Superman

Superman

### Relatives

Lois Lane(Wife), Jonathan Samuel Kent(son), Jor-El(birth Father), Lara Lor-Van(Birth Mother),Jonathan Kent(adopted Father), Martha Kent(adopted mother),Kara Zor El(Cousin)

### Affiliation

Earth, Krypton, Superhero Community, Justice League, American Government

## Physical description

### Eye color

Blue

SUPERMAN

In 1938, the Superheroic Age began with the arrival of Superman. Perhaps the greatest hero of the modern world, his influential style and strong moral character made him symbolic of the era as a whole, where a number of individuals took to the streets and fought for justice. With the powers of flight, super strength, heat vision, and much, much more, he is undoubtedly a figure of great interest in 20th Century history.

## **Superman I: Clark Kent AKA Kal-El(1938-1969)**

Jor-El was a distinguished scientist. Lara Van-El's occupation is debated, varying from an astronaut to a Robot repair specialist to a Librarian. She may have been all these things. When the two were married they exchanged bracelets with colors customized to them. Krypton had films, referred to as "Emotion Movies" or something closely translated to that and Lylla Lerrol was a popular film actress at the time and acquaintance of the Els. Jor-El became famous when he thwarted the schemes of the mad scientist Gaz-Or to threaten Krypton with an earthquake machine. Ga-Zor was the first criminal exiled to the Phantom Zone, As a reward, Jor-El was given access to the brain sphere holding the consciousness of Garf-Og, a great scientist who's mind had been preserved beyond his death, essentially as a hologram imitating his consciousness not unlike Jor-El would appear before his own son.

Jor-El became aware of Krypton's destruction but had not yet considered the solution was in space. instead considering entering the Phantom Zone. It was Lara Van El who gave him the idea as they travelled across the sights of Krypton, progressing that their world would soon be destroyed.

"How free and aloof those stars are! How distant from the impending doom! Oh, Jor-El! If only we, too, could be up there, safe to pursue our lives as we please!"

"Lara! Lara, you've struck upon the solution."

"I've what?"

"Up there! Among those stars. There lies our security! I'll build a ship...an ark of space. We'll transport our planet's entire population to another world!...Then, by all the powers, let Krypton blow itself to eternity for all we care!"

Jor-El began researching for a suitable planet the Kryptonians could move to using the planet's advanced telescopes. He found Earth, the close world to them that could sustain their population. It was unknown to him but at the same time Jonathan and Martha Kent were falling in love. Jor-El made a trek to Earth. The Green Lantern of Krypton's sector Tomar Re stopped him but when he explained his purpose, he was allowed to pass. Tomar Re reported what Jor-El had discovered. The Guardians however, still viewing the Kryptonians as a threat due to their own long lifespans, chose to let Krypton die. Tomar Re was shocked but feigned compliance, allowing Jor-El to establish a fortress in the arctic on Earth and housing the Phantom Zone Projector on Earth as a weapon to be used on Krypton's enemies as well as to prevent Gaz-Or's potential release. Tomar Re did his best to argue Krypton be saved, often clashing with a Lantern Member Rogol Zaar, who harbored a prejudice towards Kryptonians due to clashes with several of their number, along with Viltrumites, which left him scarred.

Jor-El then set about building a space ark with his friend robotocist Ken-Dal. At this time Brainiac, a Coluan who extended his mind with Robotic constructs, established himself as a Kryptonian Super Computer. Brainiac denied Krypton's destruction to their ruling council. Jor-El discovered Brainiac was stealing Kryptonian information from their databanks. While he briefly framed Jor-El, the ruse led Brainiac to flee, shrinking the city of Kandor in the process which contained the arks. This greatly hampered Jor-El's efforts as many now felt Space was a dangerous place and also removed many of his followers. Another effort was made in the city of Argo.

### **1914: Birth**

Kal-El was born to Jor-El and Lara. When he was born he gave the doctor a black eye and very nearly leaped out of his mother's hands. Jor-El arrived late.

"Jor-El! You've come!"

"As quickly as I could! Lara, my beloved, where is he...our newborn son?"

"Jor-El, I'm afraid our newborn son, Kal-El, is rather a roughneck. He gave the doctor a discoloured eye, and I've had difficulty in preventing his leaping from my arms."

"Just like your dad."

Then there was an earthquake which wrecked the building. Jor-El was separated from Lara and the infant before retrieving them from the rubble. Kal-El slept through it

"How peacefully our little darling sleeps! He's too lost in slumber to be bothered by the fact that soon our world will be torn asunder, killing us all!"

"Lara, it's not right for him to die! He's young...he's entitled to a rich, full life...and we'd made such wonderful plans for him!"

"But to build this vast space-ship, which you propose to transport our civilization to another world, you will need the assistance of many men."

"I'll go to Retoz, the Council-Chairman, and ask for the Council's support!"

It was at this time that The Kryptonian General Dru Zod attempted to take over Krypton under his command. He believed Jor-El was wished to force an evacuation. He was defeated and Jor-El was forced to disown his efforts as Zod and his followers were exiled to the Phantom Zone. Jor-El then attempted one final time to warn the council.

"But I tell you, Retoz! It's the only way we can save everyone from a terrible death! You've got to believe, and help me!"

"Sorry, Jor-El. The council believes your fears are unfounded---we'd advise you to forget this silly tale of Krypton's coming doom."

Jor-El returned to Lara defeated.

"You saw the council?"

"They laughed at me---doubted my sanity---because of their stupidity, a world will die."

"No, Jor-El, you mustn't be discouraged.---With or without the council's assistance, you must build this space-vessel."

"Well, at least you and little Kal-El believe in me."

### **1917: Escape from Krypton**

Jor-El began to work on another ark. Some Kryptonians including Dev-Em, believed him and took measures to escape the planet. Dev-Em attempted to launch himself from the planet on a ship placed in Kryostasis, but the ship engines died down, leaving him in orbit. Jor-El built small prototypes first, lacking enough time to complete an ark, but did assist the city of Argo, and hid Crystals with a hologram of himself on the planet Earth in the Arctic for his son. Kryptonians had made heavily monitored visitations to research on other planets before and one such visitation resulted in a race of canines being brought back and evolving on Krypton. Jor-El had a puppy in his car which he tested the first pod on. It was small and went off course. Jor-El was able to witness this with a Kryptonian telescope but thought the pod lost. It would eventually succeed in reaching Earth much later than intended. There was no time for another attempt.

Jor-El and Lara placed their son in the rocket and it took off. Jor-el and Lara embraced and kissed each other as Krypton exploded. The city of Argo waited until the last moment to orchestrate their plan, becoming sealed in a dome and propelled into space by the blast as a floating city.

Kal-El's rocketship was nearly brought into the gravity of a sun but avoided a fiery death.

(Allegedly Kal-El's ship passed through an alien field that created a duplicate of the ship, resulting in an energy being identical to Kal-El crashing onto Earth and being raised by criminals until he battled Superman in adulthood after taking the name "Super-Menace" before killing his foster parents and exploding. This is false and most of the story of Super-Menace is actually based on the origins of Kal-Il of Earth 3, who did indeed crash on Earth was raised by criminals, becoming one himself, not as Super Menace, but under the name Ultraman).

Kal-El's rocketship crashed in Smallville, Kansas, where it was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who were driving nearby when a nail had punctured their tire. The Ship was on fire in a cornfield and the two quickly ran to put out the flames.

"Good Heavens! Look, Martha! It's a child!"

"The poor thing! It's been abandoned!"

Jonathan Kent pulled the child out and the elderly couple ran before the ship exploded. Jonathan began fixing the tire when the Truck(a Model T Morgan), nearly fell on him but the young infant stopped it, holding it up. Surprising the Kents.

The couple did not immediately adopt Kal-El but instead turned him over to an orphanage when they saw his abilities. There the infant's strength was observed by Doctors. He was able to lift a drawer over his head. The Kents later changed their mind, having no children of their own( as they were unable to), and returned to adopt the boy. The Doctors were secretly pleased as the boy threatened to wreck the entire asylum. However, because of these finds, the government was aware of Kal-El's assistance and discreetly observed him as he aged. Such fantastical elements were still rare then but not unheard of and they grew to believe that raising the boy in an all American environment was ideal. The Kents named him Clark. For they were unaware of his Kryptonian name and only guessed at his alien origins.

Clark's exact birthdate is unknown and he celebrates the date of his adoption instead. However he was clearly a few years old rather than an infant, at least by human standards. He is assumed to have been born around 1914 and made it to Earth in 1917.

Jonathan Kent had an iron playpen made after a wooden one broke. A minister came to the house asking for Clark to be baptized but Martha insisted on doing it at home. Young Clark was carefully taught right and wrong and to be careful with his strength. Thankfully his powers, like himself, were in their infancy and would grow over time but were at reduced capacity at the time. He was forbidden from jumping which to him was a great leap. He was not punished physically since the Kents could not harm him but he was taught to be sensitive and so developed a great sense of guilt for even the smallest wrong things he did. At age four and a half Clark entered Sunday School. He had trained to hide his strength and did it perhaps too well as he would often exaggerate, pretending to be unable to lift even books.

### **1918: Learning to Read**

At age five, Jonathan Kent talk Clark Kent to read over a winter. He learned quick and became fascinated with books. His rumored strength from his orphanage days mixed with him being seen as wimpy led him to spend a lot of time alone reading.

### **1919: The Bully**

At age Six, Clark entered School One day he saw a Bully beating up a smaller kid and intervened. The bully tried to kick Clark but hurt himself. Clark then lifted him up upside down. "This will teach you not to pick on anyone smaller than you!" with the Bully screaming "STOPIT! STOPIT! I didn't mean ta hurt him!". Clark made him promise to not do it again as well as threaten him to keep quiet about what he saw and the Bully agreed. He was then dropped and ran off screaming. The boy he saved did not run screaming from him but instead thanked him, introducing himself as Pete Ross. They were around six or seven.

### **1920: The Wagon**

At age Seven, Clark Kent stumbled onto a man who became trapped under a wagon with people trying to help him out. Clark, without anyone seeing, helped lift the wagon and they got the man out. Not realizing it was all Clark, the men told the young boy to scram.

(*Superman/Batman: Generations* by John Byrne depicts Jonathan Kent and young Clark Kent observing the future with a Kryptonian device called the Chroniscope. From this the Kents and Clark knew he would become Superman. They also saw Superman working with Batman and looked into the latter's origins using the device. specifically they fast forwarded to Batman revealing his identity as Bruce Wayne and learned that the Waynes would be murdered in 1924. He contacted the Waynes when they visited the county in 1920. The Waynes were kidnapped by the Ultra Humanite. Bruce escaped, disguising himself with a fox mask and helped Superboy rescue his parents and defeat the villain. Jonathan Kent then showed the Waynes their future. However, the Waynes realized the good Batman would do and willingly chose to allow their fate to happen.

This story occurred in 1920. It did not take place on the "Main Earth" of Earth One. The main problems with this is the Chroniscope. A Kryptonian device. If these devices were common on Krypton then surely there'd have been more time and resources given to abandoning the planet. Jor-El could have invented it and gave it to Clark but this also takes away some of his agency in becoming Superman. I propose instead that the Legion of Superheroes, or at least one of their members gave a young Clark Kent the Chroniscope. It would hold records of what will happen until at least the 30th century. That information would at some point become outdated before that as the Butterfly effect would mean the world would change. I believe the world of *Superman/Batman: Generations* is the DC designated Earth 3839. However I shall use the Designation of Earth 39. This world changed in some ways from Earth One. Captain America was not rediscovered by the Avengers but by Batman and Robin. Hal Jordan, likely seeing through the Chroniscope that he'd become Parallax, refused to become a Green Lantern and went into politics instead, the Ultra Humanite killed many of Superman's friends and family's likely because he had not done so in the previous timeline and they were caught off guard. Other changes will be discussed later on. Another reason why this cannot be canon is that the Superman of the Golden Age didn't know he was an alien until his adulthood).

### **1921: Superboy**

At age 8, The Kents had forgotten Clark was different. He had worked to hide his strength and did his best to act normal but this was when Jonathan Kent finally had a talk with him. Jonathan showed Clark the rocket, but both only guessed he was possibly an alien and believed he may have also been an experiment of some sort. The Kents all feared Clark would be dissected by scientists if the truth came out and strengthened the idea of Clark hiding his abilities while doing good. Clark began testing his abilities more and more. Smallville had few buildings. He climbed them and leaped from one to the other and outran a train. A young Lois Lane saw him running and tried to point him out to her parents but was ignored.

Deciding he wanted to help people with his abilities, Martha Kent fashioned a costume for him based on Circus Strongmen with the sigil of the House of El she had briefly seen on the ship. She insisted on no mask because when people saw what Clark could do they would fear him and being able to see someone's face would help gain their trust.

(At the time Clark Kent did not call himself Superboy and largely stayed hidden, saving people in secret, usually out of embarassment for his costume. He was usually referred to as "The Blur" due to rarely being seen).

### **1925: Crosstime Crisis**

In 1925, Clark Kent along with his friends, Pete Ross, and Lana Lang were surprised when the time travelling superhero Saturn Girl burst into the Kent home looking for Superboy. Clark Kent was shocked at this. A spaceship filled with strange armored creatures crashed near Smallville. Clark Kent quickly donned his costume and investigated. He was attacked by the creatures known as Parademons. The US army, commanded by Captain Sam Lane arrived to battle the creatures as well. Clark did his best to fight the beasts while avoiding detection from the soldiers.. A Young Bruce Wayne was also present but was just passing through and witnessed the event. Lana Lang and a young Lois Lane found and entered Saturn Girl's time machine. They were transported to and back from the future. The aliens were defeated and Clark Kent avoided being seen by anyone. A dying Saturn Girl used her powers to erase the event from everyone's mind after the alien invaders disappeared upon defeat. This left it a great mystery as to what had transpired there since no evidence of the attack remained. Saturn Girl hid herself before death. this left only dead soldiers and Clark being surprised at his injuries. Unknown to all, this was in actuality the first of many attacks from Apokolips and Darkseid.

### **1927: Legion of Superheroes**

    Clark was 13, when he heard someone shout to him. "Hey, Superboy!". That was the second time he'd been called that. Not that he remembered the first time. This was Clark's first meeting with the Legion of Superheroes from the 30th Century. The group saw Superman as an inspiration and were aware of his history on Earth. Clark was brought to the 30th century while still in the costume. He was introduced to The Legion of Superheroes: a team of heroes who were inspired by legends of Superman fighting crime as a teenager. The team consisted of Imra/Saturn Girl, Garth/Lightning Lad, Rokk/Cosmic Boy and Brainiac 5. The Legionnaires had Clark compete against each of them in a battery of tests, in order to evaluate Superboy's worthiness to join the Legion. Superboy technically failed all three tests, albeit because he was distracted by crises popping up elsewhere on the way to his objective. When Clark took the declaration of his rejection by the Legion like a good sport, not once considering making excuses for himself, the Legionnaires informed Clark that they were truly testing Clark's character with his response and had simulated all the crises that diverted Superboy from his objective all three times. Superboy was thusly made a member of the Legion.

From the Legion, Superboy learned of his legacy in the future, by visiting a museum dedicated to himself. Brainiac 5 watched this and explained that most of the information on Superman was lost during a great Crisis. Clark spoke with Saturn girl, who revealed they brought him to their time to assist in fighting a team of escaped supervillains called the Fatal Five. When the Fatal Five attacked Clark appeared to run off, resulting in the other league members being easily beaten. Clark returned wearing the super suit and took on the entire team, he did well until the group began to overpower him, the legion members saw this and resumed fighting and ultimately triumphed. Clark spent much more time with the legion until thwarting an attack on Earth by the Sun Eater. After which the Legion erased his memories and sent him back to the instant he disappeared, in order to preserve history. He returned to the moment he had vanished and had now, for reasons unknown to him, changed his mind about his costume.

### **1929-1936: Superboy Era**

(According to Superman/Batman: Generations, In 1929, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne first met when a young Bruce and Lois were separate winners of a journalism contest held by the young Bruce Wayne and stopped a gang together with Bruce wearing a prototype Robin Costume. This is false).

(Several events are said to have occurred during this time but exact placement is difficult. To discern a few. Lar Gand, also known as Mon-El, a Daxamite who befriended Superboy before lead poisoning forced him to reside in the Phantom Zone. This did not occur in this point but much later in 1961. Superboy did not know he was an alien until 1941.Meaning he could not have confused Lar Gand for Mon-El due to the message Jor-El left and did not have the resources to deliver him into the Phantom Zone. The same applies to his encounter with Dev-Em. Recall that his mind was erased of his time with the Legion of Superheroes).

At one point, A Scientist attempted to clone Superboy, creating the first "Bizarro". a flawed clone, due to the scientist not knowing Superboy was an alien, presuming him to be an advanced human. This clone was feared by everyone except for a blind girl named Lucy Lane who loved him. He began to fall apart and turned into a dust which cured Lucy Lane's blindness. It is believed that Bizarro intentionally sacrificed himself for the girl's benefit (*Superboy #68,1958*).

Clark Kent also met a friend of his, Lex Luthor. The Kents did not trust him and convinced Clark not to reveal his identity to him. Luthor one day discovered an unnamed element, which he exposed Clark Kent to, making him sick. Clark fainted, unknown to him he had just suffered his first bout of Kryptonite poisoning.

At University, Clark Kent as Superboy met a girl named Lori Lemaris. Lori however would always make excuses at night. Clark Kent investigated and discovered she was a Mermaid from Atlantica. Despite the marriage of Princess Ariel to Prince Eric of the Southern Isles, there was still isolation between the Undersea Kingdom and the rest of the world. Atlantica had perfected a spell that allowed Mermaids to walk on land for a period of a few days, at first three but then advanced to six. If they did not return then they would remain human. This was why Lemaris and Clark could not stay together, lamenting that they were of two different worlds. Lori Lemaris would find true love but be tragically killed in the 1985 Crisis on infinite Earths.

### **1936-1938: Freelance Reporter**

For a Time, Clark Kent travelled the world as a Freelance Reporter, working many Jobs, Occasionally leaping in to save people from disasters, and even overthrowing a corrupt Dictator in Africa. He was in Africa(and had yet to develop Super hearing) when the Second American Civil War broke out after Berzelius Windrip became President. He did not return to the US until it was too late. It was this that convinced him. to remain in America. Finally he made his way to Metropolis. Clark chose the city because of the news of a giant gorilla attacking the city in 1933. He also wouldn't be alone as other heroes resided in the city including the Shadow, The Spider, The Avenger, Doc Savage and others.

### **1938: Superman Begins**

Metropolis was one of two major Cities built or a least supervised by Famed German Engineer Dr. Rotwang before his death. Each City was rebuilt and made more advanced "updates", providing technology such as Televisions, robots, and Monorails. These cities were: The Berlin-Metropolis, and the New York-Metropolis. Clark Kent arrived on a train in the New York-Metropolis, and rented a Penthouse. The next morning he tried out several jobs: pro footballer, and Major League baseball player.

Superman made his debut when ten bank clerks became trapped in a bank vault. He pried the Bank Vault open. Only eight bank clerks escaped. Two had died because Superman had not heard of the incident in time. While he had dabbled in a career in journalism since he worked on the Smallville school paper. This cemented it. He needed to get the information faster and a career as a reporter was the quickest way to get it.

Clark earned himself a job as a reporter at the *Daily Star.* The Editor in Chief at the time was George Taylor. There was also the copyboy Jimmy Olsen. Most important to Clark. This was where he first met Lois Lane. Lane was the daughter of Sam Lane, and Ella Lane. Sam Lane was a General in the army who retired to a Horse farm in Iowa(Despite later depictions of Sam Lane greatly exaggerate his Anti-Superman traits for Drama, with him working with Luthor and the US army. The original Sam Lane seemed to harbor no such grudge and was much like Jonathan Kent, approvign of Clark Kent. In actuality Superman clashed more with General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross who distrusted all Superhumans. Thaddeus Ross was also Ironically the father of Peter Ross, Clark's childhood friend). Lois Lane had two sisters: Margo Lane, an ally of the vigilante the Shadow, and Lucy Lane, who had once lived near Smallville. Born blind she had seemingly been miraculously cured and would pursue a career as an airline stewardess. Lucy Lane married a man named Thompkins and had a niece named Suzie Thompkins.

Despite his honorable intentions, Superman was not initially considered a hero, and was in fact regarded as a vigilante working outside, and at times, against the established legal authorities. Many of his earliest public actions showed Kal-El engaging in aggressive actions against wife-beaters, slum lords, and various other social criminals, which included corrupt politicians and law officials. As time progressed, Kal-El began to fight against larger, more direct, and obvious criminal organizations which gathered his public identity as a hero.

As Clark Kent, he reported on his own costumed adventures and was eventually partnered frequently with Lois Lane, a courageous female reporter who had a crush on Superman, but who didn't think much of the timid Clark Kent. Lane and Kent would usually butt heads with each other on getting the most adventurous stories, but the two eventually became respectful of each other. Lane would eventually start to suspect that Kent and Superman were one and the same, based on Kent's continual absences whenever Superman would appear, and Kent's extensive detailed reports before Lane could phone in the story, despite being at the scene of the adventure. She first became suspicious when her and Kent were tasked with travelling to South America and she was nearly executed by a firing squad after accused of being a spy only or Superman to save her. Naturally she was suspicious that Superman was Clark Kent but couldn't prove it. It was after Superman saved her an an entire town from a collapsing dam that she realized she loved him. Clark Kent on his part felt an attraction but was still uncertain, fearing that Lois was getting close to Superman only to reveal his identity and get herself a pullitzer.

Explosions were seen on Mars, and Earth feared the Sarmaks, the Alien invaders from 1898, would be returning. George Taylor sent Clark and Lois to report on a meteor, which had crashed the previous night. They arrived just in time to see Professor Ogilvy and Alexei "Lex" Luthor investigate the meteor, which was in fact a giant metal cylinder. The lid unscrewed and the crowd around the cylinder cried in horror as they saw a Sarmak emerge. Professor Ogilvy waved a white flag in hopes of communicating with the Sarmak, but was incinerated by one of their weapons. The crowd started to panic as more shots were fired. When Clark Superman protected Lois from the rays.

The Army arrived and prepared to deal with the cylinder when it opened and tripods emerged. The five tripods started firing at the army, whose weapons were useless against the metal hulls. Superman picked up a cannon and beat a tripod with it. As he finished off the Sarmak inside, the four remaining tripods walked to Metropolis. Lois met up with Lex and they retreated to Lex's laboratory. Earth's forces were being massacred until Superman joined the fight in Metropolis. Superman fought the tripods as best he could, but was subdued by another alien weapon, the black smoke. The tripods captured Lois, blasted Clark with their heat ray. He would have passed out were it not for another hero, the Rocketeer, becoming involved and saving him. The two heroes worked together to rescue Lois. Luthor was forced into working with the Sarmaks and discovered that Superman's blood prevented them from becoming sick. At Luthor's request, Lois has been kept alive, mostly to keep Superman in check. The Sarmaks had also attacked Washington D.C., Nazi Germany, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The Sarmaks now no longer needed Luthor to help them study Superman and they prepared to devour him. Anticipating this, Luthor freed Lois and allowed Superman and the Rocketeer to enter. Superman started fighting the Sarmaks. After leveling the ones inside the ship and the ones tending to their human prisoners, Tripods arrived and Superman took them down as best he could. The last tripod discarded its legs and began to fly. As Superman took the last one down, he collapsed from exhaustion and from the wounds he received from the Heat-Rays. Acting on Superman's insight, Luthor quickly found a way to destroy the remaining Sarmaks from the inside and clear the black smoke, allowing Sunlight to hit Superman and him to survive. Luthor then fled to avoid capture.

Other Sarmak attacks failed including a group of Superhumans protecting Washington D.C., Advanced technology in Nazi Germany destroying the Tripods there, the United Kingdom deploying a biological weapon created by Doctor Moreau, and the Tripods in the Soviet Union were torn apart when they crossed into an area in which the more hostile alien invaders known as the Chimera were contained.

Clark Kane and Lois Lane was repulsed by the news falsely reporting outside the infected areas that the attack had been a Radio hoax perpetrated by Jake Hannaford, who himself witnessed the invasion but passed out from exposure to biological weapons. This was especially insulting as Daily Star Editor in Chief George Taylor had been killed by a Martian Heat Ray (*Superman and the War of the Worlds*).

(*Superman and the War of the Worlds* is an Elseworlds story. Superman dies in the original story. Rocketeer's presence is due to a cancelled Superman/Rocketeer story in which the two fought the Martians in 1938).

Luthor fled to Germany, Clark Kent and Lois Lane were still working as reporters. the Daily Star was renamed the Daily Planet and was given over to a new editor in Chief, Perry White. White sent Clark and Lois to Europe, where Luthor was planning on starting a war. Clark found him attempting to convince Germany to invade the Sudetenland. Luthor was actually working with Hynkel to accomplish this but when Superman thwarted his scheme, he was able to trick the man of steel into thinking he was acting alone. It was possibly Superman's greatest failure, knowing he could have ended the war there and then.

### **1939: World's Finest**

Superman encountered his first true supervillain, a journey to the future not withstanding, in the form of the Ultra-Humanite. A Wheelchair bound criminal Genius who made up for his physical weakness with a brilliant criminal mind.

Superman and Batman met for the first time, at the Metropolis World's Fair in 1939. Bruce Wayne attended with Vicky Vale while Clark Kent and Lois Lane also attended. Clark Kent and Lois attended Phineas Horton's presentation on the Human Torch Superman saved Bruce Wayne from a rampaging robot controlled by the Ultra Humanite and Lex Luthor. That night Batman snuck into the Fair to investigate any evidence left by the robot, encountering Clark and Lois doing the same. Batman attempted to incapacitate Clark with a sharp strike to the neck, forcing Clark to feign fainting to preserve his secret identity. A piece of metal from the robot was discovered. The next day the Villains had henchman kidnap Lois and attempt to Kidnap Bruce Wayne when he saw them doing so but a young Dick Grayson, who was performing at the Fair, intervened and helped save Bruce. Batman captured a henchman and interrogated him, throwing him off from a High Place, but Superman caught him. Both heroes calmly talked about how neither had any qualms with killing, Batman saying if he knew Superman would catch him he wouldn't have let him go and Superman saying If he knew Batman dropped him he wouldn't have caught him. This scared the henchman into confessing and the two Heroes stormed Humanite and Lex's base. The Villains attempted to escape in a Rocket but Superman hurled it and it exploded. Only Luthor's red wig was found. Ultra Humanite was badly hurt but his brain was intact(*Superman/Batman: Generations 1*).

