Superman (real name Clark Kent, born Kal-El) is one of the last children of Krypton, sent as the dying planet's last hope to Earth, where he grew to become its kind and noble protector. Using his immense strength, ability to fly, and various other powers, he defends the planet and the universe from powerful threats, all while inspiring hope into others. He is also a founding member of the Justice League and the father of Jon Kent, the second Superman.

Early years

We,ve heard this story so many times. Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton, was born to scientists Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van shortly before the destruction of their doomed world. Aware of their planet's impending fate, they conducted extensive (but remote) research on habitable worlds within range and constructed a rocket so that their son might survive.  As an infant, he was introduced to his paternal cousin Kara Zor-El. In the end, they chose Earth, and managed to launch their son into space mere moments before the destruction of Krypton. Kal's rocket landed in Smallville, Kansas, where he was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent. He was given the name "Clark Kent" and adopted as their son.

Childhood

When Clark began his schooling, Martha and Jonathan were at first concerned that he wouldn't fit in with his classmates, a worry that the young Clark shared. Asking his father for advice, Jonathan simply tells Clark to tell jokes and if he gets people to laugh, they'll be his friends. Clark's first day isn't as difficult as he expects and he ends up making many friends at school, until he notices a girl, Samantha, sitting alone in the playground; ostracized for being different.

Clark decided that he wants to befriend the girl, but feared that if he did, he'd lose all the friends he'd made up to that point. Consulting with his parents, they advise him to befriend the girl regardless of his classmates' opinions. He followed through, and his example inspired others in his class to befriend Samantha.

Martha's cancer

During Clark's childhood, Martha was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent chemotherapy for the affliction; Clark was not told until well into her treatment, when Clark struggled with a new student attending the school, Caleb Withers. Caleb was something of a bully, with misplaced aggression spurred on by his abusive father. Clark struggled with the urge not to respond to Caleb's behavior in kind, something his mother talked him out of, telling him that it was better to help people find the good within themselves rather than correct their behavior by force.

As they were leaving, Caleb kicked a soccer ball into Martha's head, knocking her down and inadvertently removing her wig, revealing to Clark her hair loss. Later that evening, he snuck over to Caleb's house, with the intent to destroy Caleb's bicycle in retribution, only to discover Caleb's drunk father abusing him. As Caleb's father attempted to drive off, he nearly drove into oncoming traffic, with Clark saving his life. He then brought the unconscious man to the local clinic, leaving him there anonymously. Afterward, Clark attempted to cut off his own hair in solidarity with his mother, only to discover that his invulnerability made that impossible at the time. Later, Clark was able to reach Caleb, that he wasn't his father, and that he didn't have to be him.

Caleb eventually apologized to Martha, revealing that he'd cut his own hair in solidarity with Martha as part of his apology. He left to live with his aunt in Metropolis, and one day would grow to run a community center for at-risk youth.[9]

Childhood friends

Growing up in Smallville, Clark found himself becoming best friends with Lana Lang and Pete Ross. The trio were inseparable and did everything together, including hiding from the young Lex Luthor. The first time Clark flew was on instinct; a tornado hit Smallville, and he acted without thinking in order to save Lana Lang's life.  In spite of this, Clark did end up briefly befriending Lex.

Krypto the Super-Dog

Clark Kent and Krypto

One evening, during a family dinner, Clark's enhanced senses noticed an object crashing from space a few miles away. He immediately set off to find it with super-speed, with his parents warning him not to touch it until they arrived. Later, all three converged on the object; a Kryptonian space-pod lodged into a dry creek bed. Clark immediately recognized it as resembling the pod he arrived in, and, reaching out to it, found that it recognized him in turn. It opened, revealing a small dog. The dog playfully jumped on Clark and began to display the same Kryptonian power-set that Clark possessed.

Clark quickly sped off to play with the dog, easily bonding with it. As he did, a holographic recording of his birth father, Jor-El, activates, revealing to his parents that the dog was a test subject for a prototype of the pod that eventually would bring Clark to Earth. The recording also revealed the dog's name, given to him by the infant Kal-El: Krypto. Approving of how happy Krypto made Clark, Jonathan and Martha allowed him to keep and raise the dog.

Teenage years

One particular autumn during Clark's teenage years, the Kent farm suffered a bad harvest; in spite of this, Jonathan Kent decided to share what little they could spare with their neighbors, who had endured worse. The entire community helped each other out, surprising Clark, who had heard that some people disliked each other, and Jonathan explained that people ultimately want to be good, they just need an example to bring out the best side of themselves. Jonathan tells Clark to be that example.

