The Sevenshot Kid
09-24-2011, 07:38 PM
I've been reading/watching a lot of Superman material recently and it's really got me thinking on the multitude of iterations of Superman across the media, especially when it comes to his origin. So I thought it might be fun to compile some information on his many origins and discuss them with y'all.
First up we’ve got the original classic origin of Superman from the Golden Age comics along with a couple of editions made later on in the Silver Age.
We all know this: Kal-El is sent by his parents from their dying planet to earth where he is adopted by the kindly Ma and Pa Kent who raise him to be the world’s greatest hero. He operates as Superboy for a time and goes on plenty of adventures with heroes like the Legion. We’ve got all the standards set up here: he dates Lois Lane as Clark Kent and Superman, he works for the Daily Planet as a reporter, battles villains such as Lex Luthor (who lost his hair during a meeting with Superboy, sowing the seeds for reinvention of the hero/villain dynamic), and he’s totally bros with Batman.
This is the, the, most iconic rendition of Superman’s origin across all media and it rightfully deserves it. It keeps the basic tenets of the origin: sent from dying planet, raised by Kents, works at the Daily Planet, dates Lois, fights Lex Luthor, etc. What sets it apart from the classic origin is how it revises some aspects and adds completely new ones: Pa Kent dies and serves as the catalyst for Clark’s journey into heroism, Clark Kent is never Superboy, Krypton is portrayed as a much more sterile environment with far more alien technology, Lex Luthor is a nefarious businessman, and the Fortress of Solitude got a major redesign with the addition of a techno-ghost of Jor-El.
This is the origin most everyone thinks of and it has gone a long way in influencing the comic books after release.
This is the origin that came into play in John Byrne’s Man of Steel and it’s basically an amalgamation of the film origin and the classic one. In this rendition Clark was never Superboy instead choosing to save lives in the shadows until being spotted in a high-profile save that forces him to formulate a secret identity. His mom makes him a costume that is not made of Kryptonian material but manages to not rip into peaces because Clark emits a “protective field” that protects everything around his body.
From the movies the series takes the ideas of Lex Luthor as a businessman and Krypton as a sterile utopia but ratchets up the latter to a retarded degree. Turns out Clark birth parents never got down and dirty due to it being against the law on Krypton so Clark was formed in a birthing matrix that made a clone from his parents’ DNA. This results in him being born on American soil. So yeah. That part sucks. The rest of the origin continues par for the course with Superman and Lois’ courtship becoming a mutual pursuit with both having an immediate attraction to the other.
I’m not gonna go real in-depth on this one because Smallville isn’t really an origin story. Sure the first couple of seasons deal with Clark finding out who he is and what it means to be a hero. But above all else, it’s a drama. It’s about Clark Kent’s life as he enters into early adulthood and the relationships he forms along the way. There are plenty elements of an origin story in this series but all of those are pretty much gone once Clark starts gallivanting about as The Blur. From there on out it’s about his life and how he begins to develop his superhero persona.
So yeah. It’s a drama about Superman’s life before putting on the suit but that doesn’t necessarily make it an origin story. There are plenty of origins in it, though. Lex Luthor gets an origin, Impulse sorta gets one, hell, even Aquaman gets one. This series does take elements from EVERYTHING so there’s no point in listing what it does the same or different because it’s just so unbelievably vast.
This right here has to be my favorite origin out there. In this one Krypton is no longer a sterile society and it more closely resembles the Golden Age Krypton. The origin is as follows: Clark is adopted by the Kents, knows he’s an alien but that’s about it. He was good friends with Lex Luthor during high school but Lex lost his shit after an experiment with Kryptonite and kicked rocks on out of Smallville. After going to college, Clark travels the world as a journalist in disaster and war zones where he becomes inspired by the heroic actions of the ordinary men around him.
Heading home Clark constructs a costume with his parents made with material from his ship along with formulating the civilian “disguise” for himself. His parents’ appearance and his relationship with Lex are heavily based on Smallville so that explains why I like it. Lex is now a businessman and a scientist with an eye for astrology keen on investigating the universe. I’m not gonna run down the whole plot because I really think it’s something worth reading. Just know the basic tenets are there: Daily Planet, Lois Lane, evil Luthor, etc.
There are some additions to Clark’s powers: he can see radio signals and a living creature’s life “aura.” This series plays up the initial distrust of Superman but by the end he certainly earns the role of savior. This feels to me like the best representation of Superman in the comics.
This is just Geoff Johns infusing heavy Silver Age aesthetics into the classic origin with heavy influence from the film. It’s very forgettable.
Return to the classic origin. Clark was adopted by the Kents but they’re dead now, he’s not to sure about where he’s from, and he’s a bit of a dickhead in true Golden Age fashion. It’s too early to tell how much this is changing but so far it’s just the Golden Age through a modern lens.
