The original story was written by Jerome "Jerry" Siegel and illustrated by Joseph "Joe" Shuster, and it was published as a part of the character's first appearance in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). As more stories were published, more details about the original story were established. These stories explored individual details, such as the planet Krypton, the source of Superman's powers and his relationship with supporting characters. Because continuity was looser during the Golden Age and the Silver Age, many of these stories would contradict each other.
As Superman was adapted into other media, his origin story has been frequently retold. These origin stories adhere to the basic framework created by Siegel and Shuster, with minor variations made to serve the plot or to appeal to contemporary audiences. Some of the details created for these adaptations would later influence the origin story in the mainstream comic series.
In more recent years, the origin story has been revamped in the comic books several times. In 1985, DC Comics published Crisis on Infinite Earths, which created the opportunity to definitively revise the history of the DC Universe. Superman's origin was subsequently retold in the 1986 The Man of Steel limited series written and drawn by John Byrne. The story would later be removed from continuity and replaced with the Superman: Birthright limited series in 2003 and 2004, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Leinil Francis Yu, as Superman's official origin. After the Infinite Crisis limited series in 2005 and 2006, Superman's origin was revised yet again, unfolding throughout Superman's regular publications and the Superman: Secret Origin mini-series in 2009 and 2010.
"Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son."
This basic origin is the one with which most people are familiar. While the individual details vary, certain key elements have remained consistent in almost all retellings.
Superman is born Kal-El on the alien planet Krypton. His parents, Jor-El and Lara become aware of Krypton's impending destruction and Jor-El begins constructing a spacecraft that would carry Kal-El to Earth. During Krypton's last moments, Jor-El places young Kal-El in the spacecraft and launches it. Jor-El and Lara die as the spacecraft barely escapes Krypton's fate. The explosion transforms planetary debris into kryptonite, a radioactive substance that is lethal to superpowered (as by Earth's yellow sun) Kryptonians.
The spacecraft lands in the rural United States, where it is found by a passing motorist. Jonathan and Martha Kent adopt Kal-El and name him Clark Kent. As Clark grows up on Earth, he and his adoptive parents discover that he has superhuman powers. The Kents teach Clark to use these powers responsibly to help others and fight crime.
Clark keeps his powers secret in order to protect his family and friends, who might be endangered by his criminal enemies. In order to use his powers to help humanity, Clark creates the alter ego of Superman. A number of elements are added to each identity to keep them distinct enough to prevent the casual observer from matching them. Superman wears a characteristic red and blue costume with a letter "S" emblem and a cape. Clark Kent takes to wearing glasses, styling his hair differently, changing his body language, significantly altering his voice, and wearing looser clothing and suits that hide his physique.
Clark Kent moves to Metropolis and takes a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet, where he meets his friends and co-workers, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Editor Perry White. Superman becomes the subject of frequent headline stories written by Lois, and the two become romantically attracted to each other.
Common variations
Superman's public debut has differed throughout decades of publication. Originally, he first donned the costume and began fighting crime as an adult. Later, he was shown to have begun his heroic career as Superboy, changing his name to Superman after he grew up. The character's history as Superboy was retroactively erased from continuity in the The Man of Steel retelling of the origin. In current continuity, Clark used his powers to aid others while still a youth, operating as "a rarely-glimpsed American myth - the mysterious 'Super-Boy'".
Influences
Superman's origin was influenced by the science fiction stories appearing in pulp magazines that Siegel and Shuster were fond of and by a variety of social and religious themes.
Siegel and Shuster created three different characters named Superman. The first was a villain with telepathic powers, published in the short story "The Reign of the Super-Man." The second version, which was unpublished, was a crime fighter without any superhuman abilities, which Siegel and Shuster compare to another of their creations, Slam Bradley. They felt that a virtuous character originating from Earth to possess superhuman powers would make the character and stories seem less serious, inviting comparisons to humorous strongmen like Popeye. So they decided to make the third version a visitor from another planet.
Siegel has cited the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs as an influence on the source of Superman's strength and leaping ability being the lesser gravity of a smaller planet. Jack Williamson once remarked that Superman's origin had strong similarities to a story he had written and published early in his career, where a Martian scientist sent his infant daughter into space to save her from their planet's destruction.
