For those of you coming in late, we’re in the middle of our three-part Super-symposium, an examination of the life and times of one Clark Kent. Last week, we discussed Mr. Kent’s origins, history, powers, weaknesses, family and love life. If you’d like, you can read about it by going here, or you can just follow along on this helpful chart:

Superman’s rogues gallery of villains isn’t quite as extensive as, say, Batman or Spider-Man, but the ones he does have are choice. First on this list, of course, is the original super-villain, Lex Luthor. Lex’s first appearances are a little muddy. Predating Luthor was a bald evil-scientist character called the Ultra-Humanite, who had a tendency to have his brain transplanted into other people’s bodies. After his initial appearances, his brain was transplanted into the body of movie actress Dolores Winters, among others, before finally settling into his final body, that of an albino gorilla.

God, I love comics. Anyway, Luthor’s first appearance came not long after Ultra’s, but early on, his assistant was the bald one, while he had a head full of red hair. By 1941, however, Luthor was his traditional bald self.

One of the best early Luthor appearances came in 1940, when the red-headed Luthor offers Superman a challenge, that his scientific genius could outdo Superman’s strength, with the loser to retire.

In a fast-paced and funny sequence, Luthor tries to beat Superman at long-distance racing, altitude, weightlifting, sturdiness, lung capacity, you name it. Luthor admits defeat when Superman offers to test Luthor’s strength by bashing his head against his own airplane. Naturally, the contest was only a ruse to keep Superman occupied.

By the 1950s, Luthor’s appearance had changed, looking more like a portly businessman. Still, the focus was always on his mechanical genius, often utilizing synthetic Kryptonite of his own invention. As seen here in this 1954 team-up with perennial second-string Superman villains the Prankster and the Toyman, he’s got more of a jowly look going on.

A much more lean and mean Luthor was in evidence in the 1960s, as evidenced here in “The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman,” from SUPERMAN #164. This is one of my favorite Luthor periods, when he’s so obsessed with killing Superman that he doesn’t even bother changing out of his prison jumpsuit after he breaks out. Here, he challenges Superman to a fair fight without his superpowers.

Superman agrees, and the two fly to a distant desert planet under a red sun, where he and Luthor would be on equal footing. (That must have been some fun conversation on the flight there, huh? “So, what’ve you been up to?” “Saving lives. You?” “Plotting your death; prison. You know, the usual.”). Naturally, Luthor cheats, and leaves Superman for dead in a terrible sandstorm.

As it turned out, the planet was populated by a race slowly dying out from lack of water, and when Luthor uses his genius to protect their crops, they begin to worship him as a hero, and he soon becomes obsessed with finding them new sources of water. When Superman arrives at the city, he’s reviled as a villain and the two resume their duel. Luthor, however, takes a dive, so that when Superman takes him back to Earth, he can stop at a nearby glacial planet and provide Luthor’s new worshippers with the water they so desperately need.

The planet, which would rename itself Lexor in Luthor’s honor, would remain a part of Luthor’s life for years to come. Luthor would even marry a Lexorian woman, Ardora, and resolved to move to Lexor permanently. However, a duel with Superman over the planet’s surface resulted in a catastrophe that destroyed Luthor’s adopted world, and killed all its inhabitants, including his beloved wife, even further enflaming Luthor’s hatred of Superman.

We’ve discussed in these pages previously how a teenaged Luthor was incorporated into the Superboy mythology, involving a friendship between Luthor and Superboy that goes terribly wrong, with Luthor blaming Superboy for the loss of his scientific breakthrough and his hair.

I won’t belabor the point further here, save to say that the inclusion of a friendship gone astray between Luthor and Superboy added a poignancy and depth to their struggles that I think is sorely missed in the comics nowadays, and accounts for much of the success of the current SMALLVILLE TV series.

By the mid-‘70s, Luthor had taken to wearing a purple and green jumpsuit with a truly fabulous disco collar, which despite being more than a little on the garish side, is still one of the cooler super-villain costumes around, in my opinion.

It’s this outfit that TV viewers of my generation probably most closely associate with Luthor, as it was what he wore on the excellent CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS episodes as leader of the Legion of Doom. And despite the threads, the Luthor stories of the 1970s tended to involve a cooler-headed, more calculating opponent. Lex changed outfits once again in 1983, acquiring an extraterrestrial combat suit (designed by George Perez) that allowed him for the first time to stand physically toe-to-toe with Superman.

The new suit, combined with a newly fired-up hatred of Superman from the aforementioned destruction of Lexor, had set up Luthor as a more vital, intense opponent than we’d seen in years. Unfortunately, the Superman reboot by John Byrne in 1986 would do away with all of it.

