Character Spotlight: Superman

This week's selection of Character Spotlight is Earth's Favorite Son, The Man of Steel: Superman

Rocketed to Earth as an infant from the doomed planet of Krypton, young Kal-El was adopted by the good-hearted Kents and raised in America's heartland. Using his immense solar-fueled powers, he became Superman to defend mankind from tyranny. Championing truth, justice, and the American way, Superman is Earth's greatest protector.

REAL NAME: Kal-El / Clark Joseph Kent
OCCUPATION: Adventurer, newspaper reporter, columnist, novelist, former editor
MARITAL STATUS: Married
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Metropolis, USA and the Fortress of Solitude, Arctic (formerly Antarctica)
GROUP AFFILATIONS: Justice League of America (current); Justice League International (reserve; formerly)
HEIGHT: 6'3"
WEIGHT: 225 lbs.
EYES: Blue
HAIR: Black
FIRST APPEARANCE: Action Comics #1 (June 1938)

EDUCATION: studied at Metropolis University 

KNOWN RELATIVES: Jor-El (father; deceased); Lara (mother; deceased); Jonathan Kent (adoptive father), Martha Clark Kent (adoptive mother); Lois Lane (wife); Harry Kent (adoptive uncle); Sarah Kent (adoptive aunt)

FIRST APPEARANCE: Action Comics #1 (August,1938)

BIO/HISTORY:

Superman is the sole survivor of the planet Krypton. His father, Jor-El, discovered that a nuclear chain reaction was building inside Krypton that would soon shatter the entire world. Jor-El therefore had his unborn son Kal-El removed from the Kryptonian Gestation Chambers and affixed the life matrix containing Kal-El to an experimental vessel for travel through hyperspace. Jor-El launched the starcraft toward Earth just before Krypton exploded.

Superman was, in effect, born on Earth when the starcraft landed there. Jonathan and Martha Kent found the infant inside the vessel and brought him to their farm in Smallville, Kansas. Since he appeared entirely human, the Kents assumed that the baby was a victim of a cruel experiment. At this time the baby had no super powers. The Kents named the infant Clark and raised him as their own son.

As clark grew older his Kryptonian body began developing superhuman abilities. When Clark was eighteen, took him to the field where his starcraft still lay hidden and explained how he and Martha had found him. Clark resolved to use his powers from then on only for the good of mankind. After revealing his secret to his childhood friend, Lana Lang, Clark left Smallville to study at Metropolis University.

Clark initially used his powers covertly to help people and prevent or thwart disasters. Ultimately, he was forced to use his powers in public to prev ent the crash of a NASA space-plane. Thereafter he and his foster parents devised a new costumed secret identity he would adopt when using his abilities in public. They called his new persona "Superman," the name given him by Lois Lane, a reporter for the Metropolis Daily Planet who had been aboard the space-plane.

Shortly afterward, Clark obtained a job as a reporter for the Daily Planet by turning in his first detailed story about Superman. He currently enjoys a freelance status with the Planet.

Some time ago Superman journeyed to an otherdimensional "pocket universe" that had its own Krypton and Earth. After defeating three Kryptonians native to that universe who had murdered the entire population of its Earth, Superman executed the trio, believing there was no other way to stop them. The tremendous guilt Superman felt over this act combined by the psychic manipulation by his foe Braniac, caused him to develop a temporary split personality. Believing himself to be potentially dangerous to humanity, Superman exiled himself to space, eventually taken prisoner by the forces of the alien tyrant Mongul. During this time Superman resolved never to kill again...."

Superman lives by the traditional moral values instilled in him by his foster parents. Superman is an idealist, devoted to promoting "truth, justice, and the American way," and has proved over and over that he is a true hero, capable of whatever bravery and self-sacrifice is necessary to right a wrong or save a life.

PERSONALITY:

Superman is commonly seen as a brave and kind-hearted hero with a strong sense of justice, morality and righteousness. He adheres to a strict moral code often attributed to the Midwestern values with which he was raised, thanks to his adoptive parents. His commitment to operating within the law has been an example to many other heroes but has stirred resentment among others, who refer to him as the "big blue boy scout." Superman can be rather rigid in this trait, causing tensions in the superhero community, notably with Wonder Woman (one of his closest friends) after she killed Maxwell Lord.

To protect his secret identity, Superman has constructed a persona in his civilian identity as Clark Kent. To the world at large, Clark is a mild-mannered and clumsy person. Only Lois Lane, his wife, knows that this attitude is just an act.

