Clark Kent

"He's everything you want him to be and more."

- James Olsen speaking to Kara Danvers about Superman

Kal-El (born 1979) is the son of scientists Jor-El and Lara Van-El. After being rocketed to Earth as a baby from the dying planet of Krypton alongside his older cousin Kara Zor-El, who arrives un-aged two decades later, he was discovered by a family of kindly humans who raised him as their son Clark Kent in a small town of Kansas. In his secret identity he works as a reporter at the Daily Planet in the city of Metropolis, while secretly operating as the planet's greatest protector; the famous superhero known as Superman, stylized as the "Man of Steel" and the "Last Son of Krypton".

Arrival to Earth
Kal-El was born on the planet Krypton, in the prestigious House of El, to scientists Jor-El and Lara Van-El. Shortly after his birth he was rocketed to Earth alongside his cousin Kara Zor-El as his planet was on the brink of destruction. Making it to Earth safely, he was discovered by the Kents, a kindly human couple who raised him in Kansas as their son "Clark Kent". His upbringing and the lessons of his adopted parents provided him with strong moral values, so he decided to use the fantastic powers he gained on Earth from its yellow sun to do good, fighting evil and protecting the innocent.

Clark remains proud of his dual heritage, taking seriously both his humanity and his Kryptonian legacy. So, over the years, to preserve the memory of his home planet and provide him rest from his adventurous life, he maintains a Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole.

At some point in his life he met Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers, a couple of married scientists who helped him understand his own powers.

Early years as Superman
As an adult Clark moved to Metropolis and, after saving a plane from crashing, he become a superhero publicly known worldwide as Superman. In his secret identity, he began working as a reporter for the Daily Planet, where he met Lois Lane, with whom he fell in love at first sight, Cat Grant, who developed romantic feelings for him, Perry White, his irascible but fair minded boss, and Jimmy Olsen, with whom he became close friends, eventually entrusting him with his super-heroic secret, giving him a special signal watch so that he would be able to contact him in case he ever got into trouble, and allowing him to take the first photo of Superman, that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.

During his career he came head to head with numerous supervillains, such as Ben Krull/Reactron - though neither one was able to defeat the other, resulting in several encounters over the years; likely because Clark was afraid that removing the Thorium 232 from Reactron's suit, would immediately explode and kill thousands of people in the surrounding area. In his early days as Superman, he also had made a few mistakes that made some people of Metropolis annoyed by his antics; however with time he became extremely loved by both the citizens and the world.

Despite Clark's heroic acts, lot of the public opinion are terrified of Superman, not because he has god-like powers, but because they are afraid of what he might do if he ever lost control of his temper.

Under an undisclosed circumstance, Superman has worked with a "vigilante with tons of gadgets and lots of demons" who is considered a "nut", but it's unclear on what kind of terms they are. Superman also befriended the brilliant billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor, CEO of Luthor Corp. Initially the two decided to work together to end the threat of alien invasions, but Lex's methods were far crueler than Superman's and, although he tried hard to trust his friend, defending him against accusations of others and continuing to give him several chances to atoning his wrong deeds, this ultimately resulted in a falling out between the pair. Shortly after this Lex came to believe that Superman himself was the cause of alien terrorism, as his presence attracted them and declared war on his former friend becoming his greatest enemy. One of these duels involved Superman thwarting an attempt on Lex's part to trigger a fault line in California with an "earthquake machine".

At some point, Superman had at least one encounter with J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter - whether or not this encounter ended up in a fight is unknown, but it was enough for him to call J'onn "the most powerful being on Earth". He also became aware of his deception, posing as Hank Henshaw. Later on, Clark helped the D.E.O. uncover an alien asteroid, composed of an emerald-green Kryptonian xenomineral. J'onn nicknamed it "Kryptonite" and resolved to store it in the D.E.O. as a contingency, which enraged Clark, thus leading to the pair falling out. Despite this he still kept his secret identity posing as Henshaw a secret for his sake. According to J'onn, Clark was the only other person on Earth besides himself who knew of his identity for many years.

Over the years Clark began a steady romantic relationship with Lois Lane.

Discovering Kara
Twenty four years after Krypton's destruction, and thus his arrival on Earth, a Krpytonian pod crash-landed on Earth. Superman eventually tracked down the ship and discovered his older cousin Kara Zor-El, scared and alone inside of it. As Kara was trapped in stasis inside the Phantom Zone for 24 years she did not age resulting in her still being physically 13 years old. As he felt that Kara should learn how to be a human, and that she needed a family that could be with her at all times like the adoptive family that took him, Superman left her with the Danvers, knowing that they would have helped her to understand her powers as they had done with him.