Then Hynkel invaded Arzoztzka, beginning the Second World War. Clark Kent and Lois Lane had just defeated a gang's scheme and picked up the paper expecting it to make front page news. instead the newspaper headline revealed the War in Europe. Lois would normally have been made but now she didn't mind. This was September 3, 1939.

Superman's powers were still developing (bullets bounced off his but a cannonball could knock him down, and he could not yet fly but instead Leap Great Distances), he eventually began to gain new powers.

### **1940: Learning to Fly**

Superman had his first modern encounter with Kryptonite (called K Metal) when a meteorite of the substance moved passed earth, temporarily weakening him. A scientist found that when he held it, though old he could lift a desk with no effort. It also made Clark very weak. It was this moment that led Clark Kent to realize that he was truly an alien Because his powers were fluctuating and only returned once the Meteorite passed Earth's orbit. He was trapped in a mine as Clark Kent with Lois. Reluctantly he was forced to reveal his identity to her(*The K Metal from Krypton).*

"Look well! For you are seeing what I thought no mortal would see."

"Superman--Clark! I must be hallucinating!"

"No, Lois. It's real---all too real."

Lois took the revelation well and vowed since she now knew his secret to help him.

On February 17 1940, The first thing Superman did when he gained the ability to fly was to head directly to Germany and the Soviet Union and present both Hynkel and Besstrashnyy to the World Congress, however, agents from both acted quickly to liberate the two leaders and return them to their countries until Hynkel betrayed Besstrashny and invaded the Soviet Union. Hynkel called out Superman, calling him a "jew". Clark Kent actually was jewish on his adoptive side(*How Superman Would Win the War*,by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, 1940).

In June 1940,Superman had another encounter with the Ultra Humanite, one which ended with the Villain, having transferred his brain into that of actress Dolores Winters, after the vents of 1939, falling seemingly to her death in a Volcano.

Superman and Batman had their second encounter when Batman pursued the Joker to Metropolis. Joker had discovered Kryptonite (still referred to as "K-Metal") and intended to use it to have Lex Luthor hire him to kill Superman. Joker failed in this thanks to Batman's interference and the two Heroes rescued Luthor from Joker's attempt to kill him.

Clark Kent began to take a stance towards helping to take care of the people in the Slums of Metropolis and traveled to Washington to convince the politicians to help him.

When Clark Kent arrived inWashington he heard something and used his telescopic vision to see, to his surprise, a German bomber with Several superheroes fighting Valkyries, including Alan Scott's Green Lantern, the Spectre, Doctor Fate and Jay Garrick's the Flash. Superman became involved and was told that President Craig Stanley assembled them to protect England from German invasion. Hynkel had obtained the spear of Destiny and used it to summon the Norse Gods and the Valkyrie. Valkyrie nearly succeeded in blasting the President in an attack on the White House but the non powered hero the Atom took the blast. President Stanley then suggested forming a "Super-Battalion" but Superman suggested they become the Justice Society of America instead, not comfortable being part of a military branch.

### **1941: First Thunder**

Superman encountered thieves at the Metropolis Museum using Magic. The thieves escaped and fled to Fawcett City where Superman pursued, encountering Captain Marvel, who helped dispatch monsters summoned by the thieves. Superman was impressed at how Marvel was able to ward off magic attacks that he himself was defenseless against; the Captain himself was a bit envious of Superman's additional vision and breath based powers. Afterward, they took a break from crime fighting to chat at Mt. Everest, where they discussed their powers and professional lives as superheroes. Superman broke off the more personal aspects of the conversation, remarking that he preferred to keep his two lives entirely separate.

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, had contacted Lex Luthor and asked for assistance in destroying Captain Marvel. Luthor through henchman discovered Captain Marvel was the alter ego of 12-year-old Billy Batson. After learning this, Sivana sent hit men to the subway where the orphaned Billy was living with orders to kill him. Calling upon the power of *SHAZAM*, Captain Marvel dispatched his would be killers, but caught in the crossfire was several innocent bystanders, Marvel rushed one to the hospital, but they were unable to save him.

When Fawcett City police were unsuccessful in interrogating one of the killers, Captain Marvel stormed into the police department, burst into the interrogating room and, despite attempts by police to restrain him, assaulted the suspect and threatened to kill him by crushing his skull then displaying his decapitated corpse to his partners down in lock up, if he did not reveal who sent them to attack him. The killer buckled and revealed his employer as Doctor Sivana. Thirsting for revenge, Marvel travelled to Sivana's office building, shattered the top floor and nearly choked Sivana to death, but he couldn't bring himself to kill Sivana, even though he knew Sivana would attack him again, and left.

Back in Metropolis, Clark Kent, having just published an article on the encounter of Superman and Captain Marvel, learned of Marvel's "rampage" in Fawcett City, and confronted Marvel at Mt. Everest, demanding an explanation for his actions. The tearful, guilt-ridden Marvel told Superman why he did what he did. An obviously-dubious Superman returned an accusing stare and a fierce snarl. Realizing how strange he sounded (and the Man of Steel wanted a response...*right now*), Captain Marvel revealed his true identity, calling upon the power of *SHAZAM* to transform him back to Billy Batson, commenting that it might too dangerous to still be "Billy". "Who did this to you?" was Superman's demanding reaction.

Superman confronted Shazam and berated him for bestowing the power and responsibility of Captain Marvel upon an 12-year-old boy; stating (or rather barking) that the biggest concerns of boys his age should be "homework assignments and school yard crushes" Bearing such destinies, he snapped, should only be chosen by adults, and Billy "is just a little boy!" The Wizard sadly remarked that Billy was indeed a child, ".. a boy who could use... guidance." Superman's expression softened to one of sadness (as the reality of the situation hit home).

Superman, in his guise as Clark Kent, dropped by to visit Batson. Kent revealed himself to be Superman. Clark arranged Billy's adoption. Superman later paid Captain Marvel a favor by appearing at his school(*Superman/Captain Marvel: First Thunder*).

### **1941**

On December 6, 1941, Superman, while appearing at a USO show, was trapped by the JSA foe Professor Zodiak. A similarly planned attack by Wotan also trapped the Justice Society of America, preventing them from interfering in Pearl Harbor. Superman met with the Justice Society and pursued the Japanese fleet. When they crossed into Japanese waters, mystical artifacts in the posession of the Axis leaders including the Spear of Destiny in Hynkel's possession and the Holy Grail in Emperor Yoshiro's led to magical heroes including the Spectre, Dr.Fate, Wonder Woman, the Alan Scott Green lantern and Superman(who was especially vulnerable to magic), to become brainwashed and fight their non magical teammates until they were tricked into leaving the Axis sphere of influence. The Justice Society now realized they could not just enter Europe or Asia and easily defeat their enemies. In response to this, the new President Stephen Wayne instituted the draft for for all Superheroes into the All Star Squadron to better operate planned attacks with the army. British Prime Minister Rupert Catskill was saved in early 1941 by a group of heroes including Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Human Torch Jim Hammond, his sidekick Toro and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Since they were all non mystical he proposed they come together as a team which he called the Invaders.

Realizing he could not fight Hynkel directly, Superman instead tried to enlist as Clark Kent and help in occupied territory. However, his X-Ray vision kicked in at the worst possible time. He accidentally read the chart in the other room and not the one in front of him. Still he helped out as Superman but could only do so in liberated territory.

Superman continued to battle an ever-increasing amount of advanced villains, including the Puzzler, The Archer, Toyman, Prankster, Funnyface, and many more. During one battle with Funnyface, Superman clashed with a duplicate of his pseudo-criminal identity of the Flying Tiger (possessing powers and weaknesses comparable to his original, not unlike the later Bizarro).

### **1942**

Superman also helped sell war bonds. One day after working alongside Johnny Thunder, he was brought together with the Justice Society of America. time travelling villain Ian Karkull sent a team of supervillains to murder future Presidents, unknown to the villains themselves: Lightning Master targeted Art Hockstader but was defeated by Superman and Johnny Thunder. Zor targeted Merkin Muffley but was thwarted. The Tarantula targeted James T.Cassidy but was thwarted by the Sandman, Alexander the Great targeted James Norcross(Ironically a future Superhero), but was stopped by Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Sieur Satan targeted Richard Monckton. Doctor Doog targeted Douglas Dillman but was stopped by Hourman. Catwoman targeted Johnny Cyclops(though she would not have gone threw with it and actually thwarted another assassin's attempt on him). Only Wotan succeeded in assassinating James P.Kegan Jr.

On a Battlefield in Occupied France, Superman was among a group of Heroes which included Hawkman, the BlackHawks, and Alan Scott to confront a Giant Robot. Superman attempted to prevent the escape capsule containing the Robot's builder from fleeing, discovering the pilot to be Baron Zemo, who used Kryptonite to escape. The Scientist George Grant used a Metal Suit to become the first Metallo and briefly held the upper hand against Superman in battle before his defeat.

Luthor fought Superman twice this year. The first time he was captured by Batman and Robin but found a way to gain electricity based powers. this did not make him a match for Superman but he did journey into space and recover the Power Stone, which he used to torment Superman but stripping the Man of Steel of his own abilities. Superman tricked Luthor into accomplishing a feat where the Power Stone slipped off from Luthor's neck and Superman caught it. However, the Power Stone was then retrieved by Ultra-Humanite, Luthor's main partner and Superman informed the Justice Society of America, who aided him in confronting the villain at the ruins of the Metropolis World's Fair. The Ultra Humanite had experimented on a man named Terrence Kurtzberger, who turned on him and flew into the atmosphere with the Ultra-Humanite, exploding a safe distance away.

Captain Marvel accidentally flew into the sphere of influence created by the Spear of Destiny and fell under the control of Hynkel. Superman fought Captain Marvel and lost that battle. It was only with the aid of Captain Marvel Jr and Mary Marvel that Billy Batson snapped out of the control when pulled out of the sphere.

Villains fought by Superman during the war include the Blaze, a Nazi agent who was created to be the answer to the Human Torch. He wore a flame proof suit and used flamethrowers. He also battled Mr.Mind's monster society of Evil. Nazis also abducted Scientist Jacob Barnhardt in order to steal an experimental hydrogen bomb, which briefly brought Superman and Wonder Woman to blows as they argued over whether or not the US could be trusted with it. He also battled the Prankster, who conceived or elaborate ways to rob from banks, and the Puzzler. Both of these villains were largely nuisances than actual threats.

Less of note as it barely reflected on the Life of Superman himself, but for propaganda purposes, Fleischman Studios began making Superman cartoons at this time until 1943, which remained popular, even being played shortly before films in theaters throughout the 1950s. These cartoons did not feature Superman as having any secret identity, instead depicting him as living in a Hidden Base until needed, though he was depicted as close to Lois Lane, something assumed to be for drama.

### **1943**

Superman first fought the Toyman, AKA Winslow Schott, in this year.

### **1944**

In 1944, Superman first encountered the inter dimensional Imp Mister Mxyzptlk, who could be sent back to his own Dimension if tricked into saying his name backwards, something Superman became progressively better at. Mxyzptlk's world appeared to be a constitutional monarchy with a ruler while he himself ran for office at one point.

### **1945**

In 1945, Superman and Captain Marvel battled Teth Adam, who was seemingly killed when he said the word Shazam and accidentally aged himself to dust(Superman/Shazam: First Thunder, though tweaked to when Black Adam first appeared in the comics. Superman already knows Billy Batson is Captain marvel as he has been for some time).

Superman was present at the funeral of President Stephen Wayne.

Superman was also, along with the All Star Squadron made aware by Uncle Sam of the discovery of a world where the Axis powers had won the war which he called Earth X. Uncle Sam vowed to travel there to help them. Superman and many of the heroes offered as well but Uncle Sam explained that due to the odd nature of that universe, only someone dead in that world could travel there(As seen in *The Man in the High Castle* TV Series), if Superman tried to enter that universe he would either fail or die. Uncle Sam therefore took a team of lesser known heroes into that universe, where they formed a hero team called the Freedom Fighters.

Superman first fought Atoman(also known as Atom Man). At the time, Atoman was one of Superman's toughest opponents. Nazi Scientist Heinrich Milch injected himself with a serum made of Kryptonite, granting him superhuman strength. The Kryptonite Radiation nearly killed Superman. superman defeated Milch during the war thanks to allies like Batman. He survived the war and asumed the identity of War veteran Henry Miller to try and get close to Superman at the Daily Planet but was defeated.

### **1946: Smashing the Klan**

In 1946, after preventing Atom Man from destroying the Metropolis Dam, Superman battled the Clan of the Fiery Cross and, as Clark Kent, exposed many of their secrets and passwords publicly. This also impacted recruitment for the Klan as much of the true information about the Klan was seen as ridiculous when read by many Americans. He also helped save the lives of the Asian-American Lee family when they became a target. When he flew during a fight with the Clan's leader, he finally accepted that he was an alien after struggling with the thought for sometime. Finally accepting it and while many at first feared Superman, they eventually accepted him for the good he had done ("*Clan of the Fairy Cross"* episodes of the Superman Radio Series*,* Yes, referring to when the Radio show was used to leak information about the Klan by activist Stetson Kennedy. This also ties in to *Superman smashes the Clan*).

### **1947**

Calvin Stymes discovered the underground Koehaha River, which contained a drug that stole away a person's conscience when they were exposed to it. Stymes tricked five old friends into being exposed to the water in revenge for an old college prank. He then called the Justice Society of America, who exposed his scheme. After developing an antidote, Superman clogged up the river.

Superman was abducted by aliens known as the Collectors. He was able to break free in what he believed to be one of his toughest battles(in the original story "The case of the Living Trophies", Superman demonstrated weird new abilities such as telepathy and shapeshifting. Here he had no such abilities and instead fought his way out).

Doc Savage vanished while investigating the Phantom Zone, leaving his Fortress of Solitude vacant. He had met Superman during the war, and left him the Fortress of Solitude in his will in the event of his disappearance. Superman begins to use the Fortress as a Base of Operations, refitting it with Kryptonian Technology contained in Crystals. He found left behind by Jor-El the previous year. Superman began to work towards bringing back Doc Savage.

### **1948: The Unholy Three**

Superman accidentally released the imprisoned Kryptonian General Zod instead of Doc Savage, who was able to switch place with Superman, imprisoning the Hero in the Phantom Zone. He then used Kryptonian technology to disguise himself as Superman, hoping to gain the trust of Earth's heroes and then betray them.

Batman and Hourman were re-activated as government agents when two former KGB agents, the Parasite and Steelwolf, working for an unknown employer, began killing superheroes and seeking a plan called the Trigger. Batman and Hourman met with Superman(Zod in disguise), who was placed in charge of the group.

The group pursued the Parasite to Berlin, where they found he had killed Steelwolf and absorbed his powers. They fought the Parasite, who was killed by Superman in an apparent act of panic when Superman was having his powers drained (actually Zod murdering Parasite).

The group met with another agent, the Sandman, who had information about the Trigger. He had learned it was a device that would cause every nuclear reactor in the world to detonate at once. The Sandman arranged for the group to meet with Green Lantern Alan Scott, who had the information on where the device was located. Zod diverted Batman and Hourman and learned that the device was in Chernobyl. He crippled Alan Scott by vaporizing his ring-bearing hand with heat vision, resulting in his retirement. The Sandman narrowly escaped, and revealed the truth about Zod to Batman and Hourman.

Batman summoned all available covert agents to attack Zod, including The Flash (Jay Garrick), Hawkman, the Huntress (Paula Brooks), the Atom (Al Pratt), Red Tornado(Ma Hunkel), and Starman to respond to the call. The Atom and the Huntress were killed (though both would have others assume their heroic mantles), Hawkman was injured and the others were barely able to keep Zod contained. Batman sent Jay Garrick to bring in Terry Sloane, who had been working on a formula to duplicate Superman's powers. Batman took the serum and was able to defeat Zod. Starman binded Zod to the device in Chernobyl and send him to the upper atmosphere. The formula almost killed Batman, but he survived. He was reconciled with Sloane. Sloane then freed Superman from the Phantom Zone. This incident was one of many incidents including charges against the Superhero Mr.Incredible that led to Superheroes becoming outlawed in 1948. Superman continued to operate due to working for the Government along with Wonder Woman due to her diplomatic status. Batman operated as well as a Vigilante. Superman was targeted by the House of Un-American Activities because of Zod's impersonation of him. His connection to the government prevented his interference in the Big Brother Government.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane married. Lois Kent's desire for a child became stronger than ever. Lois had suffered Kryptonite poisoning earlier, which caused some damage to her ovaries. They visited the Savage Centre for Genetic Research for aid in conception. Although Savage had gone missing and the Centre has been sold to another company by Savage's estate, the same people were still running it when the Kents visited it. Lois was able to conceive. The pregnancy was a shaky one however and they were told to go to a place were she would suffer not shocks. They went to the Fortress of Solitude. Superman would spend time altering the Fortress, including shielding it with ice like crystals and building a large door which could be opened by a massive key. Doing so required Superman level strength and flight.

The Savage Centre was bought by the Nine and they began a close relationship with various secret departments of the government and was splintered into several groups, some of which would work on the super soldier projects, one would begin and run the Pretender program, another would be the Cadmus/Manticore Project. Lex Luthor, having his suspicions since Lois became Pregnant that she may have carried Superman's child, abducted her. Luthor had freed the Joker from the Soviet Camp he was imprisoned in during World War II following a failed partnership with the Red Skull and hatched a plan to use him, promising Batman's demise to keep the Clown Prince of Crime from betraying him.

### **1949: Family Matters**

Superman battled Dan Rivers, a.k.a., "Swami Riva." The glowing stone Riva wore in his turban was actually Kryptonite. Superman defeated Riva, and cast the two known fragments of Kryptonite into a river.

While Superman battled Swami Riva, Lois Lane was kidnapped while Pregnant by Lex Luthor and the Joker. The two intended to use Gold Kryptonite to strip Superman of his powers, but Superman, Batman and Robin disguised themselves as one another to trick the Villains. First Superman arrived to save Lois but Joker used Kryptonite, when Superman showed immunity, Luthor shot Superman, and unmasked him as Batman. Only for Batman to then appear, robin having disguised himself as Batman with a bulletproof vest. While the scheme was thwarted. Lois had been exposed to Gold Kryptonite and it was discovered her son would likely not develop superpowers. Lois and Clark Kent had their first son, Joel Kent. Lois Lane's residual Kryptonite poisoning affected the immune system of their newborn child and Joel Kent was forced to remain in isolation for two years until his parents had thoroughly inoculated him against the diseases of the world. Fearing that he would face pressure as a powerless child of Superman, the family had Sloane work on the Superman formula hoping to improve it so that a child could take it. Batman promised to train Joel so the this body would be physically capable of resisting the Serum as he had. Sloane was able to recreate Abednego Danner's original serum and injected the infant, so that he would at least possess Super strength later in life.

Superman himself became involved in battling the Chimera Invasion.

### **1950**

Superman encountered a group of escaped Kryptonian criminals he was forced to imprison in the Phantom Zone.

Lex Luthor obtained the Atom Man suit for himself and battled Superman with it but was still defeated, resulting in the suit's destruction.

Superman helped battle the Kanamits invasion.

Clark Kent later started to focus on his personal life, advancing his own reporter career to become the Lead Investigative Reporter for the *Daily Planet*. Always mindful of his dual persona, Kent kept his ambitions in check, and "Superman" largely remained a retired persona.

### **1951**

Superman encountered and thwarted an attack by the Mole Men, who he convinced into retreating back underground after reaching an agreement to stop drilling in the area. These Mole Men were later taken control of by a Supervillain of the same name and used to battle the Fantastic Four (*1951 film, Superman and the Mole Men).*

Two beings would fight to see which nature was more powerful — the advanced science of time traveller Captain Future, or the ancient mystical powers of the Wizard. After several defeats at the hands of the "Man of Tomorrow," Captain Future challenged the boasted powers of the Wizard to prove its effectiveness over his own super-science against Superman(While there is a Superman villain called Colonel Future, he was created as a homage to Captain Future. Here, Captain Future himself is involved via time travel. However, he is not evil and is simply doing battle with the Wizard, who is toying with him by forcing him to fight Superman).

To prove his superior powers, the Wizard cast a spell to rid the world of Superman. The spell misfired since the Wizard did not know Superman was a double identity, and made Clark merely repress his superhero identity. Freed of his need to repress his more aggressive and assertive persona, Kent acted out his nature, but without his costume and his flight abilities. Kent continued to battle evil as an open, crusading reporter for some time, even directly engaging in hand-to-hand battles against criminals, which, of course, he would routinely win, due to his superhuman strength and bulletproof skin-density. Also freed of his self-restrictions, Kent once again expressed his affections for Lois. Mrs. Lane-Kent tracked down the Wizard with the help of Captain Future, and made him reverse the spell.

### **1953: Absent Friends**

In 1953, Daxamite Halk Kar's ship took him to the nearest Kryptonian, Clark Kent. Halk Kar was suffering from partial amnesia due his lead poisoning so when Clark Kent exhibited many of the same powers as he, Halk Kar began to believe that he was Kent’s older brother. However Halk Kar became sicker from the lead content of the air and had to go into suspended animation within the Phantom Zone, where he met Mon-El.

At the same moment as Wonder Woman AKA Diana Trevor gave birth to a baby girl, Lois Kent gave birth to her own daughter, Kara Kent(Clark Kent was aware of his cousin but since she had been lost in space, he was not sure if she'd ever be found and named the daughter in her honor). Clark arrived late to the birth. As Superman he had been stranded on a planet with a red sun until he was rescued by Green Lantern Abin Sur. After attending the birth of his daughter, Superman introduced Abin Sur to Alan Scott, as Superman mentioned the similarities upon meeting Sur. Scott showed Sur the ruins of the now irreparably damaged Ring. The two Green Lanterns were puzzled at the similar nature of their rings which nevertheless possess different weaknesses (Scott's ring being vulnerable to wood, while Sur's would not work on anything that is colored yellow). Sur took the ring back to Oa and discovered that long ago one Green Lantern had turned evil and to punish him, the Guardians had made the Ring weak to wood at the moment in which the Lantern was attacked. This design flaw was never fixed. Sur, having learned of a prophecy in which he would die when his ring failed him, decided to keep the now repaired Ring.

### **1955: Krypto the Super Dog**

Krypto had been used as an experiment by Jor-El. His ship had indeed reached earth after being knocked off course soon after being launched, leading Jor-El to observe it and believe it would not reach its location.

Superman came bounding into the crash site where Krypto's ship landed. The dog had burst out of the crashed ship, barking and leaping at Superman, keeping him away from the ship. Believing the dog was attacking him; Superman tossed it away and discovered that it bounded back with amazing strength and speed. Despite the dog's constant attacks, Superman managed to get close enough to the ship so that he swooned from the intense kryptonite radiation. The dog then began carrying the pieces of kryptonite away from the ship. He dug a hole, pushed the kryptonite inside the hole, placed a torn piece of lead over the kryptonite and buried it. This led Superman to realize the dog was trying to warn him,

The dog puzzled and intrigued him. The dog seemed to understand everything that Superman said to him but of course could not speak or write. He did quickly learn to respond to two barks for yes and one for no. Superman and the white dog went bounding out of the city to a wooded area where over the next days would spend a few hours teaching the dog to communicate in Morse code, barks for dots, whines for dashes.

Clark had talked to Lois about taking in the dog, not wishing for it to have to fend for itself. She agreed reluctantly. However it would not be seemly for the Kents, whom many suspected of having strong ties to Superman anyway to suddenly adopt a white dog. Clark dyed the dog's fur black. The dog allowed himself to be picked up by the Metropolis dogcatcher. After a week, Clark and Lois Kent adopted the black furred mutt.

Despite Lois' initial reluctance, the dog, who took the name King, humility not being one of his faults, fit in very well with the family. All he really desired was to live with a regular family, something he had only briefly as a puppy. The dog proved his worth when he had defeated a group of thugs sent to scare Lois and the children to keep Clark from writing an expose on the organization Cobra . He also detected and disposed of a bomb sent in the mail by an anonymous source. King's coat faded to white after a while but since the Kents lived in a rather secluded suburban area with a high fenced yard. Clark did not think anyone would think about the color of the dog. He even put a small cape on King when they went adventuring, believing that people would be more intrigued by the fact that the dog was wearing cape than by the dog's looks.

### **1958: Brainiac**

Superman first encountered Brainiac when he attacked Earth and discovered the bottled City of Kandor, which he was able to rescue and take to the Fortress of Solitude.

### **1959: Strange Days**

In 1959, Superman encountered several strange new foes. The first was the misunderstood robot known as the Iron Giant, who greatly idolized him. Another giant would appear when a Spaceship carrying the Chimpanzee named Toto which had been sent on a space flight and lost, returned, but the Chimp began to grow, being dubbed Titano. The creature emitted a powerful radiation that could be harmful to Superman that fired from his eyes. Scientists were able to cancel out the radiation and Titano was relocated to several Islands near Skull Island. He may have been one the giant apes mistaken for King Kong.

John Corben was a murderous reporter caught in an accident. Professor Emmett Vale, father of Vicki Vale, gave him a robot body to save his life, having worked with Dr.Robert Crane and Professor Horton. When Luthor hijacked the operation he requested Kryptonite become the power source and sent Corben, now christened "Metallo" to battle Superman. Whil ehe posed a serious threat he would still be defeated.

Two of Superman's new enemies this year would be evil counterparts to himself. The first was Ultraman, who hailed from Earth Three. Also known as the Mirror Universe. In his universe Kryptonians had remained a conqueror species. When Kal-Il was sent to Earth he was discovered and used by the "Derek" crime family. The Press dubbed him Super-Menace. While fighting his world's Luthor he accidentally ended up on Earth One. Super-Menace discovered he was immune to Kryptonite and decided to challenge Superman, bringing down Kryptonite meteors to destroy his foe. He was eventually sent back to his own Universe, where he killed the Dereks(An alteration on the Superman vs Super Menace story where Super Menace is an energy duplicate. Here he is composited with Ultraman, another evil alternate Superman).

Ultraman's DNA was used in an attempt to clone Superman. Ultra-Humanite, who passed his brain into the lifeless body of the Superman clone. While Superman was helping a scientist named Professor Wright test a "Time Cabinet". Ultra-Humanite traded places with Superman, claiming to be the Ultra-Superman from the year 100,000 AD. He then attempted to prove it by claiming to predict several disasters and then fail to prevent them by stating the past cannot be changed, the last prediction being the assassination of President Harley Hudson. Fortunately Superman with Professor Wright's help, was able to turn the Cabinet into a prison and have a disgusted Superman swap places without anyone noticing. The Assassin was scared into confessing. The Incident was covered up as a Hoax.

