions in the history of the DC Universe. It also reveals that the Birthright origin happened because of what Superboy-Prime did.
One Year Later
One Year after the Infinite Crisis, Superman had apparently lost his powers and had left Supergirl to defend Metropolis on her own. Kal-El no longer had any responsibilities in being a hero and was able to catch up on his regular life and job. He became one of the best reporters at the Daily Planet. Clark was also able to heavily damage Luthor’s reputation in one of his articles. Eventually Clark’s powers would slowly return and he went straight to action to protect the city.
The Mysterious Kryptonian Boy
The mysterious boy from Krypton.
Superman was at the Fortress Of Solitude, activating the hologram of his father for the first time in a long time. Back in Metropolis, Clark got called into Perry White’s office for a little talk. However, Clark heard people screaming for help from a distance, and used his x-ray vision to see what was going on. He saw a meteor about to crash land in the middle of Metropolis. Clark gave White a rather poor excuse and rushed out of the Daily Planet. Superman was able to catch the meteor before it caused more damage, but as it turned out, the "meteor" was actually a space ship. A boy emerged from the ship and Superman took him to the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Superman met the director of the department, named Sarge Steel. They spoke briefly about where the boy could possibly be from, but when they turned around, they saw the boy lifting a television with one hand, and Superman heard the boy speak in Kryptonese. Superman and the boy conversed in Kryptonese, and he eventually stayed with the boy the whole day. After the boy fell asleep, Superman went to visit Lois at the Daily Planet. The next morning, Superman went to visit the child only to discover he had been moved. He found out where they had taken the boy and headed for the Metahuman Affairs Headquarters in Washington, D.C. There, he seized and interrogated Steel. After he found out the information, Superman decided to kidnap the boy, but without using his super-humanoid powers so that Metahuman Affairs could not figure out it was him. Clark then took him to his parents’s farm in Smallville.
Later, Superman took the boy to the Fortress of Solitude, in hopes that Jor-El would know who he was. Unfortunately, Jor-El did not have the boy in his database. Later that evening, Clark, Lois, Martha, and Jonathan were deciding what to do with the boy, since Clark had basically kidnapped him. They debated possibly adopting him, but Lois did not think they could be his mother and father. Superman eventually contacted Sarge Steel to negotiate about the boy. Meanwhile, Lex had been feeding Bizarro with videos of Superman, eventually unleashing Bizarro to get the boy for him. Superman decided to hand over the boy to the Metahumans Department, but his attempt to do so caused a media circus. Then all of a sudden, Bizarro attacked Superman from above. Superman engaged against Bizarro and eventually defeated him. Meanwhile, Lois saw how scared the boy had become and decided that she wanted to adopt him now. They decided simply to take the boy without notifying the Metahumans Department. Clark decided to give him the name Chris Kent. Meanwhile, three more space ships crash-landed near Metropolis, and it was General Dru-Zod, Ursa, and Non who emerged.
General Zod’s arrival
Superman vs. General Dru-Zod.
Zod, Ursa, and Non headed over to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and activated Jor-El's hologram, to look at the knowledge that was still available about Krypton. They stole the Phantom Zone projector gun and headed after Superman, attacking him at the Daily Planet. Zod and Non attacked Superman while Ursa went after Chris, revealing that he was their son. As Zod and Superman clashed, armies of space ships fell from the sky. Zod, who had released all the criminals from the Phantom Zone, then used the gun on Superman, trapping him in the Phantom Zone. As Superman struggled to break free from the Phantom Zone, eventually Mon-El would arrive to help guide Superman away from madness. Mon-El reminded Clark that he had been a student on Daxam who had been studying Krypton. He had followed Clark to Earth but lost his memories. They had met each other during Clark’s childhood. Although he developed the same powers as Clark, he was not Kryptonian. He would be exposed to lead poisoning, and the only way to save him was to send him to the Phantom Zone until Clark found a cure. Mon-El then showed Superman a Kryptonian prison, called Fort Rozz, that was inside the Phantom Zone. The prison was the only place in the Zone where time passed by, and it was the reason Zod and Ursa were able to have their son, whose name proved to be Lor-Zod. Mon-El revealed that Zod and Ursa were able to manipulate the Phantom Zone with the technology inside the Prison to send their son to Earth. Superman decided to go in since it was the only way to get out of the Zone. However, inside the prison there was no yellow sun; therefore Superman would have none of his powers. Also, a criminal named Dev-Em had decided to stay there, but Superman went in anyway.
