Superman is confusing



Look, we all love Superman but with a character that long lived who has been written by many different writers it was inevitable that his comic story continuity would eventually become a snarled mess...but not in the expected manner.

Superman has been effectively had the same main back story in all incarnations: rocketed from a dying world to be raised by adopted parents. But the problem is in the details.

Those details really didn't matter until an effort to explain the difference between the Golden and Silver Age characters was made with which put the characters on two different realities called Earth-One and Earth-Two.

To make it easier to keep track of two Supermen it was stated that the Superman of Earth-Two had worked at the Daily Star under editor George Taylor and was the earlier Golden Age Superman. This plan didn't really work as people still remembered the actual Golden Age stories. However writers and editors now had an out: put those stories on yet anther Earth and say similar adventures happened on Earth-Two or Earth-One.

The problem was that writers and editors had different ideas on what stories happened on Earth-Two, Earth-One, or somewhere else (a situation that continues to this day). It also raised the issue of Imaginary Stories actually taking place elsewhere.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths event was supposed clean things up but its one Earth one timeline concept went pearshaped within a year. Then DC would do history-changing events like Zero Hour, hypertime, JLA/Avengers, and Infinite Crisis which messed up what little continuity the New Earth Superman did have.

Who was the first modern superhero on Earth-One?
An adventure of Superbaby in New Adventures of Superboy indicates that Captain Comet begun his career a few years before Superboy. By publication, Captain Comet begun his career in 1951. It is implied that Guardian and Newsboy Legion, Robotman (Robert Crane), Blackhawks, Vigilante (Greg Saunders), Manhunter (Paul Kirk), Air Wave, Plastic Man, and Congorilla, who were native to Earth-Two, had counterparts on Earth-One, because no published story shows them crossing dimensions to Earth-One.

When did Earth-One Superman begun his career?
There is a big problem; for there was no definite passage about when the adventures of the Golden Age Superman (who appears to be different from the Earth-Two version) ended and when adventures on Earth-One begun. Some catalogs indicate stories of the same comic book happening in different Earths.
 * Superman's first appearance as Superboy dates back to 1944 . However, a problem arises if you take into account that Captain Comet, the first hero of Earth-One, began his career in 1951. Then the 1944 story would be the future; a related problem is that the Superman of 1949 presents an adventure when he was Superboy pushing his career well before 1951.
 * A retcon indicates that Superboy began his career during the term of an American president strongly resembling John Kennedy (1961 to 1963) (Superboy Vol 2 23), but that would deny Superman Vol 1 170, where the hero, already adult, meets Kennedy and reveals his identity to him.
 * Another retcon indicates that Clark Kent and Lana Lang leave Smallville and move to Metropolis, where they enter college during the Vietnam War, which occurred between 1955 and 1963; it is understood that Superboy was in his last years before adopting the nickname of Superman. (Superman Vol 1 370)
 * Yet another retcon indicates that Superboy would have become Superman at some point in the 1970s; however, we see the hero apprehending Luthor for attempting to hack bank accounts with a computer, which would be inconsistent with the technology of the time. (Superman: The Secret Years Vol 1 1-4)


 * Mark Gruenwald suggested the adventures of Superman (and Batman) between (1951) and (1960) took place on another Earth which he dubbed Earth-E.


 * Justice League of America Vol 1 144 states that in February 1959, an embryo of what one year later would become the Justice League was formed when Commander Blanx and his group of white Martians went after the Martian Manhunter following his trail. If we take into account this story, with Superman already adult among the group, the three previous retcons are invalid. The story suggests hysteria in the population due to the Cold War, which could only match the reality of 1959, and can not be embedded in another era.
 * Taking into account that Superman vol 1 # 76 (from 1952) contains the first encounter of Batman from Earth-One and Superman from Earth-One, we can kick that Superboy has changed his nickname to Superman around that year or just before.

Timeline

 * 1938: Introduced in and running through, Superman (Clark Kent) worked in Cleveland for the Daily Star under editor George Taylor.
 * 1939: Superman's home town is changed to Metropolis. He still works for the Star under Taylor.
 * 1940: Introduction of the Daily Planet, initially still with Taylor as editor. The radio show The Adventures of Superman introduces a new editor, Perry White, who appears as the Planet's editor. He is introduced into comics later that year. With the steamlining of the Multiverse during the Silver Age, the "canon" Earth-Two version only ever worked for the Daily Star under Taylor, and eventually succeeded him. The Golden Age Daily Planet/Perry White stories are later ascribed to Earth-Two-A.
 * 1941: A bald Lex Luthor is introduced. The Golden Age bald Lex Luthor stories are later ascribed to Earth-Two-A, as the regular Lex Luthor of Earth-Two retained his red hair.
 * 1942: Superman first demonstrates his "super muscular control" which allowed him to contort his face into any form of disguise that he wished. These stories are later ascribed to Earth-Two-A.  Superman as Clark Kent distracts Lois from watching a 1940s Superman Cartoon  This is labeled as the first Imaginary Story in  though it originally didn't run with that claim. Many of these what-if stories are later explained as taking place on other worlds, though some are dreams or metafiction.
 * 1945: Superman's heretofore unexplored youth in Smallville is explored with the introduction of Superboy, the teenage Clark Kent. This also mark the first time Kryptonians are said to non super on their native planet.
 * 1947: Clark Kent is is shown to have gone to high school in Metropolis, not Smallville. This is later retconned to have taken place on Earth-Forty.
 * 1948: Superman's original origin (where Kryptonians are super powerful on their native planet due to their advanced evolution) is detailed in comic book form.
 * 1949: First published comic book appearance of Kryptonite.
 * 1951: Superman's origin is told including his Superboy career. but the Kryptonians are super powerful on their native planet origin is retold in.
 * 1969: Following the creation of the Multiverse, the Superman of Earth-Two has his first, non-retroactive, appearance.