As reconceived by Byrne and Marv Wolfman, Luthor was no longer a scientific genius, but instead a ruthless billionaire magnate, whose thirst for power inspired him to try to eliminate Superman. I never really bought this as sufficient motivation, and so all of this new Luthor’s plots and schemes always rang a little hollow for me. The classic Superman-Luthor relationship was always a unique and original one, especially in how it evolved over decades, and I’ve never understood the decision to throw all that out in favor of a watered-down version of Marvel’s Kingpin character. (And a dull-witted one at that. Take a look here at one of Byrne’s first Luthor appearances, in which he refuses to believe that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same.)

In recent years, SUPERMAN writers have tried all sorts of things to spice up the Luthor character; he’s died of Kryptonite poisoning from overexposure to his Kryptonite ring, come back from the dead in a cloned body and posed as his own son, been rejuvenated by the DC’s resident version of Satan, and even served a term as President of the United States. Yes, you read that right. In the world according to DC, Luthor was the president. Ironically, I think his election was less controversial than Dubya’s.

The evil computer being Brainiac first appeared in the pages of ACTION COMICS in 1958, although he wasn’t quite a computer yet. In his debut, “The Super-Duel in Space,” The bald, green-skinned Brainiac is only described as a super-intelligent alien, and, oddly enough, is so emotional as to have a pet with him at all times, a weird little space chimp-looking bugger named “Koko.” In that first appearance, Brainiac is busy at the type of criminal act he’s best-known for: shrinking down cities and keeping them in bottles.

Well, it beats stamp collecting, I guess. Safe behind an impenetrable force-field, Brainiac swipes Paris, Rome, London, New York, and finally Metropolis, little realizing that a now-microscopic Superman is along for the ride. The tiny Superman is shocked to discover a shrunken city from Krypton in Brainiac’s ship, the city of Kandor. Further proving the “Six Degrees of Jor-El” rule in Superman comics, the Chief Scientist on Kandor, Professor Kimda, turns out to have been Jor-El’s college roommate. While Brainiac is in suspended animation for the long trip back to his homeworld, Superman uses Kimda’s observed knowledge of Brainiac’s technology to restore all the Earth cities, and is about to use the last charge of the machinery to restore Kandor, before Kimda triggers the button himself via rocket, using the last charge to restore Superman to full-size, leaving Kandor shrunk. The Bottle City of Kandor would become a fixture in Superman comics for the next three decades, with Superman occasionally shrinking himself and his friends down to microscopic size for a taste of old Krypton hospitality.

Later Brainiac stories revised the character as a living humanoid computer created by the computerized tyrants of the planet Colu, and also added some electrodes to his bald green cranium, as well as a lovely pair of fuchsia-colored short shorts. (When you’re traveling around the universe stealing cities, you want to be comfortable…)

Brainiac stayed much the same until 1983, occasionally attacking Earth and sometimes teaming up with Luthor to put a hurting on Superman, when he received a much-needed makeover in the same issue of ACTION COMICS that revitalized Luthor. Brainiac was recreated as a much less human-looking (and –acting) and far more intimidating robot-type.

One of the cooler features of the new Brainiac (designed by Ed Hannigan) was his new ship, which looked like a much larger version of his newly designed, creepy-looking head. This version of Brainiac, just like the ’83 Luthor, wasn’t given much time to shine before the Byrne revamp replaced it, and not for the better.

The Brainiac revision was even less inspired than the Luthor, converting him to a chubby circus mentalist who makes contact with, and is later possessed by, the “Brainiac” entity from Colu. Over time, Brainiac would be revised and revised again until he more closely resembled the robot-like “human computer” of old.

Another of the original Jerry Siegel Superman villains was that pesky magical sprite from another dimension, Mr. Mxyzptlk. (A word about the spelling: originally, it was Mxyztplk. A typo in a later appearance changed it to Mxyzptlk, and that spelling wound up being used for all the appearances to follow. Later, when DC had created its parallel Earths for its Justice League and Justice Society concepts, it was decided that the Golden Age Superman of Earth-2 contended with Mxyztplk, while the modern Superman of Earth-One had to deal with Mxyzptlk. To my knowledge, there was never a Mxyzptlk/Mxyztplk team-up; truly a typesetter’s nightmare…) Mxyztplk made his first appearance in 1944, in “The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk!”, written by Siegel and drawn by John Sikela.

In the story, a mischievous little runt in a bowler hat and bow tie pops up all over Metropolis causing trouble: bringing statues to life, driving ambulances up buildings, building freeways across lakes, and so on. Eventually Mxyztplk comes clean, confessing that he’s a court jester from another dimension, who discovers two magic words, one which would teleport him to Earth, and one which, when spoken aloud, would return Mxyztplk to his home dimension for at least 90 days. Here, Superman, as he would time and time again over the next four decades, tricks Mxy into saying the magic word: “Klptzyxm,” his own name spelled backwards.

Never truly malicious, Mxyzptlk is still seen from time to time in Superman comics to this day, although the game has been changed slightly: each time Mxy appears, he can set new rules that Superman has to follow if he wants to send him home.

