Editing Superman (section)

===Superman===
In ''[[Action Comics]]'' [[Action Comics 1|#1]] (1938), Superman is born on an alien world to a technologically advanced species that resembles humans. Shortly after he is born, his planet is destroyed in a natural cataclysm, but his scientist father foresaw the calamity and saves his baby son by sending him to Earth in a small spaceship. The ship is too small to carry anyone else, so Superman's parents are forced to stay behind and die in the cataclysm. The earliest newspaper strips name the planet Krypton, the baby Kal-L, and his biological parents Jor-L and Lora;<ref>[http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep01_15/episode1_1.jpg ''Superman'' comic strip, January 16, 1939] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008215921/http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep01_15/episode1_1.jpg |date=October 8, 2016 }}, reprinted at {{cite web|url=http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep01_15/ep1.html |title=Episode 1: Superman Comes to Earth |publisher=TheSpeedingBullet.com |access-date=March 27, 2016 |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306164334/http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep01_15/ep1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> their names were changed to Jor-el, and Lara in a 1942 spinoff novel by George Lowther.<ref>Lowther, George (1942). ''The Adventures of Superman''. Per {{harvp|Ricca|2014|p=204}}: "The book is also the first time that Superman's parents are named "Jor-el" and "Lara"—a slight spelling change that would stick."</ref> The ship lands in the American countryside, where the baby is discovered by the Kents, a farming couple.

The Kents name the boy Clark and raise him in a farming community. A 1947 episode of the radio serial places this yet unnamed community in Iowa.<ref>''The Secret Rocket'' per {{cite web|url=http://www.supermanhomepage.com/radio/radio.php?topic=radio-reviews/102347-secretrocket |title=Superman Radio Series – Story Reviews |publisher=SupermanHomepage.com |first=James |last=Lantz |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160626134324/http://supermanhomepage.com/radio/radio.php?topic=radio-reviews%2F102347-secretrocket |archive-date=June 26, 2016 }}</ref> It is named [[Smallville (comics)|Smallville]] in ''Superboy'' #2 (June 1949). The [[Superman (1978 film)|1978 Superman movie]] placed it in Kansas, as have most Superman stories since.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blastr.com/2012/09/the_campaign_to_make_a_re.php|title=The campaign to make a real Kansas town into Superman's Smallville|first=Matthew |last=Jackson|work=SyfyWire |date=December 17, 2012|access-date=March 22, 2016 |publisher=Blastr.com ([[Syfy]]) |quote=Decades of comic book mythology and a hit TV series have made Superman's hometown of Smallville, Kan., one of the most famous places in America. |archive-date= March 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322225128/http://www.blastr.com/2012/09/the_campaign_to_make_a_re.php |url-status=live}}</ref> ''New Adventures of Superboy'' #22 (Oct. 1981) places it in Maryland.

In ''Action Comics'' #1 and most stories published before 1986, Superman's powers begin developing in infancy. From 1944 to 1986, DC Comics regularly published stories of Superman's childhood and adolescent adventures, when he called himself "[[Superboy (Kal-El)|Superboy]]". From 1986 on (beginning with ''Man of Steel'' #1), Superman's powers emerged more slowly and he began his superhero career as an adult.

The Kents teach Clark he must conceal his otherworldly origins and use his fantastic powers to do good. Clark creates the costumed identity of Superman so as to protect his personal privacy and the safety of his loved ones. As Clark Kent, he wears eyeglasses to disguise his face and wears his Superman costume underneath his clothes so that he can change at a moment's notice. To complete this disguise, Clark avoids violent confrontation, preferring to slip away and change into Superman when danger arises, and in older stories he would suffer occasional ridicule for his apparent cowardice.

In ''Superboy'' #78 (1960), Superboy makes his costume out of the indestructible blankets found in the ship he came to Earth in. In ''Man of Steel'' #1 (1986), Martha Kent makes the costume from human-manufactured cloth, and it is rendered indestructible by an aura that Superman projects. The "S" on Superman's chest at first was simply an initial for "Superman". When writing the script for [[Superman (1978 film)|the 1978 movie]], [[Tom Mankiewicz]] made it the crest of Superman's Kryptonian family, the House of El.<ref name=MankiewiczCrane2012p203/> This was carried over into some comic book stories and later movies, such as ''[[Man of Steel (film)|Man of Steel]]''. In the comic story ''[[Superman: Birthright]]'', the crest is described as an old Kryptonian symbol for hope.

Clark works as a newspaper journalist. In the earliest stories, he worked for ''The Daily Star'', but the second episode of [[The Adventures of Superman (radio)|the radio serial]] changed this to the ''[[Daily Planet]]''. In comics from the early 1970s, Clark worked as a television journalist, which was an attempt to modernize the character. However, for [[Superman (1978 film)|the 1978 movie]], the producers chose to make Clark a newspaper journalist again because that was how most people outside of comic book readers knew him.<ref name=Daniels1998/>

The first story in which Superman dies was published in ''Superman'' #149 (1961), in which he is murdered by Lex Luthor by means of kryptonite. This story was "imaginary" and therefore was ignored in subsequent books. In ''Superman'' #188 (April 1966), Superman is killed by kryptonite radiation but is revived in the same issue by one of [[Superman robots|his android doppelgangers]]. In the 1990s ''[[The Death of Superman|The Death and Return of Superman]]'' story arc, after a deadly battle with [[Doomsday (comics)|Doomsday]], Superman died in ''Superman'' #75 (Jan. 1993). He was later revived by the [[Eradicator (comics)|Eradicator]] using Kryptonian technology. In ''Superman'' #52 (May 2016) Superman is killed by kryptonite poisoning, and this time he is not resurrected, but replaced by the Superman of an alternate timeline.

Superman maintains a secret hideout called the "Fortress of Solitude", which is located somewhere in the Arctic. Here, Superman keeps a collection of mementos and a laboratory for science experiments. ''Action Comics'' #241 (1958) depicts the Fortress of Solitude as a cave in a mountain, sealed with a very heavy door that is opened with a gigantic key too heavy for anyone but Superman to use. In the 1978 movie, the Fortress of Solitude is a structure made of white crystal.