Clark Kent

* Clark Kent/Kal-El
* Superman

**Kal-El,** legally named **Clark Joseph Kent**, is a superhero known as **Superman**, the last survivor of Krypton, the host of the Growth Codex, an investigative reporter for the *Daily Planet*, the fiancé of Lois Lane, and a member and direct inspiration of the Justice League.

## Character Origins

### Kal-El: 1999 - 2001

Kal-El was born on Krypton in Sector 2813. As a member of the Kryptonian Noble House of El, Kal-El lived a life of luxury under their red sun of Rao. Most unpleasant labor was carried out by mechanical servants. Kal-El’s father, Jor-El was a gifted engineer and a scientist of the Guild of Thought; and his mother, Lara Lor-Van, was the Guild of Reason's chosen representative to the High Council of Krypton.

The House of El were not among the ignorant nobles of Krypton. Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van were aware of the cost of these luxuries. They foresaw the destruction of their planet coming. When attempts to stop the impending doom were halted, they took measures to guarantee that the House of El would not perish. Minutes before the machines of Krypton turned against their masters under the command of the A.I. known as Vril-Dox, Lara Lor-Van loaded her young son onto a starship designed by her husband and sent him off into space, heading toward Earth.

### Clark Kent: 2001 - 2003

In the midst of the meteor shower, Kal-El crash-landed in Smallville, Kansas, where he was found by an honest couple, the Kents. Unable to produce their own children, Farmer Jonathan and wife Martha chose to take this boy in and protect him. They name him Clark and took steps to make it appear they had adopted the boy.

As Clark grew up under the yellow sun of Earth, his alien physiology reacted and gave him incredible strength, speed, and a variety of other abilities. Jonathan instilled Clark with an honest work ethic and sense of justice; while Martha urged Clark not to use his powers openly, as she feared exposing his secret would endanger him.

As a teen, Clark had a literal run-in with Lex Luthor (Lex Luthor hit Clark with his car). After saving Lex’s life, the two became friends, with Lex rubbing off on Clark and making him decide it was important to be his own man. Armed with this confidence, Clark decided to find a way to use his powers to help people, while keeping his powers a secret.

Clark Kent joined forces with two of his schoolmates: sexy and brainy Chloe Sullivan and decent guy Pete Ross to solve crimes in Smallville. This trio also conducted “Wall of Weird” research which focused on the prevalence of so-called “meteor freaks” in and around Smallville. The trio also studied the rising metahuman phenomenon. During these pursuits, Clark's secret was discovered by Pete and I.

Clark really wanted to share his secret with Lex as well, but his parents insisted that Lex was too risky. Clark kept his secret from Lex but Lex knew something was off. This added an element of tension to the two’s friendship, that would eventually cause their relationship to sour.

All of the effort which Clark Kent, Chloe Sullivan, and Pete Ross put into their high school paper "The Torch" paid off in a big way as all three got scholarships to Midwestern University. It was here at Midwestern's journalism program that Clark Kent would first meet Lois Lane.

### Clark Kent: 2009 - 2011

Interestingly, Clark and Lois did not get along at first. In no time at all the two developed a rivalry. While it may have started over something so trivial as feeling each other's personal relationship to Chloe threatened their own social standing with Miss Sullivan, it only became more intense with every journalism class they shared and every test score result sheet that was posted in the campus halls. Even carrying it beyond college to their first year at the Daily Planet as part of a competitive internship.

Daily Planet editor Perry White believed that the conflict between Lois and Clark was a good thing, pushing each to continually improve. Perry got no small amount of joy playing them off each other. At the end of their internship, when it was down to just Lois and Clark, Perry decided to send his two all-star interns to Gotham City, where he challenged them to write a report on Gotham's vigilante: the so-called "Bat."

