| SUPERMAN (Clark Kent / Kal-El) | BIOGRAPHY |
| Created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, revamped by John Byrne |
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Superman by Ed McGuinness
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PERSONAL DATA
Real Name: Clark Kent / Kal-El
Full Name: Clark Joseph Kent / Kal-El
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Adventurer, newspaper reporter, columnist, novelist, former editor for the Daily Planet
Homeworld: Krypton
Place of Birth: Smallville, KS
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Jor-El (father, deceased); Lara Jor-El (mother, deceased); Jonathan Kent (adoptive father, deceased), Martha Clark Kent (adoptive mother), Lois Lane (wife); Sam Lane (father-in-law, deceased); Ella Lane (mother-in-law); Lucy Lane (sister-in-law); Harry Kent (adoptive uncle); Sarah Kent (adoptive aunt); Kara Zor-El (cousin); Zor-El (uncle, deceased); Alura Zor-El (aunt, deceased)
Base of Operation: Metropolis, USA and the Fortress of Solitude, Arctic (formerly Antarctica)
Group Affiliation(s): Justice League of America
Group Affiliation (former): Legion of Super-Heroes; Justice League International (reserve; formerly)
Gender: Male
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 225 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
First Appearance: Man of Steel #1 (October 1986)
First Appearance (historical): Action Comics #1 (June 1938)
Creators: Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, revamped by John Byrne
OVERVIEW
Superman is the last son of the dead planet Krypton, rocketed away as an infant by his father who believed that the planet was about to explode. Arriving on Earth, the child was taken in by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who raised him as their own child. As he grew up, he discovered that due to this solar system's yellow sun, he had fantastic powers, of flight, speed, strength, endurance and enhanced senses. He decided to us these powers for good, ultimately becoming a hero, given his name by reporter Lois Lane, with whom he would come to work at the Daily Planet in his civilian identity and to whom he would eventually become married. Superman carries the most respect from the Western world that any super-hero has ever known and is proud to represent both America and the world. He serves on the JLA, debatably as the team's leader.
HISTORY
Few beings have such a pronounced effect on the history of one world as Kal-El of Krypton has had on the planet Earth. The last survivor of his doomed homeworld he was rocketed to Earth as a child, where he grew up to understand the awesome responsibility that his powers gave him. It is a responsibility that he is uneasy with but handles well.
When he speaks other people listen, his very presence and personal stature make him an equal with the New Gods and an almost messiah like figure to some normal humans. He is a true hero, with a spirit strong enough to endure heaven, hell, resurrection, vast physical changes and keep down a full time job at the Daily Planet. His new energy powers are a consequence of the way that the Kryptonian body processes solar energy. When he was depowered a massive bombardment of solar energy re-energised him and supercharged him shifting him up a gear in to the new energy form.
As an icon he has prompted the genesis of a second generation of superheroes, he has always been a reserve member of the Justice League and has in the past served as its leader before he was killed by Doomsday. He is now the most high profile of the current Leaguers and is often perceived as its leader.
For aeons the Kryptonian civilisation had evolved from humble beginnings, through vast planetary wars and a flowering of both cultural and scientific thought to become one of the most technologically advanced cultures in the Galaxy. However there was a price to pay for this Utopian world. As their technology grew and they achieved near immortality via medicine their society lost the human aspect, they shut themselves away in ivory towers fearing unprocessed soil and individual thought.
It was in to this dying society that the scientist Jor El was to come. One of Krypton's greatest thinkers for generations it was he who finally diagnosed the strange "Green Death" that was killing the population. He discovered that the ancient wars had taken a toll on the structure of the planet unleashing tremendous forces that were fusing the native elements into a new a radioactive compound. It was the radiation from this Kryptonite that was killing his people. However the ruling body would not believe Jor El's prediction that the continuing synthesis of Kryptonite would cause a chain reaction that would destroy the planet.
Knowing that the end was near for his planet Jor El removed his son (still in his artificial womb) from the traditional chambers and placed him in an experimental space craft. Jor El and his partner Lara launched the craft as Krypton began to die. In their last moments together Jor El declared his love for Lara, an act that was totally alien to that cold, dead society.
The craft that carried Jor El's son was programmed to head for our solar system where it finally crashed landed on the back water Kansas farm of Martha and Jonathan Kent. Finding the child in the capsule they rescued him and due to a freak snow storm were able to announce the child, young Clark Kent, to the world as their natural born son.
Clark was not like the other normal children in Smallville, the differences were not immediate to start with, but as he grew he found that he possessed powers and abilities that were far beyond those of his fellow mortal men. Upon graduating from High school he revealed his abilities to his childhood sweet heart Lana Lang and left to explore the world. He roamed the world, helping in secret, developing contacts and sources that would stand him in good stead for a future career in journalism.
Upon reaching Metropolis, Clark entered Metropolis University where he majored in Journalism completing the course in a fraction of the time that it took most students. While there he fell in love with Lori Remis only to lose her when he found out that she was from the Atlantian city of Tritonis and that he thought that she was dead.
With an interview lined up for a position of the Daily Planet, Clark was waiting around in Metropolis enjoying the two hundredth anniversary celebrations and went down to the airport to watch the new NASA space plane come into land. Near tragedy struck when a small plane crashed into the Space Plane. In an instant Clark knew what he had to do. Using his superpowers to catch the falling plane he at last revealed his existence to a watching world. Moving at superspeed he was able to save the plane and make a get away (bar a brief encounter with the reporter Lois Lane).