Over the next years, he keep in touch with his cousin and invited her to see the Fortress of Solitude several times, though she rejected the offers as she thought it would remind her of Krypton.

Sending James to National City
Twelve years later Superman asked James Olsen, who he knew wanted to broaden his own horizons, to go to National City to keep an eye on Kara, and to deliver her the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby, so she could use it as a cape. After Supergirl appeared in National City Clark, along with Lois, was said to furiously be working on getting an exclusive with her. Shortly after he came to National City to save his cousin from Reactron after he was called by James via his signal watch, but departs a few minutes later as he needed to help deal with a natural disaster. The following day he apologized via chat with Kara for having interfered and told her that he is proud of what she is doing.

Meanwhile, Maxima, queen of the planet Almerac, visited Earth to pursue him as he is the only man worthy to be her mate but, after Superman rejected her, she went on a rampage forcing him to take her down and lock her at the D.E.O. headquarters.

Myriad
After Non and Indigo activated Myriad, Superman head to National City to help Kara deal with them but, upon his arrival, he was also affected to the amazement of Cat Grant and the same of Kara. Maxwell Lord theorized that since Superman had grown up on Earth since early childhood, gaining powers from the yellow sun longer than Kara, that made him more affected by Myriad than she was. After Supergirl freed National City from Myriad, Superman remained inactive and was taken into the D.E.O. headquarters during his recovery, later heading back to Metropolis, briefly chatting with Kara to thank her.

Arresting Lex Luthor
After several years and various brutal encounters resulting in numerous fatalities, Superman was able to defeat Lex and he was incarcerated for thirty-seven consecutive life sentences in prison. As a result, Superman came to distrust the Luthor family including Lex's mother Lillian and adopted sister Lena.

Visiting National City
When the suborbital spacecraft Venture mysteriously begins to fall due to engine failure shortly after its launch, Superman went to the rescue. At the accident site he met Supergirl, and together they prevent catastrophe, to cushion the fall of the shuttle. Then Kara said she has long waited for the occasion to work alongside him and led him to the D.E.O. headquarters to meet her co-worker and friends, as well as to shows him the comatose alien they had found into the pod the previous night and ask his opinion about him. Despite his tense relationship with J'onn, Clark decides to stay in National City and join the investigations on the fall of the shuttle, and offers to go to CatCo with Kara. There, Clark met James and Cat Grant, who were both glad to see him again. After this Kara and Clark go to the Luthor Corp, to talk with Lena Luthor, who explains that she refused at the last moment to flight on the Venture due to an emergency meetings on the renaming of the company and is not related to the accident, to prove it she gave Clark a flash drive with information on the Venture's destroyed oscillator that a subsidiary of her company had manufactured. Later that day Lena's helicopter was attacked by drones, but Supergirl and Superman saved her, destroying them, realizing someone wants to kill the woman. Later, J'onn tried to talk with Superman who, however, claim they have nothing to say to each other as he feels he can't trust the martian since, although he knew J'onn would not allow the Kryptonite in his possession to be used to kill him or Kara, Clark also knew that an order may come from above. During Lena Luthor's speech the international assassin-for-hire John Corben attacked her, detonating explosives he had planted beneath a plaque at the businesswoman's ceremony to rename her company and in the Luthor Corp building; however Supergirl managed to save her while Superman support a building from collapsing on a square full of people. The following day, Clark and Kara came back to the renamed "L-Corp", where Lena Luthor thanked Clark for his kind words about her in his article for the Daily Planet. Shortly after, at the D.E.O., Clark told Kara that he decided to stay in National City a little longer to spend time with her.