The last of the great Superman villains is that misshapen duplicate of Superman, Bizarro. The first Bizarro appearance came in 1958 in the pages of SUPERBOY #68, in which a local Smallville inventor creates a duplicator ray, which doesn’t quite work so well – everything it duplicates is flawed and imperfect. When the ray is accidentally trained on Superboy, it explodes and creates the first Bizarro, a chalk-white, jagged-featured doofus with an extremely low I.Q., and all the powers of Superboy.

Bizarro goes on a well-meaning rampage around Smallville before Superboy reasons out that just as pieces of Krypton are deadly to him, so would pieces of the machine that created him be deadly to Bizarro. “It’s quite logical!” asserts Superboy. Uh, if you say so, man. Superboy has no compunctions about killing Bizarro since he’s “not a living creature.” Looks pretty alive to me, but that was curtains for Bizarro.

At least for a year or so. In 1959, Bizarro returned in “The Battle for Bizarro” in ACTION COMICS #254. And this time, he was here to stay. In the story, Luthor has been doing his homework and discovers the account of the original Bizarro incident in the Smallville newspapers. He steals the plans for the duplicator ray and sets right to work building a new one. A disguised Luthor lures Superman to his lab and fires the duplicator ray, re-creating Bizarro. It doesn’t quite work out as Luthor had planned, as the self-hating Bizarro looks in the mirror and turns on Luthor for re-creating him.

Before Superman can destroy him again, Bizarro, who possess hazy versions of all of Superman’s memories, runs into Lois and is smitten, and devotes himself to her, or as only Bizarro could put it, “Me show my love for her…build her beautiful palace here! La De Da!”

Naturally, of course, Lois spurns him, and soon he’s kidnapped her and is fighting off Superman again, until Lois has an inspired idea, and turns the duplicator ray on herself, creating a Bizarro-Lois, and the two Bizarros immediately fall in love at first sight, and leave Earth to live together on a distant planet.

Later appearances revealed that, Bizarro and Bizarro-Lois had gotten lonely on their new world, and had turned the duplicator on themselves, creating countless duplicates to populate their new planet, which Superman helpfully reshaped into a cube so it would be backwards and imperfect, just the way they liked it.

(The original Bizarro and Bizarro Lois would helpfully wear medallions around their necks with “Bizarro No. 1” on it so that everyone would know they were the original.) Here’s where the fun really starts.

The Bizarros were extremely popular in the 50s and 60s, and appeared quite often in the Superman books, eventually even getting their own feature in ADVENTURE COMICS, written by Superman creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by John Forte, Wayne Boring and Curt Swan. Life on the Bizarro World (occasionally called “Htrae,” but usually just Bizarro World) was never boring, thanks to the Bizarro Code:

Even Bizarro himself wasn’t exempt from the code – when all the duplicate Bizarros realize he broke the code by giving them perfect duplicates of Superman’s uniform, he’s swiftly banished from the Bizarro World. Bizarro creates a Bizarro-Luthor to figure out how to atone for his crime, and naturally, the Bizarro-Luthor (who only wants to do good) figures out that all he needs to do is create new uniforms for everyone with the “S-shield” printed backwards. Bizarro thanks Luthor with the traditional Bizarro salute: a pie in the face.

The Bizarros give out Valentines on New Year’s Day, use alarm clocks to tell them when to go to bed (usually accompanied with a cutting remark from Bizarro-Lois: “Ha, Ha! Stupid Earth people use it to wake up!”), and eat “cold dogs” at the movies, where they watch the negative. You get the idea.

The best thing about the Bizarro stories was watching as all of Superman’s friends and foes get duplicated and join the Bizarro World .For example, when Bizarro’s son Bizarro Jr. is messing around with the duplicator ray at his “Fourtriss uv Bizarro” (the opposite of Superman’s fortress, it was in the desert and contained a lot of worthless junk), he accidentally hits the coincidentally passing-by Mr. Mxyzptlk, creating, you guessed it, Bizarro-Kltpzxym, who, being a Bizarro, only uses his magical powers to be helpful, and starts prettying up and tidying the Bizarro World, much to Bizarro’s horror.

As if that wasn’t weird enough, check this out: when Bizarro-Krypto’s feelings are hurt by all the Halloween pranks played on him by his master Bizarro No.1, he goes looking for a new master, and winds up with Bizarro Luthor. After Bizarro Krypto helpfully stops Bizarro Luthor from breaking the Bizarro Code, a grateful Bizarro Luthor pats the dog on the head, and is swiftly hauled off by the SPKA (Society for the Prevention of Kindness to Animals) for not being cruel enough.

Krypto returns to his original master, and receives the traditional Bizarro welcome. This is heady stuff.