Superman carries some similarities to Hugo Danner, the main character in the novel Gladiator by Philip Wylie. Danner's great strength comes from a serum injected into him by his father while still a fetus which gave him the proportional strength of an insect. The scientific explanation for the source of Superman's powers published in Action Comics #1 also compared Superman's great strength to an ant's ability to carry hundreds of times its own weight and a grasshopper's ability to leap great distances.Wylie would later threaten to sue National Comics for plagiarism. Siegel would sign an affidavit that claimed Superman was not influenced by Gladiator, though he had reviewed the novel for his fanzine Science Fiction in 1932.
Because Siegel and Shuster were both Jewish, some religious commentators and pop-culture scholars such as Rabbi Simcha Weinstein and British novelist Howard Jacobson suggest that Superman's creation was partly influenced by Moses and other Jewish elements. However, Siegel and Shuster claim that having Superman drop out of the sky just seemed like a good idea.
Pre-Crisis
Superman's origin took more than twenty years to unfold into the narrative we are familiar with today. During the Golden Age of Comics (1935-1953), Krypton and the Kents were almost incidental, seldom being referred to in the comic book stories. The Superman mythology expanded during the Silver Age of Comics (1953-1970) and was refined during the Bronze Age (1970-1986.
Golden Age
Siegel created, and Shuster designed, the character Superman in 1934 and intended to sell the character as a daily newspaper comic strip. They told Superman's origin over the course of twelve strips, ten of which detailed the planet Krypton.
Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the debut of Superman. Cover art by Joe Shuster
Starting on January 16, 1939, Siegel's original stories and Shuster's original art work appeared in a daily newspaper comic strip through the McClure Syndicate. The first days of the Superman daily newspaper strip retold the origin in greater detail, focusing on his departure from Krypton. In this retelling, the planet Krypton and Superman's biological parents, Jor-L and Lara, are called by name for the first time.
The first issue of Superman, published in 1939, also featured the origin story. Max Gaines had written to Siegel and Shuster and asked them to expand the origin sequence to two pages, and to include four pages that detailed how Clark Kent became a journalist as well as a full page feature that expanded on the scientific explanation for Superman's powers. In this issue, the passing motorists are revealed to be the Kents, who leave him at the local orphan asylum but later return to adopt him. The Kents teach Clark that he must keep his powers a secret but that he will someday use them to assist humanity. Clark becomes Superman after the Kents pass away and wins his job as a reporter for the Daily Star by delivering information he had gathered as Superman about a lynch mob at the county jail. The feature on Superman's powers asserts again that Kryptonians had evolved to physical perfection, but also reveals that because Earth is a smaller planet than Krypton, the lighter gravitational pull further enhanced Superman's strength.
In 1945, More Fun Comics #101 introduced the concept of Superboy, establishing that Superman began his superhero career as a child. This issue shows Krypton in much greater detail than before, as a scientifically advanced world. Kryptonians do not appear to possess superhuman strength on Krypton but are aware that a Kryptonian on Earth would. In this story, Superman's biological parents are named Jor-El and Lara. Jor-El attempts to convince the Supreme Council that their world is doomed and that they must take action. The Council scoffs at Jor-El's warnings, so he returns home to save his family, if nobody else. But Jor-El is only able to save his son.
For the tenth anniversary in 1948 of Superman's debut, Superman #53 retold the origin story, compiling and expanding upon previous versions, though the story does not acknowledge the adventures of Superboy. This story establishes the Kents as farmers and that "Clark" is a family name. Before Clark's adopted father dies, he tells Clark that he must use his powers to become a force for good. Clark's father calls Clark a "Super-Man," inspiring Clark to use the name. Superman discovered his alien origins for the first time in Superman #61.Action Comics #158 retold the origin again, this time acknowledging the adventures of Superboy.
Smallville
A slightly older Kal-El just out of his Kryptonian ship in the pilot episode of Smallville
A series that from 2001 - 2011 fellow superman teenage years growing up to be come the legend.
The television series Smallville is a reimagining of the Superman mythology, starting from Clark Kent's teenage years. The series is named after Clark Kent's home town and focuses on the challenges he faces growing up in the rural midwest, while also discovering his super powers and the details of his alien origins. The series creators and cast have specified that the series is about Clark Kent and not Superman, and that the character will not appear in costume or fly in the series.
