Superman’s Story - Part I

There are some things that just remain constant throughout time no matter what happens, who tells the story, how it’s interpreted, depicted, portrayed, or even misconstrued.  For instance, the Sun always rises in the East and sets in the west, the cost of living is always higher than a paycheck, and the phone always rings the minute you get in the shower.

And that’s the case with Superman’s story.

Throughout his near-seventy years, there have been aspects to Superman’s story that remain constant:

• Superman came from another planet.
• He becomes weak and can die from prolonged exposure to Kryptonite.
• On our planet, he gained powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men.
• He adopted the secret identity of Clark Kent.
• He fell in love with Lois Lane (sorry all you Lana fans!).

No matter how many years go by and how many ways his story is revised, those five items have remained an unceasing part of his legend; a legend which has become a part of our lives.  It was reported back during his fiftieth anniversary that Superman is considered one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the world.  When you think about that, it’s really saying something about this character.  It means that if you go to another part of the world and show someone a picture of Superman, that person will know who he is.

To better understand Superman’s story, let’s look at those five items in detail.

Superman’s Planet

In the very first adventure chronicled in Action Comics #1, Superman’s alien origins were given all of one panel showing his home planet tearing itself apart as a single rocket ship streaked skyward.  His entire origin, from the point of his leaving that alien world to his becoming Superman, was shown on one page, a total of six panels.  His home planet, Krypton, wouldn’t be named as such for ten years in the pages of Superman Comics #53 (1948) in a story titled “The Origin of Superman”.  In it, we learned that Superman came from the planet Krypton.  A planet much like our own with the exception that its inhabitants were highly advanced.  So much so, that they had extra-human abilities like X-Ray (or see-through vision) and the ability to leap great distances.  As time went on, Superman made many “visits” to his home planet through various means including time travel and visual probability calculations by Superman’s super-computer in his Fortress of Solitude as well as visits by Kryptonians who escaped the planet’s destruction.  And each visit to Krypton enhanced our vision of what life there was like.  For many people, the most startling depiction of Krypton came from the motion picture “Superman the Movie”.  It’s stark, crystalline environment was only second to the way its scientific advances were shown.  This became the popular vision of Krypton.  In 1986, when the Superman legend was reconfigured in the pages of the series Man of Steel, this ultra-scientific world was taken one step further.  Kryptonians were shown as the masters of their world controlling its every aspect.  It was only as the planet began to destroy itself did the people understand they could not control their planet.

Superman and Kryptonite

Popular legend has it that Kryptonite was introduced the pages of Superman comics in 1949.  However, it was introduced in 1945 on the Superman radio broadcasts in 1945.  The writers of the popular serial needed to give Superman an Achilles Heel, a weakness.  So they somehow came up with Kryptonite.  Exactly how, though, is lost to the ages.  Interestingly though, the name Kryptonite speaks directly to the name of the planet of Superman’s origin, Krypton.  In documents found in 1988, this mystery may have been solved in a comic book script which was never published.  Dated August 1940, a story written by Jerry Siegel described the mysterious K-metal which, when Clark Kent went to investigate, discovered his incredible powers reduced to that of a normal man.  In the story, a prominent professor who discovered it had named the metal after its home planet, Krypton.  Furthermore, the weakened Superman had to find out who stole the metal from the professor.  Cheating death with the assistance of Lois Lane, Superman defeated the criminals only to have Lois discover Superman’s dual identity.  Superman decided that he and Lois made a good partnership in his never-ending battle and that’s where the story ended.  He didn’t try to convince her she was dreaming or remove her memories with a “super-kiss”.  The story ended with Lois knowing that Clark Kent and Superman was the same person.  Now, keep in mind this story was written in 1940, only two years after Superman was introduced.  Superman’s popularity was soaring.  Novels, radio and movie serials, and a number of comic book titles were depicting his adventures.  It is safe to assume that they decided that Lois shouldn’t know Clark’s real identity and the story remained unpublished.  However, its contents were not forgotten.  When Superman’s weakness was introduced in 1945 on the radio serial and then, four years later in the comics, those names Kryptonite and Krypton remained.  Kryptonite would go through a number of changes over the years as various colors were introduced.  Green Kryptonite had the power to kill Superman.  Gold Kryptonite could remove his powers.  Red Kryptonite had strange, undefined effects on the Man of Steel.  Other versions (Blue, White, and Jewel Kryptonite) were also introduced but their effects were harmless to Superman.  Again, when Superman’s legend was reconfigured in 1986, the various versions of Kryptonite disappeared.  Only Green Kryptonite and Red Kryptonite remained.  Green Kryptonite was changed to affect Superman in a similar manner only now it could permanently remove his powers if exposure was long enough but he did not die.  Also, it was now harmful to humans as well.

Due to space and time restrictions, I’ll leave the remaining points for next week’s column.

Next time:  Superman’s Story - Part II…

2.  Mark Waid, “K-Metal: The “Lost” Superman Tale”, originally published in Alter Ego #26, July 2003, The Superman Encyclopedia. October 2003, http://superman.ws/tales3/k-metal/discovery.php