Having lost his home world of Krypton, Superman is very protective of Earth, and especially of Clark Kent’s family and friends. This same loss, combined with the pressure of using his powers responsibly, has caused Superman to feel lonely on Earth, despite his many friends, his wife and his parents. Previous encounters with people he thought to be fellow Kryptonians, Power Girl (who is, in fact from the Krypton of the Earth-Two universe) and Mon-El, have led to disappointment. The arrival of Supergirl, who has been confirmed to be not only from Krypton but also his cousin, has relieved this loneliness somewhat.

POWERS:

Kryptonian Physiology: Superman's cellular structure is more dense, resilient and biologically more effective than human tissue. Strangely enough, he does not seem to possess superhuman strength levels despite his enhanced cellular ability without his cellular structure charged withyellow solar energy. Without such charging, his strength seems on par for a human of his height and weight who engages in regular physical activity. As an alien he possesses several organs whose functions are not yet disclosed or understood but are believed to be part of and perhaps even the source of his biomatrix force field and reclamation aura. Superman's body also stores energy actively within his bio-cellular matrix as an energy pattern that is linked to his body's electromagnetic field. This energy powers most of Superman's electromagnetic capabilities such as flight and heat vision. It also supplements his physical strength by a factor of 12,000 times or so.

Solar Battery: Technically, this is the main source of Superman's powers. As a Kryptonian, Superman's cells absorb only yellow solar energy, and this in turn, fuels all of his powers and abilities. Superman's cells also store solar energy as well, allowing him to retain his powers under roofed structures or even at night, although he eventually needs a yellow sun to recharge his powers. Superman can also absorb solar energies of other class stars such as when he absorbed the solar energies of a blue star that increased his abilities to a higher degree and gave him additional abilities.

Superhuman Strength: The exact magnitude of Superman's strength is unknown. This is because Superman's strength, like his many other powers, has fluctuated over time, however, his strength should effortlessly range into the multi-megaton level at the very least. While the exact magnitude of Superman's strength is unknown, it is generally accepted that his strength easily surpasses the capacity to lift 1,000,000 tons, but how much more is not known exactly. This makes Superman arguably the strongest being on the planet and one of the strongest beings in the universe. Superman has shown feats of strength such as; being seen lifting an enormous pyramid and flying it to Mars without any strain (which can weigh millions and millions of tons depending on their size), being strong enough to be capable of ripping off the arm of the likes of Darkseid and physically defeating him in combat, being able to move the planet Earth away from the Sun while a powerful Cosmic Entity, Starbreaker was pushing it toward the Sun, and having the strength necessary to shatter entire worlds. Superman has been chained to the endless wheels of the Mageddon machinery and his strength was used to move the gears of a weapon whose size dwarfed the entire Earth/Moon system itself. He can become "supercharged" and exceed his "normal" power levels as evident when his power absorption ability ran amok which needed the Parasite to drain off his excessive power levels.

Invulnerability: Superman's body is nigh-invulnerable. This ability's levels have changed over time. He has taken a blast equivalent to a million nuclear warheads point blank and remained conscious. Currently he is even more durable than in the past. He has entered the Sun and emerged completely unharmed, he has even traveled through Krypton's Red Sun and survived physically unharmed, even though Red Solar Radiation depowers and weakens him. He has been seen to skirt the photosphere of the sun (100,000,000 degrees F). Superman has even been shown withstanding Darkseid's Omega Beams, a feat that was previously considered impossible. Superman was able to survive the nuclear destruction of the entire moon in the year 2995 when he was stuck in the future. The moon had been lined with sufficient nuclear devices to disintegrate it in one shot and Superman was in the center and survived without being hurt at all. Superman has withstood 3 particle beams, each powered by the core of a planet, fired at him. One of these planet-powered beams was a plasma beam capable of leveling a huge city a few times over entirely with a single blast. Most likely his greatest feat of durability recently, is that he was recently able to withstand the destructive power of a Sun exploding and going Nova (A result of Brainiac’s technology.) at point blank range to the planet he was on (Which was eradicated by the force of the explosion with the rest of the surrounding system.) and survived without any visible physical damage although the explosion did knock him out. In addition, his immune system protects him from all toxins and diseases. The reason for this is because Superman possesses a super-dense molecular structure and a supercharged bio electric "aura" that acts as an invisible "force field" around his body within a few millimeters from his skin. The proximity of this field to his skin means that loose clothes, for example, may be burned off of him, while cloth that is close to his body is protected by the "aura;" This phenomenon is sometimes cited as Superman's reason for wearing a skin-tight bodysuit. It is sometimes implied that he can unconsciously extend this field to an undetermined extent to protect a greater area, allowing him to carry huge objects within the Earth's atmosphere and without gravity or inertia tearing them apart around his human-sized hands.

