Jonathan Kent

[Source]

"*There's one thing I do know, son, and that is you are here for a reason.*"
―Jonathan Kent[src]
**Jonathan "Jon" Kent** was a Human farmer and caretaker of the Kent farm as well as part owner of Kent General Store.

## Biography

### Early life

Jonathan Kent was born in Smallville, Pennsylvania on April 8, 1916 to Harold and Eliza Kent. He lived on the Kent family farm owned by his father. Jonathan's mother died when he was still very young and he often helped his father and siblings look after the estate. At some point in his youth, Jonathan met and fell in love with a local girl named Mary Clark. Mary liked Jonathan as well, but they never had the chance to become romantically involved with one another.

When he came of age, Jonathan enlisted in the U.S. armed services and went off to fight in World War II. In 1944, he was captured by Japanese soldiers and was listed as missing in action. He was eventually released and returned home. When he returned to Smallville, he discovered that his brother Harry had died and that his high school sweetheart Mary had married and had a daughter with the son of a local business tycoon, Daniel Fordman. Kent was heartbroken, but respected Mary's decision.

### Marrying Mary

Daniel Fordman learned that Jonathan had returned and arranged a private meeting between the two. He revealed that he was dying of cancer and planned to leave his family fortune to Mary. Further, he wanted Jonathan to take Mary away from him, to spare her the burden of watching him waste away from his terminal illness. Kent was flattered, but propriety demanded that he decline Fordman's offer. Daniel died soon after and his surviving sister Eliza hotly contested Fordman's will. Mary had no interest in family squabbles or Daniel's money, so she left it all to the family.

Mary now had the ability to pursue a romance with Jonathan Kent. Six months later, Jonathan proposed and the two were married soon after. When Jonathan's father passed away, Jonathan inherited the family farm and Mary moved in with him. Kent adopted Mary's daughter, Thelma, and treated her as his own. Over the course of several years, the Kents attempted to start a family, but each attempt ended with disaster. In total, they suffered through eight miscarriages and stillborn births. Their family physician Doc Whitney advised the Kents that further attempts to sire children could prove detrimental to Mary's health.

### Taking in Kal-El

Two years later, while driving down the highway adjacent to their property, the Kents discovered an alien rocket that had crash-landed in the North 40. Inside the rocket was the Kryptonian toddler Kal-El. Fearing that Kal-El might have been the subject of a Russian cosmonaut mission, the Kents decided to take him in. He soon discovered that young Kal-El was no ordinary child, as the young boy easily lifted up Jonathan's pickup truck after it fell off its jack. During this time, Jonathan moved Kal-El's rocket ship closer to the property and buried beneath an old barn. The Kents later took him to the Smallville Orphanage and soon formally adopt him, naming him "Clark" in honor of Mary's maiden name.

Jonathan raised and loved Clark as if he were his very own son. He bestowed upon him a strong moral fiber and a strong sense of righteousness and humility. When Clark was eight-years-old, Jonathan witnessed his son nearly trampled to death by a neighboring farmer's prized bull. Clark emerged from the incident without a single blemish on his body. Few beings knew the truth about Clark Kent's alien heritage. Jonathan taught Clark that he was given special powers for a reason, and not for just showing off in front of his friends as he did when he outran them back to his own house, while urging him to keep the use of his powers a secret. When Clark was seventeen, Jonathan finally confessed to him that he was not their biological son. He took him to the barn and showed him the rocket ship that brought him to Earth. Shortly thereafter, Clark found a glowing green crystal inside the ship and left the family farm for the North Pole and soon adopted the costumed identity of Superman.

## Appearances

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