Finally, there was Bizarro. Luthor attempted to rebuild the device used to once clone Superboy. The result was another imperfect clone dubbed Bizarro. Bizarro escaped and was confronted by Superman, who he believed was the imposter, proclaiming "Me Am Superman". Superman attempted to lock Bizarro in the Fortress of Solitude but he escaped. Sadly this would lead to the death of an innocent.

Bizarro passed a television showing the Superman TV show in which he was played by actor George Reeves. He made his way to Reeves’ house. He leaped into his bedroom window and surprised the actor. Reeves fired a pistol at Bizarro but the bullets bounced off, two lodged in the wall or ceiling, one ricocheted and hit Reeves, killing him instantly. Frightened Bizarro jumped back out the window and flew away. This incident made Superman realize something had to be done about Bizarro, fortunately a solution presented itself. The imp Mxyzptlk arrived to once more annoy Superman and this time, created Bizarro world for the imperfect clone to inhabit. Bizarro was teleported away and could not breathe in Space like Superman, meaning only Mxyzptlk could get him off the planet.

Aliens in need of a champion asked Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk to test each other's respective heroes. Batman and Superman tricked the two imps into turning on each other and the aliens were convinced to take them instead. Mxyztplk's absence effectively stranded Bizarro on Bizarro World.

The Kents discovered their daughter Lara was developing superpowers, they gave her a red sun radiation necklace created by Superman so that Kara could live a normal life without her powers.

### **Kara-Zor El**

Kara-Zor-El, the long lost relative whom the Kents had named their daughter after, finally arrived on Earth in 1959. Kara hailed from the lost Kryptonian city of Argo, which had intentionally separated itself and now floated in space. A Meteorite storm had damaged the specialized sealing protecting the inhabitants from the Kryptonite irradiated ground beneath them. Zor-El, Jor-El's brother, followed his example and sent his daughter to Earth, but her pod had been driven off course and she had taken much longer to reach Earth than her cousin. Superman flew out to a crashing rocket. He examined it, expecting not to find a survivor.

"Don't worry, Superman! I'm alive without a scratch!"

That was when he turned to see Kara Zor-El, dressed in a costume like his. Argo City had observed Superman and intentionally sent her towards. Earth. Clark convinced her that to fit in and to have as normal a life as possible among the population of this planet they had to hide their special abilities. Realizing that he spoke the truth, she readily agreed.

Clark used his connections with the government and working through the  foundation to create a new identity for Kara. She was given the identity of a girl who had died in an orphanage fire named Linda Lee. The comics portray Kara as living at an orphanage for a while before being adopted by a childless couple. This was only partly true. She did live at an orphanage for about six months while Clark and Lois Kent arranged for her legal documentation and adoption. Kara-Zor-El wanted an identity of her own and was provided with a cover identity and false family. She gained a secret identity of her own. Fred and Edna Danvers were the parents of SHIELD agent Carol Danvers(who at this time had yet to become a Superhero or even gained abilities). They agreed to create the cover of adopting an orphan and Kara-Zor-El became Linda Lee Danvers.

There were problems almost from the start. Kara resented not being able to use her real name when a child was already using the name. There was also a cultural clash. Kara had been raised in an advanced civilization where equality of the sexes was unquestioned normality. She found herself in a primitive male dominated society which was only beginning to grow out of the notion that a woman's lot in life was to serve men by bearing children, raising children and making the home a refuge for the male breadwinner. The phrases "It's a man's world, girls" or "Don't worry your pretty little head about it" rankled her and confirmed her suspicion that women were seen as having about the same abilities and mental capacity as children themselves.

Clark had overcome much of this cultural imprinting but he was still a man raised in a small rural area at the time of the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his notions were hard set. Although he had met and married a feisty, independent working woman, he had expected her to put her career on hold until the children were at least of school age. Being a product of her time as well, Lois was happy to do so. She also unconsciously indoctrinated her children in their specific gender roles. This was something that Kara Zor-El pointed out to her constantly. Being a teenager, Kara was quick to point everyone's mistakes. Lois and the teenage girl did not see eye to eye on a lot of issues.

Kara Zor-El thought crimefighting sounded like fun and wanted to help out. Clark was afraid that this would be too much exposure and told her that it was too dangerous for a teenage girl to do, especially not on in full command of her abilities. She lacked flight at this age(and would gain it thanks to a Legion Flight Ring later on).

Krypto would occasionally accompany Clark when he went on the increasingly infrequent forays as Superman. Yet he seldom asked his cousin to accompany them. This infuriated her until she asked him point blank why he took the dog and not his own flesh and blood. He answered matter of factly, the dog listened to him, and she didn't. He found her to be rash and warned her that she would be exposed if she continued with her manner of doing things.

Infuriated Linda defied Clark and designed a costume based on his and began making secret forays into crime fighting and disaster relief. Kara Zor-El also underwent training from Wonder Woman and the Amazons, who shared many of her views.

Supergirl acted discreetly and would often only fight crime secretly, avoiding being seen when she could. Despite her efforts, reports of a Super-girl filtered through to the newspapers. After enough of these sightings, Superman was forced to admit the existence of an orphaned cousin who came from the same planet and had many of the same powers that he did. He officially revealed her existence in 1962.

Perry White announced his retirement as Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet, and Clark Kent replaced him in that role, promoting Lois to Lead Investigative Reporter, though he would usually still follow her in many of her dangerous investigations as Superman. This left Kara Zor-El at the Kent farm.

### **The Super Pets**

Kara Zor-El entertained herself on the Danvers farm by using her newly acquired super intelligence to grant superhuman abilities to others. While a serum had worked on the Batman, it had also nearly killed him and had only been temporary. Her test subjects consisted of a group of pets she often took care of while on the farm. She granted abilities to her pet cat Streaky, and a monkey named Beppo. Among the animals was also a horse. This horse was not an animal granted abilities like the others, but a Centaur named Biron cursed into the form of a horse by Circe. Supergirl became aware of this and was attempting to help him return to normal, eventually succeeding, until that day however, the Horse posed as another creature granted abilities, a horse named Comet.

Kara Zor-El loved Streaky even when it had awakened and gone on a small-scale rampage of destruction, she had refused to give him up. Fearing to lose his cousin over this Clark agreed under certain conditions, it had to be either held by her or caged. If it caused harm to the children it would be put down, if it brought unwanted attention to the family it would be put down. For the most part, Streaky lived in Kara Zor-El's room or in a specially constructed cage. When Kara Zor-El went out adventuring as Super-Girl, usually against her cousin's wishes she would often take the cat along. This was not usually a problem but being a cat, Streaky was prone to be independent and did not obey her

One day as her high school graduation approached, Kara Zor-El accidentally left the cage door unlocked. The cat crept out of the cage, apparently saw a bird and jumped out the window, smashing the thick, bullet resistance glass. He was spotted clawing up a tree, raking huge gouges in an ancient oak, he killed two dogs that attacked him and finally killed a prize calf at a New Jersey dairy farm. He carried the carcass home.

Clark Kent put his foot down. Superman took Streaky to the vet and had the animal put down as a menace to society. It was not anything he necessarily wanted to do but thought that unlike King/Krypto, since Streaky did not have a large mental capacity he was just too dangerous to be allowed to live. This caused a major rift between Kara Zor-El and himself. She refused to understand the difference between King and Streaky.

### **1960**

Superman was part of the establishment of the Justice League of America in 1960. When the Centre attacked Earth, Superman was quickly defeated in a solo attempt to investigate it. His quick defeat rallied the other Heroes to join forces and defeat the Centre. This was technically their first battle as all the members were present.

Superman battled the Kryptonite Man.

### **1961**

In 1961, Superman briefly freed Zod when his served term in the Phantom Zone was up, only for Zod to attempt world conquest and be sent back there. Many other Kryptonian criminals shared similar fates including Jax-Ur, and Faora Hu-Ul.

Superman also reunited with Lori Lemaris, as young as she appeared to be many years before. She was ailing and Aquaman helped Superman look for a cure. Lori fell in love with the Merman Ronal and the two were married.

Linda Lee encountered a child revealed to be the son of Bizarro, rejected for looking normal. Bizarro travelled to Earth, leading to a fight. The child then transformed into a Bizarro form and was accepted back to Bizarro World.

To protect, Lois and Lana from an attack from Brainiac. Superman gave both a blood transfusion briefly granting them powers. These powers could be reactivated with exposure to certain chemicals within the Fortress of Solitude.

Supergirl met and joined the Legion of Superheroes, beginning a relationship with Brainiac 5.

With Superman occupied, Lex Luthor devised a plan to steal from Fort Knox. A Superman robot was sent after him(which Clark Kent had been working on thanks to Kara Zor-El's knowledge of Kryptonian technology). Luthor defeated the robot but willingly returned the gold when he realized it was not the real Superman. The real Superman was fighting brainiac, who exposed him to Red Kryptonite, which caused random mutations. Superman returned to Earth and covered a third eye with a hat before it faded.

Luthor had another scheme he considered at this time which he cancelled specifically because of the discovery of a Superman robot. This plan involved curing cancer and pretending to reform before setting a trap for Superman. There is an alternate universe designated Universe 149 where this plan succeeded, resulting in Luthor's imprisonment in the Phantom Zone and Supergirl revealing her existence publicly.

### **1962**

Upon graduating from high school, Kara Zor-El moved out of the Kent house and moved across country, attending college in Berkley. She hid her powers and lived as a normal college student in the early sixties. After performing heroic acts in secret, Kara Zor-El finally found publicly revealed herself as Supergirl. This included a meeting with President James T.Cassidy. While she would act as a reserve member of the Justice League, she was approached by the Legion of Super Heroes as part of a group that travelled to the future to help the League. Kara Zor-El travelled to the 30th Century with the Legion of Superheroes and chose to remain there after falling in love with Brainiac 5. She said goodbye to her cousin and gave her namesake Kara Kent her blessing to become Supergirl II. Kara Kent did indeed become Supergirl II.

The Legion of Superheroes granted Clark Kent access to a Legion Time Bubble(Comic adaptations of this time would have Superman or Supergirl travelling through time at will when in reality the Time Bubble was used). Superman used this to travel to alternate realities and assist them. In One reality he rescued Christians from the Roman Colliseum. In another he rescued Nathan Hale from execution and helped the American Revolution. Later on, He, Batman and Captain America worked together to fight in the American Civil War and once it was won, save the life of President Abraham Lincoln(In the Comics, this inspired The Elseworlds stories: *Superman: A Nation Divided, Batman; The Blue, The Grey and the Bat,* and *What if Captain America fought in the Civil War?*).

Lex Luthor was contacted by the Legion of Supervillains. They imprisoned Superman on a planetoid orbing Saturn's rings with the Legion of Superheroes freeing him to aid in the battle.

Superman discovered a Kryptonian Pod. It had been cracked open. He read the inscription and quickly destroyed it as it was said to contain a deadly Kryptonian Virus. A small piece of Kryptonite was lodged in Jimmy Olsen's camera when he took pictures. He felt weak and believed he was dying. He then set out to fulfill his last acts on Earth, believing he was dying until he discovered the piece of Kryptonite.

While heading into space to investigate a satellite, he was exposed to several different types of Kryptonite and flew back down to Earth. With amnesia, he assumed the identity of Jim White, subconsciously remembering Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. As Jim White he had a brief relationship with a girl named Sally Selwyn. Aquaman found him after tracking him down using his JLA communicator and took him to Atlantis to jog his memory. He forgot about Selwyn when he regained his true identity.

### **Knightwing and Flamebird**

When Kandorian scientist Than Ol invented an enlargement procedure by which Kandor could hypothetically restored, he and his men convinced the majority of the bottle-city's people that Superman was deliberately withholding knowledge of the procedure out of a desire to preserve his perceived uniqueness on Earth. Superman became aware of the situation when several of Than Ol's enlarged henchmen conducted raids of Earth laboratories for elements to perform the enlargement procedure on a large scale. Superman and Jimmy Olsen tracked the raiders to Kandor and shrunk themselves down into the bottle-city, at which point they realized the people had been turned against Superman. Powerless inside the bottle, Superman adopted the identity of costumed adventurer Nightwing, inspired by his crime-fighting partner Batman, while Jimmy became a Robin-inspired persona named Flamebird. With the help of Superman's facially similar distant relative Van-Zee, Jor-El's old friend Lan Karr, and a group of Superman loyal Kryptonains called the Superman Emergency Squad, Superman and Jimmy uncovered that Than Ol's enlargement procedure stood the chance of causing Kandor's disintegration if not reversed within a 3-hour time period and proved this point to the city's inhabitants, saving their lives and regaining their trust.

### **The Saga of Lexor**

After masterminding his next jailbreak, Lex hijacked television and radio broadcasting frequencies to challenge Superman. Alleging that all Superman's previous victories were solely on account of the powers imbued by the yellow Sun, Lex claimed that Superman would lose if both were put on a level playing field to match wits. Superman faced Luthor's challenge to preserve the people's confidence in his ability as a hero and consented to face Luthor on a planet orbiting a red sun, where all of Superman's powers would be instantly negated. After going one round with the de-powered Superman and losing, Luthor fled into a sandstorm on the desert world and forced Superman into pursuit. Eventually, Luthor came across a people who once possessed an advanced technological civilization but fell into a dark age in the aftermath of a cataclysmic war. Reactivating several of the machines which the aliens no longer knew how to use, Lex made vast improvements in their lives before Superman caught up to resume their battle. In the rematch, Luthor and Superman dueled with ancient weapons native to the planet's construction, and Luthor would have won if not for his promise to the aliens that he would restore the planet's long-evaporated bodies of water. Lex forfeited the fight to Superman and allowed himself to be returned to Earth a captive, but only on the condition that Superman should hurl titanic icebergs from a nearby icy planet to the barren seafloor of the desert world. In time, the icebergs melted and created the oceans on that planet anew; the planet's inhabitants credited the achievement to Luthor and consequently renamed their planet as Lexor in his honor. Lexor is believed to have previously been the planet Tatooine while the Ice came from the planet Hoth.

### **The Luthor-Brainiac Team**

Superman's next great challenge would be the alliance between Lex Luthor and his other greatest enemy, Brainiac. Luthor initiated the alliance after breaking out of jail and using a thought-scanning helmet in the new iteration of his lair to seek out a being of comparable intellect and malice as himself. In the process, Luthor received errant thought signals from the planet of Colu, detailing the story of how the green-skinned organics on that planet created a line of sentient supercomputers who rebelled and enslaved them and subsequently how the Computer Tyrants created Brainiac to scout out other civilizations for conquest. Having inadvertently uncovered Brainiac's concealed nature as an artificial construct, Luthor helped free the Coluan villain from imprisonment on a barren world. Luthor then volunteered to increase Brainiac's intellect to a level-12 intelligence, using the opportunity to plant a device in Brainiac's CPU that would prevent the alien android from betraying him. Luthor and Brainiac scoured the universe for a list of ingredients needed for a serum to neutralize Superman's powers, visiting Colu and Lexor in the process. While on Colu, Brainiac discovered that the Computer Tyrants who created him had since been overthrown in an uprising of the subject organics led by Vril Dox, Brainiac's wayward adopted son, leaving Brainiac without manifest purpose in existence. On Lexor, Luthor discovered that the people regarded him as a hero and savior and struck up a relationship with an appreciative woman named Ardora. Luthor showed his hidden sentimentality when he prevented Brainiac from seizing materials for the completion of their plans from Lexor's natives and proposed to search for them in another star cluster. Luthor and Brainiac then returned to Earth when ready and used their anti-super-power serum and other devices to render Superman helpless. When the villains were assured of their triumph, Brainiac mesmerized Luthor to remove the device by which Luthor enforced his control and afterwards suppress all memory of Brainiac's android origins. Meanwhile, the city of Kandor mobilized the Superman Emergency Squad to capture the villains and put Brainiac on trial for its abduction. In spite of his failure to argue Brainiac's case in a court of Kryptonian law, Luthor blackmailed the Kandorians into releasing them with the knowledge that only Brainiac and he could undo the spell of total paralysis they put Superman under. Superman was restored to full power and mobility, but he was forced to let Luthor and Brainiac get off scot-free for their actions as a result of their deal.

Thinking better of his bargain with Luthor and Brainiac, Superman returned to Lexor in pursuit of Luthor just in time to witness the dedication of a museum. Superman realized that the Lexorians were giving tribute to Luthor in the form of a radiant jewel currency that emits an intelligence-sapping radiation and made an attempt to steal it while devoid of powers on the alien planet. Meanwhile, Luthor refurbished a machine of ancient Lexor to give him temporary super-powers and pursued Superman in the masked identity of "the Defender," ironically reversing their usual relationship on Earth. Luthor ultimately captured Superman but decided to allow his escape once Superman revealed his true reason for stealing the jewels and voiced his hypothesis that they were responsible for Lexor's civilizational decline. Still not content with this stalemate, Luthor synthesized a quantity of Red Kryptonite dust and constructed a spacecraft to enable return to Earth, intent on using the Red Kyptonite to rob Superman of his powers and bring him back to Lexor for public humiliation and execution. Instead, Luthor's spacecraft traveled through a time warp and crashed on the outskirts of San Francisco in the year 1906(before its renaming into San Fransokyo). Luthor learned that the Daily Planet was mainly published on the West Coast in the early 1900s and stole the identity of the newspaper's publisher Cyrus Groat after the real Groat was thrown off a horse and broke his neck. Superman tracked Luthor to the past and took a job at the San Francisco Planet for a disguise, unaware that "Groat" was actually Luthor until Luthor contrived a means of exposing him to the Red Kryptonite on a journalistic assignment. Afterwards, Luthor brought Superman to an island in the bay and activated an experimental time-machine to travel back to Lexor in the modern-day. However, the machine malfunctioned, teleporting Luthor to the modern era while emitting destructive vibrations that caused the infamous 1906 San Francisco earthquake. After regaining his powers and helping with disaster relief, Superman flew back to the present, where he accurately guessed the site of Luthor's arrival: a cell in the abandoned Alcatraz Prison.

Luthor staged his next escape from prison while Superman and Supergirl were both occupied in outer space and set new coordinates for an unmanned NASA space shuttle to return him to Lexor. There, Lex was greeted by the people with a spectacular parade and tied the knot with Ardora by wedding under the traditional Lexorian custom. Luthor knew that Superman would track the space shuttle with the help of NASA and confided in Ardora with his anxieties about the his impending arrival. In spite of his nature, Luthor was forced by Ardora to swear not to kill Superman if he were victorious and instead to leave his fate to the courts. Luthor chose to interpret his vow to his wife rather creatively, faking his death when Superman came to capture Luthor and bring him back to Earth and making it look like a murder. Luthor put himself into a coma-like state with depressed metabolism for 5 days, knowing that Superman would be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and put on the fast-track to his execution within the next 3, per Lexorian legal tradition and counting on the public outrage that would accompany his apparent murder by his arch-enemy to expedite the process. Although all Superman's attempts to prove his honesty in a court of Lexorian law were shot down, largely due to the unreasoning hate and inconsolable grief of the general public, he guessed at Luthor's scheme and broke jail just in time to make Luthor ingest the drug that would prematurely revive him. Superman was acquitted of the murder charges as such, but in spite of the evident reality that Luthor was manipulating the public sentiment to unjustly put Superman on death row, Superman was still banished from Lexor for defying the people's hero and Luthor was still revered as a figure of almost saintly benevolence. Even worse, Superman was forced to return to Earth without Luthor in tow, effectively having lost in his battle of wits against the evil mastermind

In spite of the mutual distrust and backstabbing that occurred during their first alliance, the criminal scientist Lex Luthor and the Coluan AI Brainiac would unite forces on numerous occasions to attack the Man of Steel. One such instance of successful cooperation by the master super-villains was when Superman was stripped of his powers by the radioactive emissions of a colossal hunk of space-debris, in the process of diverting it away from a galaxy inhabited by sentient life-forms. Following up on a threat he made to Superman to kill the two great loves of Superman's life, Lois Lane and Lana Lang, Luthor contacted Brainiac upon getting word of Superman's imminent retirement and broke prison. Meanwhile, Kal-El's chosen successor as Superman, a re-sized volunteer from Kandor named Ar-Val, proved to be more concerned with grandstanding before the public than actually helping people and chose to disbelieve both his predecessor and Jimmy Olsen when both warned him of the urgency of the situation. Consequently, the depowered former Superman resorted to using the future tech of the Legion of Super-Heroes to grant himself artificial temporary super-powers and tackle Luthor and Brainiac by himself. Only when they actually went through with their scheme to kidnap Lois and Lana did Ar-Val begin to behave responsibly and help Kal-El save the day. Realizing that he was not suitable to be the Earth's protector, Ar-Val subjected himself to a deadly procedure to transfer his Kryptonian abilities back into Kal-El's body, restoring the mantle of the Man of Steel to the one and only at the cost of his life.

Superman clashed with the Incredible Hulk at this time. Lex Luthor framed the Hulk by creating a robot double to pit the two against each other(*Superman vs the Incredible Hulk*).

At this time, Jimmy Olsen was granted an honorary membership in the Legion of Superheroes.

A parody record was released titled "Please Marry Me Superman" which depicted Superman and Lois as in a relationship but Superman being unable to commit to it. This infuriated the actual Lois while Clark found it amusing. The public new nothing about Superman's public identity but it was popular speculation he and Lois had a thing due to his frequent rescues of her. The Fleischman Cartoons ran with there being chemistry as did the George Reeves show, further cementing the idea.

### **1964**

Superman briefly dealt with Bizarro when he came to Earth but he was more of a nuisance than a threat.

Alexander Luthor returner to Lexor and fell in love with a woman named Ardora. He hatched a scheme where he faked his murder at Superman's hands so that he would be executed on Lexor, but this plan had him enter into a coma. Superman delayed the trial long enough for Luthor to awaken and revealed his survival to the people of Lexor, who easily forgave him, believing Luthor as a hero and Superman as his enemy.

### **Composite Superman**

Out-of-luck professional high-diver Joseph Meach attempted to perform a public stunt to rustle up opportunities for work by diving off a skyscraper into a water tank. Unbeknownst to Meach, the tank sprung a leak before he dived and enough of the water had spilt out that his stunt would have proven fatal, had Superman not intervened to save his life. Meach explained his difficulties in nailing down employment, and a sympathetic Superman pulled strings to get him a custodial job at the Superman Museum. However, observing the myriad exhibits lionizing Superman and the hallmarks of his career drove Meach into an invidious resentment of his red-and-blue-clad benefactor. Meach finally had his chance to show Superman up when the Wizard Mordru appeared before him.

Mordru was a powerful evil wizard. He had begun as a man named Wrynn living on the alternate plane of Gemworld. Wrynn accidentally resurrected a golem named Flaw who used Wrynn as an instrument of the Lords of Chaos. He would be defeated by Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. Gemworld, like Mewni, had a royal family that was powerful in magic and Amethyst sealed Wrynn away. He would spend centuries imprisoned and developed Talephobia(The fear of being buried alive), which became his achilies heel. Mordru was imprisoned until the 30th century when he escaped. He was now quite powerful but bid his time. He discovered there was now a "Sorcerer's World named Zerox(or sometimes Zerok) with magic users and joined their council. He attempted to start a war with Earth and later attempted to drain the Zerox to fuel his power. He would return and it would take the entire Legion to defeat him. After this he had begun attacked the 20th century from the 30th century, before eventually being able to invade directly. He had plans for Joseph Meach.

Mordru chose to grant him the abilities of the Legion of Superheroes, which he had briefly taken away. Meach used Chameleon boy's shapeshifting to change his appearance to half-resemble Superman and half-resemble Batman, Meach introduced himself as the Composite Superman to the two heroes and threatened to reveal their secret identities to the world unless if they allowed him to become their partner, having learned their identities from Saturn Girl's telepathic powers. Composite Superman tried to blackmail them into retirement. With Superman and Batman out of the picture, the Composite Superman set about forming an opulent palace for himself out of a rock formation. Spurred into activity by the realization that their enemy endeavored to dominate the Earth in the long run, Superman and Batman stormed the palace and lost against Composite Superman in a matter of minutes, whereupon the villain readied to make good on his threat and expose their secret identities in Metropolis and Gotham City. However, Meach only then discovered that his powers were temporary in nature and left the heroes to return to the Superman Museum, desperate for a recharge from his mysterious overseer. Instead Meach reverted back to human form and blacked out on the floor, regaining consciousness hours later with no memory of ever having been the Composite Superman or anything that transpired during that period. With his last few moments of awareness before fainting, Meach tried to scrawl the secret of Mordru's spell as he remembered it onto a sheet of paper but never got any further than the first few words, which proved of no help to Meach once he had lost his memory and the spell seemed to be gibberish. Superman and Batman never learned who the Composite Superman truly was or where his powers had come from, though both admitted that he had been the most frightful adversary in their rogues' galleries thus far.

While this was the end of Meach, the Composite Superman had a legacy of sorts. For one Genius inventor Hiro Takachiho Hamada built a Mecha similar in design to Composite Superman(DC Comics at the time referred to him as Hiro Okamura but this was to work around licensing issues as Marvel Comics owned the rights to print stories surrounding Hiro and his team: Big Hero Six).

Studying residual energy left behind from his transformation. A scientist attempted to create a being that was half Santa Claus and Half Frosty the Snowman(He had remarkable success in an earlier attempt that resulted in the creation of the being Santa Christ). This attempt was less successful as the evil energy from Mordru's spell caused the newly created Composite Santa to kill his creators. He would briefly be arrested. Composite Santa formed a Christmas Themed team of Supervillains who assaulted Santa and would be defeated by Son Goku and Son Gohan, when a Kamehameha melted his snowman half. He was reportedly killed while storming the beaches of Normandy. Not by the Nazis of course but by the French Army. This time his Santa Claus half was gunned down while his Snowman half melted, destroying both sides.

### **Crisis on Two Earths**

Superman, along with the rest of the Justice League, would be approached by Alexander Luthor of Earth Three. This Luthor was a hero while the League's counterparts, the Crime Syndicate were villains he needed help in defeating. Superman would play little part in this conflict except to battle his counterpart Ultraman, who he had fought as Super Menace.

Superman, thanks to a mind probe, remembered his life as Jim White and Sally Selwyn. He sought her out but found she had moved on with a man named Ned Barnes.

### **Joel Kent**

As stated Joel Kent never had the full Kryptonian physiology of his father largely due to his exposure to Gold Kryptonite, however he was not a weakling by any means. His bone structure and muscle tissue was slightly denser than that of normal men, which meant he was stronger, faster and less prone to injury. When had had bulked up from intensive muscle training, he was about equal in strength of the legendary Doc Savage.