Sadly, Bizarro hasn’t gotten much play since the Byrne revamp. He was created and destroyed in the same issue in Byrne’s MAN OF STEEL miniseries, and another version was created and destroyed about eight years later. More recently, in a Superman storyline entitled EMPEROR JOKER, Bizarro was recreated when a bored Mr. Mxyzptlk granted a portion of his powers to the Joker, just to see what would happen, and we’ll just say things were a little … different for a while and leave it at that. Although the world was restored to normal, Mxyzptlk saved some of Joker’s creations from being undone, and as a result, there was for a time once more a Bizarro roaming the DC Universe. I figure it’s just a matter of time before we get the Bizarro World back.

In looking over the Superman comics from a historical standpoint, it’s clear that, either by design or just through a sort of cultural osmosis, a large part of the character’s continued viability came though his ability to adapt to each decade. In the 1930s, Superman was very much a defender of the common man, busying himself with halting the executions of the wrongly convicted, putting away (and roughing up) abusive husbands, and ending the schemes of munitions manufacturers who manipulate world events for their own profits.

By the 1940s, Superman had gone from vigilante outsider to all-American hero, fighting saboteurs and going on Army training maneuvers inside his comics, while marching alongside our boys in uniform (or giving Hitler and Hirohito a good thrashing) on the covers.

Superman never got involved in the fighting overseas in the actual stories, for the simple reason that a man as powerful as Superman could probably have ended the war in a single day. As for Clark Kent, he reported for the draft and would happily have served, but was declared 4F (unfit for service) when he accidentally read the eye chart in the next room with his X-ray vision during the medical exam.

In the 1950s, as a post-war America settled into a life of domesticity, so too did Superman get more paternal. Aside from having a home of his own now in the Fortress of Solitude, suddenly Superman had a family to provide for with the introduction of his young cousin Supergirl, and his pet Krypto the Super-Dog. Even Superman’s appearance changed: where Joe Shuster’s Superman of the 30s and 40s was a tough, squinty-eyed little fireplug, in the 1950s, artists Curt Swan, Al Plastino and Wayne Boring were portraying a Superman who was taller, more broad-shouldered, and sometimes even seemed to have a bit of a middle-aged spread.

The space race of the 1960s set off a craze for science-fiction in the popular culture, and Superman was no exception. Superman was fighting a lot more monsters from outer space all of a sudden, as well as visiting other planets with some regularity. In addition, time travel became a steady feature in the Superman books, between what seemed like frequent visits to the past of Krypton, and Superboy’s membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team of teenage super-types from the 30th century. Even Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen wasn’t immune, suffering from one bizarre sci-fi transformation after the other – everything from ape-man to elastic man to giant turtle.

In the political hotbed of the ‘70s, efforts were underway to make Superman more relevant and realistic. A new storyline by Denny O’Neil drastically depowered Superman, while eliminating the writer’s crutch of Kryptonite, which had seemed to be available at every corner store in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

(Both of these decisions didn’t last, and before long Superman was juggling comets again, and once more constantly bedeviled by Kryptonite.) The same storyline also shook up the status quo with the purchase of the Daily Planet by Morgan Edge’s Galaxy Communications, and Clark Kent’s new occupation as news anchor for WGBS.

Other efforts to be modern weren’t quite so successful, such as Lois Lane’s attempt to understand the Black experience in “I Am Curious (Black)!”, or Superman’s trip to a Woodstock-like rock festival in “The Pied Piper of Steel!”

The biggest change to Superman in decades came in the 1980s, as the series as a whole was “rebooted” by writer/artist John Byrne in the wake of DC’s universe-changing CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS miniseries.

Feeling that readers were bored by the perfect, unbeatable Superman, his powers were downgraded dramatically. Sure, he was still invulnerable and super-strong, but he wasn’t as fast as the speed of light anymore, he couldn’t fly from planet to planet in the vacuum of space, and his strength definitely had limits. In the pages of his 1986 MAN OF STEEL miniseries, Byrne made a lot of other changes too, some that would go against decades of Superman stories.

It was decided that Jonathan and Martha Kent weren’t dead, and they became steady supporting characters. It was also decided that Superman would now be truly the Last Son of Krypton, so all other Kryptonian characters were wiped from existence. Supergirl? Never happened. Krypto the Super-Dog? Forget it. In addition, it was decided that Clark Kent had never operated as a youngster as Superboy, a decision that even Byrne himself now concedes was a mistake, not only because there’s a certain charm to the notion of young Clark learning to use his powers, but also because of the way it tore the heart out of the long-running and popular LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES series, which depended on the existence and membership of Superboy. The LEGION series has lingered since ’85, but never really recovered, with far too many issues devoted to trying to figure out how there was a LEGION without Superboy. And as discussed in these pages earlier, the two worst decisions to come from the Byrne reboot (and ironically the two decisions that were not, as I understand, solely Byrne creations) were the removal of Superman from Justice League history and the conversion of super-genius criminal Lex Luthor into little more than a Kingpin knockoff. Despite the grumblings of classic Superman fans, the Byrne reboot did its job, and Superman sales saw a distinct improvement. However, it’s always been my contention that just putting top-flight talent like Byrne, Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway on the books would have accomplished the same thing without having to rewrite so much of the Superman mythology.

