Superman: The Marvel Universe

Real Name: Clark Joseph Kent Occupation: Investigative journalist, adventurer Identity: Secret Legal Status: American citizen with no criminal record Place of Birth: Smallville, Kansas Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: Jonathan Kent (father), Martha Clark Kent (mother), Harry Kent (uncle), Sarah Kent (aunt) Base of Operations: New York City

Costume: Superman wears a blue bodysuit complemented by red trunks, red boots, and a long, flowing red cape. A yellow belt encircles his waist, and there is a highly stylized Superman insignia - consisting of a large red letter "S" inscribed within a yellow shield, which is bordered in red - emblazoned on his chest. The back of Superman's cape bears a similar insignia, except that this one consists of a yellow letter "S" inscribed within a yellow shield bordered in yellow. The body suit is protected by the Superman's own indestructible aura. The cape has no such protection and is often destroyed during the course of Superman's activities.

History: Clark Joseph Kent was born in Smallville, Kansas and raised on a farm just outside the town. When Clark began attending elementary school, he quickly made friends of classmates Lana Lang and Pete Ross. He picked up good values from his loving hard-working parents Martha and Jonathan Kent, learning responsibility in helping with chores around the farm. He also acquired his parents' love of reading and often derived as much pleasure from sitting under a tree with a book as he did from a fast game of softball. For all intents and purposes, Clark appeared to be just another normal, healthy American boy.

But he was not normal. For he was mutant and as he entered puberty his cells began storing and processing the radiation of Earth's sun in a way that would endow him with numerous superhuman abilities. As he grew older, Clark became increasingly stronger and more powerful. The first noticeable consequence of his power came when Clark was 13 years old. Taking a short cut across a pasture, he was trampled by an angry bull, but he sustained no injuries. A few months later, Martha Kent was astounded to see her son casually lift the back end of their pick-up truck to retrieve a ball that had rolled out of reach.

At the age of 14, Clark discovered that he could see farther and in increasingly greater detail than any of his friends and that he could see through solid objects if he concentrated and he also developed the ability to emit heat from his eyes. Soon after Clark began wearing eyeglasses to help control his vision powers, so he didn't accidentally look somewhere he shouldn't or set something on fire. A little while after turning 17, Clark found that he could step off into the air and fly. His joy at the discovery of his power was boundless, as was his parent's astonishment.

Throughout their son's adolescence, Martha and Jonathan kept his incredible abilities secret and always stressed the importance of this secrecy to Clark. His parents feared that if knowledge of Clark's powers became public, he might be taken away from them. They suspected that some people would be afraid of him or consider him a monster and that unscrupulous people would try to exploit his powers. They knew that at the very least, the inevitable publicity would disrupt their lives for all time.

Moreover, Clark's parents cautioned him that while his powers were a great gift, they didn't necessarily make him a better person. Martha and Jonathan impressed on the boy the responsibilities that power entails. They also taught him that each individual should strive to leave the world a better place than they found it. As firm believers in the Golden Rule, they told Clark that he should never use his special powers to set himself up as better than anyone else or to make other people feel useless.

But youthful exuberance often overcomes the best intentions. During his senior year in high school, Clark began to utilize his strength and speed on the footfall field, becoming the star of the team. After winning the final game of the season almost single-handedly. Clark found his stern-faced father waiting on the sidelines. Jonathan had a long talk with his son about his great powers needing a nobler purpose than winning sporting events. After hours of discussion and reflection, Clark shamefacedly agreed with his father. He realized that the time had come to shoulder his responsibilities.

Months later, after graduating from high school, Clark said an emotional goodbye to his parents. For the next four years, he wandered the Earth, mastering his amazing powers and employing them - always in secret - to help other people, to save lives, and to prevent disasters. Places he went to include India, the High Sierras, China, Bangkok, the Amazon, and the Sudan. He traveled, observed, and learned much about the ways of the world, but finally he concluded that he needed a more formal education. He moved to New York City and enrolled in Empire State University.

Clark threw himself into his studies. He decided to major in journalism, but he eagerly took as many additional courses as he could, obtaining a board base of knowledge in both the sciences and humanities. He also found that he could apply many of his travel experiences for additional credit. During this time, Clark acquired an abiding love for New York City and its people. It was in that city, not long after graduating summa cum laude from ESU, that circumstances forced Clark to use his powers in public for the first time.

The Constitution, NASA's experimental space plane, was ending its maiden flight with a landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Daily Globe reporter Lois Lane was one of the crew members aboard the space plane as part of NASA's Journalists-in-Space program. She had been submitting daily reports on the Constitution's flight to the nation's media, and an enormous crowd had congregated at the airport for the historic landing. All was going according to plan until a small civilian plan slipped into the secured airspace and collided with the space plan. Fused together by the impact, the airplanes plummeted earthwards, out of control.

