The origin of Superman and his superhuman powers have been a central narrative for Superman since his inception, with the story of the destruction of his home planet of Krypton, his arrival on Earth and emergence as a superhero evolving from Jerry Siegel's original story into a broad narrative archetype over the course of Superman's literary history and as the character's scope continues to expand across comics, radio, television and film.
The original story was written by Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster, and published as a part of the character's first appearance in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). As more stories were published, more details about the original story were established. These stories explored individual details, such as the planet Krypton, the source of Superman's powers and his relationships with supporting characters. Because continuity was looser during the Golden Age and the Silver Age, many of these stories contradicted each other.
As Superman was adapted into other media, his origin story has been frequently retold. These origin stories adhere to the basic framework created by Siegel and Shuster, with minor variations made to serve the plot or to appeal to contemporary audiences. Some of the details created for these adaptations influenced the origin story in the mainstream comic series.
In more recent years, the origin story has been revamped in the comic books several times. In 1985, DC Comics published Crisis on Infinite Earths, which created the opportunity to definitively revise the history of the DC Universe. Superman's origin was subsequently retold in the 1986 limited series The Man of Steel, written and drawn by John Byrne. The story was later removed from continuity ("retconned") and replaced with the Superman: Birthright limited series in 2003 and 2004, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Leinil Francis Yu, as Superman's official origin. After the Infinite Crisis limited series in 2005 and 2006, Superman's origin was revised yet again, unfolding throughout Superman's regular publications and the Superman: Secret Origin mini-series in 2009 and 2010.
Basic story While the individual details vary, certain key elements have remained consistent in almost all retellings.
Superman is born Kal-El on the planet Krypton. His parents, Jor-El and Lara become aware of Krypton's impending destruction and Jor-El begins constructing a spacecraft to carry Kal-El to Earth. During Krypton's last moments, Jor-El places young Kal-El in the spacecraft and launches it. Jor-El and Lara die as the spacecraft barely escapes Krypton's fate. The explosion transforms planetary debris into kryptonite, a radioactive substance that is lethal to superpowered (via Earth's yellow sun) Kryptonians.
The spacecraft lands in the rural United States, where it is found by a passing motorist. Jonathan and Martha Kent adopt Kal-El and name him Clark Kent. As Clark grows up on Earth, he and his adoptive parents discover that he has superhuman powers. The Kents teach Clark to use these powers responsibly to help others and fight crime.
Clark keeps his powers secret in order to protect his family and friends, who might be endangered by his criminal enemies. In order to use his powers to help humanity, Clark creates the alter ego of Superman. A number of elements are added to each identity to keep them distinct enough to prevent the casual observer from matching them. Superman wears a characteristic red and blue costume with a letter "S" emblem and a cape. Clark Kent takes to wearing glasses, styling his hair differently, changing his body language, significantly altering his voice, and wearing looser clothing and suits that hide his physique.
Clark Kent moves to Metropolis and takes a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet, where he meets his friends and co-workers, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and editor Perry White. Superman becomes the subject of frequent headline stories written by Lois, and the two become romantically attracted to each other.
Common variations Superman's public debut has differed throughout decades of publication. Originally, he first donned the costume and began fighting crime as an adult. Later, he was shown to have begun his heroic career as Superboy, changing his name to Superman after he grew up. The character's history as Superboy was retroactively erased from continuity in The Man of Steel retelling of the origin. The Superboy concept was later restored; in current continuity, Clark used his powers to aid others while still a youth, operating as "a rarely-glimpsed American myth – the mysterious 'Super-Boy'".
Influences Superman's origin was influenced by the science fiction stories appearing in pulp magazines that Siegel and Shuster were fond of and by a variety of social and religious themes.
Siegel and Shuster created multiple characters named Superman. The first was a villain with telepathic powers, published in the short story "The Reign of the Superman". A later collaboration in 1934 with Russell Keaton has a Superman that is a meta-human sent back in time as an infant, where he is found and raised by Sam and Molly Kent. Another version, which was unpublished, was a crime fighter without any superhuman abilities, which Siegel and Shuster compare to another of their creations, Slam Bradley. They felt that a virtuous character originating from Earth to possess superhuman powers would make the character and stories seem less serious, inviting comparisons to humorous strongmen like Popeye. They decided to make the third version, as a visitor from another planet.
Siegel has cited the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs as an influence on the source of Superman's strength and leaping ability being the lesser gravity of a smaller planet. Jack Williamson once remarked that Superman's origin had strong similarities to a story he had written and published early in his career, where a Martian scientist sent his infant daughter into space to save her from their planet's destruction.