While Lois aimed her report at Batman's effect on criminals and the crime rate, Clark aimed for something more ambitious: he aimed to expose the caped crusader as nothing more than a violent vigilante that did more harm than good. Of course, it didn't take Batman long to figure out this was Clark's goal after I tipped him off to the young out-of-town reporters hounding my father for an interview and snooping around GCPD crime scenes. While Bruce Wayne would handle Lois, it was left to the Batman to confront Clark. It was definitely one of Batman's worst ideas ever, but I suppose it paid off in the long run. When Batman showed up to spook Clark Kent in his hotel room, Clark used his x-ray vision to identify the vigilante. Clark then declared that he knew Batman was Bruce Wayne and planned to tell the world about it. This enraged Bruce who promptly punched Clark which may have broke Clark's glasses, but it also broke Bruce's hand (and pride), requiring Batman to make a quick escape back to the drawing board.

Two days later, Clark showed up to speak with what he thought were informants with dirt on Bruce Wayne (actually Dick and I in disguise). But Dick and I didn't show up at the meeting in a Bristol cemetery, but Bruce and Alfred did. After a soul-barring discussion, Clark decided to give Bruce a pass. When Bruce asked Clark what changed his mind, Clark looked at the tombstones of Bruce's parents and shrugged before saying "Our moms share the same name," and walked away. Of course, that was a lie. The truth was Bruce had abilities far surpassing the average man and chose to use them to become a symbol in hopes of making change, that spoke to Clark. So Clark wrote a new report. It was good, but fell short of the hype Clark had built up. Clark lost and Perry gave Lois the job.

### Superman: 2000 - 2006

Having failed to land a job at the Daily Planet after his post-college internship, Clark returned home to discuss his plans with his parents. It would be the last time Clark and Jonathan Kent would speak as Jonathan Kent had a fatal heart attack shortly after giving Clark his blessing to carve his own path. After the funeral, Martha Kent gave Clark a mysterious object of alien origin. It was the key to the ship that Clark had come to Earth in, stored in the root cellar of the Kent Family Farm.

Finally able to activate his starship, Clark Kent did so. Clark was able to fumble through the controls enough to find out two other Kryptonian vessels were on Earth: one in the far northern edges of the Canadian wilderness and the other in the depths of the Pacific. Clark delayed his return to Metropolis and headed into the cold. What Clark found was an ancient colony ship of similar design as the one in the Kent's root cellar. In Clark's new Fortress of Solitude were a variety of luxuries, including robot servants and a computer that had received updates from Krypton up until its destruction. The robotic steward Kelex analyzed Clark and identified him as "Kal-El, son of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van" and even made Clark a suit which proudly displayed the Sigil of El on the chest. Kelex then helped Clark find the ship in the Pacific and rescue its occupant who turned out to be Clark's cryogenically frozen cousin Kara Zor-El. While Kara recovered, learned of Earth, and improved the ancient ship's systems, Clark needed to return to Metropolis.

Shortly after getting settled, Clark heard of a plane going down in the Delaware Bay and decided it was time show off his own caped costume. Flying to the rescue, Clark was able to slow the plane's descent enough to allow the pilot to land on the water and then Clark stuck around to help the passengers get to safety. Clark was surprised to see Lois among the passengers, but was even more startled when she didn't seem to recognize him. So flummoxed by this, Clark agreed to give Lois an interview (even though he had planned to give Chloe the exclusive) and in this interview, Clark came up with the name "Superman," inspired by one of his favorite songs but also some of Jonathan Kent's final words to Clark. And when the story was published, Superman fever was born.

The next morning, Clark woke up to find Bruce Wayne delivering a copy of the Daily Planet and telling Clark that they needed to talk. So was born the Super Friends over breakfast. When he was not adventuring with Bruce and the gang, Clark became an established reporter and Perry White decided to rehire Clark and had him share his office with Lois, who was assigned the "Superman Beat." It took Lois a while, but eventually she figured out Clark and Superman were one and the same.

At the end of 2003, Clark and the Super Friends were called in to thwart an alien invasion as Brainiac tracked down the reactivated Fortress. From the aftermath of this battle, the Justice League of America were born and Clark and Lois were married.