Clark Kent, watching the landing in the midst of the gathered crowd, realized that he had only moments to prevent a crash and leapt skyward. Grabbing the Constitution, he put all of his strength and his astounding power of flight into righting the crafts and bringing them in for a landing. Once the ships were safe on the ground, Lois immediately disembarked to question him. Their eyes met, and for a moment, neither of them could say a word.

Then the crowd surged past security barricades, surrounding the hero-of-the-day. Clark was mobbed by people clutching and pulling at him. They all wanted to touch him. Their voices rose in a roar of offers and demands. To Clark's mind, it was as if they all wanted a piece of him. Appalled by the crowd's reaction, Clark fled the scene before he could be identified, flying to think at the farm back in Kansas. Lois Lane, meanwhile, filled her story of the rescue, describing as best she could the unknown "Superman" who had saved the planes and the crew's lives.

Unsure what to do, Clark sought guidance from his parents. Jonathan Kent suggested that Clark adopt a costumed secret identity, in which he could publicly use his powers for good. Clark and his parents devised his new identity as Superman, taking the name that the Daily Globe reporter had given her mysterious rescuer. Martha Kent created Superman's uniform, employing Clark's suggestions. She remembered how the only items of clothing that had survived her son's developing powers were those that fit most snugly, so she designed the uniform to be skin-tight blue bodysuit. Clark and Jonathan together designed the distinctive S emblem on a triangular shield for the chest and red cape of his uniform.

Working with his parents, Clark devised subtle tricks of appearance by which he could divert any attention from his resemblance to Superman. His glasses changed the shape of his face when he wore them and the slightly tinted lenses darkened his bright blue eyes. Clark would adjust his style of dress, wearing looser clothing to hide his very muscular physique. He would also adjust his posture by slouching to appear a little shorter and soften his voice. He also tidied up his seemingly naturally messy hair. Clark reasoned that by appearing unmasked as Superman, he would distract most people from even considering that he might spend part of his time as someone else. Besides, not wearing his glasses while in costume already made his face look very different to an astonishing degree. As an added precaution, as Superman he would vibrate his face at an almost infinitesimal level. It would be so slight to be completely unnoticeable to someone looking at him, but would be enough so that photographs would only show his features as a blur, thus preventing the danger of photos of both identities being reliably compared.

Returning to New York, Superman quickly made his presence known. Nothing escaped his attention, from simple purse snatchings to three-alarm fires to attempted bank robberies. Exhilarated by the opportunity to operate openly, Superman seemed to be everywhere at once in the days that followed. The effect of Superman's actions against the criminal element caused a major down turn in crime, but neither the police nor Lois Lane could get any firm details on their city's new hero. Threatened by Superman many New York City crime syndicates formed a single organization under the leadership of Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim. He unified the cartels into "Intergang" and hit back at Superman with mutant henchmen. The police responded to the incident by forming the Special Crimes Unit (SCU). Closer ties between Superman and the police were fostered when Clark used a carefully managed "interview" to scoop a job at the Daily Globe and to explain Superman's agenda. His sudden appearance with the scoop of the decade earned him Lois's enmity. She had delivered a similar story onto the desk of the Daily Globe's editor, Barney Bushkin, which she had obtained by deliberately putting herself in danger to lure Superman to her rescue.

When Superman first appeared in New York it was a city controlled by one man, Lex Luthor. Luthor had pulled himself out of the slums and had built a multinational empire called Lex Corp, with holdings in almost every major industry. He directly or indirectly employed nearly two thirds of the people in New York City. That power base made Luthor the most powerful man in New York and he did not let people forget it. He used carefully arranged charitable donations and civic schemes to create an image of a benevolent businessman, yet behind the scenes Luthor controlled the Mayor's Office and often used his own security force to strong arm opponents into shady and illegal deals. Of course carefully faked documents and a legal web made sure no evidence could ever be pinned on Luthor. He was never arrested until he tried to ensnare Superman in his web.

Seeing that Superman had eclipsed him, Luthor was determined to bring this intriguing outsider on to his team. He staged a high society party on his private yacht knowing that it was going to be targeted by a terrorist faction. When the terrorists attacked Luthor deliberately held his personal security force back to draw Superman into the open. Afterwards Superman found himself on the receiving end of a twenty-five thousand-dollar check from Luthor. The outraged Mayor deputized Superman and ordered him to arrest Luthor on charges of reckless endangerment.

Lex Luthor was booked and charged like any common criminal, but his lawyers had the charges thrown out and it never came to court. It was the start of a bitter war between Superman and Luthor. The two have come into conflict repeatedly, each despising the other immensely.

Superman has since established himself as the greatest champion of justice in New York City, and, indeed, the world.