Clark returned to his parents in Smallville to seek their advice over what to do next. The world had seen him as a superhero, but had not yet made the connection to Clark Kent. It was Jonathan Kent who came up with the idea of a costumed identity of Superman modelled on those of the mystery men from the Justice Society.
Disguised himself while as Clark Kent he returned to Metropolis where he was able to deliver to Perry White the inside scoop on Superman beating Lois to the story (something that she did not easily forgive him). With Perry, Lois and club photographer Jimmy Olsen, Clark was able to build up for himself a second family in Metropolis. All the while Superman patrolled over head fighting the forces of evil that threatened the world and the city.
As Superman he became the focus for the superhuman activity on Earth, his appearance prompted J'onn J'onzz to go public and many other superhumans to use their abilities for the greater good. He worked closely with the Justice League and grew to be the spokesperson for the metahuman community.
Over the course of a decade Clark cultivated his circle of friends including the docker/bar owner Bibbo, the absent minded Professor Hamilton, José Delgado a.k.a. the Gandbuster, Guardian and the genetic whiz's from the Cadmus Project, fellow reporter Cat Grant and the otherworldly Supergirl. At the same time he also made numerous enemies including the billionaire Lex Luthor and the Apokolips sponsored crime cartel of Intergang. Clark also fell in love with Lois and over time she grew to love him to the extent that they agreed to be married (after he revealed that he was secretly Superman to her).
Superman eventually met his match in the form of Doomsday, an alien powerhouse trapped for millennia deep beneath the Earth. Freed Doomsday caused a trail to destruction that headed straight for Metropolis. In a grandstand battle Superman was able to defeat Doomsday, but in the process both combatants lost their lives. In the vacuum left by Superman's death four would be heroes emerged Superboy (a clone created by Cadmus), Steel (an engineer who designed battle armour to rid the city of a weapon of his own design now being used by the street gangs), the Last Son of Krypton (later to be revealed to be the Eradicator) and the mysterious Cyborg who actually claimed to be the reanimated corpse of Superman.
Brought back from the other side by a combination of advanced Kryptonian medicine and a near death experience by his father, Jonathan Kent, Superman was not in time to stop the Cyborg (in truth a vengeful former enemy) and the alien tyrant Mongul from destroying Coast City. With the help of his stand-in's, Supergirl and Green Lantern Hal Jordan he was able to defeat the bad guys.
The time that he had been dead caused a number of problems, including competition at the planet from new reporter Ron Troupe. An old figure from his past nearly caused him to lose his cover identity and he obtained the Bottle city of Krandor to look after. However he was to face another challenge when the Sun was blotted out by the Sun Eater. Without the Sun's energy Superman quickly lost his powers and was left powerless. A condition that did not improve when Parallax gave his life to destroy the Sun Eater.
Superman was able to regain his superpowers with the help of the New Gods however not everything was the same as it had been. Kent slowly started noticing an ongoing mutation in his powers and physical existence in a process that came to a head when he mutated totally into an energy based being. It was only Professor Hamilton using Kryptonian circuitry and Lex Corp. experimental cloth that saved Superman by creating a containment suit that allowed Kent to control his new powers. Shortly afterwards he was split into two different beings by the Cyborg, the impulsive Superman Red and the more thoughtful Superman Blue. In an interesting development, when he was Clark Kent he was totally human. As an energy being he was later split in two, and for a while there were two Supermen - Superman Red and Superman Blue. Following his selfless sacrifice for the world during the Millennium Giants crisis, he became his old self again.
POWERS AND WEAPONS
Kal-El's Kryptonian physiology means that under a yellow sun (a.k.a. ours) his cells become supercharged via solar radiation, effectively heightening every normal human ability hundreds of times over. This means that he is one of the strongest and fastest people on the planet. A natural bio-electric aura accounts for his invulnerability acting like a natural force field mere millimetres from his skin, this accounts why his costume is often protected, it was also how Doomsday was able to kill him (when exhausted his aura weakens). The accentuation of normal abilities also applies to his senses allowing his the ability to see most of the EM spectrum, extreme detail and to literally focus past normal matter (a.k.a. X-ray vision).
Perhaps the most notable of Kal-El's powers is his ability to fly by a form of self-telekinesis that also applied to any heavy object he was carrying. A final ability was that he was able to tap his solar energy reserves and to expel that energy via his eyes as a form of "heat ray" vision.
During the time when Kal-El was turned into an energy being he was able to alter his density from intangible down to the point where he was a normal human. In his human state he possessed no powers and was no more powerful that the average human male. The nature of his energy matrix meant that he could control all forms of energy allowing him to control magnetism, gravitational forces, radiation and electricity.
As an energy being Superman could travel as a bolt of lightning landing with a jolt where ever he landed. He displayed some other abilities including the ability to link with electronic systems such as computers, see in vastly expanded and different radiation spectra, emit electrical blasts and to produce a "solid field" that allowed him too physical interact with objects. He was also able to control the shape and size of this field.
CHRONOLOGY
For a definitive list of appearances of Superman in chronological order click here
PROFILE REFERENCES
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #22 (December 1986)
Who's Who in the DC Universe #1 (August 1990)
JLA Secret Files #1 (September 1997)
Superman Secret Files #1 (January 1998)
Superman Secret Files #2 (May 1999)
Superman Metropolis Secret Files #1 (July 2000)
JLA-Z #1 (November 2003)
Superman/Batman Secret Files 2003 (November 2003)
JLA-Z #3 (January 2004)
Superman Secret Files and Origins 2005 (January 2006)
Superman: Secret Files 2009 (October 2009)