Superman would fight Dev-Em, but without his powers, he was overwhelmed by Dev-Em’s strength and was nearly killed. Luckily, Mon-El decided to enter as well and saved Superman, despite the fact that his lead poisoning would spread if he entered the area. Superman helped Mon-El out of the prison before he died from the poison, and vowed to find a cure for him. Superman returned to Earth to discover Zod and his army had taken over the city, while defeating many of the heroes. Superman went to Lex first to get some help against the Kryptonians. Although Lex did agree to save the world from the Kryptonians, he did not agree with teaming up with Superman. However, Lex did offer Superman to join up with him and his team.
The Third Kryptonian
The Kryptonian family.
A warship hovered over planet Earth. The people inside of the ship were looking for a male Kryptonian. They found his position over South China Sea, near Hainan. Superman had found a ship and a group of aliens conducting experiments on Chinese men. Superman brought a stop to them and helped the people who were still alive out of the ship. Once everyone was out he took the ship and threw it out into space. It turned out that Superman had been sent there because Batman thought that might be the position of the third Kryptonian.
While flying through the sky he found Christopher Kent flying around. He was meant to be in school, but Superman realized that he was finding it hard to adjust to life on Earth, especially with great powers. So he allowed him to go with him to Gotham, where they visited the BatCave, Batman lair. While Superman and Batman spoke, Robin took Christopher to show him around. As Superman and Batman talked, Superman was told that red solar radiation only “froze” the yellow sun’s radiation. But if still exposed to yellow, it only shocked him. Superman asked him if he can construct a red sun-radiation projector into a watch for Christopher to help him adjust to life on Earth easier. Batman constructed one while Robin was talking to Christopher. Superman then gave him the watch, which made him tired. Looking at the monitor, Superman saw a bridge about to collapse, and he was about to fly off when Chris asked to come along. Superman only agreed as long as he stayed out of sight.
Superman and Chris flew to Virgina where the bridge was collapsing. Superman stopped a few cars from falling, but Chris drifted too far down. While Superman was pulling cars to safety, a car was about to strike the water, but Chris fired a blast of super-breath at the water, bouncing it upwards long enough for Superman to catch them. While they fixed the situation on the bridge, they were being watched by the warship outside of Earth. The person watching, Amalak, revealed that to get the location of the third Kryptonian, he had paid the Actioneer a fortune. He then looked at Supergirl. She mentioned Kandor, and he was shocked that he would get the chance to slay more Kryptonians. Batman contacted Superman and told him of a group of people who had been exposed to toxins that were not of Earth origin, but could be found in tomatoes. He then told him the location where these tomatoes had originated.
Superman traveled to Northern California, near Ukiah. A woman was near some such tomatoes; Superman came close and tried to talk to her, only to be struck so far that he landed in Tokyo. He headed back. She had a gun ready, but somehow, she knew that he would not harm her. Thus, she stowed it away and invited him in for tea. She explained her past before she landed on Earth and gave her real name as Kristen Wells. She had been hunted by a man called Amalak. Much to Superman's horror, as she revealed, there had been a few Kryptonians left traveling around space after Krypton's destruction. But Amalak's men constantly hunted these, and he eventually killed off the rest. She was the only one left. She had heard news of Superman on Earth and had decided to travel there for cover. But while they were talking, Amalak and his men tore off the roof of the house where she had been living.
In Metropolis, Amalak's men ambushed Supergirl. Also in Manhattan, Power Girl and Krypto were also ambushed.
Superman believed that Karsta would help him fight the battle against Amalak, but she ran away, and Superman was struck with a blast from Amalak’s red solar radiation gun that sapped his strength for a second. But because the house was in open daytime with the sun’s radiation striking him, the effects were short-lived. No sooner had he gets his focus back and flown away than an artificial kryptonite gun was fired at him, and he was bombarded with its deadly radiation. Batman heard the commotion and headed off to help while the other Kryptonians, Supergirl, Power Girl and Krypto were fighting the rest of Amalak’s men.