Longevity: Superman can live almost indefinitely.

Superhuman Stamina: Superman has the ability to maintain continuous strenuous physical action for an undefined period. Theoretically, most incarnations of the character have unlimited stamina as his enhanced nourishment is produced from the solar energy his cells process. Superman like other Kryptonians does not get tired and does not need to eat or sleep and can be sustained on Solar energy alone. He can also hold his breath for an undefined duration
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Flight: Under one Earth gravity Superman is capable of flying at faster than light speeds. He tends to fly at speeds of Mach 10 in the atmosphere. His control of his flight is perfect and he can perform aerobatic feats such as hovering, flying backwards and even lifting great weights while flying. Superman can fly at speeds many times faster than light. Superman can fly in outer space. He has been seen to fly to the moon in minutes, so it can be assumed that he can fly faster than that outside of atmospheric interference.

Superhuman Speed: Superman is capable of enhanced reflex action and the ability to move at incredible speeds by sheer force of will. While not nearly as fast as the Flash (Wally West), Superman can move at speeds much faster than light and is one of the fastest beings in the Universe. Superman can match most other speedsters in their ability to perform super fast movements, reactions, and processes. He can use this power to disarm opponents with or without heightened reflexes, catch bullets or shrapnel or cross vast distances in seconds. Superman can also run at incredible speeds and even keep up with most speedsters; he was seen running steadily alongside the Flash at a speed of 2000 miles per second (around Mach 9350) He has been seen flying from the Moon to the Earth in less than 2 minutes. Superman is so fast that he is even able to vibrate his molecules through blows akin to what the Flash can do as seen in his fight with Doomsday. He has also used the Infinite Mass Punch, another Flash power, by accelerating to just under the speed of light, with his mass increasing to infinty, when he had to destroy a shadow replica of the moon created by Shadow Thief, which had the same mass as the original, (roughly 8.4 billion tons).

Superhuman Hearing: Superman has incredible hearing at extreme variances of sound and pitch frequency, allowing him to pick up noises from across the globe. He has shown enough control to block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source/frequency. He can hear every single heartbeat, as well as the blood pumping through everyone's veins, hear every foot step, every cell phone signal as it lances through the air and more. He can identify a person by their heartbeat, or pick out a single voice in an entire world.

Super Smell: On various occasions, Superman has demonstrated that his sense of smell is significantly enhanced to the point he can smell odors across the entire planet without any problem.

Super Scream: In one instance, Superman was shown to have the ability to project a "super scream" from his vocal cords. He used this ability to cancel out the impending threat of an already exploding nuclear detonation. He used this power(or something similar to it)when he destroyed Darkseid's essence from the Miracle Machine by singing a cord at such a frequency that it countered Darksied's own vibrational frequency,thus destroying his essence.

Self-Sufficiency: Doesn't need to eat and sleep so long as he's under the effects of yellow sun radiation. His body stores the energy necessary to negate eating and sleeping for an indefinite period.
Healing Factor: In the extreme event that Superman is harmed, either by an alien matching his own strength or other occurrence, he has been shown to have the ability to heal almost instantaneously from any wound, assuming that the process is not impeded from some outside factor i.e. Kryptonite. This "healing factor" is supplemented by his stores of solar energy and also seems to be an unconscious ability, as Superman does not seem to have the ability to control when he heals and when he doesn't. Much like a human has no control over their immune system.

Super Breath: The ability to create hurricane force winds by blowing, and to chill his breath in order to freeze a target (this latter ability has also been called "freeze breath" and "arctic breath"). The ability to chill inhaled air is a function of Superman's great strength and invulnerability. When Superman takes air into his lungs they compress the incoming gas. When this gas expands upon exhalation, in a fashion analogous to the operation of an air conditioners compressor, the sudden increase in volume of the gas causes its temperature to drop proportionally to the size of this expansion. Superman can also breathe in large amounts of air, an ability used when dealing with and disposing things like clouds of poison gas.

Heat Vision: The ability to fire beams of intense heat at a target by looking at it with the conscious act of activating this power. Visually, the power is typically depicted as two beams of red light firing from his eyes. These beams can be made invisible, allowing Superman to work undetected. His heat vision is so powerful that they are able to power up the giant ion planet moving engines with his heat vision alone, annihilate an entire army of Doomsday clones in one blast, and has even been stated to rival the heat of a Star. The area of effect can be consciously determined by Superman, down to the microscopic level. Recent stories imply the precision is so exact it can bypass a target's outer shell (not causing damage to a person's skull for surgical purposes)

Super Vision: He also possesses a superior sensory arrangement of microscopic, telescopic, infrared and ultraviolet visual capabilities. He is able to see the entire spectrum. STAR Laboratories has not been able to complete define how Superman has been able to utilize his powerful senses, part of the mechanism is physical, part of it is believed to be psionic in nature. Abilities include:
Electro-magnetic Spectrum Vision:Superman can see into all of the EM Spectrum. He can see and identify radio/television and any and all broadcast/transmitted frequencies, allowing him to avoid detection through radar or satellite monitoring methods. Superman can see the aura that every living thing generates.