Superman carries some similarities to Hugo Danner, the main character in the novel Gladiator by Philip Wylie. Danner's great strength comes from a serum injected into him by his father while still a fetus which gave him the proportional strength of an insect. The scientific explanation for the source of Superman's powers published in Action Comics #1 also compared Superman's great strength to an ant's ability to carry hundreds of times its own weight and a grasshopper's ability to leap great distances. Wylie later threatened to sue National Comics for plagiarism. Siegel signed an affidavit that claimed Superman was not influenced by Gladiator, though he had reviewed the novel for his fanzine Science Fiction in 1932.
Because Siegel and Shuster were both Jewish, some religious commentators and pop-culture scholars such as Rabbi Simcha Weinstein and British novelist Howard Jacobson suggest that Superman's creation was partly influenced by Moses and other Jewish elements. In contrast, Siegel and Shuster claimed that having Superman drop out of the sky seemed like a good idea.
Publication history Pre-Crisis Superman's origin took more than twenty years to unfold into the narrative that is familiar today. During the Golden Age of Comics (1935–1953), Krypton and the Kents were almost incidental, seldom being referred to in the comic book stories. The Superman mythology expanded during the Silver Age of Comics (1953–1970) and was refined during the Bronze Age (1970–1986).
Golden Age Siegel created, and Shuster designed, the character Superman in 1934 and intended to sell the character as a daily newspaper comic strip. They told Superman's origin over the course of twelve strips, ten of which detailed the planet Krypton.
In 1938, DC Comics published Superman's debut in Action Comics #1, Siegel and Shuster were required to cut the story down to thirteen pages, and so the origin story was reduced to a single page. The story described a scientist on an unnamed doomed planet placing his infant son into a hastily designed spaceship and launching it toward Earth. When the spaceship lands, a passing motorist finds it and turns the child over to a local orphanage, where the staff is astounded by the child's feats of strength. As the child matures, he discovers more of his abilities and decides to use them for the benefit of mankind as Superman. The last panel of this origin is captioned "A Scientific Explanation of Clark Kent's Amazing Strength", explaining he "had come from a planet whose inhabitants' physical structure was millions of years advanced of our own". Kent's strength is then compared with ants' and grasshoppers' abilities to lift many times their body weight and leap great distances.
Starting on January 16, 1939, Siegel's original stories and Shuster's original art work appeared in a daily newspaper comic strip through the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. The first days of the Superman daily newspaper strip retold the origin in greater detail, focusing on his departure from Krypton. In this retelling, the planet Krypton and Superman's biological parents, Jor-l and Lara, are called by name for the first time.
The first issue of Superman, published in 1939, also featured the origin story. Max Gaines had written to Siegel and Shuster and asked them to expand the origin sequence to two pages, and to include four pages that detailed how Clark Kent became a journalist as well as a full-page feature that expanded on the scientific explanation for Superman's powers. In this issue, the passing motorists are revealed to be the Kents, who leave him at the local orphan asylum but later return to adopt him. The Kents teach Clark that he must keep his powers a secret but that he will someday use them to assist humanity. Clark becomes Superman after the Kents pass away and wins his job as a reporter for the Daily Star by delivering information he had gathered as Superman about a lynch mob at the county jail. The feature on Superman's powers asserts again that Kryptonians had evolved to physical perfection, but also reveals that because Earth is smaller than Krypton, the lighter gravitational pull further enhanced Superman's strength.
In 1945, More Fun Comics #101 introduced the concept of Superboy, establishing that Superman began his superhero career as a child. This issue showed Krypton in much greater detail than before, as a scientifically advanced world. Kryptonians did not appear to possess superhuman powers on Krypton but were aware that a Kryptonian on Earth would have them. In this story, Superman's biological parents were named Jor-El and Lara. Jor-El attempted to convince the Supreme Council that their world was doomed and that they must take action. The Council scoffed at Jor-El's warnings, so he returned home to save his family, but was only able to save his son.
For the tenth anniversary in 1948 of Superman's debut, Superman #53 retold the origin story, compiling and expanding upon previous versions, though the story does not acknowledge the adventures of Superboy. This story establishes the Kents as farmers and that "Clark" is a family name. Before Clark's adopted father dies, he tells Clark that he must use his powers to become a force for good. Clark's father calls Clark a "Super-Man", inspiring Clark to use the name. Superman discovered his alien origins for the first time in Superman #61. Action Comics #158 retold the origin again, this time acknowledging the adventures of Superboy.
Silver Age