Superman fired his heat vision up to a satellite. It deflected into his apartment, and he left a message for Lois to get Chris into safety. While Superman was in a weakened condition from all the attacks, Amalak struck him and planted him on a machine that entered his mind. Superman’s willpower was too strong, however, and he entered Amalak’s mind. He saw the reason Amalak was attacking them all; many of his men were killed by General Dru-Zod. But the cavalry came to help Superman. Amalak ran while the rest of the men took care of Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl and Krypto.
Karsta, while in outer space and ready to leave, took what she thought would be one last look at Earth, but she saw Amalak’s ship in orbit. Scanning it, she traced the radio communications below.
Amalak approached the Fortress Of Solitude only to find Batman waiting there. He tried his best to slow Amalak down while the others stopped the rest of his men. Batman succeeded in slowing Amalak down enough for the others to come and help. They arrived to find that Amalak had Kandor in his hands, but a bright light shone from Kandor and it disappeared. Superman struck him, but all of them were weakened from battle, so Batman shut down the watch Chris was wearing. Amalak was beating the weakened Kryptonians, but they were helped by Chris, who struck him. Superman got up and battled on, getting weaker. They got close to the portal to the Phantom Zone. As he was close to going in, Superman was saved by Karsta. She threw two bottles, which exploded and sent out yellow sun radiation, which bombarded and re-empowered the Kryptonians. They then dealt with Amalak quite easily. Karsta then took the responsibility of handling Amalak and took him away. They all said good-bye to her.
The Known Super-Human Powers Of Superman
Golden Age
The Golden Age Superman did not have super-humanoid powers that were as great as they eventually became. The stories also established that all Kryptonians could use the same abilities as Superman on Earth; however, how they did that was never fully explained.
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-Flight - Superman was always, as per the famous radio-series introduction, "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound," and leap 1/8 of a mile to be exact. However, by 1943, he possesed the power of flight.
- Invulnerability – Only strong military weaponry, specifically "nothing less than a bursting shell," could pierce his skin.
- Leaping Ability – As per the famous radio-series introduction, "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound."
- Super Strength – Early on, Superman's debut showed that he could lift cars easily. As the stories continued, Superman became, as per the famous radio-series introduction, "more powerful than a locomotive." He was shown to be able to throw Army tanks with little effort, and on one occasion, he pushed an ocean liner into a drydock with his own power.
- Super Speed – Originally he was faster than a speeding express train. However, as the stories continued, he became, as per the famous radio-series introduction, "faster than a speeding bullet," and by 1947, he gained the ability to travel faster than light, and was even enabled to penetrate the time barrier by his own powers,as shown in a story where he time traveled back to Krypton to find out about his true origins. No version of Superman ever gained the power to change the past, and this one was no exception.
- Super Breath - Initially, he could hold his breath for hours. However, as audiences came to expect more from the Man Of Steel, his power level increased to the point where his lungs could withstand any pressure or lack thereof. Superman often relied on this power for space-travel because he could not breathe in space, at least not until the Silver Age.
Silver Age
The Silver Age Superman, before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, became the most powerful incarnation of Superman. They also established that he gained his power from Earth's yellow primary, and that Krypton's red primary was what caused Superman to lose his powers. In the Silver Age, Superman became so powerful that the writers found it more difficult to come up with suitable stories. The writers of the radio series also introduced kryptonite meteorites, thereby giving Superman a weakness, initially to meet Clayton "Bud" Collyer's demand for a vacation. Superman’s strength in the Silver Age compared to the Modern Age could be referenced in Infinite Crisis. Superboy-Prime is basically the Silver Age Superman. Superboy-Prime easily overpowered Superman and was able to defeat many DC heroes.
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- Flight - Superman still retained his power to fly, though it was increased to a much higher extent.
- Hearing – This allowed Superman to hear anything, anywhere.
- Healing Factor – Whenever injured, Superman would heal at an accelerated speed.