In the next few days Superman and Supergirl prevent various accidents and crimes together in National City but, one night at her apartment, Clark told Kara that it was time for him to return to Metropolis, leaving her visibly upset. At this point, the news reported about a man who is about to jump down a bridge, so Superman and Supergirl arrive at the site only to discover this person is John Corben, who is now a Kryptonite-powered cyborg dubbed Metallo. He struck Kara whit a Kryptonite beam and she lost consciousness, but before he can kill her, Superman threw him off the bridge and brought Kara to the D.E.O.; there he blames J'onn for what happened, the martian said that only D.E.O. have access to the Kryptonite, but a sample of their stock was stolen four months ago and they could not find it. After they listen to Cadmus' declaration of war on all aliens, Superman and J'onn went together to the Fortress of Solitude to find information about the metal that compose the cyborg's body so that Winn can make an Anti-Kryptonite Devices of said metal for Clark and Kara. Meanwhile, the D.E.O. managed to locate Metallo but as Superman and Supergirl approach him, he says there was another cyborg in Metropolis so they flew to the city finding Krypton Park completely destroyed. A mournful Superman commented he should have supposed to be there. After that, as the Anti-Kryptonite Devices to counteract Metallos' Kryptonite beams were completed, Superman returned to Metropolis to draw out the second Metallo and, while Supergirl and Alex fought with Corben in National City, he and the Martian Manhunter dealt with Dr. Gilcrist, the other cyborg, in Metropolis, successfully managing to overcome him together. This partnership restored the relationship between Clark and J'onn who, in the evening of the same day, at the D.E.O., gave him the entire stock of Kryptonite in his possession sealed in lead. Superman said goodbye to everyone and flew back to Metropolis, taking the Kryptonite with him. After he arrived, Clark briefly chatted with Kara to tell her he already misses her before receiving a call from Perry White, who scolds him for having being absent from work for so long.

Clashing with the Reverse-Flash
Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash implied that he met Superman at some point in the future, given Eobard would later nickname Tony Woodward a "Man of Steel", which was Clark's infamous title on his Earth, and speak as though having encountered such an adversary before.

Death
According to Rip Hunter in at least one timeline Clark was murdered, as Rip stated he "men of steel die and dark knights fall".

Personality
Clark is described by James to Kara as "everything you want him to be, and more"; he is kind, caring, brave, charismatic, selfless, has a sense of justice, honor and good morals, he is known by even beyond the planet Earth as the world's greatest superhero, with over a decade of experience battling human and extraterrestrial threats. Although he is an alien to the planet Earth, he heavily values his humanity, and fights with conviction for truth, justice, and the American way, while still prizing his Kryptonian heritage, learning all he can regarding the culture via archives in his Fortress of Solitude, and becoming fluid in the common Kryptonian tongue. He is protective of his cousin Kara Danvers, as he asked James to keep an eye on her while he is off saving the world. When donning his "Clark Kent" persona, he appears very meek, old-fashioned and clumsy, although at least some of this is not an act on his part - he does occasionally bump into others genuinely by accident, and as a matter of principle does not drink alcohol shortly before flying despite being immune to intoxication.

According to James Olsen, Clark is also very stubborn, while Kara notes he can be independent to the point of refusing help. He can be cold to those he dislikes or distrusts, breaking through his mild-mannered reporter persona when interviewing Lena Luthor due to his experiences with the Luthor family. He can even be short-tempered to the point of being hostile when sufficiently provoked - when he and Kara were almost killed by the green Kryptonite-powered cyborg John Corben, and learned that the D.E.O. had a spy from Project Cadmus who stole the Kryptonite from their organization, Clark yelled at J'onn for putting Kara's life in danger. According to James, Clark doesn't work with the Government because of their secret experiments on alien life, which has also caused him to distrust the Government itself; this extended to J'onn J'onzz, whom he originally had a good relationship with until the latter resolved to store Kryptonite in the D.E.O. as a contingency, which enraged Clark, thus leading to the pair falling out, as Clark believed that the Kryptonite the D.E.O. had could fall in the wrong hands, and be eventually used against him or his cousin Kara. This fear of his proved to be correct, although the situation was resolved when all the D.E.O.'s Kryptonite was entrusted to him.

Also, Kara jokingly describes him as a "big nerd" because of his habit to give a name to all of their Kryptonian abilities and related phenomena. Despite his success as a superhero, unlike most Kryptonians, Clark is polite, humble, modest and respectful, evidenced by the fact that he keeps his civilian identity a secret from the public and does not abuse his powers; as he lacks the arrogant and self-righteous traits that many of his people possessed, which ultimately led to their near-extinction.