When it comes to Superman, the 1990s are best remembered for one thing: killing him off. 1993’s “The Death of Superman” storyline was a great success both creatively and commercially (SUPERMAN #75, which featured the character’s demise, sold an astonishing six million copies.) The single flaw in the storyline was the death itself of Superman, who dies at the hands of Doomsday, a mysterious unstoppable behemoth who literally pounds the life out of Superman.

The only problem was Superman had always been more than just a muscleman. He should easily have found another way to slow down or stop Doomsday, instead of just punching him, and then punching him some more, and then, hey, how about punching him? Ultimately, though, it didn’t really matter. The real story wasn’t Superman dying; it was how the world reacted to Superman’s death. The eight issues following the death issue, entitled “Funeral for a Friend,” were devoted to Metropolis, the heroes of the DC Universe, and finally all the world mourning the loss of Superman, in an admittedly daring length of issues devoted to characterization and mood. Even though the whole story to a degree felt like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn listening to their own funeral (because everybody knew that Superman would eventually be back), the mourning stories managed to capture some genuine emotion, especially in the portrayals of Clark’s parents and Lois Lane, who had only recently accepted Clark’s proposal of marriage and been made privy to his double identity.

Although the storyline was originally conceived as a way to kill time until the then-current TV series LOIS AND CLARK was ready to marry off the characters (DC intended to marry them at the same time in the comics), it evolved into one of the best long-term story arcs ever conceived for mainstream comics, as well as proving a much-needed point about the nature of the Superman character: In an era when Stallone- and Schwarzenegger-type anti-heroes were the popular cinema idols, DC proved the necessity for what comics fans had been derisively referring as “the big Boy Scout,” by replacing said Boy Scout with four new Supermen: Superboy, Steel, the Eradicator and the Cyborg.

By exploring all things that Superman was not (a hip teenage punk, an armored “regular guy,” a Rambo-style vigilante, or a decidedly Terminatoresque cyborg), DC fostered an appreciation for the true Superman character, and in the process created some popular new characters who would go on to have long-running series of their own.

After Superman’s resurrection, Clark and Lois finally tied the knot, and the Superman comics settled into a comfortable rut in the years following, until DC upset the applecart last year with their rebooting of their universe with the “New 52.”

Next week, in the concluding (I think) chapter of our Superman discussion, we take a look at what I think the three best Superman stories are, suggest some recommended reading, and take a tour through Kal-El’s extensive filmography.

Sometimes fate can be cruel.

In retrospect, there’s no way these two teenagers from Cleveland could possibly conceive of the ironies in store for them. Even if you could warn them somehow, they’d never believe it.

“Jerry, Joe, listen up. The two of you are going to create a character so universally beloved, it will revolutionize an industry. Your creation will be known worldwide for decades, with no end in sight. It’ll spawn radio shows, television shows, stageplays, movies, and countless spinoffs. Just the money from merchandising alone would make you rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

“And you won’t see any of it.

“Oh, you’ll be well-compensated for a while, but after it’s clear that you’re no longer necessary, you’ll be edged out of the operation, and lose control of your creation. Over the ensuing decades, you’ll eke out a modest living, and wind up in near-poverty in your golden years, until a combination of corporate guilt and fear of bad publicity will restore your proper credit to your creation, and you’ll be given a reasonable (if nowhere near appropriate) pension. Your example will stand as a shameful lesson of everything that’s wrong with the comics industry.

“But your creation will live on forever as an example of everything that’s right.”

I wonder if they’d still think it was worth it.

Let’s talk about Superman.

These days, anyone with even a remote interest in comics knows the story: how writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster shopped their proposal for a newspaper strip called SUPERMAN around to every syndicate and comic-book publisher in town, with no luck; how editor Vin Sullivan finally took a chance on the project no one believed in and purchased it for use in ACTION COMICS; how Siegel and Shuster quickly cut apart their newspaper strips and converted them into a comic-book format; and most infamously, how National Comics purchased the character of Superman outright for $130 as a condition of publication, in a move that would make the company untold millions in profits, and relegate Siegel and Shuster to mere hired hands on their own creation.

It’s an ugly story, and one that could put you off of any positive discussion of Superman, just from the sheer stinking injustice of it. Here’s why we should discuss, and enjoy, Superman in spite of the indignities visited upon his fathers: despite their shabby treatment, it’s my understanding that Siegel and Shuster remained proud of their creation, and its impact upon the world, and certainly were proud of all their work on the character. In addition, over the following six decades, a small army of writers and artists have toiled on the character, each adding to and shaping the Superman legend. One can sympathize with Siegel and Shuster’s plight, and condemn those whose actions led to it, yet still admire and enjoy the work.