Height: 6'3" Weight: 225 Hair: Black Eyes: Blue

Know Superhuman Powers: Clark Joseph Kent is a mutant. Due to his x-factor gene, his body produces a complex cellular protein that has a spectacular effect on his mitochondria (organelles responsible for ATP synthesis). This "metaprotein" causes the mitochondria to absorb solar energy and store it. Once the biochemically-altered mitochondria achieve saturation levels of this radiation, they begin to re-radiate the energy in the form of a bioelectric forcefield. Each individual cell within the field's radius becomes reinforced in such a way that the cells are not only protected from external harm, but internal forces as well. It is this last which is key to Clark's great powers. Since the individual cells are wholly invulnerable, they are capable of operating at levels of efficiency that would destroy normal human cells. These "super-cells" lend an enhancing effect to all bodily systems...muscular, metabolic, nervous, and so forth. The continual absorption of solar energy provides a constant power source for these enhanced systems. Thus, Superman is capable of incredible superhuman feats.

Naturally, the basic forcefield effect renders him invulnerable to large amounts of damage. Unlike a normal human, Superman's body has more than simple cohesion and adhesion holding his tissues together. The bioelectric forcefield has a set tolerance for how much stress occurs before it reacts energetically in opposition to the external force. The tolerance for how much stress occurs before Superman's tissues counteract it varies according to tissue type. His bones allow virtually no compressional or tensional strain (deformation in shape) and his fleshy tissues remain supple under soft pressure, but under stress react to restrict any further deformation in shape. Since the strength of Superman's cellular forcefields greatly exceeds the cohesive force of any substance, no ordinary object can puncture his skin.

Superman can withstand a 1-megaton nuclear explosion without ill effect, and has been able to tolerate the molten conditions in the Earth's core with only discomfort. He could not, however, survive the conditions inside a star, but can safely approach to within several miles of Earth's sun, probably due to a feedback loop of solar energy powering his bioelectric field. Superman can easily survive conditions in deep space, but he does need to breathe, eat, sleep, and excrete. Superman can hold his breath for a maximum of twelve hours, and requires two hours of sleep a night to function at peak mental efficiency, as well needing to dream at least half an hour a night, or experience the psychological effects of sleep deprivation as would any other person who missed a night of sleep. When his solar energy is depleted, his resistance to physical punishment drops to approximately one-quarter the normal amount. Withstanding large amounts of damage continuously over time will rapidly deplete his solar reserves.

Superman's cells provoke one another into releasing their respective energy when one begins to threaten the integrity of the other. Because of a certain degree of constant pressure, there is a continuously emitted radiance of the bioelectric field reaching slightly beyond his body, a sort of aura that protects items near his skin e.g. a costume. The aura also protects Superman's teeth, however his hair and nails are only partially protected due to certain cellular properties they possess. They are invulnerable to fire, however they can still be cut.

Due to the highly charged nature of his solar storage systems, his immune system deals with most normal poisons and diseases quickly and with no ill effect. Ionizing radiation and similar harmful energies are similarly neutralized.

His physical strength is greatly magnified by the combination of his more-efficient muscular system and the enhancement of his skeletal system's structural integrity, but is primarily augmented by the sheer force of his solar forcefield. When Superman appears to be lifting a weight, he is actually holding and pushing it with the bioelectric field. His energy stores push not from himself, but from the shielding that surrounds him. So the shielding is controlled on the highest level and simulates strength. He can lift 100,000 tons with serious effort. The conjectured upper limit of his physical strength has been determined to be approximately 250,000 tons with great effort, and causing strain damage to himself equivalent to an average adult human male lifting 500 pounds. Continual exertion will deplete his solar energy, and greatly exceeding his normal lift will drain him more rapidly.

Similarly, Superman's enhanced metabolic rate, muscular speed, and nervous system grant him incredible speed. His metaprotein-altered cellular structure and the solar energy paths that course along his neurophysical structure allow him to react at many times normal human speed. He can read a complete encyclopedia set in seconds, wash a sink full of dishes in the blink of an eye, or run from New York City to Paris in a matter of minutes. He can move faster than the human eye can perceive if necessary, but this requires extra effort. His reflexes are quick enough to allow him to dodge incoming automatic laser fire.

Superman's perceptions are similarly rapid, allowing him to see individual bullets fired from high-speed automatic weaponry in flight and outrace them easily. Moving at extreme speeds for extended periods of time rapidly drains his solar reserves. In a full drained state, his reflexes are only sufficient enough to dodge semi-automatic projectile weapons and read the encyclopedia set in under 10 minutes.

The augmented intracellular functions of Superman's sensory organs combined with the increased capacity of his nervous system provides for the greatly enhanced senses. His range of hearing extends from the subsonic through to the point where signal modulation in broadcast communications can be sensed and demodulated into "sounds" if he concentrates. He can distinctly hear soft sounds anywhere on Earth if he is listening for them. He has perfect pitch. He has, on occasion, sat and perceived every sound on Earth as a symphony of a living planet.