Powers

 * Kryptonian physiology: Normally, like all Kryptonians, Clark's capabilities are no greater than a normal human of his physical conditioning. However, once charged by the energy of a blue or yellow sun, he becomes able to perform various inhuman feats. While generic for his race, having grown up essentially his entire life with these powers have allowed him to store up energy in greater quantities and metabolize it into his body with greater efficiency; this combined with a lifetime of experience and practice with these abilities allows him to use them with far greater control and an equally greater levels of raw power compared to other Kryptonians. Overall, Clark is an incredibly powerful being, with his cousin Kara even referring to him as "the most powerful man in the universe".
 * Solar energy absorption: While Clark's powers are dependent on the energy spectrum from a blue or yellow sun, the stored up energy allows him to use his powers without constant exposure to the solar radiation until finally depleted. Yet, as his body is near-constantly exposed to such energy and able to passively absorb it, this essentially keeps his reserves fully charged near-constantly. Direct exposure to sunlight will also accelerate his recovery from any injuries he does manage to sustain.
 * Accelerated healing factor: Clark's solar charged metabolism accelerates his healing and allows him to burn calories at a fast rate, making him resilient to weight gain. Upon being struck by a Green Kryptonite beam and a series of punches by a cyborg, after few minutes he healed instantly.
 * Contaminant immunity: Clark has an immunity to all forms of disease and contaminants on Earth. However, despite being unable to being inebriated or intoxicated by drugs or alcohol from Earth, he does not drink and has a strong dislike for alcohol.
 * Flight: Clark is able to manipulate his own gravitational field to generate thrust and propel himself through the air at tremendous supersonic-speeds, much faster than he can travel by foot. As such, he is able to levitate and fly past Earth's atmosphere and near the planet's orbit.
 * Super leaping: Clark is able to jump several stories in a single bound without having to fly. He is known to be ableable to "leap tall buildings in a single bound", and usually, when he has to fly, he jump upwards before shooting skyward.
 * Heat vision: By concentrating every solar energy reserve he has in his body, Clark can emit blue energy beams of variable intensity from his eyes. Due to his control over the beams, he has demonstrated being capable of burning though stone and welding metal, causing small explosions and fires, and physically repelling enemies with similar durability, making it useful in combat. However, he has personally utilized it for more mundane uses, such as heating up beverages and cooking food.
 * Invulnerability: Clark is essentially invulnerable to all Earthly weapons, with bullets simply ricocheting whenever they come in to contact with his skin. His durability has proven to be even greater than that of his cousin, Kara's, as he was able to withstand highly concentrated bursts of energy from Reactron and Metallo respectively. This is probably due to the fact that he has spent more time under the Earth's yellow sun than Kara has. He is immune to most forms of extreme punishment, and is able to take far more damage than any normal human.
 * Longevity: As a Kryptonian, Clark's life span is considerably longer than a normal human and likewise ages much slower. Despite being physically older than Kara by over 10 years, his still appears and performs as a man well within his prime.
 * Super breath: Clark is able to exhale powerful gusts of air from his mouth. He can also cause the temperature of his breath to drop to sub-zero levels, therefore able to freeze nearly anything instantly.
 * Super hearing: Clark has super-sensitive ears that can perfectly pick up sounds from miles away and even through structures.
 * Super speed: Clark possesses the ability to move at incredible supersonic speeds, far greater than that of any normal human, essentially making him "faster than a speeding bullet". While faster than his cousin Kara, it is unknown, (though unlikely) if he is as fast as the speedster Barry Allen. He commonly uses his speed to appear and disappear faster than people can notice, as well as to somehow change in or out of his Superman suit in seconds.
 * Super strength: Clark is shown to exhibit enormous feats of strength. Clark was notably able to hold up an entire collapsing tall building while Kara stabilized it's broken foundation. While not limitless, the extent of his super strength is undetermined; making him among the strongest terrestrial beings in the known multiverse alongside his cousin and J'onn J'onzz, if not the strongest itself. Despite his strength, Clark still must physically exert himself when fighting other super powered beings of similar levels of strength and durability, such as other empowered Kryptonians, as well as to lift or press objects or structures that are larger than himself, such a planes or ships.
 * Telepathy immunity: Clark is immune to all forms of telepathy; even from someone as powerful as J'onn J'onzz.
 * X-ray vision: Clark is able to see through solid objects; except for lead.

Abilities

 * Genius-level intellect/Expert detective: Clark is exceptionally intelligent, with Kara referring to him as a "big-big nerd". As a reporter, Clark is an excellent detective, as he follows every lead and rumor to discover the truth behind any story. He is shown to be very sharp and intuitive, able to quickly analyze the situation before him to understand the true nature before him.
 * Indomitable will: Clark has shown to have a powerful spirit, free of corruption and temptation. Having been raised by a kindly Kansas farmer and his wife, he was taught to protect life and help others. He is very optimistic and never gives up, even when things look bad.
 * Expert hand-to-hand combatant: Clark is an expert fighter in terms of hand-to-hand-combat, as mentioned when he was able to take down and defeat Maxima, who is an expert unarmed fighter in her own right, to use his opponents own momentum against them, to fight side-by-side with a highly proficient fighter such as the Martian Manhunter and to defeat a superpowered cyborg despite being weakened by Kryptonite.
 * Multilingual: Clark is capable of fluently speaking English and Kryptonese.

