1913: A mysterious rocket-ship crashes in a field on the outskirts of Smallville, Kansas. Much to the surprise of the kindly Jonathan and Martha Kent, inside this mystery ship is a newborn baby boy. Believing the child to be a miracle, the Kents adopt him, naming him Clark.
1930: Clark begins to exhibit extraordinary powers, able to lift his father's tractor over his head with one hand and leap over a quarter of a mile. Those around him begin to treat him with suspicion, even fear, and for their protection and his own, Clark leaves Smallville.
1931-1937: Clark travels the country, searching for a place to fit in while the United States suffers through the Great Depression. Seeing the widespread suffering, misery, and injustice that affect so many, he determines to use his powers to help the helpless. Returning home to Smallville, he unearths his buried rocket-ship and learns of his true origins: he was born Kal-L, the last survivor of the doomed planet Krypton, a utopian world that destroyed itself through generations of decadence and moral decay. Seeing the suffering around him and fearful Earth might meet the same fate as Krypton, Clark fashions a costume styled after his lost home world and determines to fight evil wherever it may come.
1938: Clark, now in full costume, rescues the fearless reporter Lois Lane from the clutches of the gangster Bruno Mannheim. Seeing his incredible powers and garish 'S' symbol on his chest, Lois gives him the moniker 'Superman.' Clark takes up residence in the bustling city of Metropolis, and becomes a colleague and rival reporter to Lois. Superman becomes a regular fixture in the city, ransacking the criminal underworld, punching out wife-beaters, exposing and apprehending corrupt politicians, and inspiring the people of Metropolis to do great things.
1940: Superman is joined by other cape-clad mystery men: the Bat-Man of Gotham City, Wonder Woman of Paradise Island, the super-sonic Flash, the magic ring-wielding Green Lantern, the winged Hawk-Man and Hawk-Girl, Star Man, the Atom Smasher, Hour-Man, Doctor Mid-Nite, the Sandman, and the Black Canary. At first working only in loose confederation, these heroes agree that by working together, they can affect great change on a global scale and fight back against the rising power of the Axis. Naming themselves the Justice Society of America, Superman and his compatriots set out to cure the ills affecting their country, and prevent the outbreak of war.
The same year, Superman first encounters Lex Luthor, the mad scientist who would in time become his lifelong arch-nemesis. Luthor terrorizes Metropolis with death rays, earthquake machines, armies of mechanical monsters and more, only to be thwarted by Superman every time. Meanwhile, Clark begins to struggle with his affection for Lois Lane, who sees the mild-mannered Clark Kent as a coward and a milquetoast, but pines for the rugged and daring Superman.
1941-1945: The Justice Society is brought into the Second World War when Hitler and Hirohito add Lex Luthor and the immortal Vandal Savage to their unholy alliance. Superman himself is nearly killed when Luthor unveils the discovery of Kryptonite, a radioactive meteor fragment from Superman's homeworld that can poison the Man of Tomorrow. As Clark recuperates, Green Lantern assumes leadership of the Justice Society, storming Hitler's bunker and bringing the evil dictator in to be tried by the United Nations. Luthor, however, escapes to his hidden lair on the dark side of the moon.
1950: Clark's complicated romance with Lois Lane grows more complex when his old flame Lana Lang returns into his life. In addition, his role as Metropolis's protector grows more and more difficult as other super-powered threats menace the City of Tomorrow. In short order, Superman tangles with the radioactive Atomic Skull, the power-stealing Parasite, and the colossal ape Titano-- all of which are creations of Lex Luthor.
1951: The Justice Society disbands after being brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Superman, still wishing to repair relations between the government and his fellow vigilante crime-fighters, begins working extensively with the Army and the Office of Strategic Services, while the rest of the former Society either retire or go rogue. This culminates in a dramatic battle with Bat-Man, where the Gotham vigilante poisons Superman again with Kryptonite, causing the Man of Steel to refrain from entering Gotham City ever again (unbeknownst to the government, however, this 'fight' is a ruse, as Superman and Bat-Man continue to work together in secret).
1957: Superman is tormented by the reality-warping imp Mr. Mxyzptlk, who introduces the Man of Steel to the concepts of higher and lower dimensions, alternate realities, multiverses, metafiction, and hypertime. This mind-bending odyssey ends with Superman sending Mxyzptlk back to his home dimension, but he is left with a monstrous duplicate as a 'memento' from his nigh-omnipotent tormentor. This monster, known simply as Bizarro, becomes one of Superman's most unpredictable and dangerous enemies.