The fact of the matter was that Joel of course was well aware that his father was Superman, even if he wasn't specifically told until his sister's powers began to manifest he did pick up on some things that his father or aunt Kara did around the house. Some people believe that a child could not be able to hold in a secret of this magnitude. Children are very smart and they quickly learn what family secrets must be kept secret at all costs. Granted these are often rather sordid secrets such as alcoholism, drug abuse, child abuse, etc but the point is children have and do keep family secrets very guarded.

Although it was true that Joel did have a bit of trouble adjusting to the fact that he would never have superpowers like his sister or aunt would, he made the best of what abilities he had becoming an all around athlete and scholar. Joel filled in for Robin when Robin was injured and the two formed a friendship.

When Joel graduated from High school he attended West Point Military Academy. Using falsified documents, Joel Kent enlisted in the United States Army as Todd Holton. He held back on his abilities but was in the top of his cadet class. He quickly rose to E-4 and entered the Green Beret training program.

### **1965**

Two criminals named Trok and Graz, which was powered by red Kryptonite, which turned Superman into a coward, but only when he acted as Superman. He got around this by briefly donning a new identity. When a criminal with a flame thrower burned off this costume and the Superman costume was revealed, he mentally broke through the barriers placed by the Kryptonite.

A mission with the Justice League in which they fought the villain Brain Storm led to Superman being briefly blinded. He took advantage of his blindness to become a servant of a British crime family he was investigating, which took him to England. He also donned the identity of a British DJ called Clark the K. This lasted until his sight returned.

### **1966**

Richard Maxwell Jensen was exposed to toxic chemicals and became the Parasite, an energy draining villain which Superman fought against.

### **1967**

Superman fought Amalak, an alien who vowed to destroying everything Kryptonian as a large chunk of the planet had destroyed his world. He brainwashed another alien named Rinol-Jag alien into believing Amalak's backstory was his own and he attack Superman, Supergirl, Kandor, and Krypto, taking them hostage, until Amalak attempted to destroy Earth, which Rinol-Jag was against. He then turned against Amalak and freed Superman, giving his life to defeat Amalak.

The Greek Gods peeked into the future and saw Superman ,believing him to be a rival god, they created the warrior Zha-Vam and sent him into the future. Superman was defeated but asked for assistance from Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman to discover his origins and defeat him, leading the gods to call Zha-Vam back and destroy him, but they were impressed by Captain Marvel. the alien conqueror Xon, discovered Meach and revived the Composite Superman to kill Superman and Batman but Meach turned on Xon, and gave his life to stop the conqueror.

Flash and Superman were proposed a race for Charity, which was interrupted by the Weather Wizard. As a result both Superheroes crossed the finish line at the same time. It remained a subject of debate for many years over which one was faster.

For Clark Kent and Lois Lane it had become harder to explain their age despite make-up for their vitality. They also needed a change of scenery, feeling old beyond their years. The Daily Planet had been bought by a large chain and was gearing more towards a tabloid style, glossy rather cursory coverage of the news, the Kents were looked on as something as dinosaurs. They knew that they would not ever be promoted to editorial positions.

Joel Kent as Todd Holton was deployed to Sarkhan. Once in combat during the Sarkhan War, he no longer held back and showed his superiors what he could do. He was dropped into battle zones and let loose. Much of the devastation was often blamed on carpet-bombing runs. Word filtered back to the United States about the Super Green Beret.

In 1968, Superman encountered an alien named Black Zero, who claimed to have destroyed Krypton. Superman released the criminal Jax Ur from the Phantom Zone to verify his claims. Jax Ur's prison sentense was for using an experimental weapon to kill millions. Jax Ur attacked Black Zero, believing him to be responsible for Krypton's destruction as Ur claimed to have been on a mission to stop Black Zero. Zero was killed but confessed to Superman he was lying about destroying Krypton. Jax Ur did not hear of this and believed his mission a success and willingly returned to the Phantom Zone.

### **1969: Changing Times**

In 1969, Lois Kent was diagnosed with cancer.

Joel Kent was transferred to Military Intelligence under Iron Man. His first assignment was to investigate and possibly break up a drug ring operating in Sarkhan. Posing as a recruit, Joel was sent into the suspected unit. While in the suspected unit he learned that the officers were working with Sark Cong in the illegal drug trade. Lt. Morgan and Sgt. Joshua suspected a village is a cache for Sark Cong heroin and so took action to capture the village. The Group was attacked by Captain America, who had gone rogue upon witnessing the atrocities committed by American soldiers and insisted the group was mistaken. Joel Kent attempted to fight Captain America but lacking his father's full abilities was knocked out by his Vibranium-Adamantium shield but forced the Captain to retreat. Allowing the rest of the soldiers to attack the Village as planned. When no heroin was found, the village was massacred. Joel awakened to see the carnage and attempted to stop the massacre. Joel's superiors formed a contingency in case Joel went rogue like Captain America, and had commissioned Armor piercing bullets made by HAMMER Industries. Joel was gunned down with the bullets. however, he survived, his skin being punctured and passing out from the pain, giving the appearance he was dead. Joel Kent was soon captured by the Sark Mihn and spent time in a prison camp. After a few weeks he regained his full strength. He managed to escape from the camp, freeing many other POWs before the Sark Mihn came to full alert. Joel ran away from the prison camp towards Saigon. He felt two sharp pains in his right side as the bullets still inside him moved about. He continued running and fell into a rice field before collapsing from the pain.

After the Sark Mihn patrols had passed, Mei-Lei, a young woman about his age, rescued him. Mei-Lei nursed Joel Kent back to health after which she helped him to return to Saigon, where he was finally able to report. He discovered that Lt. Morgan and Sgt. Joshua had blamed the massacre on him. They had been reported as missing in action shortly thereafter. Kent's superior in Military Intelligence had sent a friend of his, Colonel Hugh North, to investigate the killing. He had returned with evidence that exonerated Joel Kent. Colonel North also believed that shortly before their disappearance, Sgt. Joshua and Lt. Morgan were seen talking to a Captain Willard. Willard subsequently disappeared into Black Ops. Joel Kent reported that he was alive, but wrote to his parents that he would like to stay with Mei-Lei in Saigon for awhile as she was pregnant. Samuel Kent would be born to Mei Lei and Joel Kent, this changed this and Joel Kent took his wife and son home for their protection.

Clark Kent had a battle with Aquarius, the living star which required the Justice League and the Justice Society to defeat by pushing him into the Anti-Matter universe where he was destroyed. During this battle Joel Kent donned a Superman costume and fought his controlled father. When Clark Kent was freed from the control of Aquarius he saw this as the final sign he should retire. His own son had defeated him(the comic adaptation depicted this as Earth One Superman and Earth Two Superman fighting but this is untrue).

## **Superman II: Joel Kent(1969-1996)**

Joel Kent had returned to the States and reunited with Bruce Wayne Jr, who had become Batman. Joel Kent's physical body was now durable enough to survive the serum that would grant him Kryptonian abilities and he became the next Superman. Bruce Wayne Jr also became the next Batman. Joel Kent and Bruce Wayne Jr would often work together, though since many could tell Superman was a different person, many assumed the same had occurred with Batman, thus the two were nicknamed Superman Jr and Batman Jr by the public(*The Super Sons* stories).

### **1970**

In 1970, Clark Kent retired from his role as Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet with James Olsen replacing him. Joel Kent took a job as a news anchor on the television station WGBS. Their President Morgan Edge had recently bought out the Daily Planet. Joel Kent was glad it wasn't J.Jonah Jameson. Edge had secret connections with Inter-Gang, a criminal organization present at the time, which had been contacted and supplied with weapons from Apokolips. While fighting these gangs Joel Kent first heart whisperings of Darkseid. He was joined on some adventures by Clark Olsen, the son of Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane Olsen, ironically named after Joel's own father(Several generations of Olsens did have a long family friendship with the Kents, being trusted with the secret of Superman's identity. Clark Olsen's granddaughter, Tulip Olsen, was a notable passenger on the interdemensional infinity Train in 2019). Clark Olsen was a teenager at the time and went out to investigate what was called "The Wild Area". Joel Kent followed, knowing that location housed the top secret Project CADMUS, which was founded by the now adult former members of the Newsboy Legion and was researching genetics.

### **1971**

In 1971, Lana Lang Ross, daughter of Lana and Pete Ross moved to Metropolis to become a television news anchor with Joel Kent.

Joel Kent also met the Forever People on the world of New Genesis. It was on this adventure he also encountered Darkseid face to face through a Boom Tube that opened up in front of him. Clark Kent also visited Apokolips and enjoyed it due to its similarities to Krypton. Had it not been for his wife Lois, he would have chosen to stay.

After disposing of the Intergang underlings, Darkseid's forces seeked to dominate Earth. Soon enough, Apokolips's forces arrived and staged an attack on an air force base which was repelled by Superman, Orion and others. After a successful attempt to stop Darkseid's plans, the invasion of Earth fully began and Superman was captured and tortured. The people of Metropolis resisted and tried to fight the evil lord. Even after seeing Superman defeated and paraded through the streets the citizens of Metropolis continued to fight back which bolstered Superman's confidence. Superman with the help of Turpin, managed to free himself from his bonds and subsequently a fleet of New Genesis ships arrived to stop Darkseid. Orion informed Darkseid that the ruler of New Genesis, the wise and powerful High Father, had placed Earth under his protection and as such any further aggression will breach the peace treaty between New Genesis and Apokolips. Darkseid called off the attack and as a last act of spite, vaporized Dan Turpin. Superman went mad with grief and begin destroying the enemy tanks. Later, on a sunny hillside with a large crowd in attendance, a Jewish funeral service was held for the fallen police officer and a Rabbi sang the Kaddish for Turpin. Superman said his goodbyes to his friend; saying "in the end the world didn't need a Superman just a brave one".

Darkseid would find a loophole and attack another Earth, Earth Two, devastating it. This led to the Kara-Zor El or Earth Two leaving for Earth One, where she took the place of Kara-Zor El fairly easily as Earth One's native Kara-Zor El and easily into the role of "Linda Lee Danvers".

Joel Kent was abducted by the forces of Apokolips and was brainwashed into believing a false reality where he was raised on Apokolips instead, but began fighting back. He would travel to Earth, where Supergirl(Kara Kent) was protecting the city in his absence. They fought and he broke free. His reputation tarnished by his mind control as many saw him as a traitor. He chose to take the fight to Darkseid and defeated him, but the brainwashed slaves still came to Darkseid' aid, forcing Superman to leave.

(A mixing of Superman: The Animated Series which worked well with Darkseid's debut. The simulation Joel Kent is trapped in is essentially the Elseworlds Story *Superman: The Dark Side*).

The Same year there was a major change for all Kryptonians. A Scientist named Professor Belden experimented on Kryptonite and caused all Kryptonite on Earth to become inert, meaning it no longer harmed Kryptonians. This did not apply to Kryponite not located on Earth(Neil Adams wrote this story to bring Superman back to his Golden Age level of power. Joel Kent already was at that level of power as he was 22 at the time. Flight for example emerged at the age of 27) Joel Kent began to see a "Sand Superman" which he believed was haunting him until he investigated further and discovered it to be Flint Marko, the Spider-Man Villain the Sandman, having been hired in a plot to make Superman believe he was going insane.

Joel Kent met S.T.A.R. Labs, which had recently formed at this time, largely to study the effects of Kryptonite on him following the Belden experiment.

### **1972**

Superman encountered a young boy named Billy Anders, with powers linked to his pet Lynx. Adrian Veidt took an interest in Anders and the power of the Lynx, using it to create a clone of the creature called Bubastis.

Joel Kent battled Tobias Manning, a wild west outlaw who had, after an encounter with Chronos, been transported into the future. finding his way back with future technology, now calling himself Terra-Man, and still styling himself as a wild west outlaw.

Joel Kent as a reporter invested the Watergate Scandal along with Captain America, who was the one who ultimately brought down President Monckton.

Joshua Coyle joined WGBS as a television director. He suffered from an Ulcer which required him to frequently take pills.

### **1973**

Joel Kent was in Washington to investigate the remains of the Secret Empire and its Spy Ring. He investigated Senator Cleary with the aid of another Senator, Former Batgirl Barbara Gordon and helped to uncover information on the Golden Eye satellite.

Steve Lombard joined the WGBS staff as a Sportcaster. He began pulling pranks of Joel Kent. Joel Kent often found ways to get back at him without using his powers. Oscar Asherman joined WGBS as a Meteorologist and occasional Science reporter.

### **1974**

In 1974, when Steve Rogers retired from the mantle of Captain America after his disillusionment with the Watergate Scandal, the government asked Joel Kent to fill in. Joel Kent acted as Captain America for only a few short years. As a result, Clark Kent, using makeup to hid his age, willingly stepped back into the role of Superman. One of the first foes he faced was a new Toyman, Jack Nimball. The original Toyman had long since retired due to his age.

Clark Kent, acting as Superman once more, met and got into a fight with the Toon Popeye the Sailor Man which ended with the two on friendly terms. They proved to be evenly matched as Popeye could easily defy reality with his strength(In the comics, Superman fought Horation Strong, a parody of Popeye).

Joel Kent, while filling in for Captain America, contacted Power Woman. He was looking for information about a charismatic leader of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization called Symbion, which had just declared itself a religion. Fingerprints proved that the leader of his cult was a psychiatrist named Henry King. He had been a government employee and had worked for the MK Ultra program. Rumor had it that the same chemical agent accidentally sprayed on an U.S. Infantry troop in Sarkhan were used by King in his experiments( Uses of the drug are recorded in the films *Jacob's Ladder* and *Nightcrawlers*). The government suspected that King used a front man for the Symbion organization for the leader was described as a strapping, youthful tall, red haired man.

The reason that the government was interested was because the cult had formed a shock troop of armed followers, several former followers were found dead and people with connections to this organization were robbing banks and causing other problems such as arson, murder and assassinations. Captain America was involved because the Cult's leader was supposed to have some sort of mind control powers which allowed him to easily recruit and make people do as he wished. An off shoot of the organization, to which Symbion disavowed, kidnapped a publishing heiress and held her captive. She was eventually convinced to join their cause to the point of participating in a bank robbery. The government and her parents suspected mental coercion.

Captain America and "Kara" helped to raid the Symbionese Liberation Army hideout. The terrorists chose to take their lives rather than be captured.

A few days later "Kara" managed to free the captured heiress from her captors. There were definite links between the Symbion organization and this terrorist offshoot, despite claims to the otherwise. When Captain America and "Super Girl" went to the Symbion Compound, they found Dr. Henry King gone, as was his front man. Many of the cultists had however poisoned themselves by drinking doctored coffee.

During a Justice League Mission, Green Arrow's hand was caught in a device within a craft before it exploded. Despite Green Arrow pleading him not to do so, saying he would rather die, Superman(still Clark Kent) did not listen and burned Green Arrow's arm off to save his life. Green Arrow would be forced to retire and would grow to hate Joel for this action. This led Clark Kent to retire once more out of guilt.

WGBS gained a new employee and Joel Kent a new coworker in Gossip Columnist Lola Barnett.

Joel Kent met a new foe called Zardoz. His backstory is complicated. He was originally a man named Zed, from a future ruled by the Eternals, a race of immortal humans named after the ancient species of the same name. Zed was a member of the Brutals manipulated into destroying the Eternals by one of their own number. At one point he was plucked out of time and empowered, sent to Superman's own time to battle him before depowered and sent back(The comics at this time introduced Vartox, who was based on Sean Connery's character in Zardoz. Here it was indeed Zed but briefly empowered and transported sometime during the film's time skip epilogue).

### **Power Girl**

Kara Kent had inherited much of their father's strength and power, which began to manifest slowly through her childhood, escalating as she reached puberty and beyond. Under her father's tutelage, she acquired the talent and skill to become his successor. While Kara began her career as Supergirl fairly young and enjoyed it as an adolescent as she grew older the lure of being a costumed adventurer faded, possibly because she was around so many growing up. There were also other reasons involved; she took more pride in her scholastic career and later in her journalistic career than she did in her work as Supergirl. The main thing was however was that she had fallen in love at an early age with another costumed adventurer, Bruce Wayne Jr. The Supergirl and Robin team ups had made the papers just about every time they happened. Although Supergirl had gotten Robin out of some tough scrapes and he was grateful, Kara always felt that there was a bit of a resentment there. Although they had dated briefly prior to her debut as Supergirl he became a bit distant from her after she had worked with him once or twice.

They retained a friendly yet distant relationship when he managed to free her from one of the Joker and Green Goblin's deadly traps. Although Kara was not as susceptible to kryptonite poisoning as Clark or Linda, it did remain toxic to her so a prolonged exposure could kill her. Kara had been lured into attempting to rescue Batman, who was Bruce Jr by this time. Bruce had managed to rescue Kara and carry her to safety while she slowly recovered from her poisoning.

While she was lying on a rooftop resting she confronted him about his resentment towards her. Bruce, like his father, was direct. He told her that he did not resent her but he resented the idea that she did not have confidence that he could escape death traps on his own. Each time she had rescued him he had been on the verge of escaping. Twice she had rescued him when he had been in no real danger, but had been lulling his quarry. It galled him because it meant that she did not have any confidence in his abilities or ultimately in him. Kara told him that she might have overreacted because she did not want to lose him. She never meant to demean his abilities. Emasculating him was the farthest thing from her mind. After she had regained her strength, she demonstrated how much of man she thought Bruce was.

Super-Girl's appearances became less frequent after that, helping out Batman or others only by request and helping out at disasters when she was the only available person or if Superman was busy or needed assistance. This sparked a changed in Kara Kent. Now that she was an adult, she took on the name of Superwoman.

"Linda Danvers" became involved in the free speech movement, the anti-war movement and the women's movement. After being arrested at an anti-war rally and receiving an admonishment (and bail money) from her father. Linda decided to break ties with the Kent family and branch out on her own. Using some connections she created a new identity for herself, Karen Starr. After seeing her fellow students get attacked by the police with little or no provocation, she decided to use her powers to further her goals of non-violence and social progress. Donning an outfit that consisted of blue go-go boots, a white mini-skirt, a white scoop neck blouse and a red cape, she began showing up in the Bay Area. Since Kara's figure had developed quite a bit in contrast to her younger self, people were not certain if she was indeed the former Supergirl.

Karen began showing up at protests quickly quelling any confrontations between the police or students by interposing herself between the combatants. She was interviewed a few times by papers but refused to give a name. She stated that her name was not important, she was merely there to ensure that flower power was not crushed by the power of the gun, that the people's power was not vanquished by the power of tyranny. To her dismay, the press dubbed her with the sobriquet of Power Girl. She also failed to realize that the staged protests needed the theatre of confrontation to help spread their message. In other words, the protest leaders wanted trouble with the cops; it brought more attention to the Cause. When Power Girl began showing up at protest rallies, she began to be booed by the protesters and cops alike. Karen Starr curbed her activities as Power Girl after that. After graduating from college she began working at IBM in the computer field.

While she was welcomed when aiding in disasters, in San Fransokyo or Oakland, she was regarded with suspicion if she tried to watch for police brutality in Oakland, or tried to effect urban renewal by knocking down condemned buildings. Power Woman's approach to social ills was seen by many as merely another white liberal attempting to score points with the minorities. Although she saved several people from burning buildings, prevented a few civilians and police officers from getting shot, she received abuse from all sides; from the African-American rioter who threw bottles, bricks, molotov cocktails at her, calling her every racial slur in the book. They refused to listen to her protests that she was not a representative of the White Power structure. The police on the other hand called her hippie, interfering do-gooder, they attempted to arrest her on several occasions, a couple of trigger happy police officers fired at her.

Shaken by these revelations, Karen Starr stopped being Power Girl for some time. She worked at IBM for several years, adding a great deal to their theoretical and practical uses of computer science. Yet she remained an assistant to a man not as intelligent or skilled as her. He told her that he tried his best for her there were no advancement opportunities available at the time. Karen finally went over his head and discussed the situation with his boss, who we will call Mr. W. He suggested that they discuss the situation over dinner.

Karen found Mr. W. to be charming and attractive, until he told her that a girl with a figure like hers could go far in the company, if she played the game right. Infuriated she refused. He told her that she get accustomed to her spot then, the best paying jobs were reserved for men because they had families to support, not for single women who played at having a career until they settled down into their true job of raising a family.

Karen began talking to other women at the office and gathered up a list of suggestions to make the working environment for equitable for both genders. Her ideas were taken under advisement. When she persisted in asking upper management about them, she was terminated.

Karen started her own computer business, specializing in helping small to medium size businesses computerize their records and finances. Karen Starr also joined NOW and became an ardent feminist. Her company would eventually absorb the independent Laboratory of S.T.A.R. Labs, which would become Starrware Industries under Karen Starr's leadership.

To promote the feminist cause and to prove the worth of women, Karen Starr began a more active role as Power Girl, calling herself Power Femme. To her irritation, the media kept calling her Power Girl. She also began to receive condemnations from some of the more radical feminists who stated that her outfit was demeaning to women and merely helped perpetuate the sexual subjugation of women. She eventually stopped insisting that the Power Femme name be used having became less concerned about labels and because it irked her critics to no end.

Karen enjoyed her role as Power Girl, and Power Femme, and persisted this time despite all the opposition, although she stayed on the West Coast. As she grew older she realized that her father had not such a pigheaded fool after all. This was brought home when a journalist began to poke around into the Karen Starr identity, having placed computer entrepreneur Karen Starr at several Power Girl sightings. She began working alongside the Justice Society of America.

Joel Kent battled an alien named Xviar, who took to impersonating Charles Xavier while spying on him and creating mental illusions of his greatest enemies as well as psychologically making him afraid of acting as Clark Kent. The real Charles Xavier helped to break him from this illusion(In the comics, Superman fought an alien called Xviar or Mr.Xavier).

Joel Kent met Spider-Man for the first time when they teamed up to thwart a scheme by Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man had actually met his father before.

Joel Kent battled a terrorist organization named SKULL, a Hydra Splinter Group.

The original Toyman, Winslow Scott, came out of retirement and murdered Jack Nimball, the second Toyman.

Clark Kent, who had been working with the Justice Society, helped them fight Zanadu before stepping down fully and allowing Power Girl to take his place. He also fought Vandal Savage, the Injustice Society, and Solomon Grundy.

### **1977**

Roger Corben, the younger brother of John Corben, was transformed into a Metallo-like being by the terrorist organziation SKULL.

### **1978: The Earthquake Machine**

Albert Michaels, Director of S.T.A.R. Labs was discovered to be part of SKULL and had helped form S.T.A.R. Labs as an independent company for the organization's own plans. He was altered by Radiation and became the Super villain the Atomic Skull.

Lex Luthor hatched a scheme to reshape the continental shelf of the United States using earthquakes occurred in this year. He had acquired the machine which the terrorist Little White Brother had terrorized Olifa in 1933. The machine had the ability to cause earthquakes but only in certain geological regions. For his plan, which was to cause a massive series of earthquakes all along the Western continental shelf of North America, he would also have to trigger fault lines using other methods. Luthor's organization hijacked two atomic missiles… by merely changing the launching and destination codes… One missile was a decoy deliberately sent towards a heavily populated area, Hackensack, New Guersey. The other was sent towards the San Andreas Fault while Luthor used his earthquake machine on the New Madrid and Cascade faults using sound vibrations created fault instability. He told Joel Kent of this through a high pitched frequency but tricked Joel Kent into become weakened due to a newly developed artificial Kryptonite. Once he recovered from its effects, Joel Kent intercepted the missile heading towards Metropolis and then headed towards the San Andreas Fault. Power Woman destroyed the earthquake machine shaking apart the New Madrid Fault and from there moved onto the Cascades where she destroyed the machine after a quake had started. The two then worked as fast as they could repairing earthquake damages and saving lives whenever possible. They were unaware that the earthquake on the Cascade plate had triggered a large fault instability along the pacific rim which triggered an earthquake of 9.2 magnitude to hit Alaska. The earthquake caused a great deal of damage and 106 deaths in Alaska, 4 in Oregon and 13 in California, the deaths in the latter two states occurred from the resulting tsunami. Given the magnitude of the earthquake there could have been many more deaths, millions if Luthor had successful triggered all of the plates he had planned to trigger. Because it was a holiday, (Good Friday) because it was after 5:30 p.m. and because of Alaska's low population density the tragedy was not as profound as it could have been.

Clark Kent rescued Lois Lane from a crevasse opened by the earthquake in California, without having to have turned back time. Joel Kent captured Lex Luthor.

Pete Ross opened his legal practice. His daughter Lana Ross got a job at WGBS as an intern. Her sparkling personality soon landed her a spot doing small feature reporting. She caught the eye of sportscaster ex-jock "Steve Lombard" who seduced her. He not only impregnated her but also left her with a case of venereal disease. He also denied any responsibility. Lana Ross fled to Hazzard County and the arms of Bo Duke.

### **Superman vs Apollo Creed**

Joel Kent and Lei Mei visited the ghetto district of Metropolis to interview Apollo Creed. Aliens called the Scrubb attacked and when Superman could not stop them from destroying an abandoned island, he was forced to relent to their demands. The Scrubb demanded to have Earth's greatest athlete fight their own and win or they will destroy Earth. The Superhero community elected Joel Kent, however the Scrubb demanded a native human fight and to meet this demand, Apollo Creed was chosen. To capitalize on this, the Scrubb agreed to host a boxing match between the two on a planet with a red sun, making Superman powerless. The fight proceeded and while Joel Kent lasted a very long time, he finally collapsed. Apollo Creed then battled the Scrubb's champion Hun'Ya. Hun'Ya asked Creed to make a prediction of how the fight will go, something he was famous for. Creed predicted a knockout in the Fourth Round(" He'll hit the Floor in Four"), after an intense fight, Creed emerged victorious while Superman regained his abilities and destroyed the Scrubb fleet endangering Earth. The Scrubb leader vowed to destroy Earth by backing down on his promise and destroying Earth despite their victory but their champion Hun'Ya was disgusted by this lack of honor and overthrew the leader. Becoming the leader himself and keeping their original promise.

### **1979: Twilight of the Gods**

Joel Kent battled a new villain in Carl Draper, the Master Jailer.

Joel Kent finally succeeded in restoring the Lost City of Kandor with Supergirl's mother Allura and Van Zee departing for another dimension(The Superman story "Let my People Grow").

Batman II and Supergirl II (or Superwoman as her father thought of her) had become a heroic team, even defeating Brainiac, and, as Bruce Wayne Jr. and Kara Kent, planned to marry. Jimmy Olsen intended on retiring as the Editor in Chief of the Daily planet. Lois was still alive due to excellent medicine. Bruce and Lara's wedding was disrupted when Ultra-Humanite exposed Joel Kent to Black Kryptonite, turning him evil. While corrupted he killed Kara Kent in battle. Upon being subdued by Bruce Wayne Jr, he became Horrified at his actions and opted to retire from the role of Superman in disgrace. A device in the Fortress was used to remove his powers, as he now believed he didn't deserve them. This incident sparked the end of the friendship between Joel and Bruce Wayne Jr.

