Superman (New Earth/Post-Crisis/Current)

Many years ago, there was once a great planet called Krypton. It’s people were highly advanced in their knowledge and technology, but they were genetically bound to their world. As a society they flourished, ever bound to Krypton, as leaving their world would mean certain death for the Kryptonians. This became a troubled society, a world where emotions where looked down upon, and all children were genetically engineered. Babies created through natural births were considered barbaric. When one scientist, a man named Jor-El, who rejected his society’s views on passion and love, discovered the inevitable destruction of Krypton was close at hand, he administered a serum to Kal-El to allow him to survive on Earth, and he, along with only a few others, including a dog named Krypto, were able to survive Krypton’s destruction unscathed.

The infant Kal-El travelled through space in a specially designed craft – actually an augmented Kryptonian Birthing Matrix that still hadn’t finished growing Kal-El, and included the means to regrow at least some remnant of Kryptonian civilization in the form of the Fortress of Solitude. Kal-El was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent in the town of Smallville. In this small community, Kal-El grew up as Clark Kent, an idealistic boy who discovered and developed his powers thanks to Kyptonian physiology’s unique interaction with the properties of Earth’s yellow sun. As a young man and later throughout his life on this Earth, Clark would work as a superhero travelling to the 31^st century to work with a team called the Legion of Super-Heroes. He became the hero Superman at age 25, and worked to protect his Earth from many threats, including a man he knew from childhood, Lex Luthor, who would go on to become Superman’s greatest enemy. He first learned of his legacy as one of the last surviving Kryptonians. Throughout all of this, Clark remained close to his adoptive parents, though his father would die well into his career as Superman.

This version of Superman grew incredibly powerful over time and developed a strong network of allies and friends. His appearance marked a break in a long standing taboo within modern society concerning superheroes, as this world hadn’t seen any since the Justice Society in the 1950s. Other superheroes began to emerge, and with some of the other great heroes of this world, Superman founded the Justice League. He developed a close friendship with this world’s Batman and later Wonder Woman as well. Together they faced dozens of villains of both mystical and scientific origin, including the likes of Brainiac, Parasite, and Darkseid, to name a few. Over the years, many clones of Superman were created as Lex Luthor and others took an interest in the formidable power of Kyptonian DNA. Some of these clones would prove to be reliable friends, while others became dangerous enemies.

During a battle with one of Superman’s many enemies, a powerful Kryptonian creature called Doomsday managed to actually overwhelm Superman and kill the hero. Though several successors tried to take up his mantle following Kal-El’s disappearance, Superman was revived thanks to Kryptonian Battle Armour stored in the Fortress of Solitude, which restored the hero. For many years after this, he continued protecting his Earth, as well as countless others. At one point, Superman’s powers began to fluctuate and change, transforming him into a being of pure energy for a time before he eventually returned to normal, while on another occasion, he had to contend with Lex Luthor being elected president. Superman was also a vital combatant against the Black Lanterns, but due to his previous death, was also nearly possessed by them before being briefly made a White Lantern. On more than one occasion, Superman was instrumental in averted crises that not only affected this world, but all of reality.

Superman was also an important factor in recovering the lost Kryptonian city of Kandor, and eventually rebuilding the wayward city at the North Pole by the Fortress of Solitude. Calling this settlement New Krypton, for a time, it looked as though the Kryptonian people had a real chance at a future. Eventually, however, conflict with the native humans forced them to move the city to a newly created planetoid on the other side of the sun, away from Earth.

This version of Superman grew very close to a woman and reporter named Lois Lane, who he met as Clark Kent while working as a reporter himself for the Daily Planet. He eventually revealed his secret identity to her as the two fell in love with one another. However, as this was happening, something, or someone made a strange and still not fully understood attack on this Earth. Wanting to weaken the bonds between heroes, this mysterious being rewrote this reality into one where its superheroes were far less experienced in the challenges they would face.

Superman and Lois Lane managed to escape this change in reality during the Convergence event, where they were held in a bottled version of their world’s Gotham City. They got married and would even have a child together. Without his powers, Kal-El spent years in hiding with Lois, raising their new son, who they named Jon in secret, while Superman patrolled Gotham as a powerless masked vigilante. Ultimately, Superman was recruited to stop the First Crisis of Inifinite Earths from happening, an act which he and his fellow heroes were apparently successful in completing, before he and Lois found themselves on a new world – with a new version of themselves living the lives they once lived. For a time, this worked fine, as the family simply spent years in hiding, content to let the other Superman and Lois Lane live their lives. After all, there was a perfectly good Superman already protecting this Earth – they weren’t needed, and Jon could live a happy, anonymous childhood. All that changed however, when this new Superman died, and the Lois Lane of this new world disappeared. Following this, the new Lex Luthor was inspired to become Superman himself. This version of Lex was genuinely trying to redeem himself and be a better person, but Kal-El, his opinion of this man informed by the years of bitter conflict he faced with his version of Lex Luthor, could not accept this, and brought himself back as Superman to confront Luthor himself.

Though this proved to be a difficult thing for many of the people of this new world to accept, as well as for the Kent family, who viewed the heroes of this world as virtual strangers, Kal-El proved as capable a superhero as ever, though now one with a strong focus on keeping his family safe. Not long after returning to this life, Superman discovered that the other Superman that died still survived in some form, and ultimately, he and this new Superman merged into one being, as did Lois Lane. In an instant, the lives and history of this Superman and Lois were rewritten to accommodate both timelines. The people in their lives, including the other superheroes and their coworkers at the Daily Planet, now remember Superman and Clark Kent as they are – a happily married man with a child, and protector of this Earth.

This is the current version of Superman who protects Earth, and, it is believed, may be the only person who can truly save this world from whatever force altered the timeline in the first place. He is the most powerful being currently inhabiting Earth, and as such this strange being has taken a particular interest in the alien. For a time, this being has a certain influence over Jor-El, who was taken moments before Krypton’s destruction and used to carefully monitor and control this Earth, and merged across the two timelines in a similar way to Superman. Whatever being is involved in all this, it is clear this version of Superman is a central focus of this all-powerful entity.