1958: A flying saucer shrinks the entire city of Metropolis, prompting Superman to chase the alien spaceship halfway across the galaxy to rescue the city. Inside he encounters the hyper-intelligent alien robot Brainiac, who also keeps as its prized possession the lost Kryptonian city of Kandor. While Superman is able to rescue Metropolis and return it to its normal size, he cannot do the same for Kandor, a failure which continues to haunt him, even as Brainiac attempts to destroy Superman and the Earth time and time again.
1959: A second Kryptonian rocket, lured by beacons from within the Bottle City of Kandor, lands on Earth and is intercepted by Superman. Inside is a young woman who identifies herself as Kal-L's long lost cousin, Kara Zor-L, who had been stranded in space and stuck in suspended animation following Krypton's destruction. Kara becomes Kal's protégée, debuting to the world as Supergirl within months of her arrival.
1960: A new generation of heroes bands together to fight a massive entity known as "The Center," an ancient being from primordial times intent on wiping out all life on Earth. This new team, calling themselves the Justice League after the old JSA, inducts Superman as a founding member, but because he cannot focus his time towards the team, he declines the offer of leadership and instead defers to the new Flash.
1964: Earth is invaded by the Crime Syndicate, an evil counterpart to the Justice League from a universe where moral alignments are reversed. Led by the villainous Ultraman, the Crime Syndicate overwhelms and undermines the Justice League at every turn. Superman, joining forces with Bizarro and Captain Marvel (whom he suspects to be a Superman from a smaller universe absorbed by their own), lures the Syndicate out into bleed-space between universes, capturing them in a negative-dimensional tesseract prison. Before being pulled into the tesseract, Ultraman warns Superman and his compatriots of a coming doom far worse than anything they had faced before, that this universe would destroy itself in a final crisis.
1968: After years of flirtatious games and unrequited romance, Clark Kent marries Lois Lane. Soon after, they have a son, whom they name Jonathan Kent.
1970: Superman encounters Darkseid, the despotic ruler of Apokolips and self-proclaimed God of All Evil. Believing this to be the reality-threatening crisis Ultraman had warned him about, Clark puts more and more of his efforts towards fighting Darkseid and his demonic forces, leaving much of the everyday heroics to Supergirl.
1973: Lex Luthor joins forces with over a dozen other supervillains to form the Legion of Doom, with the express intent of destroying the Justice League. Their battles tip the balance of global power far beyond any acceptable limit, and President Nixon cracks down on superhuman activity. Unlike the Justice Society, the League refuses to disband, and are designated a rogue power by the US government. Organizations like Cadmus emerge, with the intent of creating methods to control or destroy superhumans should they become a threat to mankind.
1978: Jonathan Kent's powers begin to manifest. He soon debuts to the world as Superboy, tagging along with Superman and Supergirl in training missions, or alongside the Teen Titans.
1980: Earth is invaded by a faction of rogue Kryptonian criminals, led by the fascistic General Zod. Zod and his minions attempt to transform Earth into a New Krypton, which would destroy all native life in the process. After a costly battle, Superman and Supergirl subdue Zod, sending him into the void of the Phantom Zone. However, the fear of unchecked Kryptonian power starts to erode people's trust in Superman, and an arms race begins to recover Zod's weapons and technology.
1985: The multiverse is threatened not by Darkseid, but by the nihilistic Anti-Monitor. The resulting crisis claims many of Superman's closest friends and allies, including Supergirl, who dies in his arms after battling the Anti-Monitor in single combat. Eventually the combined forces of the multiverse's heroes and villains are able to subdue the Anti-Monitor and save reality, but the world is fundamentally changed nonetheless.
1986: Lex Luthor merges with Brainiac, manipulating several of Superman's enemies in an attempt to engineer a final confrontation with the Man of Steel. Bizarro goes on a rampage in Metropolis, killing thousands before committing suicide with blue Kryptonite. The Daily Planet is gassed by the Joker, killing many of Clark's personal friends. A final battle between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom rages at the gates of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Luthor and Brainiac, as well as several lesser villains and heroes, are killed in the fray. Ultimately, Superman learns that his two greatest enemies had themselves been manipulated by Mr. Mxyzptlk, who had changed by the Crisis from mischievous to fully malevolent. Superman traps Mxyzptlk in a portal to the Phantom Zone, and the imp attempts to escape to the Fifth Dimension, splitting his essence between realities and destroying him utterly. It is the first time Superman deliberately ends an enemy's life, and the act sends shockwaves through the heroic community.
This only raises tensions between the Justice League and the global Super-Powers, culminating in a second confrontation with Batman. Unlike their battle thirty years previous, this is no friendly ruse, and after Batman leaves Superman near-dead from Kryptonite poisoning, the two remain bitter enemies. Weakened and disillusioned, Superman withdraws from public life and retires to the Kent Farm in Smallville.