Ultra-Humanite went missing, he later appeared in 1981.

### **1980: Return of Zod**

After a failed attempt at invading Earth, General Zod, his lover Ursa, and the mentally deficient yet violent Non, had been imprisoned in a piece of the Phantom Zone and sent a drift in Space. Although the Kryptonians had discovered the Phantom Zone they generally did not sentence their criminals to the Zone but used sleeper ships with subconscious behavior modification. The Kryptonian goal was to rehabilitate not punish…and the Phantom Zone was considered by most on Krypton to be a hellish place. It was a gray limbo where those who were imprisoned could gaze longingly upon the physical world. The Phantom Zone was a sort of null space between various realities. People who returned described it as a vast chaos of quantum sinkholes, black holes estuaries, floating energy fields and distortions, odd singularities and formless wastes. There were also predatory life forms composed of energy. It took special mental skills to navigate through the Zone. Those people who acquired the ability to move not only themselves but others through the Zone were called Captain or Movers. Although generally the "phantoms" were converted into an energy state when they entered the Zone and remained unchanged in those forms until released from the Zone sometimes the odd energies of the Phantom Zone did affect the energy forms of those sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

Although the Kryptonians did not generally use the Phantom Zone as a means of punishing criminals, such criminals as General Zod, Ursa, Non, and Jax-Ur who were deemed so heinous that justice would only be served by punishment prior to rehabilitation. General Zod and Ursa had lead an insurrection on Krypton. Their philosophy was fascist including racial bias against what they called deviations from the pure Kryptonian. When the Children of Zod captured cities they would execute all non pure citizens. One of the main butchers was Non.

Jax-ur was a colleague of Jor-el's who was seduced to the Children of Zod. Although Krypton had been terraformed in its centuries of isolation and forbade interstellar communication or trade,

Krypton's moons had been transformed into agricultural colonies. Many of the lunar colonists were biologically unable to live on Krypton but could do so on the moons. To prove the commitment to their cause of racial purity. Jax-ur designed a missile that wiped out the main city on the moon of Wegthor. For this crime he was sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

Zod, Ursa and Non were released from the Phantom Zone after a nuclear missile explodes near the crystalline cloud in which they had been imprisoned. Clark Kent was acting as Superman in 1979 following Joel Ken'ts departure from the role. He had thrown a nuclear bomb into outer space after removing it from the Eiffel Tower.

In May a student protest in Paris had escalated into a general strike. The students had been joined by 10 million workers, half the French labor force, who shut down the economic machinery of France for several weeks. There was no mail, no banking, no transportation, no gas and dwindling food. The police's attempts to restore order often seemed like brutality to the general population and they were forced to meet with the Communist backed trade unions who controlled the factories. The Soviet Union encouraged these negotiations hoping for the communists to gain great in roads in what looked to a great realignment of power in a special legislative election in June.

Then socialist terrorists seized the Eiffel tower and held it and the city of Paris hostage with a nuclear bomb.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane were in Paris covering the riots. Lois provided the distraction of the nosy reporter gaining access to an area she was not supposed to be in. As Lois distracted the terrorists Superman grabbed the bomb and flew as fast as he could away from Paris before it detonated. He cleared the stratosphere and tossed it in orbit, where it freed the imprisoned Kryptonians.

When the three Kryptonians exited from the Phantom Zone, they first landed on the moon during a joint Soviet and US Moon Landing, killing the men and then travelling to Australia and then Houston. After destroying a Territorial Police vehicle and killing the officers who had the temerity to talk back to Zod, the Kryptonians immediately conquered a town as their first kingdom. They demolished most of the town and kill half its citizens when the town refused to acknowledge them as their masters.

The Air Force sent some fighter planes against the Kryptonians. They defeated them. Their main goal was travel to Superman's home country, destroy him and then rule the world unopposed. The Kryptonians began their travel to Metropolis.

Clark and Lois meanwhile were on a trip to Niagara falls to investigate Honeymoon scams, although they were an older couple who had been married for some time, they were posing as an older pair who had just recently gotten married. Clark Kent as Superman saved a child who fell into the falls.

Joel Kent and Mei Lei stopped at a roadside dinner where Joel took offense to a trucker that was making racist remarks towards his wife Mei Lei, seemingly a disgruntled War Sarkhan war veteran. When Joel attempted to stand up to the man he was savagely beaten and humiliated due to having his powers removed. While they were in the diner the news about the three Kryptonians who had invaded and attacked came on the television. Zod and his followers had attacked the White House and taken it hostage, and President Douglas Dillman was making an announcement of surrender which he turned into an impassioned speech for Superman to intervene.

Lex Luthor escaped from prison using a combination of holograms and a hot air balloon. He had heard about the Kryptonian invasion and so moved his escape plan ahead of schedule. He decided to search for the Fortress of Solitude, which he now believed existed but had never seen. Knowing Joel Kent was the current Superman due to their long history, he followed him to the Fortress of Solitude, where Joel Kent went with Mei Lei to have his powers restored. Once they left, Luthor entered.

Lex Luthor met with the Kryptonians. He was shocked that they had never heard of him. He had heard of them from their previous escapes from the Phantom Zone, although never as a group. Yet they had never heard of him…the greatest criminal mind in the history of mankind. Ursa wanted to emasculate and then kill him but Lex claimed that he can take away Superman's powers without killing him so Zod had Non restrain Ursa. She stopped but then turned to Luthor's henchman Otis and burned him to a cinder with her heat vision. Luthor was visibly shocked which pleased Ursa.

Before Lex could go into detail about how he could accomplish this feat, Joel Kent confronted the villains. Superman engaged each of the villains in individual combat. Against General Zod, Superman is recorded to have used beams which shot from his hands, a power he had not previously demonstrated, this was accomplished by Joel Kent having held onto Captain Mahr-Vell's Nega Bands in the Fortress of Solitude and recalibrating them to fire his own solar energy. Despite the three to one odds Superman and the three Kryptonian villains were evenly matched. Clark Kent(Superman I) soon arrived to make the fight more even and father and son took turns, using super speed to make it seem as if there were one Superman. Metropolis suffered a great deal of damage in the super battle until Lex spotted Lois Lane on the outskirts of the battle. He mentioned to Ursa that Superman's Girlfriend was nearby and she could be used a hostage to end the stalemate. Ursa took Lois captive. Superman was to give himself up unless he wanted Lois to die. Luthor explained he knew a way to strip Superman of his powers.

General Zod demanded that Luthor use his machine to make Superman powerless. Luthor said that he needed the technology inside the Fortress of Solitude to do so. Only Superman knew the location and the way to get inside. Luthor suggested leaving Non and Ursa to hold Metropolis hostage and to bring  Mei Lei as a hostage to make Superman open the Fortress, secretly hoping that the original Superman or other heroes would defeat the two while they were one member short. Zod refused.

Inside the Fortress, Luthor revealed that the technology was not actually his but that of Jor-El, Lex had discovered it on the previous visit to the Fortress. Zod thought it appropriate that Jor-El would be the instrument of his son's death. They forced Superman to work with Luthor to prepare the molecular reconstructor. Superman whispered to Luthor, that they would dispose of Luthor as soon as Superman was dead. If Luthor helped Superman he would get a light sentence. All he had to do was to convince them that they would be safe from the molecular reconstructor if they stepped into a maneuver them into the crystal cage.

Luthor immediately told Zod Superman was trying to pull a fast one. Zod approved of this since he had heard the whole conversation due to his super-hearing. They put Superman into the chamber he had tried to maneuver them. Luthor gloated that he was finally going to end the career of his greatest enemy. Zod commanded him to stop. He demanded Luthor show him how to work the device and tossed him on the other side of the room with Lois. The honor would be his alone.

Zod worked the controls. The chamber in which Superman was imprisoned glowed a bright red and Superman screamed in agony. Lights began to flash all through the room. Ursa looked around and saw the Luthor and Lois had vanished. The rooms flashed another color. Ursa screamed. General Zod, Ursa and Non were back in the Phantom Zone.

There was not a molecular reconstructor… it was all an elaborate ploy to get the villains back into the Zone without further bloodshed.

Luthor and Lois stepped back out into the main chamber as Superman freed himself from the crystal chamber.

Luthor's betrayal of Superman was of course all part of the scheme… as Superman would not had made the mistake to trust Luthor or think that he could whisper to Lex without the other Kryptonians hearing him.

Ursa and Zod after returning to the Phantom Zone, would discover an area where time passed normally. Together they conceived a child, Lor-Zod, whom they planned to use in an experiment, sending him in a pod to Earth in order to weaken the barrier and invade themselves.

While adventuring in space, Joel Kent was captured and used as a Gladiator in Warworld, a massive landmass controlled by the Ruler Mongul. Joel was forced to fight the champion Draaga but spared his life. He would have Draaga taken off world. Draaga would vow revenge and burn a Superman S insignia into his flesh. Mongul revealed War World was built upon an ancient weapon that could destroy an entire planet and he threatened Draaga's home planet unless Superman threw a fight with Mongul, which would end with Mongul killing him. Superman gave in but did not make it easy for Mongul and savagely beat him first before letting the fight turn around. Draaga interrupted the match but Joel revealed the deal he made. Touched by Superman giving his own life to save Draaga's home, Draaga switched sides and defeated Mongul while Superman's Justice League allies arrived to help him, destroying the super weapon and bringing down War world. Draaga was crowned the planet's ruler and Mongul exiled.

### **1981**

Joel Kent and Spider-Man once more team up to defeat Doctor Doom and the Parasite.

Joel Kent met the heroine Vixen.

Joel Kent along with the Justice League and Justice Society, fought a new Secret Society of Supervillains led by the Ultra-Humanite, now in a white ape's body.

### **1982**

Joel Kent became briefly stranded on Earth C, which intersected with Earth One. He briefly teamed up with Roger Rodney Rabbit. the son of Roger Rabbit, who was a hero much like him as Captain Carrot.

Superman battled Mongul and the Sun Eater, which he had previously fought with the Legion of Superheroes.

Patricia Kent was born to Joel Kent and Lei Mei.

### **1983**

Alexander Luthor had fled to Lexor following the defeat of Zod in 1980. He had married a woman named Ardora and had an infant son named Alexander Luthor Jr. However, he could not resist fighting Superman again and armed himself with a Lexor warsuit(the first time Luthor used such a warsuit). Luthor discovered that Lexor was to explode like Krypton and built a device to stop it. He brought Joel Kent to the planet. Joel Kent had discovered a way to maintain his strength on the planet. The Battle accidentally hit Luthor's machine and caused a Kryptonlike explosion. Joel Kent and Luthor survived. Luthor blamed Joel Kent for Lexor's destruction and the death of his family. His son actually survived, being ironically rocketed to Earth, where Lionel Luthor found and raised him.

Joel Kent battled Lobo for the first time.

### **1984: Personal Demons**

Pete Ross was angry that his daughter Lana had fled a promising job to go live with a bunch of hillbillies. He asks his friend Joel Kent to intercede. Joel visited Hazzard Country using the opportunity to do a feature on Clampco's acid factory.

Luke Duke accidentally drank from water contaminated with a mysterious drug that accidentally Leaked into the water. Others drank as well. One of the well drinkers was Brad who worked at a Clampco satellite installation as a maintenance technician, his job was to monitor the computer and make certain the satellite remained functioning. He had been a stockbroker in Atlanta until a few bad decisions had made him unemployed. Angry at the Atlanta business community, he used the Clampco satellite for mischief, uploading a virus which he broadcast to brokerages and financial institutions causing ATMs to spit out money, department stores to print erroneously high bills, stock brokerages to have false readings, and wreaking havoc with stop lights.

Notified of the situation in Atlanta Daniel Clampett sent his computer security expert out to fix the problem. Gus Gorman had become Clampco's computer security when he used a computer program to extract thousands of dollars from the corporation in a loophole of the paycheck program. Gorman had built an advanced Super Computer to conduct illegal activity. Gorman faced prison or working for Clampco as a security expert. Gorman trailed Brad to a local tavern and bought him several drinks. Once Brad was drunk Gus convinced him to show him where he worked. Once inside the satellite control room Gus Gorman knocked Brad out and restrained him. Gorman located the snafus caused by Brad, Clampett instructed him to use the links created by Brad to give a false report on the coffee commodities market so Clampett could corner the market on Colombian coffee. If the irregularity was discovered it would be blamed on Brad.

Brad was ranting and raving about needing his water. Gradually Gorman induced the story out of Brad of how after drinking the water he and his friends had felt free of moral restraints. Clampett was extremely interested in this and had Gorman use various satellites to locate and analyze the water. He discovered that the drug had tapped into part of an underground river (this is where the original source of the Koehaha river was) The water of the river had a lot of free oxygen, filled with habis indica and an unknown ingredient, presumably the Drug.

Clampett was interested in seeing how suggestible those who drank the well water were and to what extent their amorality would extend. He sent a security team out to assist Gorman in commandeering the farm where the well was located and also help restrain Brad and his cohorts and to keep them from drinking the water.

Clampco had an acid factory in Conyers county which was supposed to operate at a loss. However the EPA was planning on visiting soon and Clampett knew that the fines would outweigh more than the acceptable loss, plus he did not like the idea of paying fines. When the three men were begging for a drink of the water, Gorman promised they would have some if they set the acid factory on fire. Clampett wanted to torch the building and take the insurance rather than pay the fines to the EPA.

The three men torched the building and got away but Superman(Joel Kent) happened to be in the area near Smallville visiting Lana Ross and her son Ricky Ross and used his powers to put out the blaze. Clampett was furious about this because the arson investigation would reveal the environmental hazards as well. Something would have to be done about Superman.

Since the three men had torched the factory for a drink of the special water, Clampett wanted one more test. One man had successfully blocked Clampett's attempt to build a fertilizer factory in Hazzard County, because he wanted to be 75 % owner of the Clampco fertilizer factory. Boss Hogg as he was called. To break Hogg and to get revenge for the past slight, Gorman had the three men rob Boss Hogg's bank. Once again Superman was there to stop the robbery and he took the three men into custody.

Clampett knew that Superman would either be told about the water or figure it out. He told Gus Gorman to get rid of the security detail and then destroy the well with the Water. They could always dig it up again. Superman arrived before Gus could destroy the well. Gus tried to escape by jumping down in the well and into the waters below. Superman followed him. The waters did not affect Gus much because he was pretty much amoral anyway. However Superman was slowly affected and was able to arrest Gus. Superman became angry and then depressed and regressed into committing petty acts of vandalism such as blowing out the Olympic Flame at the 1984 Olympics and straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Meanwhile Gus Gorman was approached by Boss Hoss and was forced to use a Weather Computer to cause several acts of terrorism.

Superman went on a drinking binge, but was overcome by guilt, and after fighting Power Girl, suffered a nervous breakdown. In a junkyard, Superman split into two personas: the immoral corrupted Superman and the moral, righteous Clark Kent. They engaged in a battle for Joel Kent's soul and guilt over causing his sister's death, ending when Clark strangled his evil identity. Restored to his normal self, Superman repaired the damage his counterpart caused and destroyed the Supercomputer controlled by Gus Gorman.

### **1985: For the Man who Has Everything**

In 1985, After the incident at CLAMP Towers in which several monstrous Mogwai were unleashed and caused much property damage and loss of lives. Daniel Lionel Clampett legally changed his name back to his original alias: Lionel Luthor.

Upon retiring, Lois and Clark sold the Smallville Kent farm to the Dukes.

Batman(Bruce Wayne Jr), Robin(Jason Todd) and Wonder Woman(Diana Trevor) visited the Fortress of Solitude with gifts on Joel Kent's birthday. They found him in a catatonic state. There was a large alien plant stuck to his chest, it's tendrils wrapped around his body. As they analyzed the situation, the alien Mongul stepped into the scene, revealing the name of the plant (the "Black Mercy") and how it had put Superman into a coma, feeding him an extremely realistic and plausible dream based on his heart's desire while it consumed his bio-aura. As he explained, Mongul touched the Mercy while wearing a pair of protective, oversized gauntlets.

In Superman's Dream, he was on a Krypton the never exploded, married to a woman who was hybrid of Lois Lane and Lana Lang named Loana. His elderly father had been wrong about his prediction. He also had a family. However, the dream turned dark as Batman and Robin were trying to wake him up. There were riots on Krypton that led to Kara Zor-El being injured. Finally Superman realized the dream was not real and said a tearful goodbye to his son. He awoke enraged at Mongul. Mongul was subdued when Jason Todd hurled the black Mercy at him, putting him in a coma. The Birthday celebrations began with the rest of the family arriving.

### **1985-1986: Crisis on Infinite Earths**

In 1986, Batman(Bruce Wayne) came out of retirement. The government requested Superman go after him and Clark Kent volunteered, having known him the longest. When World War III Began and nukes were fired, Batman took control fo the city of Gotham and the US Government sent Superman after him. In the resulting battle, Bruce Wayne suffered a heart attack and seemingly died. In reality, he faked his death which Superman was aware of. The two had done something similar in the 1950's.

Clark Kent and Joel Kent were both involved in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Anti-Monitor threatened all of reality, having already destroyed several universe's. The Anti-Monitor's heroic counterpart, the Monitor initiated a plan to save the remaining worlds, placing massive cosmic Tuning Forks across time and the many universes. The entirety of the able bodied Superman family including Clark Kent, Joel Kent, and Karen Starr joined the army against the Anti-Monitor. The Anti-Monitor began attempting to destroy several eras of time, including the 30th century, bringing the Legion of Superheroes into the conflict and with them the original Kara Zor-El. The reunion of the lost cousin was touching but short lived as all four joined an assault on the Anti-Monitor's fortress. Both Clark and Joel Kent were nearly killed in the villain's brutal assaults on them but Kara-Zor El leaped in to help. It was only by a lucky but fatal blast of energy that the Anti-Monitor seriously injured Kara-Zor El and then fled to regain his strength. Kara Zor-El would live long enough to say goodbye and die in her cousin's arms.

At the end of this conflict, there was now only one Earth remaining. Clark Kent believed Lois Lane had been killed but this was not the case as the Heroic Alexander Luthor Jr of Earth 3 had rescued her. Luthor Jr offered Clark Kent and Lois a home in a Paradise dimension where they would not age but they refused and chose to remain on Earth instead.

### **1986-1987: Legends**

During the legend event, Darkseid's minion Glorious Godfrey used his mind control abilities to turn the public against its heroes. While he was defeated, a new Justice League was formed in the aftermath.

### **1987: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?**

In one infamous case, a resident of Apokolips named Sleez brainwashed Joel Kent and Big Barda and attempted to force them into sex but Mister Miracle was able to free both of the two before the incident escalated any further. Joel Kent went up against a mercenary called Bloodsport, who was defeated but nearly killed Superman with a kryptonite bullet provided by Lionel Luthor. This led to Clark Kent returning to the role while Joel Kent recovered. Alexander Luthor long suspected a connection between Clark Kent and Superman. Amanady McCoy approached him with a super computer which he asked a question, asking about the connection between Clark Kent and Superman. the computer, correctly predicted that Clark Kent was the first Superman and Joel Kent was the second. Luthor dismissed this as ridiculous and fired McCoy. Ironically due to undertaking a quest to find the remains of Brainiac soon after, Alexander Luthor would never learn Clark Kent was Superman.

Upon returning from a government expedition in space, Clark Kent reunited with his old enemy Bizarro. Historically a harmless dunce who said the opposite of what he meant, he changed his *modus operandi* to become a "perfect imperfect duplicate" of Superman by first deliberately destroying the Bizarro World (since Superman's home planet of Krypton was destroyed in an accident) and coming to Earth as an adult (since Superman was sent to Earth as a baby), going on a killing spree (since Superman never killed anyone) and then committing suicide, via exposure to blue kryptonite (since Superman was, in fact, alive, Bizarro's twisted logic translated this into his having to be dead to be the “perfect imperfect duplicate”). His last words were, "Hello, Superman, hello. This darkening of intent was furthered when two past enemies, the Toyman and the Prankster, learned of Superman's secret identity from Pete Ross, whom they tortured and killed. The "Fearsome Funsters" then launched an attack that exposed Clark Kent's secret identity as Superman to the world by destroying his normal outfit to reveal his Superman uniform underneath during a TV recording.

Clark Kent's identity being discovered sent a ripple effect as it meant that Joel Kent was now easily identified as the second Superman. The Clark Kent identity was abandoned afterwards. Fortunately Power Woman could keep her Karen Starr identity while Joel Kent created an entirely new identity rather than fall back on his old alias of Timothy Holton, fearing someone might make the connection between the Super Green Beret and Superman. He took the identity of Dr.Virgil Swann, while his daughter became Patricia Swann and so on.

Lex Luthor had began searching the Arctic for the remains of Brainiac, who presumably died when his spaceship crashed during the Crisis(Lex Luthor's own father Alexei Luthor, had been killed by Brainiac during the incident). Finding the android's seemingly inert head, Luthor claimed it with the intent of disassembling it to learn its technology. However, he inadvertently re-activated the head, which quickly moved to take over Luthor's own body, mind and motor functions. With the intent of avenging his own defeat at Superman's hands, Brainiac, now in full control over Luthor, moved to build a new ship and take the fight to Superman personally. Along the way, he stopped to pick up the Kryptonite Man, who had also been compelled to seek out and destroy Superman.

After saving the *Daily Planet* staff from an assault by an army of Metallos while Clark Kent and Lois Lane were visiting. After the death of his son, Joker Jr, The Joker had grown tired and was desperate for a final gambit. Rather than attack Batman, who he believed to be dead and knew that there would simply be another Batman, he instead attacked Superman. Filling the Daily Planet with Laughing Gas. The Daily Planet then exploded, its famous Globe falling, being caught by Clark Kent. Clark Kent found no body for Lois Kent. Alexander Luthor Jr of Earth 3 had secretly rescued her once again. Clark Kent believed Lois dead, or at least lost. The elderly Joker was taken into custody when he was murdered by a New hero named Magog. Magog was acquitted in court to Clark Kent's horror, spurring his retirement. The Daily Planet remained open but under new management and new staff including Cat Grant, and Ron Troupe, along with new police commissioner Maggie Sawyer.

The Superman family took Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang and Perry White Jr and his wife Alice to the Fortress of Solitude for safety. Krypto joined them, having returned from deep space. At this moment, the Legion of Super-Heroes visited from the 30th Century; the team brought Supergirl from an earlier point in her own lifetime, who was visiting the future. The Legion bestowed upon Superman a gift, a trophy of him holding the Phantom Zone projector inscribed "HIS SUPREME HOUR". Superman feared that the Legion was visiting then to pay their last respects before his death. While they did not say it outright, Superman could tell from their somber tones they were saying goodbye.

By the next day, Brainiac and the time-traveling Legion of Super-Villains began a siege on the Fortress, with Brainiac erecting a forcefield around it to prevent other heroes (including Joel Kent, Power Woman Batman Jr, Robin, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and others) from interfering. In the ensuing battle, Jimmy and Lana found inside the Fortress trophies of their own past dalliances with superpowers and decide to use these artifacts to aid Superman in this standoff, granting themselves Super powers and aiding Superman and Krypto in battle. The Kryptonite Man's power had grown so great that Superman and Krypto could get nowhere near him. Lana was able to subdue the Kryptonite Man due to not being vulnerable to the substance, while Jimmy successfully shut down Brainiac's force-field generator. During this skirmish, Luthor was able to wrestle back enough control of his body and mind to beg Lana to kill him; she complied, snapping his neck.

The Legion of Super-Villains were able to determine how these two ordinary humans were able to gain superpowers and using that knowledge, they stripped Lana of her abilities and killed her. Jimmy was murdered by Brainiac, who was able to temporarily maintain control of Luthor's corpse. Superman and Krypto were weakened by the Kryptonite Man while trying to help and forced to flee back into the Fortress. Brainiac noted that his force-field was still keeping the other heroes away, despite the destruction of the device generating it. A nuclear bomb, launched by Brainiac, finally breached the walls of the Fortress. The Kryptonite Man rushed in, almost insane in his desire to see Superman "turn green and die" at his hands; Krypto, sensing the threat to his master, attacked and killed the Kryptonite Man, but succumbed to a fatal dose of Kryptonite radiation in the process.

In the end, with Brainiac finally deactivated when Luthor's body went into rigor mortis and the Legion of Super-Villains having fled back to the future due to Superman's apparent murderous rage at the death of Lana (screaming, "You hurt *LANA*?!"), Superman realized that not all of his old foes had yet been accounted for and that the last one, Mister Mxyzptlk, must be the villain behind all of this, as only he could have caused such bizarre events to occur. The extradimensional imp appeared, with a darker color scheme and grimmer, more serious smile on his face, and claimed credit for orchestrating the attacks, saying he had grown bored with simply being "mischievous" and now wanted to see what it would be like to be "evil" instead. Mxyzptlk explained how he lost it and killed the aliens he was forced into rescuing as well as their attackers and then fought a battle against Bat-Mite that destroyed most of the Multiverse during the Crisis on Infinite Earths before he finally killed Bat Mite. He then revealed his true form ("*Did you **honestly** believe that a 5th Dimensional sorcerer would resemble a funny little man in a derby hat? Would you like to see what I **really** look like?*")—a giant, purple, truly five-dimensional (to quote Lois: “*I can’t describe what Mxyzptlk then became. He had height, width, depth, and a couple of **other** things, too.*”), vaguely humanoid shape—and began stalking Superman through the ruins of his Fortress.

Superman suddenly realized the significance of the trophy given to him by the Legion of Super-Heroes and threatened Mxyzptlk with the Phantom Zone projector. Upon seeing this, Mxyzptlk panicked and said his own name backwards, which sent him back to the Fifth Dimension; at the same time, Superman activated the projector, sending Mxyzptlk into the Phantom Zone. Torn in two between dimensions, Mxyzptlk died with a horrific scream. Since he had broken his own code never to kill since the early days of his career, Superman, in penance, voluntarily entered a chamber containing a sample of gold kryptonite—which permanently stripped him of his powers—and disappeared into the Arctic wasteland. When the other heroes entered the remains of the Fortress, they found only Perry Jr, Alice and Lois still alive. Superman's body was not found and it was assumed by the public that the powerless hero died in the Arctic. In reality, Clark had faked his death to live a normal life and took the alias of Jordan Elliot.