His visual reception range covers the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum. The difference between normal human and Superman's vision is that Superman has the capability to see a much wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum; while most other people only sense a very narrow band of the spectrum we call visible light. Superman can change the spectrum he perceives at any given time, by changing the chemical receptors in the rods and cones of his retinas. He can adjust his photovoltaic detection as an act of will to sense longer wavelengths down to the infrared, and higher energy light, up to X-ray and gamma radiation.

Superman's metaprotein-altered muscle tissue when super-charged with solar-energy, can generate a powerful gravitational field. These fields in combination with Superman's personal bioelectric field give him the ability to negate gravity, allowing him to fly. When in flight, he's fully suspended by this energy, almost completely repelling Earth's gravimetric influence over him. He becomes his own center of gravity, and no longer has to physically leverage against the gravity of whatever planetary body he's on, or any object. By instinctively controlling an output of his energy from his aura, he is able to mentally push himself to a direction and speed of his own liking through sheer force of will. Controlling his motion, Superman is capable of Mach speeds in excess of Mach 10 in atmosphere. He can fly to the Moon in minutes, but faster than that outside of atmospheric interference. His control of his flight is perfect and he can perform aerobatic feats such as hovering, flying backwards and even lifting great weights while flying.

Superman can use the gravitational fields generated by the muscles in his eyes to produce a gravity lens, allowing him to focus far beyond the range of the human eye. Combined with Superman's sensitivity to light, he can magnify an image a virtually countless number of times. Superman can see through solids objects by using a combination of these telescopic and microscopic visual abilities to see through the atomic structure of an object and focus past it, as a camera focuses beyond the dust on a lens. Certain dense materials, notably lead, obstruct this ability.

Superman has the ability to expel stored (solar/electromagnetic) internal energy in the form of focused beams of radiation from his eyes. He emits light along various frequencies in high energy bursts that flash-melts materials in seconds, weaken structural integrity over a smaller area, such as melting the barrel of a gun but leaving the handle untouched. Superman can control his heat vision and direct it wherever he wants to. He directs it with his eyes.

In actuality, Superman could not emit the beams directly from his eyes. The energy is actually built up on the surface of the bio-energetic field surrounding his body and emitted from there. This allows his body to be protected from the energy and absorbing stray electromagnetic energy back into his body. Superman's energy reclamation aura is so efficient that any radiation, even those emitted from him, once in the environment are able to be reabsorbed.

The heat beams are psionically controlled and that control is reflexive, so he can shut it off without accidentally damaging anything that he does not want to. He can emit the radiation visibly or invisibly at lower settings. His energy has a high visibility profile if emitted at higher levels.

Superman requires solar energy to function at peak capacity, or his powers fade to greatly reduced levels, some disappearing entirely if his solar reserves are empty. Superman cannot absorb energy from the lower frequency orange O-class stars and cannot process the higher-frequency White K or blue F classes. Blue B and yellow G type stars are ideal.

Superman's body stores and processes solar energy at a rapid rate and for a variety of effects, which are explained in his other powers. His storage capacity is sufficient to let him function at full capacity for up to 14 days depending on his physical condition and state of rest. While under a star of the right class (G-type dwarfs in the blue-white through yellow spectrum are ideal) and within a planetary atmosphere, he replenishes energy at a constant rate.

If forced to expend large amounts of energy over a relatively short time, or to maintain constant exertion over longer periods of time, he tires and his power begins to diminish. Constant exertion will revert him to normal human levels after 14 days without rest. The power recovers at the rate of normal rest, and a full recharge can be accomplished with two days of no more than moderate, normal-level exertion. A process of solar recharge is also known, but requires massive amounts of fusion energy of solar/light-based superpowers.

Weaknesses: The fatal flaw in Clark Kent's cellular physiology is the unique radiation given off by an extremely rare extraterrestrial mineral named kryptonite. In the most minute amounts, the radiation waveforms and high-energy particles emitted by kryptonite can react catastrophically with the very "metaprotein" that grants Superman powers. The briefest contact can strip these powers, and further begin a fatal poisoning that totally shuts down cellular activity in the affected areas.

As kryptonite radiation makes its way through his bloodstream, Superman becomes instantly weak and ill in its unshielded presence, and prolonged exposure will render him unconscious (after 30 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the sample, and the current state of his solar reserves), and would eventually (after two to four hours) reach all parts of his body and bring death as his body's immune system attempts to expel the deadly toxin. However, the rate of recovery once removed from the emissions is as rapid as the rate of damage, and Superman will be back to normal in under an hour after exposure in optimal conditions. Kryptonite emissions can be blocked by lead and other super-dense materials.

Further, the radiation signature of M-class stars instantly causes Superman's mitochondrial structures to lose their stored energy, reducing him to normal human levels.