1988: Superboy, now fully of age, takes up his father's mantle and becomes the new Superman. Jonathan Kent battles a new generation of threats, such as Livewire, Conduit, Bloodsport, the Eradicator, and the intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo.
1993: Lois Lane, age 80, dies peacefully in her sleep. A month later, Jonathan Kent is killed while saving the world from the monster Doomsday, Lex Luthor's final creation and attempt at revenge from beyond the grave.
1996: Smallville, as well as the rest of Kansas, is destroyed when Captain Atom is split open during a battle with the Parasite. The resulting explosion kills over one million people, and shocks the world into action. The Justice League, now led by Wonder Woman, begins rounding up villains and anti-heroes in order to re-educate them. Batman leads a team of freedom-fighting Outsiders to oppose this new draconian stance. And the reconstituted Legion of Doom seeks to bring it all down. Meanwhile, the US government and Cadmus, working with the remains of Brainiac, develops the ultimate weapon to undo the damage done by the superhumans: a tachyon warhead, a literal Time-Bomb that can erase those hit by it from the timeline completely.
Superman finally comes out of retirement just as this battle reaches its climax, flying the Time Bomb out beyond the Source Wall as it detonates. Cause and effect unravel. Time and space and the fundamental forces lose all meaning. Reality implodes upon itself. In the last nano-instant, the final Planck-length of existence, Superman speaks the name of every god backwards, and existence freezes and shrinks down to the point where it can be captured and kept in a bottle.
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2019: Clark Kent wakes up in a field on the outskirts of Smallville, Kansas. He lives in a tumble-down farmhouse that most people assume was abandoned decades ago. He owns a white dog named Krypto, and most of his neighbors don't pay him any mind. The world is populated with heroes he doesn't recognize, or versions of his old friends and enemies that, while familiar, aren't the same. No one has ever heard the name 'Superman' before.
The Kent Farm
Smallville, Kansas
"Is it just me," I say, squinting and shielding my eyes a bit with my right hand, "or does the sun not shine as brightly as it used to?"
Krypto leans his head to one side, as if contemplating the question, then brushes against my leg and nudges my hand to get me to start scratching behind his ears. Of course, any 'contemplating' on his behalf is purely in my imagination-- he's just a dog, and I never did learn how to communicate with animals. That's something Diana could do. Sometimes. Depending on the iteration.
A warm, dry wind sends ripples across the acres of wheat sprawling out in front of the old farm house, the stalks and seeds reflecting the sunlight in a golden shimmer. I can't help but think, however, that shimmer doesn't quite have the same luster, the same shine. Everything about this world is just a bit....dimmer.
I run my hand across the railing of my front porch, feeling the wood splinter as I put just a bit too much pressure on it. Everything here is so much more fragile. I have trouble even lifting the old tractor over my head-- not because I lack the strength to move it, but because it buckles under its own weight. And it's not just objects that break more easily, but people, too. Every day, I see people ground down by anxiety or depression, their sense of self eroded by an onslaught of frightening news, pretentious but ultimately empty post-modern junk philosophy, cheap and insipid entertainment, quick hits of dopamine from getting that 'like' on their social media platform of choice. They're angry, afraid, and alone, easy to manipulate, easy to break completely.
The more time I spend in this world, the more I think about how wrong everything is. Muted colors, faded beliefs, everything and everyone reduced to oversimplified pseudo-concepts that can be dismissed the instant they become inconvenient, offensive, or boring. The sun doesn't shine as brightly as it used to.
I've often considered putting on the suit again, giving this world and these people something to believe in, something true. Every time I go into the cellar, though, every time I open that dusty old chest and pull out my red cape and boots, I hesitate.
This isn't my world.
This isn't my fight.
But it can be, y'know.
And that isn't my voice.
Krypto lets out a whine and licks at my fingers. Finally obliging, I scratch behind his ears, and he wags his tail in enjoyment. I shake my head, pulling myself out of my reverie.
Somewhere in this world, Kara is saving lives and fighting the good fight, just like I used to. Bruce, Diana, and the rest of my friends-- or at least, other versions of them-- are taking up their own battles against the darkness, as well as dozens of other heroes completely new to me. Jimmy Olsen is snapping photographs, and Perry White is bellowing over the din of the Planet newsroom.
Lois is getting into who knows what kind of trouble.
"C'mon, boy," I say, patting his head as I step off the porch and onto the worn dirt trail headed towards the barn. "The back forty aren't going to till themselves."
I look back up to the sky, and I feel myself smile just a bit. The sun doesn't shine as brightly as it used to.
But that doesn't mean the sun isn't shining at all.