Let’s first take a look at Superman’s origins, as represented here in the expanded origin sequence from SUPERMAN #1 (1939), which consisted of mostly reprints from the previous year’s Superman appearances from ACTION COMICS.

Here we see the rocket ship from Krypton hurtling toward Earth, saving the child within from the planet’s explosion. (Later, when Siegel and Shuster got their long-desired SUPERMAN syndicated newspaper strip, Superman’s parents were given names, Jor-L and Lora, with his Kryptonian name given as Kal-L. Years of comic-book appearances later refined the names to Jor-El, Lara and Kal-El.)

The rocket makes it to Earth, and is discovered by the Kents. (While Mr. Kent refers to his wife as “Mary,” later versions of the story, such as George Lowther’s 1942 novel SUPERMAN, christened them Eben and Sarah Kent. Eventually, the comic books settled on the now-familiar Jonathan and Martha Kent.) The Kents turn the infant over to a local orphanage, which the super-strong infant nearly wrecks before the Kents return, seeking to adopt the child. The orphanage gladly hands over the child, whom the Kents name “Clark.”

As Clark grows, he discovers the scope of his abilities, as “he learned to his delight that he could hurtle skyscrapers … leap an eighth of a mile … raise tremendous weights … run faster than a steamline train … and nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!” (All of these abilities would multiply in leaps and bounds over the next few years, along with quite a few new powers entirely.)

Upon the death of his foster parents, Clark resolves to use his abilities to benefit mankind, and assumes the guise of Superman, “champion of the oppressed.”

In his first appearance in ACTION #1, several other familiar elements made their debut, albeit under slightly different names. Clark tries to get a job as a reporter at the Daily Star, but is rebuffed by the editor. When Clark, who wants the job so as to be “in a better position to help people” as Superman, overhears a tip about a lynching at the County Jail, he zips to the scene, stops the lynching as Superman, then reports the story as Clark Kent, landing him the reporter’s job and setting a pattern that would be followed in the Superman strips for decades.

Eventually, the Daily Star was renamed the Daily Planet, and the editor, originally named George Taylor, would be renamed Perry White, following the lead of the long-running Superman radio show. More on that later.

Also introduced in that first issue is Clark’s fellow reporter Lois Lane, and the “Clark-Lois-Superman” love triangle is established right away, as a disinterested Lois agrees to go out with Clark, only to dump him when, pretending to be weak so as to protect his secret identity, he fails to stand up to a masher who puts the moves on Lois.

When the hood later chases down Lois’ car and kidnaps her, Clark, having changed to Superman, smashes the thug’s car (in the famous scene from the cover of ACTION #1) and returns the now-smitten Lois to safety.

Superman’s powers grew and changed dramatically over the years. Where Superman was only super-tough and super-strong in the ‘30s, by the mid ‘40s artillery shells were bouncing off his chest with ease; by the ‘50s, Superman could even withstand the blast of an atom bomb.

By the 1970s, Superman was so strong he could, if need be, alter the Earth’s orbit by pushing on it. Similarly, where at first Superman was merely leaping prodigiously from place to place, by the 40s, Superman was flying around in full defiance of gravity (the move from leaps to flight was another by-product of the radio show, which used a loud wind-tunnel sound effect to express his flight). Later, his ability to fly had increased to the point that he was able to surpass the speed of light and break the time barrier, allowing him to time travel.

More powers came along the way. X-Ray vision first showed up in the 1940s, followed not long after by his heat vision and microscopic vision. Things were getting a bit silly by the ‘50s, with the addition of powers like his freeze breath and even, get this, “Super-ventriloquism,” which came in hand for the many times he needed to dupe Lois Lane into thinking Superman and Clark Kent were in the same place at the same time.

Also, Superman had become super-intelligent, with a photographic memory and total recall, super-scientific knowhow, and the ability to read and speak every known language on Earth.

Once Superman had been given such an incredible range of powers, it was obvious he needed an Achilles’ heel, and for decades, there were only two: magic (on those rare occasions Superman would run into wizards and sorcerers) and Kryptonite, those emerald-colored chunks of mineral from Superman’s home planet that emit radiation lethal to Kryptonians.

Kryptonite first appeared on the Superman daily radio show in 1943, when it would be used to put Superman into a weakened, near-death state for weeks at a time, allowing actor Bud Collyer to take off for a week’s vacation. (Although in recent years, unused script and art by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster has surfaced, which introduces “K-Metal,” which is, for all intents and purposes, Kryptonite. The story, which predates Kryptonite’s radio introduction by three years, was never published because, in a baffling move, the story also featured Clark revealing his secret identity to Lois, removing one of the most popular themes of the series. Still, it’s unknown whether or not the radio writers came up with the Kryptonite concept on their own, or were perhaps handed it by the editors at National Comics.