Kal as Superboy!

Clark first debuted as a public superhero at the age of fifteen, when his parents took him to Metropolis to visit the Expo of Tomorrow as a birthday gift. For that trip, he had brought the costume his mother had sewed for him, an action that his parents' disapproved, since they believed he wasn't ready yet to reveal his existence to the world. While there, the Expo was attacked by a supervillain calling himself Raze, and Clark was forced to don his costume in order to save bystanders and stop him. However, his inexperience using his powers in a fight had him struggling heavily, before his father's voice motivated him to use one of his lessons to defeat the villain by making a whirlwind and removing his equipment. After the battle was over, Clark was overwhelmed by people's comments and flew away to his parents, who were extremely proud of his efforts to save lives, even while worried about what would happen next with his secret out.

However, Clark lacked a superhero codename until the newly-promoted Daily Planet editor Perry White took the suggestion of a colleague's niece and called him the first Superboy, a name which Clark enjoyed, even as his parents only allowed him to do superhero work three times a week. In these patrols, Superboy visited for the first time cities like Gotham, Los Angeles and Central City, while learning how to navigate in flight and adapting to his powers, who were not yet as strong as they would be in his adulthood. Nevertheless, in spite of his enjoyment of his superheroics, Clark still had regular teenage struggles, which were compounded by his mother's idea to mantain a secret identity by wearing glasses (who would cut the color of his eyes) and fake a meeker personality.[15]

In his first day at Smallville High School, Clark struggled to make friends due to these attempts to separate himself from Superboy, though he did reconnect with his best friend Pete Ross. He was also bullied by Kenny Bravermen and developed a crush in his old friend Lana Lang, both situations which made his promise to keep his powers secret more difficult to keep. Nonetheless, Clark was forced to act when a fire in the chemistry lab grew out of control after a failure from the sprinklers to activate. After he put out the fire, Clark discovered that the owner of the company responsible for setting the fire supression had taken the money instead of finishing the job, which infuriated Superboy to the extent he broke into his office and threatened him with his heat vision, an action for which he was forced to apologize, leaving the criminal to the police. This outburst greatly disappointed Clark's parents, who believed his job should be to only aprehend criminals, but they were interrupted by a visit from his history teacher, Mr. Blake, who revealed his knowledge of Superboy's secret identity to the shocked Kents.

As this was the first time he was ever accused of being a superhero, Clark didn't know what to say and inadvertently gave away the Kents' concern that Blake was a government agent looking for an alien spacecraft. Then, as the game was already up, Blake revealed he was actually the old superhero Captain Comet, and he had been watching the Kents in secret for years. Comet explained this gross violation of their privacy away by telling multiple stories of young alien superheroes who, due to their recklessness, caused massive devastation in their worlds, and said that Clark would have to prove to Earth that he will always act thoughtfully. Jonathan and Martha were left starstruck by this visit of a hero from their childhoods, but Clark was way more put off by Comet's judgmental tone, and he took out his frustrations by openly using his powers to complete his chores. This led to a fight with his father about being more careful, followed by an argument with his mother concerning the amount of bullet holes in his costume, due to his showing off in fights. In school, Clark's day didn't go any better, as he was unable to talk to Lana due to an interruption by Kenny, which led to Clark thoughtlessly pushing his bully, luckly not making any serious harm. After this incident, he donned his costume and flew away, encountering Comet mid-air. The older hero told Superboy to stop an incoming plague of locusts that was coming for Smallville, before mysteriously disappearing. After several failed attempts, Superboy whistled in an ultrasonic frequency that made them disoriented, before leading them north, as he was unwilling to exterminate any living being. Although pleased that he was able to do some good after plenty of struggling in his regular life, Clark was left even more suspicious of Comet as a would-be mentor.

Superboy kept on testing his powers, including clocking his fastest flying speed of sixty thousand miles an hour with the help of his parents, although the lack of an invulnerable costume proved a hazard. Shortly after this, as Clark Kent, he went in a date with Lana, which quickly turned sour for him after the reveal of her crush on Clark's costumed alter ego made the boy deeply jealous of himself. However, he quickly had to find an excuse to leave, as Comet telepathically contacted him to warn of a threat in New York. While there, Superboy discovered his old enemy Raze had been freed by two other similarly-powered members of Avalon, an organization he was a part of which believed in an inevitable future conflict leading to a utopia for humanity. Raze and the others were attacking Dr. Will Magnus (who had not yet created his Metal Men), and Superboy defeated two of the villains before he was greatly weakened by a sample of green kryptonite in Magnus' lab, even if he did not realize that was the case, since he was still unaware of the element's existence. Superboy was fortunately saved by General Lane and the United States Army, before it was revealed the military's intentions were far more nefarious, as they placed the Boy of Steel under arrest.

