1978: Jonathan and Martha Kent discover a mysterious silver pod in a smoking crater on the outskirts of their farm in Smallville, Kansas. In it, they find a baby boy. Unsure of what to do, the Kents bury the pod underneath their barn and adopt the boy, naming him Clark.

1983-1995: Clark attends school, where he is an outcast from his fellow students due to several 'outbursts' where he exhibited strange abilities. Fearing A.R.G.U.S. or S.H.I.E.L.D. might take their adopted son away, the Kents urge Clark to keep his abilities secret, at least until he is mature enough to decide for himself. Clark keeps to himself throughout childhood, writing for the school paper and excelling in science but never gaining many friends.

At age 13, however, Clark saves a bus full of his classmates from a deadly crash, exposing his powers. Quickly hearing word of the incident, Jonathan argues with Clark about the use of his powers and the risk of exposing his identity, and finally shows him the true nature of his origins. Clark, who had believed until this point that he was a mutant, runs away from home, only to return later that night with half-remembered visions of a 'Legion' of friends from a far-away future. These visions quickly fade over time, but the impression of both his alien past as his extraordinary future stay with Clark for years to come.

1995: A powerful tornado ravages Smallville, and 17-year-old Clark uses the full extent of his powers to try and save the town. While Clark succeeds in rerouting the tornado away from the major population areas, Jonathan Kent suffers a fatal heart attack while getting others to shelter. Distraught by the loss of his father and unsure of what to do with himself and his massively increased powers, Clark leaves home after graduating high school and travels the world.

1996-1999: Clark makes his way across the world, taking up a career as a journeyman reporter both to fulfill his passion for journalism, and as an excuse to be in dangerous areas where his superhuman aid is needed. Along the way, he sparks a friendly rivalry with a fellow traveling reporter, the firebrand Lois Lane. For three years, Lois and Clark continually run into each other in warzones, disaster areas, hotbeds of political and corporate corruption: anywhere where there are people in need, a story to be told, and rumors of a mysterious metahuman with powers rivaling the heroic Shazam.

Eventually, Clark finds his way to the Andes, where rumors and leads had led him to a massive covert excavation site, a joint venture between the US military and the tech giant LexCorp. Infiltrating the base and making his way past soldiers and scientists, Clark finds a pod similar to the one he had landed in as a baby. He breaks out and escapes with the pod, drawing the attention of the military and of LexCorp's CEO, Lex Luthor. Taking the pod far away into the Arctic, Clark discovers that inside of it is an impossibly huge complex, a Fortress contained in a space no larger than a phone booth. His presence activates Kelex, the Fortress's artificial intelligence, and the AI tells Clark about his past, his homeworld's destruction, his family's desperate gambit to save him, and his true name: Kal-El of the planet Krypton.

Clark returns home to Smallville, and resolves to combine the lessons his parents taught him with the virtues and ideals of the lost Kryptonian society. Donning the garb of Krypton's heroic Sapphire Guards-- which, coincidentally, happen to bear a striking resemblance to the colorful 'super-heroes' of the old Justice Society of America-- Clark begins to operate under a new identity, whom his colleague and rival Lois Lane is quick to dub 'the Superman.'

2000-2003: Clark moves to Metropolis, taking a job as a field reporter for the Daily Planet thanks to a recommendation from Lois. Within months of his public debut in Metropolis, Superman brings down the corrupt political machine of the crooked Mayor Glenn Glenmorgan and puts dents in the Mannheim criminal syndicate. In response, Bruno Mannheim begins deploying metahuman enforcers to confront Superman or distract him from his operations; these include the hypersonic-shrieking Silver Banshee, the tech-wielding Conduit, and the radioactive monster Atomic Skull. Lois Lane investigates the origin of these super-villains' abilities and discovers a network of dummy corporations and front-operations that eventually lead to LexCorp. Although the charges do not stick, Lex Luthor spends a night in prison because of Lois's exposée, putting her directly in Lex's crosshairs.

A.R.G.U.S. eventually tries to bring Superman into their custody, leading to a massive confrontation between the Man of Steel and a strike force of LexCorp-equipped commandos led by agent John Corben. During the battle, Luthor causes Corben's 'Metal Zero' battle armor to self-destruct, making it appear as though Superman had killed him. This smears Superman's reputation and encourages A.R.G.U.S. to double down on funding LexCorp's anti-Kryptonian research, which pays dividends in the discovery of Kryptonite: radioactive mineral shards from Krypton that came to Earth with Kal-El's pod, which--if properly weaponized--could kill Superman after less than a minute of exposure.

As Superman tries to continue saving lives and thwarting attacks from a newer, more dangerous onslaught of villains--including the power-draining Parasite, the lightning-wielding Livewire, and an army of terrorist androids calling themselves the Toymen-- he finds himself being pursued more doggedly by A.R.G.U.S. forces. Finally, Superman is ambushed by a resurrected John Corben, equipped with a Kryptonite-armed 'Metal-0' suit. Corben nearly kills Superman in the battle, but he's stopped by the intervention of the suit's lead designer, Dr. John Henry Irons, who was convinced by Lois Lane that Superman had been framed for Corben's killing. Donning an older model of the suit and adopting the name 'Steel,' Irons defeats the Metal-0 unit and saves Superman's life. Superman's name is cleared by Lois, and Steel begins to operate in Metropolis as an unofficial partner.

2003: Superman, with help from Steel and Kelex, saves the world from the extraterrestrial AI Brainiac, who had intended to capture Metropolis in a spacetime 'bottle' for experimentation before destroying Earth. Clark manages to save Brainiac's collection of Bottle Cities and take them to his Fortress, though he is unable to free the trapped inhabitants. This includes the Kryptonian city of Kandor, and his failure to release his people from captivity frustrates Superman for years.