Your standard, run-of-the-mill Kryptonite, or “Green K,” as it came to be called, would put Superman into a near-coma with close exposure, and would eventually kill him. Soon enough, Superman writers looking for new plot devices introduced all kinds of varieties of the deadly mineral, a veritable rainbow of Kryptonite. When chunks of standard Kryptonite passed through a mysterious crimson cloud in deep space, the result was Red Kryptonite, which resulted in bizarre but temporary transformations to Superman with each exposure, such shrinking, growing, or getting fat, or less quirky and dangerous conditions like sleepwalking, hallucinations or loss of control over his powers.

Once it even made his invulnerable hair, beard and fingernails grow, jeopardizing his secret identity. Luckily, he was able to call in a little backup for some much-needed super-grooming.

The other varieties of Kryptonite showed up much less frequently. When you expose Green K to a nuclear blast, you get Gold Kryptonite, which permanently takes away a Kryptonian’s super powers. When Green K passed through a different cloud in deep space, the result was White Kryptonite, which was lethal to all forms of plant life, Kryptonian or otherwise. Blue Kryptonite was created by the same duplicator ray that created the creature Bizarro (about whom more next week), and was only lethal to Bizarros.

When it comes to romance for Superman, it’s always been Lois Lane. The Lois character was introduced as a bit of a shrill harpy, but was eventually softened into a spunky reporter who had genuine affection for Superman, even if she was eternally trying to prove that he was really Clark Kent.

The “suspicious Lois” routine was a running theme in the series for years, with Superman utilizing all kinds of ruses to discount Lois’ accusations, including inflatable balloons, dummies, the ever-popular Superman robots (by the 1960s, Superman had a small army of robotic duplicates that could sit in for him if he needed to be in two places at once), and even a little help from trusted friends talented in disguise such, as Batman and, believe it or not, President John F. Kennedy, who once agreed to pose as Clark Kent during a TV tribute to Superman in ACTION COMICS #309. By the 1970s, under the pen of writers like Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, we saw Superman and Lois enter into the beginning of an actual relationship, with Superman admitting his feelings for Lois, and coming clean that it was his fear for her safety that was keeping them apart.

But Lois wasn’t the only woman in Superman’s life. When DC began publishing the adventures of young Clark Kent as Superboy in 1945 in MORE FUN and ADVENTURE COMICS, the teenage Clark was given a romantic interest in redheaded neighbor Lana Lang.

Much like Lois, Lana was more obsessed with discovering who Superboy really was than in having anything to do with Clark. Later, an adult Lana Lang showed up in Metropolis and became an ongoing rival to Lois for Superman’s affections.

My favorite of the Superman girlfriends is Lori Lemaris, just for the sheer goofiness of it. Not familiar with Lori? She was Clark Kent’s girlfriend in college, when Clark was attending good ol’ Metropolis U. They had a brief but serious romance, until family obligations forced Lori to leave college and return home.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: She was a mermaid.

Yes, “The Girl in Superman’s Past!” from SUPERMAN #129 told the story of how Clark romanced the wheelchair-bound Lori and even proposed marriage before discovering her secret. Of course, he first grew suspicious when he checked out the trailer she was living in off-campus, and discovered no bed, only a tank of salt water…

In case you were wondering, yes, Superman does seem to date a lot of women with the initials “L.L.” (How Lex Luthor fits in to this fixation, God only knows…) The sad thing is, that’s not even all of them. In SUPERMAN #141, entitled “Superman’s Return to Krypton,” Superman, stranded on his home planet Krypton some 29 years before its destruction, finds himself working as an assistant to his father Jor-El and falling in love with Lyla Lerrol, Krypton’s most famous actress.

Powerless on Krypton, Superman is resigned to staying on Krypton and dying with his unsuspecting parents and his intended bride, until a freak accident catapults him back into deep space, away from Krypton’s red sun, restoring his powers. The 1960 story, written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Wayne Boring, is one of the best looks at Superman’s parents and life on Krypton, and provides some genuine emotion in Superman’s feelings of love and loss for Lyla.

Other than Lois, Superman’s supporting cast was pretty sparse. There was Clark Kent’s boss, Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and the Planet’s cub reporter/photographer Jimmy Olsen.

And that was pretty much it, as the real focus of the series for decades was Superman and Lois, as the Perry and Jimmy characters originated in the radio show and were later incorporated into the comics. Even Metropolis was pretty nondescript throughout much of the ‘40s and ‘50s, with its only distinctive landmark being the Daily Planet building, with its trademark globe at the top. While there’s been much debate over whether New York or Cleveland was the inspiration for Metropolis, it was actually artist Joe Shuster’s hometown of Toronto that served as the visual basis for Superman’s adopted city.

The most significant supporting character to be introduced to Superman’s world first appeared in ACTION COMICS #252 (May 1959), in “The Supergirl from Krypton!” Written by Otto Binder and drawn by Al Plastino, the story sees Superman investigating the crash of a rocket near just outside Metropolis, only to discover it had an occupant: a young girl from Krypton clad in an outfit just like Superman’s.

