- "He's everything you want him to be, and more."
- —James Olsen to Kara Danvers describing Kal-El[src]
Kal-El is the son of Jor-El and Lara Van-El. After being rocketed to Earth as a baby, he became Clark Kent and later in life became the famous hero known as Superman.
Biography
Arrival to Earth
Kal-El was rocketed to Earth alongside his cousin Kara Zor-El, from the doomed planet of Krypton. Making it to Earth safely, and at an unknown point being given the name Clark Kent.[1]
Clark at some point began working as a reporter for the Daily Planet. He befriended Jimmy Olsen, whom he eventually entrusted with his superheroic secret. He allowed him to take the first photo of Superman.[1] He came head to head with Ben Krull, also known as Reactron, defeating him for some time.[2]
At some point, Clark had at least one encounter with J'onn J'onzz, whether or not this encounter ended up in a fight, it is still unknown, but it was enough for Clark to call J'onn "the most powerful being on Earth".[3]
Discovering Kara
Twenty four years later after Krypton's destruction, Kara's pod crash landed on Earth. Clark eventually tracked the ship down and found his young cousin scared and alone inside of her ship. 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, he left her with the Danvers family, scientists who had helped him understand his own powers.[1]
Sending James to National City
He later 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 the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby, so she could use it as a cape. [1]
He arrived to save his cousin from Ben Krull after being called by James Olsen.[2]
Superman was arriving in National City to help Kara, but he was also affected by Myriad upon arrival to the amazement of Cat Grant.[4]
Superman remained inactive after Kara freed National City from Myriad and was taken into the D.E.O. headquarters during his recovery. He eventually recovered and left. He briefly chatted with Kara to thank her before Cat brought a box to Kara's table to remove her belongings to another room as promotion.[5]
Personality
Clark was described by James to Kara as "everything you want him to be, and more". According to James Olsen, he is very stubborn. Clark is protective of his cousin Kara Zor-El, as he asked James to keep an eye on her while he is off saving the world. As noted by Kara, Clark can be very independent to the point of refusing help.
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.[3]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Kryptonian Physiology: Like all Kryptonians, Clark possesses the power to absorb the light and radiation of stars, specifically those in the yellow spectrum. His body is constantly absorbing and storing energy from Earth's yellow sun, which in turn grants them incredible powers, such as superhuman strength, senses, impenetrable skin, and even the power to defy gravity.
- Solar Battery: Clark is able to absorb solar energy from a yellow sun.
- Super strength: According to Kara, Clark is "the most powerful man in the universe", a title that he may as well have earned due to his amazing level of physical strength.
- Super speed: Clark possesses the ability to move at incredible super speeds, far greater than that of any normal human, essentially making him "faster than a speeding bullet".
- Flight: As all Kryptonians under a yellow sun, Superman is able to fly at tremendous supersonic-speeds by manipulating his own gravitational field.
- Invulnerability: Clark is essentially invulnerable to all Earthling weapons.
- Accelerated healing factor: Clark is able to heal much faster than a normal human. Also, Clark's body processes and burns calories much more faster than any other normal human, essentially allowing him to eat all he wants without actually increasing in weight.
- Super hearing: Clark has super-sensitive ears that can pick up sounds from miles away.
- 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, therefore able to freeze nearly anything.
- X-ray vision: Clark is able to see through all solid objects; except for lead.
- Heat vision: By concentrating every solar-energy reserve he has on his body, Clark can emit powerful heat lasers from his eyes.
- Immunity: Like all Kryptonians, Clark is immune to all forms of earthly diseases and illnesses.
- Telepathic Immunity: Like all Kryptonians, Clark is immune to all forms of telepathy.
Abilities
- Hand-to-hand combat: 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.
- Journalism: Have been working as a reporter for years, Clark is a skilled journalist
He coulded easily wrote articles that everytime impressed the Daily Planet & always printed in the front pages.
Weaknesses
Clark possesses all the typical weaknesses of a super-powered Kryptonian.
- Green Kryptonite: Like all Kryptonians, Clark is weak against green kryptonite, as it is a radioactive mineral from his 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.
- Red Kryptonite: Like all good Kryptonians, if Clark is exposed to red kryptonite, he will be left without morality, rationality, or any cares whatsoever. Left with only malice, pride and wrath, Clark will become malevolent and prone to hostility and aggression, making him a danger to everyone around him.
- Lead: Clark can not see through lead, even with his X-ray vision.
- Red sun energy: The energy from a red sun is known to be the Kryptonian's natural sun and therefore, exposure to it will make them the equivalent of a human on Earth.
- Extreme energy: Extreme amounts of energy can be enough to kill Clark.
- 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.
Equipment
- Superman Suit: During his exploits as Superman, Clark design this suit to cover his secret identity. While still wearing his traditional cape beneath, this version of suit didn't have a red underpants, & it didn't seems to have a gear either unlike his comic counterpart.But he still wore the traditional house of el family crest.
Appearances
Season 1
- "Pilot"
- "Stronger Together" (mentioned)
- "Fight or Flight"
- "Livewire" (mentioned)
- "How Does She Do It?" (mentioned)
- "Red Faced" (mentioned)
- "Human For a Day" (mentioned)
- "Hostile Takeover" (mentioned)
- "Blood Bonds" (mentioned)
- "Childish Things" (mentioned)
- "Bizarro" (mentioned)
- "For the Girl Who Has Everything" (hallucination)
- "Solitude" (mentioned)
- "Falling" (mentioned)
- "Manhunter" (mentioned)
- "Worlds Finest" (mentioned)
- "Myriad"
- "Better Angels"
Notes
- Kal-El debuted in Action Comics #1 (June, 1938) as the last son of Krypton, rocketed from the doomed planet of Krypton before its destruction and later becoming the hero known as Superman. He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
- 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 notably, Smallville.
- Despite being physically seen only 5 times in the whole series so far, Clark is mentioned in just about every episode so far. Additionally, Kara has had online chats with him four times, suggesting that, even though Kara hid her powers for twelve years prior to the series, they still keep in touch.
- It is shown that this Superman doesn't have the red underpants on his suit either, this is similar to Henry Cavill's Superman in the movies.
- In Supergirl Season 1, most of Superman's appearances were rendered in CGI Animation.