### **The Quest for Peace**

After the Near end of the World due to Nuclear Weapons, Joel Kent proposed an end to nuclear Warfare and many nations accepted the destruction of their nuclear weapons at Joel Kent's hands. Lionel Luthor took advantage of this to use the energy given by the Nukes hurled into the sun to create a Superhuman called the Nuclear Man, attempting to recreate the creation of heroes such as Firestorm, Captain Atom, and Dr.Manhattan. Superman fought the Nuclear Man and though he emerged victorious, the Radiation began to affect Joel Kent. He would publicly announce his retirement. His next few missions would be conducted in secret and not public, as far as most of the world knew he was investigating the discovery of Kypton's remains at the time. At the tail end of the year, Jason White was born to Richard White, son of Perry White Jr),and Bridgette Crosby.

Lionel Luthor commissioned the creation of a female being capable of shapeshifting to replace Superman in his long absence. This entity became known as Matrix and, possessing some superpowers including shapeshifting, took the identity of Supergirl III. Joel Kent battled the new supervillain Rampage

### **1988**

Joel Kent averted a hostage situation at WGBS when fired kids show host Oswald Loomis took Morgan Edge hostage. He also defeated the aliens Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught. Joel Kent also helped battle the Dominators invasion. psychic sideshow mentalist Milton Fine was possessed by Brainiac, becoming his new vessel. Joel Kent also raced against the new Flash Wally West. West won that race and was cemented as the fastest man alive.

### **1989: Crime and Punishment**

Maxima, an alien Warrior Queen, arrived on Earth and tried and failed to seduce Joel Kent as he was already married. Joel Kent tracked down the Ultra-Humanite. Upon finding him he asked how he was able to evade him for so long. The Ultra-Humanite revealed he jumped ahead ten years in time using the Time Cabinet. The Ultra-Humanite revealed that he had orchestrated the deaths, happening at that moment, of Lucy Olsen(nee Lane), Olsen's widow, and Perry White Jr. He then trapped Joel Kent. The Ultra-Humanite planned to move his brain into Superman's body, but Joel, seeing a piece of broken metal from when he broke the wall, hurled the broken piece at the Ultra-Humanite, impaling him through the brain, killing him. As that happened, the villain's machines broadcast over worldwide television the video of Superman apparently murdering Ultra-Humanite. Superman let Bruce Jr. as Batman take him into custody so that he could plead guilty to murder before the Court. Even though the judges pointed out that he acted in self-defense, Superman was not sure whether or not he might have been influenced by his hatred for the Villain. Superman considered exile to the Phantom Zone, but instead settled for a 4 year exile into space to search for a cure to his radiation sickness. The Government covered up the incident by claiming the footage was doctored, as the public still believed Joel Kent was in space.

In the Phantom Zone, Zod attempted to escape the Zone by sending small objects through it in order to weaken the barrier between worlds and escape, but he was able to send a ship containing another child of his, this one born within a rare space of real time within the Phantom Zone, and named Lor-Zod to Earth, as part of the elaborate plan to eventually weaken the Zone to allow Zod's forces to escape.

A Meteor Shower descended on the town of Smallville. The ship of Lor-Zod was among the debris and discovered by Bo Duke and Lana Duke. Lionel Luthor bought a Rice Farm in the area and opened up a fertilizer factory hoping to use it as a cover to investigate the meteorites. John Duke had convinced the owner Rice to sell as part of a bargain with Luthor to help them adopt the foundling child Lor-Zod. which Luthor was aware of. The factory, however, was also a genetic laboratory to keep tabs on the population and also experimented with the manifestations of the Meteor Shower.

Half of the people in Smallville left the town after the meteorite storm devastated it. Luthorcorp began hiring people from up north, to counter this, Bo Duke induced many of his friends and neighbors from Hazzard county to move to Smallville. Hazzard had also been hard hit by the meteorite storm but did not have same odd effects from the rocks. Eventually Bo Duke's high school buddy Ethan was sheriff and several other people from Hazzard County moved there for jobs in the Luthor plant, so it was like he knew half the town. Now he was best friends with a sheriff! Who would have expected that? Bo Duke and Lana Duke adopted the foundling child whom they named Christopher Kent. Since Bo Duke knew half the town, it makes it pretty easy to keep a secret, especially when the couple got Lionel Luthor to keep the secret as well.

Among Clark Duke's friends were Pete Rice and Lana Ling. There was also Chloe Sullivan, who was the grand daughter of film director/producer John L. Sulllivan whose early film career was lauded for its depiction of gripping social realism. However he abruptly began making comedies and his career slumped. He ended his days as a producer of news programming.

Joel Kent searched for the remains of Krypton, hoping there may have been a cure. He encountered a being known as the Cleric, who had in his possession a Kryptonian device called the Eradicator which he willingly handed to Joel Kent.

### **1990**

Hank Henshaw and the other three members of the *Excalibur* crew, including his wife Terri, were part of a radiation experiment designed by LexCorp that was affected by a solar flare, causing their shuttle to crash. The intent was to attempt to recreate the incident that had created the Fantastic Four. As a result of their radiation exposure, the human bodies of two crew members were destroyed. However, their minds survived and they were able to construct new bodies out of cosmic radiation and bits of earth and wreckage from the shuttle, respectively(granting them appearances similar to the Thing and the Human Torch respectively). Initially, Henshaw and his wife suffered no ill effects from the radiation (though Hank's hair turned white), and the crew travelled to Metropolis in the hopes of using LexCorp facilities to cure their mutated crewmates. Joel Kent detected the ship and intervened. During a brief battle with Joel Kent, one crew member, now composed of radiation, became unhinged and flew into the Sun, destroying himself. By this time, Henshaw's body has started to rapidly decay, while his wife was beginning to phase into an alternate dimension. With Joel Kent's help, Henshaw was able to use the LexCorp facilities to save Terri. The remaining member of the shuttle crew committed suicide, using an MRI booth to tear apart the metallic components of his body.

Though Henshaw's physical body expired, he was able to transfer his consciousness into the LexCorp mainframe. Now able to control technology, Henshaw appears to his wife in a robotic body. The shock of this bizarre rebirth is too much for Terri to bear and in a fit of insanity, she jumped to her death. By this point, Henshaw's electronic consciousness had begun to disrupt Earth's communications networks. Using NASA communications equipment, Henshaw took control of a craft and departed into outer space alone.

Henshaw spent some time traveling between planets, bonding with local lifeforms to learn about the culture and history of various worlds. Henshaw came to believe that Superman(Joel Kent) was responsible for the tragedy of the *Excalibur* after learning that around the time of the accident, the Man of Steel had thrown a rogue Kryptonian artificial intelligence (the Eradicator) into the Sun. Henshaw believed that this created the solar flare that resulted in the *Excalibur* crew's transformations (although Superman had shared this concern with Terri after he had saved her life and she had confirmed that the flares would have been triggered *before* Superman disposed of the Eradicator). Over time, Henshaw became delusional and paranoid, believing that the Man of Steel had intentionally caused the deaths of himself, his wife, and his crew, then driven him from Earth. He returned to Earth in secret by possessing a supercomputer belonging to Amanda McCoy. The information she had became useless when Clark Kent's identity was revealed later the same year but the machine was used by Henshaw to deduce Joel Kent's new identity of Virgil Swann. He promptly murdered Amanda McCoy.

Jerry White, the son of Perry White and his wife Alice was murdered by the Demon Blaze. Joel Kent was deeply hurt by his passing. He battled Blaze, who claimed to be the child of the wizard Shazam. Joel Kent found his powers fading following his return despite Professor Emil Hamilton's attempts to help him, though Hamilton was partly motivated by his own feelings of betrayal as he recalled Joel Kent's devastation while under the control of Darkseid in 1971. In Metropolis, Super fan Bibbo Bibbowski, won the lottery and bought the Bar the Ace O' Clubs.

### **1991**

Samuel Foswell, nephew of Daily Bugle reporter and criminal Frederick Foswell, took over ownership of the Daily Planet while still operating under Morgan Edge. A rogue time traveller named Travis O'Connell, part of the Linear Men, attempted to take Booster Gold back to his own time but Joel Kent intervened, and was sent through time before finally returning. He also met the new hero Agent Liberty.

### **1992: Panic in the Sky**

Joel Kent returned to Earth in an official capacity publicly. That same year, Lionel Luthor would steal a Kryptonian crystal, using it to create an entirely new continent. Joel Kent destroyed the continent though he was nearly killed. His radiation poisoning worsened. He visited the son of Bridgette Crosby and Richard White, Jason White, a mutant who had demonstrated super strength, and whom he intended to train, though he would be unable to fulfill this promise. Jason White and his family would move to the town of South Park,Ambarino, though Bridgette would start to work with Joel Kent under his alias of Dr.Virgil Swann. Jason did receive some training in controlling his abilities from the Xavier Institute. Joel Kent even saved the Tiny Toons(*Tiny Toons How I spent my Summer Vacation* cameo).

Brainiac would eventually return to Earth at the helm of Warworld. Having recruited Maxima to his cause, Brainiac captured Metron and brainwashed Supergirl(Matrix) and Draaga into serving him as he prepared his invasion of Earth. Brainiac had his ship come to earth as part of a punitive first engagement—an arrogant boast of his impending invasion. Realizing that this was not an invasion that should be dealt with after it arrived, Joel Kent rallied most of the world's heroes in Metropolis to plan a preemptive counter-strike. With Dubbilex's help (using Metron's Mobius Chair), the heroes were able to reprogram Brainiac's headship and meet Warworld on its way to Earth. Joel Kent led the invasion of Warworld while Batman stayed in charge of an Earthbound group of heroes to deal with any other attacks.

Superman managed to get Draaga and Supergirl to shake off their programming and join him in the fight. After some desperate fighting, Brainiac was defeated—Maxima changed sides in the fighting and lobotomized Brainiac(Milton Fine), but Superman prevented her from killing him. The New Gods used a Boom Tube to transport the heroes from Warworld back to Earth, right into the middle of downtown Metropolis. Lionel Luthor was already organizing a victory parade. Superman then decided to join the newly reformed Justice League on a full time basis

A group of beings from Earth 8, an alternate universe, arrived on Superman's earth. Their goal was to find a Superhuman from their earth, its universe's Doctor Manhattan, as their world was on the brink of Nuclear War. Unknown to them, the Doctor Manhattan from Earth 8 and the Doctor Manhattan from Superman's earth had the same idea and both left their universes at the same time to create entirely new universes. They met and merged into one. The new Doctor Manhattan found his memories fascinating as on Earth 8 he had, under orders of Richard Monckton and his close associate Biff Tannen prevented the rise of costumed heroes such as the Justice League, undoing their origins through his manipulation of time, such as moving the Green Lantern Power battery away from Alan Scott's crash site so that he died before being rescued and never became a Green Lantern. The differences in the two worlds fascinated him, but he also noticed that looking into the future he saw nothing after a battle with Superman, leading Manhattan to believe Superman would kill him. Manhattan and Joel Kent confronted each other and to Manhattan's surprise, Superman simply spoke to him and convinced Manhattan to change. Manhattan then split in two, with one Manhattan arriving back on Earth 8 to prevent World War III (The events of *Doomsday Clock,* moved here as the *Watchmen* characters now moved through Space but not time).

### **The Death of Superman**

The Monstrous Doomsday emerged from an underground bunker and encountered the Justice League International (Guy Gardner, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Maxima, Fire, Ice, and Bloodwynd (Actually Martian Manhunter in disguise)). He easily defeated them. Joel Kent entered the battled within Metropolis against Doomsday.

Matrix Supergirl rebelled against Lionel Luthor's refusal to allow her to fight and went to Superman's aid, but a single punch from Doomsday knocked her out. Two of Joel Kent's friends Professor Emil Hamilton and Bibbo Bibbowski fired a laser cannon at Doomsday, but it did not harm him. Doomsday and an exhausted Joel Kent fought and struck each other with so much forces that the shockwaves from their punches shattered windows. At the struggle's culminating moment in front of the *Daily Planet* building, both lay a massive blow upon each other, killing Doomsday and mortally wounding Superman. Lei Mei arrived on the scene. Joel Kent succumbed to his wounds and died.

### **1993: Reign of the Supermen**

Superman's apparent death stunned and traumatized the world. His funeral was attended by nearly every superhero, as well as some supervillains and President Jack Ryan. Every hero wore a black arm band featuring Superman's logo. After the funeral, Project CADMUS stole Superman's body from his mausoleum to clone him. With Superman gone, the crime rate rose; the costumed heroes of Metropolis, including a team funded by Luthor, rose to fill in as protectors but were insufficient. Four men claiming to be Superman would emerge and Superman's grave was discovered to be empty.

### **Steel**

Steel was John Henry Irons. As a young boy Irons was inspired by both his namesake, John Henry, an African American steel driver turned folk hero said to have been born with a hammer in his hand, and John Wilson, an African American masked vigilante, said to have been inspired by Hooded Justice that battled the Clan of the Fiery Cross until his tragic death at their hands.

Doctor John Henry Irons was a brilliant weapons engineer for AmerTek Industries, who eventually became disgusted when the BG-60, a powerful man-portable energy cannon he had designed, fell into the wrong hands when the company was purchased by Lexcorp and was used to kill innocent people. As the company would have coerced him to retain his services, John eventually came to Metropolis. His own life was saved by none other than Superman. When John Irons asked how he could show his gratitude, Superman told him to "live a life worth saving". During Superman's fatal battle against Doomsday, Irons, who was working in construction at the time, attempted to help Superman fight the deadly menace by picking up a sledge hammer, but was buried in rubble amidst the devastation. Shortly after Superman's death, he finally awoke and crawled from the wreckage, confused and saying that he "must stop Doomsday".

After his recovery, Irons became a Superhero donning specially made armor and a mechanical hammer, which was partially constructed by John "Uncle Joe" Shaft. This was just a term of endearment, Shaft was an old friend of the family and they viewed him as an Uncle (Referencing Shaft's actor appearing in the *Steel* movie). Unlike the others, Steel never claimed to be Superman, but mentioned that he wished to "Carry on the Memory", making it clear he was at least an attempted successor. Steel continued his career until his retirement in 2003, after a ten year career. He would be succeeded in the role of Steel by his Niece Natasha Irons, who redesigned the Steel Armor into a more sleek appearance.

### **Superboy**

Superboy was a clone created by project CADMUS from the time in which they had obtained Joel Kent's corpse before its retrieval in what became known as "Project Kr" with Superboy himself being referred to as Subject 13. A Group of young heroes broke into Project Cadmus and discovered the clone, freeing him and other experiments. As a clone, Superboy possessed similar but weaker abilities than those of Joel Kent along with some telekinetic ability. In his first appearance he was skinny and cocky, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses. His attitude changed when the Kent family learned of his origins and readily accepted him as one of the family. He chose for himself the Kryptonian name Con-El and the secret identity of Connor Kent(though by this point it was purely for ceremonial purposes but it did lend to his increased popularity as most people already knew Clark Kent was Superman and that Superboy was a clone). After this point, Connor's attitude changed. He began to act tougher, exercised to the extent he gained muscle mass, and switched to a simple outfit of jeans and a black T-shirt with a red Superman logo. Connor would later join the team of Young Justice, in which he would pursue at least two relationships with members Cassie Sansmark(Wonder Girl) and M'gann (Miss Martian).

### **The Eradicator**

The Eradicator was a Kryptonian robot built to store information. Eradicator had survived Krypton's destruction and was discovered by Joel Kent. He brought it back online but when it was activated it attacked him. Joel Kent hurled it into the sun, believing this would dispose of it. The Eradicator, however had attacked Joel Kent to obtain his Kryptonian DNA, rationalizing its purpose now, without Krypton, was to store information on the dead world. It had copies Superman's invincibility and had survived Joel Kent's attempt to destroy it, leaving it floating in space. After Joel Kent's death, The Eradicator stole his body from CADMUS and placed in it a specially made chamber where he would be exposed to Solar Radiation in an attempt to heal him. The Eradicator then, perhaps motivated by how the other Supermen robots in the Fortress had taken to him as a Master as they had referred to Superman as, took the identity. Clark Kent resided in the Fortress and took control of the process of healing Joel Kent while he stayed in his self imposed exile, deeper within the Fortress in a Holodeck recreation of the Kent farm where none could discover him except for Bruce or Diana who were aware of its location, being able to perceive all happening but choosing to do nothing.

### **Cyborg Superman**

Henshaw, his mind now being able to transfer into robotic bodies, leaped into a Superman robot in the Fortress of Solitude. He explored secretly, hiding his presence in the machine but discovered the catatonic Mongul, still under the control of the Black Mercy. He freed him and the two formed a plan. The two attempted to kill the weakened Joel Kent but the Eradicator and Clark Kent both intervened and forced the two villains to retreat. While his robotic body was damaged, Henshaw attempted to pass off as the true Joel Kent rebuilt as a cyborg but many were skeptical.

### **Return of Superman**

Mongul's plan was to create a new War World, after the previous one was destroyed and planned to drop the massive World Engine needed to do so on Coast City. Hal Jordan fought Mongul and Henshaw to stop this before reinforcements arrives(The comics depict him as being in space. This is false. He was there and actually fought Mongul). He was unable to prevent Mongul from destroying Coast City. Superboy asked Steel to help him fight the Cyborg Superman and Mongul and the two heroes flew to California. Joel Kent finally awoke from his deathlike state but was greatly weakened. The Eradicator and Clark Kent were there to explain everything. Clark Kent prepared to join in to save his son's life but Joel Kent knocked him out and flew off in a specialized black suit to hold his radiation sickness at bay as well as absorb Solar Radiation. It also had mechanical parts which was important as Joel Kent was essentially crippled from the waist down.. Joel Kent and the Eradicator travelled to the ruins of Coast City, where Steel and Superboy attacked them in a misunderstanding, believing at least one of them to be Henshaw and a Superman robot. The situation was explained and all four resumed their flight to Coast City.

The Cyborg Superman launched a missile at Metropolis with the intent of destroying it and building a second Engine in its place. Superboy managed to stop the missile before it struck. Hal Jordan attacked and killed Mongul in a fit of rage. Eradicator joined the fight and shielded Joel Kent from Kryptonite gas. The gas killed Eradicator but Cyborg Superman was destroyed immediately after by Joel Kent. The Destruction of Coast City led to Hal Jordan becoming possessed by the entity Parallax and killing the Green Lantern Corps, before suffering from a breakdown over realizing his actions. Joel Kent had been paralyzed and was now forced to officially retire as Superman II. He incorporated his crippling into his new cover identity of Dr.Virgil Swann, claiming to have been crippled in a horse riding accident.

### **1993**

Adam grant, the young son of Cat Grant and Media Mogul Joseph R.Morgan, was killed by Winslow Schott Jr, the son of the original Toyman. A dwarfish man with a Doll-like Mask.

### **1994**

Lexcorp went to war with CADMUS following the release of plague harmful to clones, damaging much of their research. This escalated to full scale assaults which Superboy was forced to intervene to stop. CADMUS director Paul Westfield was assassinated and Luthor's second in command Sydney Happersen was also killed in the crossfire.

The Original Superman attempted to talk down and when that failed attempted to defeat Hal Jordan when he became Parallax but failed.

Kenneth Braverman had grown up as a rival to Joel Kent. As an adult he joined the CEA. When Joel Kent was revealed to be Superman II along with his father, he was furious but with his recent death he took most of his anger out on Superboy not as a machine man called Conduit. Another hero appeared to fill the void in the Alpha Centurion, a roman citizen from the time of Hadrian who had been abducted and experimented on by aliens. Now empowered he returned to Earth 200,000 years later and was disappointed Rome was no longer the greatest city in the world by Metropolis. Nonetheless he chose to become a hero and protect the city.

### **1995**

The Alien Tribunal abduct Clark Kent to testify for the crimes of his ancestor Kem-El, who created the Eradicator. The Tribunal realize their own corruption and release Clark Kent.

### **1996: Kingdom Come**

The original Superman was still in the Fortress of Solitude but overheard Power Woman, Steel and Superboy as they battled the Alien Invasions from the Harvesters, the Martians, and the Fithp. The now of age, Samuel Kent attempted to intervene as Knightwing but he was far weaker than Clark Kent or Joel Kent were at the time, his power was similar to Superman in the 1930s by this time as he was only 17, and several hits from alien weaponry nearly killed him.

In 1996, a group of Heroes led by Magog attempted to apprehend the Parasite. Among the Heroes was Captain Atom. In Panic, the Parasite attacked Captain Atom and split him in half, causing the nuclear radiation to explode outward in an atomic blast, destroying a large part of Kansas, Several of the Heroes including Magog survived and did their best to contain the blast, sparing several towns from destruction and radiation poisoning. Hal Jordan as Parallax recreated Smallville, though as a consequence, the seven year old Kalel-Zod had discovered his true heritage when he survived the blast. Afterwards, Wonder Woman(Diana Trevor) confronted Clark Kent in the Fortress of Solitude within his concealed recreation of the Kent farm and told him what had happened. The devastation spurred the original Superman into returning to action.

Clark Kent officially returned and reformed the Justice League consisting of himself, Wonder Woman (Diana Trevor), Red Robin (Timothy Drake), Hal Jordan(Parallax), The Flash (Wallace West), Hawkman, Power Woman II (Matrix, now modelling herself on Power Woman rather than Kara-Zor El), Aquaman II (Garth), Cyborg, Atom Smasher (Grandson of Al Pratt using Pym Particles to grow), King Marvel (Freddy Freeman), Lady Marvel (Mary Batson Freeman), The Whiz (The Freeman's teenage son), Red Tornado (Matilda Hunkel), Cyclone (Maxine Hunkel), Human Bomb, Dr.Midnight's ghost, Captain Comet, Hourman (Rick Tyler), Sandman II, Living Doll (Daughter of Doll Man and Doll Girl), Bulletman II and Bulletgirl II, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Thunder (Son of Black Lightning), Phoebus, Nucloid, and Power Man (the last remaining Superman robot)

Superman also asked Batman to join but he refused, instead forming his own team. In order to contain the number of violent meta humans, a prison called the Gulag was constructed in Kansas. The imprisoned rioted. A Group of elderly villains, took advantage of this and unleashed a brainwashed Captain Marvel to cause a breakout. Superman battled Captain Marvel. The UWO launched a Nuclear Missile to destroy the prison which Captain Marvel failed to stop. Many heroes were killed including the Matrix Power Woman, due to not being a true Kryptonian, but Clark Kent and Samuel Kent survived. Superman went on a rampage at the UWO until he discovered there were survivors. He then decided to instead take a more active approach to working with Humanity. While Hal Jordan originally acted as an ambassador for the League Base of "New Oa", he would be killed later that year, sacrificing himself to destroy the Sun-Eater which threatened Earth. The experience made Superman realize he needed to become human again, when Wonder Woman gave him his original Clark Kent glasses as a gift(which he had thrown out in 1986 after this identity was revealed by Diana had kept onto). Superman took the identity of Jordan Elliot.

Superman and Wonder Woman began dating and she became pregnant with twins. The two invited Bruce Wayne to the Planet Krypton Superhero themed Restaurant(A Planet Hollywood Stand in founded by superhero celebrity Booster Gold), where they told him they wanted him to be the child's Godfather.

Clark Kent was among the group of Heroes chosen in a battle between two cosmic brothers. He was forced to fight Bruce Banner. Lionel Luthor married Erica Alexandra del Portenza, known as the Countessa.

### **The Kingdom**

(The events of *the Kingdom* were heavily altered in their retelling in Comic Form and are nearly unrecognizable. They are also quite complicated, involving time travel and alterations that were later undone. As such it would be best to cover these events in chronological order)

William Matthews was a young boy who survived the nuclear devastation of Kansas and witnessed Clark Duke's survival of the blast as Clark Duke had saved his life. William Matthews believed there was a connection between Clark Duke and Superman and it did not take him long to find one with the revelation of Clark Kent's true identity and the current owners of the Kent Farm. He became insanely devoted to Superman and attempted to form a Church dedicated to the Man of Steel, seeing him as a Christlike figure, a viewpoint not helped by his seeming recent resurrection. He would accomplish this 20 years after the nuking of Kansas in 2016. Superman(Now Clark Duke), however disapproved and attempted to explain that he was not to be worshipped, seeing to it that the Church was destroyed. Matthews would ponder this, unfortunately this only served to lead Matthews to the Sons of Jacob and becoming a worshipper of the insane Prophet Nehemiah Scudder.

Matthews would encounter Superman again, though it would be a different Superman. By this time Matthews was leading the forces of the Republic of Gilead, an army which Superman put an end to. Matthews was then granted power by four members of the Quintessence (Shazam, Ganthet, Zeus, and Izaya Highfather), who dubbed him Gog. The power drove him mad, and he took out his anger on Superman, killing him and carving his "S" shield on the ground for the first time in the year 2040. He then travelled a day backward in time and killed him again...and again. While attempting to master his power, Gog could only travel back a day at a time and intended to prevent the Kansas City Nuking. The Phantom Stranger intended to prevent the events from unfolding but the other four chose to no longer interfere. Shazam hoped that Captain Marvel would no longer have to die, Ganthet hoped that Hal Jordan would reform the Green Lantern Corps, Zeus hoped that the ancient gods may be 'worshiped' once more as Earth seeked something to believe in, and Highfather felt that a new war would fracture Earth in a manner similar to what happened with New Genesis and Apokolips.

As Gog travelled closer to 1996, Several groups charged with organizing time began to panic as the index of time was unraveling due to Superman being killed much earlier each time. In 1996 itself, Wonder Woman gave birth on Paradise Island to two children, Lara and Jonathan. Suddenly, Clark Kent was shot in the back by Gog. Wonder Woman and a weakened Superman then battled Gog while Batman, who had been listening in, called for reinforcements. While Powerful, Gog believed he couldn't win once the other heroes began to outnumber him and so he grabbed Jonathan and transported himself further back in time, intending to cause the Nuclear explosion much earlier now out of his insanity. Before leaving, Gog christened Jonathan Kent under the name: Magog. Rip Hunter arrived and brought Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman with him back to that day.

When they arrived the original Kansas Explosion had already gone off. Rip Hunter believed that the explosion had been an earlier one caused by Gog and used a time bubble to contain it, reducing the amount of damage the original Explosion could have done. Bob Duke was injured in the explosion but survived. Hunter, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman found Gog but did not see Jonathan, only a piece of kryptonite. Superman realized Jonathan was inside the hollow piece and could possibly be killed due to his Kryptonian nature. Hunter worked on moving everyone out of the area to prevent interference in time and succeeded just as members of Magog's group were recovering from the atomic blast. He took them back to their present and the Planet Krypton Restaurant, fortunately the restaurant was loaded with an effective arsenal in its trophy cases, including Jonah Hex's guns, Green Arrow's bow and several Lantern rings. Gog arrived and a battle ensued with Hunter being able to transport the entire Restaurant into the vortex of time, where they battled Gog. The Quintessence arrived to depower Gog for the damage he caused to the time stream. He was stripped of power and during the battle, fell into the timestream. He was de-aged into an infant and landed at some point in the past. it is believed he grew up to become the Magog known in 1996. To prevent further Paradoxes, Gog's history was altered so the Quintessence never chose him as their champion. The infant Jonathan Kent was teleported away by Gog before his defeat. He would eventually be found and returned by his future self, who had become the hero Hyperman.