Weaknesses
Clark possesses all the typical weaknesses of a super-powered Kryptonian.
 * Green Kryptonite: Like all Kryptonians, Clark can be weakened by Green Kryptonite, as it is a radioactive mineral from her home planet Krypton. Green Kryptonite not only weakens his physical attributes, leaving him vulnerable to weapons and anything in general that can kill a normal human, but if he is exposed to it for too long, it will kill him. However, Clark has demonstrated a certain level of resilience to Green Kryptonite, after he was directly exposed to it by John Corben, despite being physically weekend, he was still strong enough to use super speed and strength; sending the cyborg flying several feet away; unlike his cousin Kara, who is always powerless when she is exposed to Green Kryptonite. Possibly the more Clark is exposed to the mineral, the more he builds up a resistance to it.
 * Red Kryptonite: Like all Kryptonians, if Clark is exposed to Red Kryptonite, it gradually destroys his inhibitions and turns him into a corrupt version of himself. Left without morality, rationality, or any cares whatsoever, Clark will become malevolent and prone to hostility and aggression, making him a danger to everyone around him.
 * Extreme energy: Extreme amounts of energy, such as the energy from the Reactron suit, can be enough to kill Clark.
 * Red sun energy: The energy from a red sun is known to be the Kryptonian's natural sun and therefore, exposure to it will strip them of their powers, rendering them equivalent to an ordinary human on Earth.
 * Solar energy depletion: Using his powers to its maximum for an extended period can significantly drain his solar energy to the point where Clark loses all of his powers and is rendered more human like for at least a day. This renders him as weak as a human, allowing Clark to get injured and killed as easy as killing a human.
 * Lead: Clark can not see through lead, even with his X-ray vision.
 * Magic: Like all Kryptonians, Clark can be affected by most forms of magic like any ordinary human. This is because his powers are derived from his natural physiology, not from the supernatural.
 * Super hearing/High-frequencies: Although considered a strength, Clark's hearing does have its disadvantages. Since his hearing is more sensitive than a normal human's, higher pitch noises (sonic screams, etc.) can disorient him and cause pain in his ears, leaving him vulnerable in a fight. Therefore, enemies with sound based powers, like Silver Banchee can potentially be powerful enough to cause a Clark's ears to bleed.
 * Sound-dampening technology: The D.E.O. designed frequencies to block super-hearing and cause Clark slight pain when trying to use it in areas protected by the technology.

Equipment

 * Superman suit: Clark wears a protective suit as his super-hero alter-ego, Superman, to hide his identity from his enemies, when he goes out fighting crime. The suit is mostly blue, with a red belt, along with a red cape and boots, featuring a red and yellow House of El emblem on the chest.

Supergirl
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Season 2
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Trivia

 * Clark and J'onn J'onzz had a tense relationship due to J'onn's refusal to destroy Kryptonite that they found during a D.E.O mission code named Project Emerald. They later made amends and J'onn gave all the Kryptonite that the D.E.O has to Clark to dispose of.
 * According to Kara, Clark loves mysteries, with his favourites mystery authors being Agatha Christie, Jim Thompson and Dashiell Hammett. He states that growing up reading their books is half the reason he became a reporter.

Behind the scenes

 * Kal-El debuted in Action Comics #1 (June, 1938) by creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; his native universe of Earth Thirty-Eight is named in honor of the year of this first appearance.
 * Supergirl marks Kal-El's eighth live action television appearance; previously appearing in Adventures of Superman, I Love Lucy, The Adventures of Superboy, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman, Superboy, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and most recently, Smallville.
 * According to James Olsen, Superman refers to the event of a Kryptonian being depleted of his powers as "Solar Flare". In Superman #38, part of The New 52, it is revealed that Superman's heat vision is a precursor to a power also called a "Super Flare", in which Superman release a large explosive force of his solar energy from his entire body, which leaves him depleted and the equivalent of a human for 24 hours.
 * Up until his first physical appearance in the second season, despite being physically seen only 5 times in the first season, Clark was mentioned in just about every episode so far. Additionally, Kara had online chats with him four times, suggesting that, even though Kara hid her powers for twelve years prior to the series, they still kept in touch with each other.
 * In the first season of Supergirl, most of Superman's appearances were rendered in CG animation and body doubles along with camera tricks to hide his face.