The series begins with the arrival of Kal-El's spacecraft in Smallville during a massive meteor shower that would affect the rural town for years to come. Jonathan and Martha Kent find the child and adopt him with the help of Lionel Luthor. The Kents raise Clark and instruct him that he must not reveal his powers to anyone. Clark initially becomes friends with Lex Luthor, but Lex's obsession with learning Clark's secret drives them to become enemies.
Clark is aware of his super-speed, super-strength and invulnerability in the series pilot. In subsequent episodes and seasons, he discovers other abilities, including x-ray vision, heat vision, super hearing and super breath. Clark has demonstrated his ability to fly while under Jor-El's control, but does not know how to use this ability at will.
Details about the planet Krypton are revealed slowly over the course of the series.Clark learns of the planet and his alien origins from Dr. Virgil Swann played by the late christopter reeve. He later discovers that Jor-El had programmed his memory and will into the spacecraft that carried Clark to Earth. Through Jor-El, Clark learns that Zod's ambition to conquer Krypton led to the planet's destruction.
Superman Returns
Director Bryan Singer felt that most people were familiar with Superman's origin and wanted to make Superman Returns as a semi-sequel to Richard Donner's Superman, with the two films sharing the same origin story. The movie opens with a very brief summary of the origin story that reads, "On the doomed planet Krypton, a wise scientist placed his infant son into a spacecraft and launched him to Earth. Raised by a kind farmer and his wife, the boy grew up to become our greatest protector...Superman." Otherwise, the film portrays only a few scenes related to Superman's origin. The destruction of Krypton is seen before the opening credits, Lex Luthor invades the Fortress of Solitude and views the recordings that Jor-El had sent to Earth with Kal-El, and Clark Kent discovers his ability to fly in a flashback.
Superman Returns utilized footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El, and nearly identical set design for Kryptonian structures as the 1978 film. Subtle similarities were also purposefully created, such as modeling the "new" Kent farmhouse after the "old" one, and having Eva Marie Saint's Martha Kent drive the same make and color of pickup truck as driven by the Kents in the original film. Certain scenes in the Kent farm also showed pictures of Brandon Routh's Clark Kent inserted into photos with Glenn Ford's Jonathan Kent.
Man of Steel
In 2010, Warner Bros announced that Christopher Nolan, who had previously directed Batman's origin story in Batman Begins, would be the producer on a reboot of the Superman film franchise. Director Zack Snyder stated that the film would focus on Superman's early days and would not be based on any particular comic book. Film is set for release june 14th 2013.
The new superman suit for Henry Cavil
2013
Fan Made Film
2013 COMIC CON Trailer for the man of steel
Lois & Clark
In the 1990s television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, more inspiration was taken from Byrne's work on Man of Steel. Feeling it was a more relatable version of the story, the show's producers and main developer also kept around Superman's adoptive parents as regular cast members, giving the main protagonist people to confide in. The series pilot begins with Clark's arrival in Metropolis. Clark and his mother develop his uniform in a musical montage set against Bonnie Tyler's single "Holding Out for a Hero." Superman makes his public debut saving a space station mission from sabotage by Lex Luthor, who is initially portrayed in his corporate tycoon incarnation.
Clark's adoptive parents explain how they found him in a spacecraft in the second episode "Strange Visitor (From Another Planet)" and how they initially believed that he was part of an experiment when investigators ask them about debris from a Russian space station. Clark later learns that he is from Krypton after finding the spacecraft in the custody of the secret government agency Bureau 39. Clark questions why he was abandoned, but later learns of Krypton's destruction through a series of messages left for him by Jor-El in the episode "Foundling." The series explored more of the history and culture of Krypton in a story arc that spanned the final episodes of the third season and the first episodes of the fourth.
Superman: The Animated Series
This version's major difference is Brainiac's role in Krypton's destruction. Brainiac is portrayed as the supercomputer that monitors Krypton and advises the planetary council on scientific matters. He senses the imminent destruction of the planet, but denies this fact so he can avoid the council's order to organize the planet's evacuation and instead focus on saving himself. Brainiac reasons that the loss of the planet itself and all its living inhabitants is part of the natural order, but his own survival would ensure the preservation of Krypton's history and achievements. Because he goes against Brainiac and the Kryptonian Council, Jor-El becomes an outlaw in their eyes as he works to save his son. After the destruction of Krypton and Kal-El's arrival on Earth, Brainiac eventually becomes an enemy of Superman
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