- Heat Vision – Superman was able to fire a melting hot beam, presumably infra-red radiation, from his eyes.
- Invulnerability – Superman’s invulnerability became so great that he could fly into the core of a sun without being injured.
- Mental Powers-Superman gained the ability to learn foreign languages in mere seconds after a conversation. He learned all known Earth languages and gained the knowledge of 28 known galaxies by this means.
- Super Breath – Superman was able to inhale enough air and exhale it with enough force that he could create hurricaine like effects, and he could even create more fine-tuned effects as well. His Super Breath ability was so powerful that he could extinguish stars with it. He could also produce freezing air so cold as to encase an opponent entirely in ice.
- Super Hypnotism -Superman would use this power often to remove his powers for sustained periods of time, usually no longer than 24 hours. Superman also used this ability to cover up his diguise and thereby preserve the secrecy of his dual identity.
- Super Strength – Superman’s strength level became so high that he was able to move planets.
- Super Speed – Superman was now able to travel faster than the speed of light and even cross the time barrier.
- Super Ventriloquism-Superman would use this ability often to fool people into thinking he was in two places at once, again to preserve the secrecy of his dual identity. He would also use this ability to speak to people on the other side of the continent!
- Vision powers – Superman was able to see through solid objects and see things microscopically.
-Telescopic vision-Superman could see across the universe with his telescopic vision.
Modern Age
After the Crisis On Infinite Earths, John Byrne instilled boundaries for Superman’s powers, mainly to help the writers come up with stories. Superman retained most of his Silver Age powers, but they were severely weakened. Superman lost the ability to move planets, travel at the speed of light, or travel through time, and though he could still survive an atomic blast, it would severely injure him. He lost his super ventriloquism, hypnotic, and mental powers. All his other powers were hobbled. After Byrne left the series, other writers began increasing his powers again, though they were not increased to his pre-crisis level.
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- Flight – Superman could still fly.
Hypersonic flight remained possible for him, but "super-luminal" (faster-than-lightspeed) flight did not.
- Hearing – No longer able to hear at instellar distance,but was able to hear faster than the speed of sound,as shown when he instantaneously arrives at Umec to shield Lois Lane from a bullet,upon hearing the shot blast in Metropolis.Actual sound waves would took roughly 7 hours to reach Metropolis.
- Healing Factor – Weakened.
- Heat Vision – Originally weaken,but as the story continues,once again,his heat vision is hotter than the core of the sun.
- Invulnerability – Weakened at first,as shown in Superman #9,he was unconcious for half an hour after a 40 megatons bomb explodes in his hand.As the story continues,Superman once again had the ability to survive the core of the sun,as shown in Action Comics #782,where he survived the immersion into the core of the sun with no problem.
- Super Breath – Weakened.Strangely enough,he doesn't use this ability often
- Super Strength – Weakened.His strength level remained high, but he no longer able to move planets as easily as before.
- Super Speed – Early Superman reboot stories shows that he can accelerate himself roughly 1% the speed of light,as the story continues,his speed was increased to the point where he manages to move at high percentage the speed of light.
- Super Hypnotism - Lost.
- Super-Ventriloquism – Lost.
- Super-Intellect – Unknown, but presumed lost.
-Super vision:
-Telescopic vision-Though he lost his ability to see across the Universe, he could still see distant galaxies.As shown in Superman #152,when Superman uses his telescopic vision to peer across the galaxy to WarWorld.
-Microscopic visionAble to see at subcellular level,as shown when he analyzed Bizzaro's cellular structure.He was even able to see on molecular level,as shown when he analyzed the molecular composition of Magpie's acid gas.
-X-ray vision-Superman still retain this ability after the John Byrne reboot.
DC Animated Universe
In the popular DC animated universe Superman is second only to Batman in his successful shows. Superman the Animated Series lasted four seasons and made 54 episodes. Afterwards both Superman and Batman join together with other DC characters in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons. Justice League and Justice League Unlimited lasted Four seasons and made 91 episodes. Superman was also very prominent in the DC Animated Universe comic books that are part of the same continuity as the cartoons.
Alternate Universes
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Stan Lee recreates for DC the origins of Superman
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