Superman (Russel Keaton)

This is an early incarnation of Superman, but he is very similar to the modern version of today. Despite Shuster being a co-creator of Superman, Russel Keaton helps envision this prototype with Jerry Siegel.
==The Character==
Though he is very similar to the modern Superman, Keaton's is actually the first Superman possessing the ability to fly and he comes from our future. When his parents send the toddler in a time-machine to save him from the destruction of our planet, they send the machine to 1935. Passing motorists run into the capsule, finding a baby inside, the Kent's turn the child over to an orphanage, where he displays great powers beyond mortal men and wreaks havoc. Deciding to adopt the boy, the Kent's name him Clark Kent.
==Development==
After the failure of the heroic strongman version of Superman, as Jerry Siegel would later explain, in 1934 Joe Shuster had become discouraged with the Superman newspaper strip and decided to let it go. His departure prompted Siegel to look for a replacement, so he sent an inquiry to Keaton. Based on the surviving artwork, it would appear that Keaton did indeed prepare a set of sample daily strips for the syndicate to review. Had Siegel and Keaton succeeded in selling the strip, the history of comics would no doubt have been far different. At the very least Russell Keaton, not Joe Shuster, would most likely be remembered today as Superman’s co-creator.
The material also provides a decidedly different take on Superman’s origin. In this version, the infant Superman arrives here from the future via a time machine, sent to 1935 by “the last man on earth.” The couple that discovers him: Sam and Molly Kent. The story then takes a series of fascinating turns in regard to Superman’s childhood, which is the subject of the first extended storyline. Most poignant: in a nod to Siegel’s own immigrant parents, the boy speaks a language that Sam and Molly don’t understand, leading them to speculate that he came from “a foreign country.” The secret of his origin appears to lie in a cryptic “Mystery Note” found in the time capsule, but–as is all too common in immigrant families–when Clark Kent grows up he can no longer read the words.
==Trivia==
*This is the first time the Kent's are used in a Superman story, their names are instead Sam and Molly Kent.
*Seeing the surviving artwork, it is likely that Superman didn't have his iconic costume (which in the Siegel's canon as revealed in Superman #5 he made by himself from indestructible durable materials he also invented by himself), rather had futuristic clothing.
*In this version Sam Kent (this version of "Pa" Kent) is shown of wanting to teach boy to hide his powers from others or people will be scared of him. A detail that was only came to be "officially" in 2nd iteration of Siegel's Superman origin in Superman #1, which was original explanation for why Superman-Clark Kent has double identity, although in the Siegel's comics sometimes "Clark Kent" part would act "out of character" and demonstrate invulnerability or super strenght while in his civillian clothing, but it was either before he let villains that saw him die in a car crash or when Clark Kent was in a different city. This detail was partly lost in the future characterizations of Pa Kent, where it would be him who is on dying bed encouraged Clark to become Superman (since Bill Finger's version of the origin in Superman #53), or when he, as Jonathan Kent of Earth-1, demanded Clark not to use his powers and not be Superboy for a while, just for sake of keeping his foster son "grounded" to humanity rather than to protect his secret. Later on only Mark Waid's Birthright origin reboot of Post-Crisis Superman , as well as Zack Snyder's film Man of Steel will reinstante such detail into Superman's origin. 
*Just like people of the planet Krypton aka the "race of supermen" in other Siegel's work, Superman as well as others of his kind were powerful even in their own native enviroment, similarly to Viltrumites from Image Comics or Martians from DC Comics later on when Kryptonites/Kryptonians were made to be powerless on their own planet. Earth of the past-present (in the offically released Superman comics by Siegel) only amplified Clark's abilities because of it's lower gravity. It is not clear whether this 1934 version was also positively affected by his current place of living. 
*Superman ,who is actually literally Man of Tomorrow, ie from the future Earth, will be made "officially" by the Superman Red Son Elseworld story. With main difference being that Red Son's Superman powers were result of yellow/younger Sun's radiation, which wasn't power source for any of Siegel's version, in fact Siegel's Superman and supermen from Krypton ,in unreleased K-Metal from Planet Krypton story, were said to be powerful because planet itself galvanized them with strenght, only to later on, while Superman was on Earth robbing him from any strenght while making any Earthling as powerful as Superman (this was original prototype for Kryptonite rock, which will positively affect Humans only in Birthright reboot of the origin and in some stories that followed that reboot). 
Category:Science Fiction Heroes
Category:Selfless
Category:Strong-Willed
Category:Superman Heroes
Category:DC Heroes
Category:Humanoid
Category:Superheroes