As she explains, a large chunk of the planet remained intact when Krypton was destroyed, bearing Argo City beneath an unexplained bubble of air (changed in later stories to a protective dome built by the city’ residents). The Argo City folk managed to hold on until the ground beneath then converted to Kryptonite, as did all remnants of Krypton. The quick-thinking Argonians, led by the girl’s father, scientist Zor-El, cover the ground with sheets of lead, blocking the Kryptonite radiation. The Argonians further manage to survive for years, with Zor-El and his wife Allura having a daughter, Kara. Unfortunately, when Kara was just a girl, a meteor swarm struck the city, puncturing the lead shielding and slowly killing the population with K-radiation poisoning.

Observing Earth through a telescope and seeing Superman, Zor-El builds a rocket to safely carry Kara to Earth, wearing the uniform sewed by her mother to mark her as a fellow Kryptonian in Superman’s eyes. Superman tells Kara his own story of coming to Earth, through which they discover that Superman’s father, Jor-El was Zor’s brother, making them cousins. Finally, Superman, long an orphan on Earth, has family.

Here’s where the story kinda falls apart for me. Follow along here: Fifteen-year-old Kara has just lost her family and everyone she’s ever known; her entire life. Through an amazing twist of fate, Superman turns out to be her cousin, a blood relative, on a foreign and alien world. Superman promises to “take care of you like a big brother, cousin Kara.” The overjoyed Supergirl says “Thanks, cousin Superman! >choke!< You mean I’ll come and live with you?”

And Superman, the hero of Earth, the model of morality, says no.

He just says no.

“Hmm … No, that wouldn’t work! You see, I’ve adopted a secret identity on Earth that might be jeopardized!” You heartless bastard.

Instead, Superman drops off Kara in an orphanage, where she’s stuck in a dump of a room with a broken bed and a cracked mirror, and forced to wear a godawful brunette wig with pigtails as “Linda Lee.” (Yes, more double “L”s.)

Even as a kid, whenever I’d read a Supergirl story, I’d always wind up thinking, “Man, Superman’s a real jerk. Here’s poor Kara living like poor white trash with all the orphans, while he’s cooling his heels up in his fat pad at the Fortress of Solitude building robots of himself. What a punk.”

Ah, the Fortress of Solitude. While Clark Kent no doubt had a place in Metropolis (at 344 Clinton Street, to be exact), I always figured that whatever down time Superman allowed himself was spent there. Hidden away in the Arctic, Superman solved the problem of security as only he could. The door to the Fortress consisted of nothing more than an enormous keyhole, which could only be unlocked by a key so heavy that only Superman could lift it.

Inside the Fortress were tributes to his Kryptonian parents and his foster parents, as well as museum displays of his friends at the Daily Planet, his friends Batman and Robin, Supergirl (oh, sure, there’s room for a mannequin, but he can’t install a nice bedroom and half-bath for his poor orphaned cousin?) and, oddly enough, himself, as well as a trophy room containing mementoes of his adventures, a high-powered telescope for observing threats in outer space, an interplanetary zoo, a protective vault containing all known varieties of Kryptonite, storage room for his Superman robots, and much more.

The supporting cast was just about as limited in the Superboy comics. Young Clark/Superboy lived with Ma and Pa Kent, who in addition to the farm now ran a general store in their hometown of Smallville.

Aside from the aforementioned Lana Lang, Clark’s best friend was schoolmate Pete Ross, who, unbeknownst to Clark, was hip to his secret identity, having seen Clark change to Superboy on a camping trip. The Superboy comics were livened up considerably in March 1955, with the introduction of Krypto the Super-Dog in “The Super-Dog From Krypton!”, appearing in ADVENTURE COMICS #210.

When a super-powered dog starts terrorizing Smallville, Superboy decides to investigate, and follows the dog to a deserted field outside of town, where he discovers the wreckage of a rocket ship, and a note in Kryptonese, which tells of how Jor-El tested out his rockets with animals, and with the planet ready to explode any minute, couldn’t spare the time to find a new test subject, and sent up Krypto, baby Kal-El’s pet puppy. The rocket never returned to Krypton, as it was struck by a meteor in deep space and drifted aimlessly for years, eventually landing on Earth, where Krypto was reunited with his now-teenaged master.

Krypto caused Clark some trouble at first, fetching steel girders and jeopardizing Clark’s secret identity, but eventually settled in and was able to live his own double life, complete with his own secret identity, that of Clark’s dog, Skip. (Krypto would stain a spot on his back from a nearby tree when he acted as Clark’s dog, and then burn the spot off with his heat vision when going into action as Krypto. Kryptonian dogs are nothing if not thorough…)

Next time we’ll profile some of the members of Superman’s rogues gallery of villains, and take a look at how Superman has changed over the decades. And if you’re good, we might just take a trip to the Bizarro World! Me so happy…