Lois Lane, trapped in a time bubble by Earth 3's Alexander Luthor Jr, was released and revealed her survival to Superman, who had no idea she survived. Lois understood how he felt after everything was explained. She gave her blessing for Superman to stay with Wonder Woman, as she was getting older. Lois did however, help provide the new identity of Lois Elliot. To the public, she claimed to have had amnesia following the Joker's attack and in that time married Jordan Elliot.

## **Superman III: Samuel Kent(1997-2013)**

### **1997: Turning Points**

In 1997, A Daily Planet Reporter named Tim Crane came by the Elliot household to get the story from Lois and confirm if her story was true. Lois recapped the events of the day Superman "died" in 1986. The reporter was convinced the original Superman died that day and that the Old Superman was Joel Kent. In the apartment, Superman and Wonder Woman's baby daughter Lara, was in the room and crushed a piece of coal into a diamond.(Framing Device for *Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?*).

Samuel Kent's debut pit him up against a Robotic suit originally belonging to the Supervillain Ransack and intended to be sold to Kasnia. Joel Kent interfered at a crucial moment, saving Samuel Kent's life. Samuel did not see this and assumed Ransack was delusional. He used this distraction to knock out Ransack and discovered the robot is piloted by a young girl named Amanda Mason. Among his other rogue galleries was Winslow Schott Jr, son of the first Toyman, and the return of Brainiac. The Preserver, one of the Eternals like the Collector and the Grandmaster, hired Bounty Hunter Lobo to capture Superman based on old records of him being the last of his kind, which the Preserver collected. Lobo succeeded but accidentally revealed he himself was the sole survivor of his own people, resulting in the preserver collecting him as well. Samuel Kent and Lobo worked together and broke out of containment, with Superman even bringing some creatures back with him including a small piece of Starro. Samuel Kent freed Mala from the Phantom Zone. He had been imprisoned there by the original Superman in 1950. Mala resorted to old habits and freed the most dangerous criminal in the Phantom Zone, Jax-Ur. Jax-Ur however, after having killed Black Zero was quite content to remain in the Phantom Zone and subdued Mala and restored Superman. Samuel Kent engaged in a race for charity against Wally West but it was interrupted by the old Flash Villain, the Weather Wizard. Samuel Kent also encountered Shock Jock Leslie Willis, who became the electricity powered Supervillain Livewire. Amanda Mason was also the target of a former Lexcorp employee named Edward Lytener AKA Luminus. Darkseid's son Kalibak attempted to invade Earth, but failed. Samuel Kent also defeated the Evil Wizard Karkull with Dr.Fate, and exposed a murder committed by Detective Kurt Bowman. Maxima returned to attempt to seduce Samuel Kent, only to instead fall for Lobo with the two remaining together.

### **1998**

Among the new villains faced by Samuel Kent at this time was the fiery Volcana. Samuel Kent learned that Bruce Wayne Jr, had gone missing from Gotham for some time now. Superman found Robin(Time Drake), who had been battling all the crime in Batman’s absence, such as Batman rogues The Penguin, The Riddler, Bane, The Mad Hatter and Roxy Rocket. Disguised as Batman, Samuel Kent helped Robin investigate why his partner had disappeared, leading up to a confrontation with Brainiac where Batman was freed from his control. With the rest of the Justice League, Samuel Kent was taken to the 853rd Century and discovered the original superman was still alive.

### **2000**

In 2000, Samuel Kent had a brief adventure with the current Green Lantern of Earth, Kyle Rayner where they investigated the mythical Green Flame. Samuel Kent championed J.Allen Carter's demilitarization effort. However, this was a trap by the White Martins, though it would lead to the decision to reform the Justice League with Samuel Kent, Bruce Wayne Jr(Batman), Wonder Woman, John Stewart(Green Lantern), Bart Allen(The Flash), Martian Manhunter, and Kendra Saunders(Hawkgirl).

### **2001**

In 2001, Shortly after beginning his freshman year in Smallville, Clark Duke saved Alexander Luthor Jr after he drove his Porsche into Elbow River. Clark was told by his adoptive father that he arrived in the meteor shower from outer space.

In Addition to the missions with the League, Samuel Kent found himself dealing with the Anti-hero population, including the Authority and the Elite, groups who killed Supervillains.

An alien armada showed up above Earth, led by the villain Imperiex. Apokolips itself warped into earth space. Luthor contacted Superman and informed him that Darkseid was an ally against Imperiex. A massive energy beam leveled Topeka, Kansas. The Justice League rallied in space, but were taken down one by one by the onslaught of Imperiex probes. Superman watched several of his friends fall and also witnessed the apparent destruction of Atlantis.

As a desperate battle was joined (where every team from the JSA to Young Justice took up the fight) Superman travelled to the Watchtower where he learned that Luthor sent Steel and the Suicide Squad to revive Doomsday. They were successful, although Doomsday trashed the team and seemingly killed Steel, John Henry would survive but his injuries spurred his retirement. Superman then fought side by side with Doomsday, each destroying dozens of probes before the real Imperiex Prime arrived. With battles raging across the Earth, Superman while fighting in Africa witnessed what he thought was Wonder Woman falling to the deadly onslaught. All the while, he thought he was forgetting something and he was unable to hear Lois' pleas for help. Going to her side, he was unavailable to fight off one of the probes at the White House. He realized that it was Diana's mother Hippolyta, who was struck down after donning Diana's armor.

Luthor and the Allies came up with one desperate plan: To merge a specially prepared Strange Visitor with Superman and assault Imperiex Prime himself. The plan was successful. Imperiex was seemingly destroyed (although Strange Visitor sacrificed herself in the effort), but just then Warworld—under the command of Brainiac 13—arrives and absorbed the energy of Imperiex. He then caused LexCorp tower to fire on Apokolips, causing Darkseid to believe that Earth had betrayed him. He ordered an invasion of his own. Clark Kent, distraught over all the death and destruction, flew into the sun, becoming super-charged. He attacked Warworld itself, and learned that Imperiex was still alive, his energy being contained in Warworld and if it was released, the universe would be destroyed. Superman formulated a plan: utilizing Darkseid, Wonder Woman, Tempest, Steel, and others, the Allies were able to boom tube Warworld to the beginning of time, where Imperiex exploded as part of the big bang.

The war was won, but at a high price with so many missing or dead, and so much destruction all over the world. Both Supermen briefly adopted a modified costume, one with a black background on his S-shield (instead of a yellow one) and a black S on the cape.

### **2003**

In 2003, Alexander Luthor Jr organized a meeting with Superman(Samuel Kent) which led to the Man of Steel being framed for Metallo's murder, claiming an approaching Kryptonite Meteor was driving him insane. Batman(Bruce Wayne Jr) helped clear his name and destroyed the Meteorite, leading to Luthor's removal from power.

### **2004**

The Time traveller Jonathan Kent successfully retrieved his infant self and delivered him to Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman was locked in battle with a Minotaur at the time and defeated the creature with the baby on her back.

Earth faced an invasion by Kandor, which had been taken over by a twisted, fanatical, and polygamous Cult led by the insane Quar and Baal. The Kryptonians led by Quar made an announcement to the world, asking that they be acknowledged as gods. Quar and his followers breached the Pentagon, demanding an answer to their ultimatum. The monitors around the room went black and Bruce Wayne (in his Batsuit) declared:"Go to Hell". At that moment Supermen Samuel Kent and Clark Kent arrived but were shocked to see Lara now aiding Quar. Quar declared Clark Kent a traitor and Samuel Kent a Disgusting hybrid.

Clark Kent stood his ground but refused to fight back as Lara pummeled him all across the world to the Fortress of Solitude. Quar cocooned Clark Kent in black matter and orders his legion of Kryptonians to sink the Fortress into the ocean, and Clark Kent with it. He then gave out an order to Gotham City demanding that they hand over the Batman. They devastated Moscow and threatened to do the same to Gotham. As the city fell into chaos, Bruce ordered Carrie Kelly on a special mission, giving her some sort of pill and her new Batgirl costume.

Aquaman and his army found Clark Kent in the Arctic. Aquaman gave Carrie Kelly a golden needle saying it's the only thing that would free Clark Kent, which she did. Back in Gotham, Samuel Kent battled Quar but then seemingly retreated. In the Batcave, the Flash(Wally West) was hooked up to a computer to control the weather. Using power from the Bat-Signal, Flash made it rain synthetic kryptonite, weakening the Kryptonians and causing them to fall from the sky by the hundreds. Batman, Clark Kent (clad in a kryptonite-resistant suit of armor), and the people of Gotham brought the fight to them.

Lara and Baal arrived late and were shocked at the slaughter of the Kyptonians. Clark Kent and Samuel Kent fought Baal, who fled the scene. Lara was confronted first by Carrie Kelly as Batgirl and then by Wonder Woman and likewise fled when she saw Baal doing so. Quar was able to seriously injure Bruce Wayne in his Batman armor by blowing a hole in his chest, forcing the injured Bruce Wayne to be taken to a Lazarus Pit. Clark Kent abandoned his chase of Baal to get him there faster while Samuel Kent continued.

Quar regrouped with Lara and convinced her to abduct her brother Jonathan from Themyscira. At Themyscira, Wonder Woman was able to catch Lara attempting to kidnap Jonathan Kent and the Kryptonians realized that the Amazonians were just waiting on them and were ready to attack, this resulted in a battle between the three and the Amazons. Wonder Woman placed a call for help and Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne answered. Power Woman and Samuel Kent were among the Superman family members to arrive to help. Clark Kent was forced to use the full extent of his power and subdued several Kryptonians. Bruce Wayne was shocked, and realized this was Superman at his full power, fully admitting that if he were to fight Clark like this he would stand no chance. The remaining Kryptonians revealed they had swallowed miniature Nuclear Bombs and intended to self detonate should they lose. Ray Palmer caused the remaining Kryptonians to shrink, causing their explosions to act more like firecrackers than the full atomic blasts. Quar was the last left and attempted to detonate but Lara, switching sides, grabbed him and flew him into space where he detonated. She was later revealed to have survived and largely pardoned as she had not killed anyone or done very much besides fight as a member of the cult.

This period would tragically see several death of a Superman. The first of these was Alexander Luthor Jr's murder of Morgan Edge( an admittedly minor figure in Superman's life, simply being the then owner of the Daily Planet) and subsequent arrest, though his conviction would be overturned. Clark Duke learned his true identities from Dr.Vergil Swann, who was actually Joel Kent, now paralyzed by the radiation and bound to a wheelchair. The public at large believed Swann had been crippled in a Horse riding accident. Joel Kent was able to regain his powers for some time through stem cell research but this was not enough. Joel Kent(Virgil Swann) passed away in 2004.

Clark Duke witnessed Smallville's second meteor shower, which led to several superpowered beings he would be forced to defeat. He also battled several escaped Phantom Zone criminals and temporarily lost his powers.

Superman(Clark Kent) was confronted by alternate versions of Alexander Luthor Jr from Earth 3 and Superboy from an alternate Superboy. Luthor Jr, revealed he saved Lois from her apparent death in exchange for Superman helping him recreate a Perfect World. Clark Kent collaborated with the two masterminds only to attempt to learn their true intentions.

### **2005**

In 2005, the Infinite Crisis occurred. While Luthor Jr and the alternate Superboy succeeded in recreating a world similar to that of the 1930s, Lois Lane Kent died of old age in Superman's arm and he lashed out violently against Samuel Kent when he arrived to help out of grief. Clark Kent was convinced what he was doing was wrong and helped Earth's heroes defeat the villains. In an attack to destroy the Tuning Fork used by Alexander Luthor Jr and his ally Superboy Prime, Connor Kent arrived to battle his Prime Earth Counterpart. The Tuning fork was destroyed in the assault. A dying Connor Kent was found by the Heroes. He passed away soon after. Clark Kent was mortally wounded helping Samuel Kent, defeat Superboy Prime. He nearly died but a study of him led to the discover that he was dying due to absorbing too much solar radiation during the war with Imperiex and did not have long to live.

Samuel Kent remained active. Along with most of the now massive Justice League roster, Samuel battled Darkseid's invasion of Earth after the tyrant was accidentally resurrected from Death by Luthor Jr, which ended when Darkseid and Luthor seemingly perished after obtaining the Anti Life equation. Luthor would reappear but Darkseid would remain absent for several years. During the battle, Samuel Kent's full fury was briefly unleashed against Darkseid and he gave a speech now referred to as the "World of Cardboard".

### **2006**

Knowing he would die, Clark Kent set out to accomplish many heroic acts, including trying and failing to cure Cancer, though his research contributed greatly to the effort. Clark Kent defeated Solaris, the tyrant Sun, who betrayed Lex Luthor and began to extinguish Earth's sun. Clark battled Luthor but his largest victory was convincing Luthor he was wrong and that he could have been something great if it wasn't his obsession with Superman, causing him to give up and break down. Supermen then flew into the Sun itself, sacrificing his own solar energy to reignite it, He was declared dead in 2006 and a funeral was held, though some believed he would return after fixing the sun. Luthor destroyed all but one his clones, which escaped custody, and submitted himself willingly to execution. He left behind the Kryptonian Genetic Code, allowing it to be recreated. This was a trial and error process but Amanda Mason and Samuel Kent both agreed to undertake the test. The child was Born Jordan Kent, but took the identity of Jordan Swann, like the rest of the family.

Clark Duke would suffer the death of Bo Duke, in 2006, after he won the Kansas senate election. He would also defeat General Zod's attempt to escape the Phantom Zone by possessing Lex Luthor's last remaining clone.

### **2007**

With the recent deaths, Martian Manhunter approached Clark Duke about joining the Justice League along with a group of younger members who were the children and grandchildren of other heroes. Several battles with Luthor's son, and the one remaining Luthor clone, occurred. The Luthor clone was recruited in a new Injustice Society led by Libra. A bomb going off nearly killed Amanda Mason and Samuel Kent spent time by her side, keeping her heart pumping. Time would be paused by a group that recruited Several Superman to defeat an evil version of the Monitor. While Superman was away, Darkseid returned and used the Anti-Life Equation to enslave the people of Earth. Samuel Kent returned to destroy the tyrant but his essence survived. While victorious, Bruce Wayne was a casualty.

### **2008: These Ancient Evils**

In 2008, Samuel Kent battled a robot containing the brain of Lex Luthor, which had been removed against Luthor's will and placed in a robot body. Shortly after this, his daughters, Lara and Lois Kent were born. Luthor would not be the only old enemy Samuel Kent would face.

After fighting and defeating a Brainiac drone. Samuel Kent realized that neither he nor Clark Kent or Joel Kent had ever fought the true Brainiac. They had believed Brainiac was an artificial being but he was flesh and blood, explaining the existence of a descendant of his in Brainiac 5 in the 30th century. Samuel Kent headed into space to find the true Brainiac. He discovered him shrinking a city and destroying the planet. The blast knocked Samuel Kent out. He woke up on Brainiac's ship and escaped, finding a room full of Kryptonian cities including Argo, which contained Kara Zor-El's parents, Zor-El and Alura, and where she was buried. Samuel Kent then encountered the real Brainiac. Brainiac attacked earth with an army that was fended off by Earth's heroes. Samuel Kent battled Brainiac and brought the fight to Earth. Brainiac was exposed to bacteria and Micro organisms in the Earth's Atmosphere and died. Samuel Kent was able to regrow Argo near where the Fortress of Solitude once stood.

### **2008: New Krypton**

Andor had come to reside near the Fortress of Solitude and was recognized as a sovereign nation in a meeting with President Winters. Zor-El and Alura formed a task force to capture Superman's enemies and imprison them in the Phantom Zone. Abducting one such villain led to the deaths of several police. The Justice League demanded the murderers turned themselves in but Krypton refused. A Government sponsored attack by Lex Luthor led to the radioactive Supervillain Reactron entering the city as a Trojan Horse. Reactron was able to kill Zor-El, Supergirl's father. Alura in rage, created a new planet and moved Argo to this new Counter Earth. It was renamed New Krypton. Alura freed Zod from the Phantom Zone, who was once more appointed to the position of General. Samuel Kent as a sign of good faith, willingly lived on New Krypton, joining the military. He protested against Zod's plan to attack Earth but was subdued by Ursa and Non. Meanwhile Alura tortured the captured Reactron for her husband's death. Reactron revealed he was always meant to be caught and exploded, destroying New Krypton.

Anticipating an attack, the Justice League gathered as many Earth allied Kryptonians as possible with the exception of the five year old Jonathan Kent, including Samuel Kent, Lara Elliot, Clark Duke. Among the survivors of New Krypton was a young girl named Thara. Steel also lended his services, coming out of retirement along with his niece, the New Steel, for old time's sake. The Guardian AKA Mal Duncan, a Local metropolis hero also became involved.

Samuel Kent arrived to warn of a massive fleet led by Zod approaching. Lex's plan to defeat them was to turn the Sun red using Solaris the tyrant sun, which depowered the Kryptonians in space, killing 73,000 of them. Thara sacrificed herself to ignite the son again, restoring the abilities and preventing Samuel Kent from suffocating. The remaining 7,000 Kryptonians attacked Earth. Batman's Kryptonite rain plan was used once more. Clark Duke weaponized the Phantom Zone Projector and forcibly sent Zod and his few remaining followers back to the Zone.

After the fall of New Krypton, Samuel Kent decided he needed a break and took a vacation across America, hoping to reconnect with people. While he would go quiet, he would still intervene on occasion to save lives in secret. Samuel Kent gave the Kryptonian Genetic code to Clark Duke for safekeeping.

### **2011: Embracing Destiny**

Clark Duke attempted to marry Canadian Dr.Alex Reid, but the marriage was interrupted by an alien invasion. Clark Duke finally destroyed Darkseid's essence and prevented a collision from the Planet Apokolips, though prior to doing this, he finally embraced his destiny as Superman. He would spend sometime travelling the world for two years until 2013.

## **Superman IV: Clark Duke(2013-????)**

### **2013: Man of Steel**

Alien Linguist Louise Banks was tasked with accompanying Col. Nathan Hardy to investigate a Kryptonian artifact found in the Canadian Arctic. Clark Duke took notice and also investigated, rescuing Banks from a hostile Kryptonian Robot before moving Banks outside. Clark Duke discovered a Kryptonian AI in the ship named SID 6.7. The Ship had been an early exploration vessel. Clark Duke then took the crystal containing the AI and fled the scene. Banks investigated and was able to easily deduce that the current owners of the Kent farm had a connection to the Kent family and tracked Clark Duke down. She agreed to keep his secret.

    Another message interrupted Earth Communications. This one from a once more escaped Zod, demanding Earth's Kryptonians surrender themselves. Samuel Kent and Clark Duke did indeed surrender themselves. Brooks was also brought along to serve as a linguist as she had researched some Kryptonian. Clark Duke knew his father, having fought him a few times before and prevented his escape. Intending to torture him, Zod placed Clark Duke and Samuel in a simulation of an apocalyptic Earth. Clark Duke, having expected this before turning himself in, slipped the Kryptonian crystal containing SID 6.7 inside the ship, allowing it to malfunction and cause the Kryptonians to escape until Zod destroyed the crystal containing SID 6.7. which would be recovered and the AI revived by the Military though driven insane by the tampering. In case of defeat, Zod directed the ship to Smallville, knowing any Superman would be easier to defeat if he also had to save endangered people. There were two Supermen and they agreed to each fight one. Clark Duke fought Faora while Samuel Kent fought Nam-Ek. Nam-Ek wore Kryptonian Armor, but he was not a Kryptonian. He was actually from the planet Namek and was one of the few to leave, becoming a mercenary after taking on a Kryptonian version of his homeworld's name. Namekians were green skinned and could regenerate lost limbs but he was still defeated by Samuel Kent. The Kryptonians were forced to retreat, knowing the Kryptonite Rain weapon would be used if so many of them stayed in one place.

Zod threatened Earth with two World Engines. One in India and One in Metropolis. The Metropolis one was placed intentionally to devastate Superman's beloved city. Samuel Kent battled the World Engine in India while Alexander Luthor Jr attempted to recreate the method of returning Kryptonians to the Phantom Zone but failed to do so. Samuel Kent came up with another strategy and this time turned the Phantom Zone Projector into a Bomb that could pull them in, destroying the Projector in the Process. The Projector had to be flown into a designated area. Due to the number of Kryptonians, both Supermen became occupied while the plane flew in the Projector. Col Nathan Hardy was forced to activate the projector, trapping himself in the Phantom Zone along with the others. Only one Kryptonian, Zod, had escaped imprisonment, having just barely escaped the radius of the implosion. However, Nam-Ek remained, being a mercenary picked up by Zod and therefore never having been in the Zone. Samuel Kent took the battle with Nam-Ek elsewhere. He would ultimately win, killing Nam-Ek but being too exhausted to help Clark Duke. Clark Duke's battle with his father caused much destruction, though much of this was caused by Zod attacking his son. In the process, in addition to Banks and Jenny Olsen, both of which were already aware. Daily Planet Editor-in Chief Tyrone Miller learned Clark Duke's identity as Superman IV. Hoping to reduce damage, Clark Duke took the fight to the remains of the Kryptonian ship, where the artificial atmosphere weakened them both. Zod had the advantage due to his military training. Once it was clear Zod would win because of this, Clark Duke used his fading Super strength to snap Zod's neck, killing him.

### **2015: Kalel Zod v. Jason Todd**

Alexander Luthor Jr retrieved Samples of Kryptonite from Zod's World Engines. Both Samuel Kent and Clark Duke were smart enough to realize this was bad news. They moved Zod's ship out of Metropolis but couldn't move the Indian located World Engine in time due to the Kryptonite. Samuel Kent asked the retired Jason Todd, who was in Genovia with Mia Thermopolis, to investigate. Todd had previously been Batman before faking his death in a Nuclear blast. Todd had found himself investigating a Criminal Organization which had taken Louise Banks hostage while she was investigating the Harvester ship in Umbutu. One of the men fired to kill Banks's CEA contact, who was using Jimmy Olsen as a cover identity. The agent fell down but when they looked he had not been shot. One of them asked where the bullet was. Clark Duke appeared. He was holding it. The men were quickly subdued and Louise rescued.

News began to spread of a series of murders seemingly conducted by Heat Vision and a Superman symbol burned somewhere on the scene. This was largely believed to be either an attempt to frame Superman of a Rogue Kryptonian. Todd also stole Kryptonite in Luthor's possession. As it was revealed Luthor Jr had created another Bizarro clone. One that was virtually identical to Clark Duke. Todd was set up into fighting the real Clark Duke, who he believed was the Bizarro clone and was ready to kill, not seeing Bizarro clones as alive due to their short lifespans. Clark Duke did not know much about Todd's Batman and so had little to use to prove his identity. He was able to convince Todd he was the real deal with the code word: Martha. Samuel Kent had told him that Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne had came up with that code word as it showed the speaker was aware of the other's true identity as well as confirming their own identity. Todd and Clark Duke then went to confront Bizarro, but Luthor had mutated him further, transforming him into a Doomsday like monster. Wonder Woman arrived to help but both her and Todd were knocked out, forcing Clark Duke to fight the monster and seemingly die after being impaled. A funeral was held but Clark Duke's body was actually placed in a chamber that would expose him to sunlight, hoping to revive him as Joel Kent had, however, this failed.

Samuel Kent decided to step up and return as Superman. With Wonder Woman active, Samuel Kent and Amanda Mason found themselves raising Jonathan Kent, who because of time travel from his older self, was five years old. He was raised alongside the couple's two daughters and their own son Jordan.

### **2016**

In 2016, Kong Kenan, the Superman of China debuted. He was granted powers from a dead Kryptonian experimented on by the Chinese government. It is unclear which dead Kryptonian was used.

### **2017: Clark Duke's Resurrection**

The then current incarnation of the Justice League including Jason Todd as Batman obtained a Mother Box during Steppenwolf's attack on Earth. Steppenwolf was attempting to destroy Earth in revenge for Darkseid's defeat. Clark Duke was revived but a bit insane. Todd brought in Alex Reid, who calmed Clark Duke down. while he would help in the final battle and defeat Steppenwolf. Clark Duke opted to take a break from hero work since Samuel Kent was doing well enough in his role as Superman. He would marry Alex Reid and they would start a family.

### **2019**

Samuel Kent halted a rampage by Brandon Breyer, who appeared to be a Kryptonian hybrid mind controlled by an unknown alien race believed to be the Dominators, a race who attempted a previous Earth invasion in the late 1980's and had access to the Kryptonian like Daxamites. The Dominators were thought destroyed until they attempted another invasion in 2016. They are currently believed to have been wiped out, leaving possibly only one survivor to inherit the role of Lord Dominator, a Green skinned female. Breyer is believed to be undergoing training under Samuel Kent, with the hope of reforming him.

### **2020**

Samuel Kent and Amanda Mason now lived on the Kent Farm with their family. Lei Mei passed away. Their son Jordan Kent developed superhuman abilities. Samuel Kent encountered a former Kandorian named Tal-Rho who attempted to transfer the minds of deceased Kryptonians into the residents of Smallville.

### **2025**

In 2025, Samuel Kent introduced his twin daughters as Supergirl Red and Supergirl Blue to the public. The robotic brain of Lex Luthor escaped, making it the first villain confronted by the Supergirls. Luthor was conspiring with a group of Parademons from Apokolips when the hero OMAC appeared. OMAC was connected to the supercomputer Brother Eye, a creation of the aged Bruce Wayne. Brother Eye had gone rogue, but Bruce Wayne had repaired it and transformed it into more of a weapon that needed a wielder, in this case Buddy Blank. Luthor gained the upper hand and neutralized OMAC. Samuel Kent arrived but Luthor's allies vanished before they could be caught. Luthor told Samuel Kent that this was the day the world ended and detonated some kind of bomb. Surprisingly, the world did not end, at least not immediately.

Clark Duke had been training Brandon Breyer and as part of this, took him to New Genesis, but when he arrived, he saw the fire pits of Apokolips go out and a strange event would strand him there for centuries along with New Genesis.

Sometime between these two dates, a Starro parasite in Samuel Kent's personal Alien Zoo would attack him and take control of his body.

### **2039**

In 2039, Samuel Kent first met Terry McGinnis as the new Batman and invited him to become a part of the New Justice League, consisting or Warhawk, Green Lantern Kai-Ro, Aquagirl, Mareena and Big Barda. McGinnis discovered that the Starro parasite had latched itself onto Samuel Kent for years to use him to recreate itself and McGinnis was able to free him and end the threat.