Meanwhile, Clark and Lois begin dating, and the two move in together. Lois, who had long suspected Clark's true identity before he confessed, becomes instrumental in preserving his secret identity from enemies, and from well-meaning but hapless friends like Jimmy Olsen. As their relationship grows more serious, the possibility of starting a family arises, and though both of them agree they eventually want children, the genetic incompatability between human and Kryptonian DNA makes it impossible. Instead, Lois and Clark adopt a puppy, naming it Krypto.

2006: A massive Kryptonian warship appears over Metropolis: the Black Zero, commanded by the dreaded war criminal General Zod. Having escaped the void of the Phantom Zone, Zod and his army of rogue Kryptonians strike key targets around the globe, with the intention of terraforming Earth and using humanity as breeding stock to repopulate their race. A combined effort of Superman and the Avengers subdues the bulk of the invading force, but Metropolis is devastated during the battle. Superman manages to return most of Zod's forces to the Phantom Zone, but during the final conflict, he is forced to kill Zod himself. This takes a tremendous toll on Clark, as he had always attempted to operate without using lethal force, and Superman withdraws from the public sphere for a time.

Meanwhile, Lex Luthor appropriates the majority of recovered Kryptonian technology, including the corpse of General Zod and several DNA samples of Superman himself taken from blood spilled during the battle.

2006: Clark Kent marries Lois Lane. Their wedding, however, is interrupted by the reality-warping entity calling itself 'Mr. Mxyztplk.' The imp from the Fifth Dimension puts Superman through a series of chaotic and seemingly nonsensical trials for his own amusement, and while eventually Superman does outsmart Mxyzptlk and thwart him from permanently distorting space and time, some of the imp's "pranks" on Superman remain even after things return to normal.

Clark's dog Krypto gains super-powers like his own, the B-movie monster Titano becomes real and terrorizes the city (until Superman relocates him to the Savage Land), and most dangerously of all, a backwards clone of Superman is created out of 'bizarro-matter' from the Underverse. This Bizarro Superman creates a plague of backwards copies that threatens to overrun the Earth before Superman convinces his warped duplicate to go out into space in a reverse of Kal-El's escape from Krypton. The clone leaves Earth in a makeshift rocket, eventually creating a Bizarro-Earth adrift in deep space.

2008: Lex Luthor mutates the corpse of General Zod into a monster known as Doomsday. Superman is almost helpless to stop Doomsday's rampage, until Lex approaches him with the only weapon capable of destroying it: a spearhead of pure, refined Kryptonite, more potent than any K-based weapon used before. As the radiation would kill a normal human in seconds, Superman is ironically the only person alive strong enough to wield it long enough to use against Doomsday. With options running low and the death toll rising, Superman agrees to the plan, sacrificing his own life to stop Doomsday and save the Earth from destruction.

Superman is given a hero's funeral, and a monument is built in his honor in Heroes' Park in Metropolis. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is quietly buried next to his father in Smallville. Lois Lane uncovers Luthor's involvement in the creation of Doomsday, and Lex is ousted from LexCorp. The A.R.G.U.S. think-tank known as Cadmus takes ownership of several of LexCorp's assets, most notably the genetic hybrid project codenamed 'Superboy.'

2012: Another Kryptonian pod lands on Earth, this one carrying a teenage girl named Kara Zor-El. Originally sent by her parents to protect her cousin Kal on Earth, her ship was lost in the Phantom Zone due to Krypton's destruction, and as a result she arrives years after Kal's death. Inspired by what her cousin had done in life, Kara takes up the mantle and is soon dubbed 'Supergirl' by the media. While she eventually makes contact with Lois and begins using the Fortress, she is soon targeted by A.R.G.U.S., who use the Superboy as a weapon to try and bring her in. Superboy and Supergirl battle over who is the rightful heir to Superman's title, but they are interrupted by the return of the Bizarro Superman. Together, they save Metropolis from Bizarro, and leave as uneasy allies. Soon after, Superboy leaves A.R.G.U.S.'s custody and eventually finds his way to the Kent farm, where he is soon adopted and takes the name Conner Kent.

2013: Earth is invaded by the Justice Lords, a twisted fascistic incarnation of the Justice League from a parallel universe. Their leader, the tyrannical Ultraman, plans to subjugate all life in the multiverse to his harsh and unforgiving brand of 'justice.' Meanwhile, Lex Luthor re-emerges, breaking into Superman's Fortress and stealing Clark's corpse from Smallville. When Supergirl and Superboy confront the arch-villain, Luthor reveals that he intends to use the Fortress's Genesis Chamber to resurrect Superman, the only being powerful enough to defeat Ultraman and the Justice Lords. Suspicious of Luthor but desperate for help, they agree to the plan, and Lex successfully revives his old nemesis. Together, they drive off the Justice Lords and banish Ultraman from this universe.

The world celebrates Superman's resurrection, and--in a decision that shocks the entire heroic community-- Lex Luthor is given a full pardon thanks to his role in helping save the world. While Clark is wary of Luthor's motives for returning him to life, he is overjoyed to see Lois and his friends again. Luthor, meanwhile, begins a long and arduous process of restoring his name and the reputation of LexCorp, operating apparently on the level for years.

2016: Mr. Mxyzptlk returns on the tenth anniversary of his first 'defeat,' and once again wreaks havoc with reality until Superman outwits him. As a reward, Mxyzptlk warns Superman of an impending crisis, about the coming of 'New Gods' and mysterious child that will be the key to saving all life in the multiverse....or destroying it.

2017: Lois Lane-Kent discovers that she is pregnant.