At some point, Superboy joined the Legion of Super-Heroes, a superhero team from the future, and fought alongside them in battles against the likes of Mordru and Darkseid. When he was sixteen, Clark briefly considered telling Lana Lang his secret identity, due to his growing affection for her, but he was interrupted by the appearance of Legion villain Validus in Smallville. Superboy went to confront him alongside Krypto, but, in the struggle, he fell into the timestream and briefly glimpsed his own future, with a wife that wasn't Lana. Although the mental block given to him by the Legionnaires prevented Clark from remembering details about his personal future, a gut feeling of uncertainty remained that prevented him from sharing his secret with Lana at this time. Even then, he would eventually confide in her,  though he would only understand the truth behind his subliminal feelings and Validus' attack much later. In a previous iteration of history, on the night of his senior prom, because his adoptive parents discouraged Clark from becoming a superhero for fear what it could do to him, he failed to save Jonathan and Martha from dying in a car accident. This was not a natural occurrence; it was arranged by the fifth-dimensional demon Vyndktvx as part of a multi-pronged attack on Clark at many points across the timeline.

However, when the Justice Society of America was restored to its proper place in the timeline, they set a good example for superheroes to come in the future. With role models to look up to and no reason to stay in hiding, on the night of his senior prom, Clark saved his adoptive parents from dying in a car accident.

Debut as Superman

 Main article: Superman and the Men of Steel

Superman debuts in Metropolis

Upon moving to Metropolis, Clark took a job at the Daily Star and prepared himself to act as a vigilante at the age of 22, by having several shirts printed with the S-Symbol that had come to Earth with him emblazoned on them. His attempt to rescue a young boy caused him to reveal himself before he expected to, and the city came to know of the superhuman man.

Superman and Batman met for the first time while Clark was investigating a series of murders in Wayne Enterprises. The two new heroes were unexpectedly whisked to a parallel reality by Kaiyo the Trickster where they met older and more experienced versions of themselves. When they were returned back to their Earth however, Kaiyo wiped their memories of the whole interaction.

During the Zero Year, Clark attempted to personally disperse Hurricane Rene as it bore down on the coastline, still unsure of the upper limits of his powers. His attempt to divert the hurricane was unsuccessful, but he did succeed in rescuing the tanker Jean-Marie, which had at the time been carrying his childhood friend, Lana Lang as its engineer.

Within six months, Clark had fully revealed himself and was targeting corrupt businessman Glen Glenmorgan when General Sam Lane and Lex Luthor took an interest in him. They staged several emergencies to trap him, finally succeeding with a train crash that endangered the General's own daughter Lois.  In collaboration with the military, Luthor tortured Superman while his Kryptonian Rocket was studied. Upon his escape, Superman sealed his birth rocket away for protection but was too late to prevent its Kryptonian signal from alerting the Collector of Worlds to its location - and unaware that Luthor was complicit in making that happen.

After the district of New Troy had been secretly shrunken down and abducted by the Collector of Worlds, Superman made a giant leap from Metropolis into outer space, catching hold of the retreating spaceship. The Collector tried to force Superman to choose between the lives of those in the city of Kandor and of New Troy, but he refused to choose, instead donning a Kryptonian suit of armor from one of the bottles and promising to protect both.[28] Defeating the Collector and returning New Troy to its original place, Superman then came out officially to the people of Metropolis as an alien and promised to remain on the side of good. Even then, this wouldn't be the last time Superman would fight the Coluan collector, who would become, under the alias of Brainiac, one of Kal's frequent and most dangerous enemies.

Early career

Reluctantly, after encouragement from his boss at the Daily Star, he accepted a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet, where he befriended fellow reporter Lois Lane, photographer Jimmy Olsen and his editor Perry White.[11] On his first day, Clark saved Lois's life during a helicopter crash, in the process debuting a new costume bearing red trunks and a low neckline, but clearly inspired by the Kryptonian armor Clark recovered from Brainiac's ship. Among the first villains he ever faced was the Ultra-Humanite, who developed a lifelong enmity towards him.[30] He also quickly made an enemy of his former childhood friend Lex Luthor, who had become a ruthless scientist and businessman.