### **Prior to 2077**

Prior to 2077, a member of the Luthor family challenged the current Superman to a bet. Luthor had implanted several Supervillains with devices to destroy their minds. Superman and Luthor would both make a pitch about whether Justice or Doom was better. Luthor made his speech to the people and Superman would make his. The people would vote. The loser would then be impaled by a Kryptonite trap. While Luthor made a speech, Superman's speech was effective enough to change Luthor's mind. Luthor expected the trap to go off and kill him but instead it killed Superman, the world had chosen doom. The Nukes fired soon after. Luthor would then devote his time attempting to clone Superman, creating several Rocketships with babies in them. He would eventually succeed but he would not see it. Luthor died and the last rocket hit the surface. The baby was the first to survive.

### **2125**

In 2125, Civilization has for the most part recovered from the Nuclear War. Mankind had joined the Intergalactic Federation, while on Earth various tribes continued to exist, fighting amongst the fallout. There were also mutant animals such as the Apes. Among the human groups was a young boy named Kamandi. Superman had not been seen in so long but there were tales of him attempting and failing to stop the Great Disaster. Kamandi discovered a weakened Superman believed to be Brandon Breyer(it is known there are at least 20 Supermen prior to the 20th century). This Superman was now quite old, having grown a beard and was wearing a Superman T shirt, making it clear he was not the clone created by Luthor. Superman discovered the Biomech 7 androids were going to destroy Gotham and worked with a young gang of boys to recover the stolen remains of Batman from twin clones of Hynkel, which he was forced to kill, dying shortly after destroying Todd's remains in a funeral pyre.

Meanwhile, the still alive Samuel Kent, now acting as Superman, and the Supergirls found themselves fighting an army of Parademons. The Batman of that year managed to revive the Brother Eye satellite. He had been keeping tabs on Kamandi, who was a descendant of Buddy Blank, a.k.a. OMAC, and planned to revive the One-Man Army Corps as a weapon against the Parademons.

### **2225**

On New Genesis, the now aged Clark Duke found inner peace and married Beautiful Dreamer.

### **2425**

In 2425, On Apokolips, Darkseid was revived by members of his elite guard. On Earth, Supergirl Blue was in love with Green Lantern Ator, but since her body was stuck at the physical age of 11, Ator was uncomfortable with the relationship. Several diggers found the buried robot body of Lex Luthor, who went on a rampage. While the Green Lanterns fought Luthor, Supergirl Blue uses gold kryptonite to remove her powers, allowing her to age. Ator managed to stop Luthor, but Luthor uploaded his mind into the city's computer, leaving Ator with an atomic bomb about to detonate. Ator contained the explosion with his power ring, but was trapped inside with the radiation. The now-powerless Supergirl Blue was forced to stand by and watch Ator die.

### **2491**

**December:** The former United States is a totalitarian state which is ruled with an iron fist. In Metropolis, a homeless man named Konrad Glumm seeks refuge in an abandoned public library in order to keep warm even though entering the building is against the law. He finds Samuel Kent's Superman's costume in a cardboard box and tries it on. A security trooper sees Konrad on the monitor and attempts to kill him with his vaporizer but the Kryptonian fabric of the costume protects him. When he leaves the library, Konrad causes a sensation as he encourages the people, who believe him to be the real Superman who had returned in accordance with the legends, to resist. The troopers eventually realize that Konrad can be killed if they fire their vaporizers at his exposed head and hands. Although he is reduced to dust, the people are inspired to stand up against their oppressors. When democracy returned to the American Republic years later, the Metropolis Christmas Rebellion of 2491 came to be regarded as the beginning of the Second American Revolution. (DC Comics).

### **2525**

In 2525, Metron of the New Gods succeeded in opening a portal that returned Clark Duke to Earth, where he was attacked by Supergirl Blue and a superpowered Batman. After Clark Duke convinced them of his identity, Batman told him what had happened. In addition to the Parademons returning every 100 years to attack Smallville. At one point Luthor blanketed the Earth in green kryptonite radiation, killing Samuel Kent and Supergirl Red, and managed to destroy all the OMACs, including the original, Buddy Blank. Supergirl Blue used Luthor's serum to restore her powers and convinced Batman to use it as well. The two found that they were immune to kryptonite and finally defeated Luthor. Clark Duke took Batman and Supergirl to Smallville, where they found the body of Saturn Girl. He told them the answer to the Parademon attacks lied in the future and flies off to the 30th century.

### **2625**

In 2625, Supergirl Blue, now an old woman, encountered an invading Parademon with independent thought that escaped the patrol's extermination upon arriving. She killed and concealed it to prevent Superman and Batman from learning the truth, thus making them unwilling to kill the parademons.

### **2725**

In 2725, On Earth, A Batman and Supergirl buried their son, Thomas. A dying Metron appeared to Clark Duke and gave him a device that would allow him one round trip to New Genesis. He activated it and was met by Lar-el and Vara, his children with Beautiful Dreamer. Parademons attacked, followed by Darkseid. All of the New Gods were killed, leaving only Superman and his children. Darkseid captured Beautiful Dreamer and killed Superman's children when they tried to rescue her. Darkseid left, but not before breaking Beautiful Dreamer's neck. Superman returned to Earth to tell Batman what had happened.

### **2925**

In 2925, With Darkseid's forces attacking the Earth one final time, the heroes fan out. Supergirl Blue destroyed a weapon called the Sky Scorcher, but was fatally injured. Dying, Supergirl Blue told Batman the only way to stop Darkseid. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern Jordan Kelley travelled to Darkseid's space station. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman were killed, but Batman caused Granny Goodness to overload the station's power supplies. Clark Duke attacked Darkseid, who fired his Omega Beams at the Man of Steel. Superman pummeled Darkseid. The space station exploded,

### **30th Century**

Later in the century, The Legion of Superheroes used their time machine to bring both Superboy and Supergirl into the future, where they served as members of the team before being sent back. The Legion encountered Darkseid and destroyed him for good(*The Great Darkness Saga*).

### **853rd Century**

In the 853rd Century, Clark Kent the original Superman returned to the world from within the Sun itself. Having gained godlike power. It is a time of huge celebration.

## **Alternate Versions**

### **Flashpoint-Subject Zero**

Bary Allen attempted to save his mother's life from the Reverse-Flash. Reverse Flash, as a plan to convince Barry to change things back, altered some events and then claimed Barry had caused them. For Superman, he redirected Kalel's rocket directly into Metropolis, the resulting impact causing several deaths. The government took custody of Kal-El and initiated Project Superman, a military project with the sole purpose of creating a supersoldier that could be used against America's enemies. Kal was designated as Subject One.

In the cold and harsh environment of the project's labs, Kal grew to become a solitary and very thin boy who has difficulty getting close to people. Kal's only source of love and companionship were General Sam Lane, who loved him as the son he never had, and the General's daughter, Lois.

Kal was transformed into a Superhuman by Abraham Erskine and sent off into war as Captain America. A War between Atlantis and Themyscira had broken out as per Reverse Flash's machinations and was devastating Europe. Kalel discovered the sun granted him extraordinary abilities and fled the battlefield with his newfound freedom. It would take him much longer to become a hero, though he became more confident with the arrival of Krypto and Kara-Zor El on Earth. Kara-Zor El encouraged heroic behavior while Kal-El remained reluctant.

### **Earth Three-Ultraman**

Ultraman was born into the partially "reversed" universe of Earth-Three. Born on Krypton, through the machinations of his father Jor-Il, The Anti-Monitor came to the planet and began a process that would lead to its destruction. Thanks to a shooting spree, Jor-Il was able to secure a life pod for his son, whom he regarded as his best chance of revenge. He considered his son weak but believed conquering his own world would toughen him. He was sent to Earth.

Rocketing to Earth, Kal-Il was inundated with ideology and moralizing, warning him to be the strongest possible being, eschewing all weakness in himself and in others. His rocket crash-landed in Smallville, Kansas, right through the roof of the home of the wife beating alcoholic Johnny and his wife Martha Kent. Kal-Il gained power from the Kryptonite and forced the couple to be his parents, staying with them until he was seven years old, at which point he killed them and burned their farm to the ground. Over the following years, Kal-Il took the name Ultraman.His first true threat would be the benevolent alien race called the Sarmaks. The Sarmaks brought with them a Green Martian which fell in battle with Ultraman. Ultraman admitted that this was the first true threat he ever encountered.

He would encounter Owl Man in 1939 while both were battling the Ultra Humanite and Lex Luthor. The battle depowered Ultraman but at the cost of Ultra Humanite's life. Lex Luthor vowed to oppose Ultraman. Ultraman meanwhile was left depowered, though he would meet Lois Lane, or rather Diana of Themyscira, who had attempted to kill and replace Lane were Lane not saved by Lex Luthor.

Ultraman would often find himself battling heroes and villains who challenged him. He would often kill these enemies. One of the few to become a recurring foe.

By the late 1950's Clark Kent had become an astronaut. Given Earth made multiple contact with peaceful aliens including the Pod People, and the Kanamids, Kent took a chance and endangered his Space Shuttle near the aliens, believing they would save him. They did, but unfortunately accidentally restored his Kryptonian powers. Ultraman returned to Earth. He encountered his world's counterpart to Krypto, Neutro, who attacked him. Ultraman killed him in response. In 1958, he met his cousin, who became Ultra Girl. Ultraman killed her when the had a battle for power. Ultraman formed the Crime Syndicate in 1960. He organized the killing of President Lee Harvey Oswald with the aid of mob Leader Joseph P. Kennedy, who recruited his own son, John, for the job. The identity of the shooter became a subject of debate with many including the evil Mutant Charles Xavier, being arrested for the crime. The Syndicate remained active until 1964, when Ultraman's main foe, Lex Luthor, escaped to recruit the Justice League and brought them to his Earth. The Earth Three Brainiac and Owlman formed a plan to destroy the Multiverse. Ultraman lobotomized Brainiac. Two members of the Syndicate, Johnny Quick and Owlman were killed before the Syndicate was defeated and arrested.

Ultraman and the Syndicate returned, this time invading Earth after having escaped. The Syndicate had recruited new members, but even these weren't enough. Superwoman and Ultraman were captured while Owlman II escaped custody. The rest of the Syndicate was killed. Ultraman was killed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

### **Earth X-Overman**

Kal-El landed in Germany in 1917 during the First World War. He was discovered and raised by Adenoid Hynkel. Hynkel formed the Nazi party. Kal-El became Overman, a Nazi Superman. Under Hynkel's command, Overman and the German forces won World War II, conquering a portion of the U.S. and Great Britain. Superhuman resistance continued with the conquest of Washington D.C. on April 20th, 1956. Later departing Earth for 3 years, Overman returned and to his horror saw the finalization of the Holocaust, later becoming an outspoken critic of Hynkel's policy of genocide, even while continuing to serve the Nazi state alongside the New Reichsmen. That same year he met his cousin Overgirl, who Overman loved and came to regard as family. He would also take a consort, Lena, who he would keep young for decades with the aid of an alien chemical, though their marriage would grow cold and loveless.

After Overgirl's death, Overman was inconsolable, haunted by dreams of her death, the deaths of his allies' equivalents on the former Earth-10, and of Lord Broken of The Gentry. Overcome by his cousin's death, Lena's rage over the dwindling supply of the chemical that gave her youth, the terrorist actions of the Freedom Fighters, and his guilt over his own past atrocities, Overman supplied information to the Freedom Fighters, only to result in the demise of the New Reichsmen and of Metropolis. His grief and guilt immeasurable, he would later be overthrown and killed with the aid of his own friend Jürgen Olsen, formerly Jimmy Olsen.

### **Earth 11(Earth 63)-Superwoman**

A female version of Superman named Clara Kent, who fights crime as Superwoman. History is virtually identical with the exception of reversed genders.  She was a hero of long standing, an ally of her world's Batwoman and an inspiration to her world. She and her fellow heroes fought against Wonder Man and an army of Amazonian warriors when they invaded Washington DC.

### **Earth 13-Superdemon**

On a world that stayed in a Medieval technology level with magic, Kal-El arrived. He nearly died due to his weakness to magic. He was forced to make a deal with Etrigan to become his host. The two fought evil alongside the League of Shadows as the Superdemon.

His world was invaded by a mysterious group of vampires from an alternate world who captured him and his league, but the mortal form of Etrigan managed to release him and easily destroyed the vampiric invaders and released his comrades. His fellow leaguers realized that they were facing a Vampire invasion, but now they were ready, waiting for them.

Thus when the vampires finally crossed to their home, the entire League of Shadows charged against the Super-Vampires, with Etrigan facing off a Vampire Superman.

### **Earth 18-Saganowana**

An Earth frozen by the Time Trapper in the 19th century technologically and culturally. The world pushed forward despite these limitations - still inventing means of air travel, and even a telegraph Internet - and is protected by the frontier champions known as the Justice Riders.Superman's analogue is Saganowana, a bison-headed Native American hero.

### **Earth 23-Calvin Ellis**

A Universe where several characters have had their race changed with another. Kal-El was black in this universe. He was Found by the poor but kind Ellis family, who christened him Calvin, he was raised to stand up for himself no matter the odds, and to fight for what's right. When his star-spanning Kryptonian powers emerged under Earth's yellow sun, he became Superman, champion of the oppressed and defender of peace around the world.

Superman would fight many battles against the likes of Lex Luthor, construct the citadel of Fort Superman, and inspire a generation of superheroes by his emergence who would form the Justice League. But his greatest adventure of all may be, in his identity as Calvin Ellis, becoming the President of the United States of America, where aided by his long-suffering assistant Courtney and the reprogrammed alien intelligence Brainiac, he works to protect the world with political as well as superhuman might. Calvin Ellis would play a hand in forming a group of heroes from across the Multiverse.

### **Dark Multiverse-Superman**

An alliance of Evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse attacked Earth Two. Most of these Batmen had once been nearly identical to the original but had been corrupted somehow, often killing their world's Superman. The Superman of the Devastator's home reality had gone rogue and killed the Justice League, forcing Batman to splice his DNA with Doomsday's to defeat and kill him.

The Batman Who Laughs exposed Superman to Black Kryptonite, making him kill his own family before dying himself. Superman was also killed by the Murder Machine Batman in his Universe.

### **Earth 30-Superman**

The rocket trajectory resulted in the ship landing on a Ukrainian collective farm in Soviet Ukraine. Superman group under parents of the worker's party and supported Lenin's takeover, later supporting Stalin. The baby was immediately taken in and recognized as an alien with advanced powers and abilities that will be used for the greater good of the country. When Superman revealed himself to the world in 1938 it is noted that a 12 hour difference in the flight path would have had him land in the United States.

Growing up as a Soviet citizen, the future Superman was basically shown as a good person who dedicated his abilities to the safeguard of Soviet citizens and some of the people of the world as he spent most of his time detecting and preventing accidents. Over the intervening years, Superman becomes a member of Stalin's inner circle and was used as a propaganda event to bolster Stalin's regime. It is not until the United States CIA prompted scientist Lex Luthor to develop a plan to destroy him does Superman begin to openly and actively support the arms race between the United States and the USSR.

Lex Luthor chose to create his own version of Superman through cloning to combat and overcome the original. Luthor decided to crash Sputnik into Metropolis which would bring Superman to the event and hopefully allow Luthor to gather genetic material of Superman. As planned, Superman arrived in time to stop the deadly crash. The United States government claimed the probe and Luthor got the samples he needed in order to create his copy which proved to be defective and was named Bizarro. Luthor sent his Bizarro off to engage Superman who was attending a state party which Wonder Woman was attending. Bizarro crashed the party and the two fight. Their battle was so aggressive it accidentally caused a nuclear missile to launch. Bizarro proved himself to be a true genetic descendant of Superman as he sacrificed himself to save millions from the nuclear explosion. Superman tried to distance himself from the potential destruction he had caused and the power battle of the two governments but it spurred to actively change the world when he met with Lana Lazarenko, his childhood sweetheart who was suffering along with her children. Deciding to actively lead the government, Superman assumed leadership of the country to transform it into a utopia after Stalin was poisoned by his adopted son, Pyotr Roslov.

While they existed within this universe, neither Krypto nor Kara-Zor El would survived until 1978, being killed most likely be Luthor or one of America's Superhumans.

Until 1978, Superman and Wonder Woman worked together to bring about a better world with Superman unaware of Wonder Woman's attraction to him. Though Superman had advanced the Soviet Union to almost world wide control without resorting to war and virtually eliminated poverty, disease and the like, his plan was starting to control the populace directly. But the extent of that direct control was not known until revealed to be done by brain surgery techniques that pacifies dissidents into obedient slaves, or "Superman Robots". The Batman developed as a direct result of the horror of the true state of Superman's society as he was orphaned by the disgruntled son of Stalin, Pyotr who was pushed aside by Superman. But Pyotr's ruthlessness served him well enough to become the head of the KGB. Batman worked against the system of Superman who viewed the safety and good at the cost of human free will as too costly and seeked to overturn Superman's regime.

Luthor, still scheming against Superman over all these years, was involved in supporting Batman's activities as well as working with Brainiac. Superman overcame both, but at the cost of Wonder Woman's health who is badly injured in a kidnap plot and Brainiac shrank down Stalingrad and its citizens to a bottled city neither of which Superman was able to restore to normal. While not completely defeating him, these events deeply affected Superman, turning him ever so much more dark in his need to safeguard the innocents around him, even at the cost of the individuals' freedoms. Superman took the Brainiac computer into protective custody to prevent anymore such attacks and supposedly reprograms it to be a subservient robot-making-slave for the good of the Soviet Union.

In 2001, at the beginning of the new century, the Global Soviet Union is a world-wide country with the notable exception of the United States of America. The USA had suffered a second civil war while the Soviet Union has no crime, no poverty, no unemployment, and no freedom of choice. The conversion brain surgery was now a public punishment for the dissent and open opposers of the government. Superman was still trying to operate as a good person and repeatedly refused Brainiac's suggestions of openly invading the USA and ending its destructiveness. Superman's primary failure of Stalingrad had become even worse as the shrunken city was ravaged by a microscopic germ.

After an almost lifetime of failed events, Luthor decided on an open attack plan by openly controlling the United States as an active platform of attacking Superman and his regime. Luthor ran for and won the American presidency in 2000, which he basically turned into a dictatorship to grant some prosperity to the once defeated country in getting the people to support his ideology. Luthor confronted Superman in the Siberian Fortress of Solitude and declared open war against Superman. Superman relented in accepting the terms of war upon seeing Luthor's open attack force of the Green Lantern Marine Corps which were led by Colonel Hal Jordan and comprised of Privates Scott, Stewart, Rayner, and Gardner(reverse engineered from the remains of Abin Sur and Alan Scott's power rings) and supported by the Amazon forces commanded by a highly disillusioned Wonder Woman and other superpowered beings.

The battle against Superman did not stop him as Superman entered the U.S. White House in triumph where Lois Lane-Luthor defeated Superman with a simple note that read "why don't you just put the entire world in a bottle, Superman?" Reminded of his greatest defeat and the reason for his open domination of humanity, Superman relented and ordered Brainiac to end the invasion and return home. Brainiac openly defied Superman and revealed that he would control humanity for his own purposes. But Luthor deactivated the rampaging robot which overloaded the nuclear power source of the invasion ship into basically a bomb. Superman pushed the invasion ship into outer space, where it blew up, supposedly killing Superman in the offworld explosion.

Seemingly rid of the open control imposed by Superman's beneficial society, Lex Luthor reformed the planet and its governments into a new philosophy of "Luthorism" that paradoxically used several of Superman's ideologies. Luthor relented his complete control and developed an age of peace and stability. Luthor retired to scientific pursuits which included colonizing the solar system and curing all known diseases. Luthor extended his life to reach over two millennia. It is at Luthor's funeral that Superman finally reappeared, revealed to be apparently immortal with no age in all the intervening years.

### **Earth 32-Superman**

This is a Universe in which Abin Sur's ring found and was given to Bruce Wayne in 1959, just as he was considering retiring in favor of making Dick Grayson Batman. He eventually does this anyway. Sinestro, in a quest for revenge, killed many people close to batman, including Commissioner Gordon and Alfred. Batman then killed Sinestro in revenge. The Guardians chose to give more members of the Justice League Lantern rings, including Superman, the Flash and Wonder Woman.

### **Earth Z(Zombieverse)-Superman**

Earth Z is a Universe in which the Zombie Apocalypse occurred and was far more devastating than in the main timeline, occurring sometime in 1968. The Justice League was active but had difficulty containing the outbreak. Things went from bad to worse when Darkseid invaded Earth. Though they seemed to repel him, he had obtained the Anti Life Equation and kidnapped Cyborg, who had premiered as a hero in 1980. He uploaded the Anti-Life Equation into him. The Equation made Darkseid go insane and he leaped into the Planet's core, destroying it. Cyborg was transported back and the Anti-Life equation into a Zombie virus.

Superman was able to save his family and join the Superheroes, unfortunately the Flash was infected and Superman collided in him to stop him from spreading the infection. A piece of the Flash's hand was stuck in Superman's stomach. He knew he was infected and returned to say goodbye to his family. He then attempted to fly into the sun to destroy himself but the time he took to say goodbye left him open to infection. He infected Wonder Woman but was defeated by a sacrifice from Joel Kent. The Green lantern Corps arrived and Superman retreated into the Sun, attempting to use burn out the Sun, though this would take centuries to happen(Based off *DCeased*).

## **Krypton**

Krypton was an ancient world on which early humans were brought, possibly by the Goa'Ulds. The Kryptonians began an age of exploration, colonizing several planets including Daxam and Viltrum. The Kryptonians formed an intergalactic Empire, leading to their defeat and imprisonment by the Green Lantern Corps around their original planet. Their colonies were separated, resulting in divergent evolution. The Daxamites developed a weakness to lead. The Viltrumites and the Saiyans developed a Zenkai Boost and would heal stronger. Kryptonians were isolated on Krypton surrounding its Red Sun Rao. They possessed some level of superhuman abilities but nowhere near that under a yellow sun. Jor-El himself demonstrated amazing speed compared to running faster than a train(modern depictions of Krypton show the Kryptonians on a human level of power). The average Kryptonian lifespan was roughly a thousand years.

Krypton orbited a red sun and had three moons. one of which was destroyed. The planet was internally hot, which resulted in Volcanoes (Known as "Firefall" to the Kryptonians, which is a rough translation to English). Rainbow Valley was an area with a high concentration of moisture, leading to an almost eternal rainbow. There was a higher concentration of elements led to the Jewel Mountains, which as their name suggested were filled with jewels. Mentions was made of fossilized Jewel Birds, which were possibly birds with a jewel like appearance, jewels fossilized in a way to resemble birds, or Birds seemingly crystalized in Jewel. One area was known as Meteor Valley where several Meteorites had impacted in ancient times.

Krypton had a scarlet Jungle filled with red plants. It also had "singing flowers" which worked like wind chimes. Some gardeners bred these flowers and used wind to create Singing flower orchestras. Animal life included a creature called a though beast. Reportedly this creature was a rhino like beast with a screen on its head like a frill that depicted its thoughts, usually its desire to eat someone looking upon it. This is an exaggeration as the creature's frills changed color similar to a Chameleon as a way to communicate with other members of its species. There was also a creature who's name translated to "Metal Eater" which supposedly had strong stomach acids or bacteria to melt and eat metal. The creature behaved much like a cow and could be contained provided metal fences were not employed. It was considered dangerous only for the risk it could eat parts of buildings and cause collapse. A race of dogs was taken from Earth long ago on a Kryptonian scouting mission with the race evolving to have similar effects when exposed to a yellow sun. One race of dog evolved into Hounds which were apparently telepathic, at leas two each other. these Hounds were spotted in Kandor. Other animals included a two headed golden lion like creature, a Rockpecker bird, who could cause avalanches due to the noise of the sound it produced. A giant sharklike creature called a "Tyranno-Shark" swam in Krypton's oceans. Animals were kept in Zoos with collars. Should the animal escape the collar could with a switch, release a gas to knockout the animal.

Kryptonians under their native red sun still carried some superhuman characteristics but reduced in power compared to that under a yellow sun. They possessed super strength, super speed and could leap great distances. At around Age 27 they gained the ability to fly but under a red sun could not do so. Under a yellow sun, Kryptonians later gained heat vision, freeze breath and X ray vision. they could not breathe in space but could hold their breathe for long periods of time, a few hours at most. Kryptonite was created intentionally to weaken the species but usually takes ten minutes of exposure but leaves the Kryptonian too weak to fight back and in most cases even retreat, however they are not entirely indestructible. Early on in their life, Kryptonians could be knocked out by a mortar shell. They grow stronger over time but there are other species on a level that could harm them. However, this is all under a yellow sun, which is stored in the Kryptonian body like a battery. Time spent away from a yellow sun will drain a Kryptonian's body.

Kryptonian technology at the time included a type of sleep learning or "Education-pillow" that taught skill while one slept. Facilities in which thoughts were "fed" into the minds of students. They also possessed 3D holographic television. Movies were called something translated as "Emotion Movies" and could be fed directly into the mind by mechanical helmets. Other activities included swimming in anti-gravity pools. In wedding ceremonies colored bracelets(colors vary from individual to individual). Busts of the bride and groom.

Krypton was ruled by a science Council. It's leader at the time of its destruction was Re-Toz. Krypton had a military intended to repel invasions. General Zod was a member of the military and traitor. He also was able to create a clone army. Said clones being similar in appearance to Bizarro. He was defeated in a civil war towards the end of Krypton's destruction. Earlier than that the criminal Jax-Ur attempted to use an experimental bomb, which accidentally destroyed one of Krypton's three moons. He was exiled to the Phantom Zone, sometime between Gaz-Or and Zod's imprisonments. A moonbase was lost in the destruction. Krypton had a celebrity in Lylla Lerroll at the time of its destruction.

## **"Superman Substitutes"**

Superman was in many ways the Conrad Birdie or Fei Long of his day in which they popularity led to many imitators.

### **Supreme**

The earliest known example of the "Superman Substitute" debuting roughly around 1939. Ethan Crane was one of many subjected to government experiments. He died and was seemingly reborn with superhuman abilities. Supreme chose to model his Superhero appearance on Superman and also took the fight to Europe. Unfortunately Supreme suffered from delusions and was uncertain of reality. He also may have been leaping from Universe to Universe unintentionally, causing him further mental confusion. After the war he would disappear until he returned in 1992 where Superheroes were much more common. Ironically he would take on the identity of a comic book writer tasked with creating fictionalized account of another Superman inspired Hero, Omni-Man, who would be revealed as an alien spy in 2003. Supreme currently remains active but largely tackles Multiversal adversaries with a team of similarly tasked metahumans to protect the Multiverse.