Telescopic Vision: The ability to focus his vision to see something at a great distance, without violating the laws of physics.

Microscopic Vision: The ability to see extremely small objects and images down to the sub atomic level.

X-Ray Vision: The ability to see through anything except lead. Opponents sometimes used lead-lined constructs in an attempt to hide things from Superman. He can see things behind a wall as if the wall were not there, or can "peel back" layer after layer of matter in his mind. Kal-El is able to focus his vision past layers of matter, literally seeing "through" them -- possibly perceiving x-rays, cosmic rays or other forms of energy invisible to normal human vision which pass through Earth's atmosphere (and solid objects) after emission from stars. Since it is passive, this ability would not generate harmful radiation in the same manner as a focused projection of hard X-rays.

COMBAT:
Superman is shown to have knowledge in hand to hand combat, the most basic being Boxing (trained with Muhammed Ali and Wildcat) and Wrestling.

In Pre-Crisis, Superman knew a Kryptonian martial art called Klurkor, which he taught Lois Lane. Post Crisis, Superman was trained in Torquasm-Rao and Torquasm-Vo, 2 styles of Kryptonian Martial arts. Rao is more physical and offensive, while Vo is more meditative, fluid, and spiritual (the latter can produce a psychic or astral projection aspect, which Superman used to fight the Eradicator and psychic entities like Dominus).

He also displays a knowledge of pressure points, which even dates back to his Golden Age appearance, he claims he was taught this technique by Earth's greatest expert (possibly Batman).

VULNERABILITY TO KRYPTONITE:

Since the destruction of Krypton, its remains (rendered radioactive by the explosion) have been spreading throughout the universe as Kryptonite, a crystalline substance whose specific radiation is lethal to Kryptonians native to this reality. The most common form of Kryptonite is Green Kryptonite, and its effect is directly poisonous. Kryptonite from other realities does not necessarily have the same effects on all Kryptonians. For example, Kryptonite from the Pocket Universe is not as lethal to Superman as Kryptonite that comes from his native reality. Superman was able to survive inside a Red Sun that was surrounded by Kryptonite.

ALLIES/SUPPORTING CAST:

Superman's large cast of supporting characters includes Lois Lane, perhaps the character most commonly associated with Superman, being portrayed at different times as his colleague, competitor, love interest and/or wife. Other main supporting characters include Daily Planet coworkers such as photographer Jimmy Olsen and editor Perry White, Clark Kent's adoptive parentsJonathan and Martha Kent, childhood sweetheart Lana Lang and best friend Pete Ross, and former college love interest Lori Lemaris (a mermaid). Stories making reference to the possibility of Superman siring children have been featured both in and out of mainstream continuity.

Incarnations of Supergirl, Krypto the Superdog, and Superboy have also been major characters in the mythos, as well as the Justice League of America (of which Superman is usually a member). A feature shared by several supporting characters is alliterative names, especially with the initials "LL", including Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Linda Lee, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris, and Lucy Lane, alliteration being common in early comics.

Team-ups with fellow comics icon Batman are common, inspiring many stories over the years. When paired, they are often referred to as the "World's Finest" in a nod to the name of the comic book series that features many team-up stories.

ROGUE GALLERY:
Superman also has a rogues gallery of enemies, including his most well-known nemesis, Lex Luthor, who has been envisioned over the years in various forms as both a rogue scientific genius with a personal vendetta against Superman, or a powerful but corrupt CEO of a conglomerate called LexCorp who thinks Superman is somehow hindering human progress by his heroic efforts. In the 2000s, he even becomes president of the United States, and has been depicted occasionally as a former childhood friend of Clark Kent. The alien android (in most incarnations) known as Brainiac is considered by Richard George to be the second most effective enemy of Superman.The enemy that accomplished the most, by actually killing Superman, is the raging monster Doomsday. Darkseid, one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, is also a formidable nemesis in most post-Crisis comics. Other important enemies who have featured in various incarnations of the character, from comic books to film and television include the fifth-dimensional imp Mister Mxyzptlk, the reverse Superman known as Bizarro and the Kryptonian criminal General Zod, among many others.

VIDEOS:

-Brian Lansangan
Follow me on Twitter @MrSnugglenutz84