Besides Luthor, Clark also encountered around this time several villains who would end up plaguing him for the rest of his career, such as Parasite, Metallo, Bizarro (the first of several imperfect Superman clones using this name), Mr. Mxyzptlk and Toyman.[11]

Early on in his career, before the founding of the Justice League, Clark was displaced into the early 1960s during an unknown incident. While there, he operated in secret- though not secret enough that he wasn't known to the President of the United States. He met with the President, who requested that he, and others like him, come forward and use their collective abilities to make the world a better place. He offered to protect the president in Dallas; Kennedy declined, insisting that Superman assist with a manned flight to the moon. Shortly afterwards, the president was assassinated while riding in his motorcade in Dallas. Eventually Superman was able to return to his own time; when he returned, he did his best to fulfill his promise to the doomed president.[31]

At some point in his early days, Clark discovered another survivor of Krypton's destruction, his own cousin, Kara Zor-El, whose ship had been caught in a time warp on the way to Earth. After a brief stint in an orphanage,[32] Kara was adopted by retired D.E.O. agents Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers in the small town of Midvale, and joined her cousin as the hero Supergirl.[11][33]

Superman also undertook several adventures in the bottle city of Kandor, and, lacking his powers, used the secret identity of Nightwing while there, in honor of a Kryptonian deity. After that, the name was used by his Kandorian cousin Van-Zee, who became one of the city's superheroes alongside Flamebird, and, many years later, by the first Robin Dick Grayson, when he decided to abandon his previous identity, using that codename in order to pay his respects to his friend Superman.[6][11][34]

Forming the Justice League

Clark was among the founding members of the Justice League. While the team's actual first meeting is debated, Clark helped defeat Darkseid's invasion and participated in the subsequent battle with the alien Appellaxians. The heroes, inspired by their victory, formed a team, christening it the Justice League, although Clark only joined them officially some short time after their proper establishment. One of their earliest foes was Starro the Conqueror.[35][11]

Following an encounter between Barry Allen and Jay Garrick, the Flashes of two heroic generations, the Justice Society of America fully came out of retirement to defeat the Crime Champions alongside their League sucessors. The two teams began to act together from this point forward to battle any threats too great for a single band of heroes, such as the Earth 3 Crime Syndicate, which included an evil version of Superman known as Ultraman.[11]

Further adventures

World's Finest

The World's Finest begins!

Over the course of their careers, Superman and Batman and became close allies, despite some initial distrust and the stark difference between their methods and personalities. They would frequently operate as partners, a pairing referred to by some as 'The World's Finest'. At some point, they fought the tyrant Mongul MDCCXC together.[citation needed]

The Devil Nezha

Superman battles The Devil Nezha!

One such outing was prompted by the unexpected team-up of the Gotham-based villain Poison Ivy and the cyborg Metallo under the influence of the Devil Nezha. During the encounter, Metallo injected Superman with a sample of Red Kryptonite, causing Superman to undergo a series of rapid and horrifying transformations. Batman contacted the Doom Patrol, who rapidly arrived on the scene. Luckily, Negative Man was able to incapacitate Superman.[33] The group was able to purge the Red Kryptonite from Superman; Niles Caulder then identified the insignia on the vial that had been used to inject Superman as belonging to the Devil Nezha (having recently recovered Nezha's sword from General Zahl themselves, and recounted the legend of Nezha's creation).

Simultaneously, several villains attacked other heroes, including The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the new hero Captain Marvel. Splitting up, Robin teamed with Supergirl, and the pair traveled in time in order to contact the House of Ji, who had defeated and imprisoned Nezha in antiquity. Superman and Batman traveled to Philadelphia in order to rescue Billy Batson from Felix Faust  Despite some struggle, they were able to defeat Faust and rescue Billy before moving on to aid other heroes.

The pair then went to rescue Wonder Woman and the Flash, who under attack by Doctor Alchemy and Mirror Master respectively. They defeated both villains by tricking Doctor Alchemy into attacking Mirror Master's Mirror, only to be captured by Green Lantern, who had fallen under Nezha's sway.[37] However, the pair was able to escape by overriding Hal Jordan's compromised willpower. The ring, seeing them as one individual and amplified by the ambient magic produced by Nezha, fused Batman and Superman into a single composite being.[38] Nezha did not relent, though, and sent the heroes Black Canary, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Red Tornado after them. However, the fused pair was able to force Nezha towards his far-away tomb with the assistance of the returned Supergirl. Realizing that Nezha was weak to modern technologies, the group managed to imprison Nezha within his tomb once again with the help of a Phantom Zone Projector.

Afterwards, Superman and Batman traveled back in time to the year 1892 to rescue Robin, who had inadvertently become lost in the timestream during his trip to learn from the House of Ji. There, they participated in a circus show undercover, and helped Robin solve an a murder before the trio returned to the present.