There's more to come.
Feel free to list other examples and to discuss your favorite origins, what makes one good or bad, etc.
First up we’ve got the original classic origin of Superman from the Golden Age comics along with a couple of editions made later on in the Silver Age.
We all know this: Kal-El is sent by his parents from their dying planet to earth where he is adopted by the kindly Ma and Pa Kent who raise him to be the world’s greatest hero. He operates as Superboy for a time and goes on plenty of adventures with heroes like the Legion. We’ve got all the standards set up here: he dates Lois Lane as Clark Kent and Superman, he works for the Daily Planet as a reporter, battles villains such as Lex Luthor (who lost his hair during a meeting with Superboy, sowing the seeds for reinvention of the hero/villain dynamic), and he’s totally bros with Batman.
This is the, the, most iconic rendition of Superman’s origin across all media and it rightfully deserves it. It keeps the basic tenets of the origin: sent from dying planet, raised by Kents, works at the Daily Planet, dates Lois, fights Lex Luthor, etc. What sets it apart from the classic origin is how it revises some aspects and adds completely new ones: Pa Kent dies and serves as the catalyst for Clark’s journey into heroism, Clark Kent is never Superboy, Krypton is portrayed as a much more sterile environment with far more alien technology, Lex Luthor is a nefarious businessman, and the Fortress of Solitude got a major redesign with the addition of a techno-ghost of Jor-El.
This is the origin most everyone thinks of and it has gone a long way in influencing the comic books after release.
This is the origin that came into play in John Byrne’s Man of Steel and it’s basically an amalgamation of the film origin and the classic one. In this rendition Clark was never Superboy instead choosing to save lives in the shadows until being spotted in a high-profile save that forces him to formulate a secret identity. His mom makes him a costume that is not made of Kryptonian material but manages to not rip into peaces because Clark emits a “protective field” that protects everything around his body.
From the movies the series takes the ideas of Lex Luthor as a businessman and Krypton as a sterile utopia but ratchets up the latter to a retarded degree. Turns out Clark birth parents never got down and dirty due to it being against the law on Krypton so Clark was formed in a birthing matrix that made a clone from his parents’ DNA. This results in him being born on American soil. So yeah. That part sucks. The rest of the origin continues par for the course with Superman and Lois’ courtship becoming a mutual pursuit with both having an immediate attraction to the other.
I’m not gonna go real in-depth on this one because Smallville isn’t really an origin story. Sure the first couple of seasons deal with Clark finding out who he is and what it means to be a hero. But above all else, it’s a drama. It’s about Clark Kent’s life as he enters into early adulthood and the relationships he forms along the way. There are plenty elements of an origin story in this series but all of those are pretty much gone once Clark starts gallivanting about as The Blur. From there on out it’s about his life and how he begins to develop his superhero persona.
So yeah. It’s a drama about Superman’s life before putting on the suit but that doesn’t necessarily make it an origin story. There are plenty of origins in it, though. Lex Luthor gets an origin, Impulse sorta gets one, hell, even Aquaman gets one. This series does take elements from EVERYTHING so there’s no point in listing what it does the same or different because it’s just so unbelievably vast.
This right here has to be my favorite origin out there. In this one Krypton is no longer a sterile society and it more closely resembles the Golden Age Krypton. The origin is as follows: Clark is adopted by the Kents, knows he’s an alien but that’s about it. He was good friends with Lex Luthor during high school but Lex lost his shit after an experiment with Kryptonite and kicked rocks on out of Smallville. After going to college, Clark travels the world as a journalist in disaster and war zones where he becomes inspired by the heroic actions of the ordinary men around him.
Heading home Clark constructs a costume with his parents made with material from his ship along with formulating the civilian “disguise” for himself. His parents’ appearance and his relationship with Lex are heavily based on Smallville so that explains why I like it. Lex is now a businessman and a scientist with an eye for astrology keen on investigating the universe. I’m not gonna run down the whole plot because I really think it’s something worth reading. Just know the basic tenets are there: Daily Planet, Lois Lane, evil Luthor, etc.
There are some additions to Clark’s powers: he can see radio signals and a living creature’s life “aura.” This series plays up the initial distrust of Superman but by the end he certainly earns the role of savior. This feels to me like the best representation of Superman in the comics.
This is just Geoff Johns infusing heavy Silver Age aesthetics into the classic origin with heavy influence from the film. It’s very forgettable.
Return to the classic origin. Clark was adopted by the Kents but they’re dead now, he’s not to sure about where he’s from, and he’s a bit of a dickhead in true Golden Age fashion. It’s too early to tell how much this is changing but so far it’s just the Golden Age through a modern lens.
There's more to come.
Feel free to list other examples and to discuss your favorite origins, what makes one good or bad, etc.