History
The Superman Family is an unofficial informal name given to Superman and his various allies. However, a subgroup called Team Superman is another unofficial informal name for Superman and his partners. The current members are Supergirl, Power Girl, Lor-Zod, Krypto, and Steel.
Golden Age
Before the planet Krypton was destroyed, a wise scientist named Jor-El and his wife, Lara Lor-Van, placed their infant child, Kal-El, into a rocket spaceship and sent him towards Earth. After landing on Earth, Kal-El is adopted by virtuous parents, Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent, changing his name to Clark Kent. Young Clark finds out that due to the yellow sun, he has astonishing superpowers beyond that of any human being. Going through high school and college, Clark decided to use his powers for good and started working at The Daily Planet as a reporter. With this job, Clark can be informed of any perilous event where his superpowers are needed. Thus, the hero Superman was born.
For the first several years in his career, Superman operated alone, believing he can do most good by himself. Retroactively, a comic book series chronicled Clark Kent's adventures when he was younger and he became Superboy, but that was further retconned after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Silver Age
Superman found out he had a female cousin, Kara Zor-El, who was sent by her parents Zor-El and Alura from Argo City to be raised by Kal-El. Kara adopted the aliases, "Linda Lee", and "Linda Danvers" and worked alongside Superman for three years as Superman's "secret weapon". While temporarily powerless due to the scheming of Kandorian scientist Lesla-Lar, who is out to supplant her on Earth, Linda allows herself to be adopted by engineer and rocket scientist Fred Danvers and his wife, Edna. In time, she reveals her secret identity to her adoptive parents on the same day her cousin Superman finally introduces her to the world.
When frequent dreams about her parents being alive turn out to be real, she builds a machine aided by her engineer father's talent, and brings them both back alive from the "Survival Zone" where they had both teleported during Argo City's final moments. Zor-El and Alura eventually end up living in Kandor, and when the city in the bottle is enlarged, they both go on to live in Rokyn/New Krypton, where they have the sad duty of receiving her mortal remains after "Crisis" for burial.
Graduating high school in 1965, Linda Lee goes to College on a scholarship and stays in Stanhope College until 1971, when she graduates there, too. During this era, she is helped by her pet cat Streaky, her Super-Horse pet Comet and befriends Lena Thorul, who had first appeared in Lois Lane series. Kara is also a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes where she develops a special friendship with its many-times leader Brainiac 5. In addition, Linda has boyfriends from the orphanage (Richard "Dick" Malverne) and from Atlantis (Jerro the Merboy). Supergirl allied with Batgirl on several occasions while under her decided alias, "Linda Lee Danvers", she took a variety of jobs including graduate school in acting, television reporter, and student counselor, and finally became an actress on the TV soap "Secret Hearts." Besides Supergirl, another ally, Eradicator, was introduced when he saved Superman's life at the expense of his life. Soon afterwards, Eradicator would soon become a superhero while also sometimes being a supervillain.
Bronze Age - Modern Age
As modern times came along, many reincarnations of the Superman Family were created to establish different continuities among all of DC's comic books, thereby explaining most discrepancies. In 1985, in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the greatest heroes from Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Four, Earth-S and Earth-X joined forces in order to defeat the Anti-Monitor. When Superman comes face to face with the Anti-Monitor and is knocked unconscious, Supergirl rushes to save him before he is killed. She is able to fight him off long enough for Dr. Light to carry her cousin to a safe distance, but is killed by the Anti-Monitor. Batgirl gives her eulogy at a publicly held memorial service in Chicago. Batgirl states, "Kara is a hero, she will not be forgotten." Superman then gives his late cousin burial by taking her corpse to Rokyn/New Krypton to Zor-El and Alura.
In 2004, Supergirl returns in mainstream continuity in Superman/Batman: Supergirl. Her origin is similar to that of the Silver Age portrayal except that she's older than Kal-El and her ship was caught in suspended animation after being thrust into a large green kryptonite meteorite. Besides Supergirl, Superboy also returns after The Death of Superman storyline as a clone of Lex Luthor and Superman. Due to implications of being created by Project Cadmus, Superboy succeeded into fully becoming a force of good after severing his mind control from Lex Luthor, who schemed to make him a sleeper agent among the superhero community. Sadly, Superboy didn't live enough soon afterwards when during Infinite Crisis, he died in a fight with Superboy-Prime. Another one of Superman's allies, Strange Visitor, soon met her peril during Our Worlds at War.
Strange Visitor aka Sharon Vance was a childhood friend of Clark's in Smallville, Kansas. She became struck by lighting while flying a plane with Kismet, making them both fuse into one being of pure electromagnetic energy. She became famous as a hero in her city after battling Gorilla Grodd. Unfortunately, she died after giving her powers to Superman in order to fight Imperiex's fleet. Another ally of Superman came in the form of John Henry Irons aka Steel, another superhero who was inspired by Kal-El to fight for good after Superman died. Steel eventually came to Metropolis and helped Kal-El fight Doomsday In Superman's temporary absence, he fought off several gangs and Superman impostors including Eradicator. Ironically, Eradicator made Kal-El come back to life after making him a conduit to base his new body on. Steel fought The Eradicator in order to stop him from killing potential adversaries as part of the Eradicator's plot to make himself the ultimate superhero in Superman's absence.
Eradicator soon relocated to Coast City, hoping to make an admirable hero public image. Mongul and Cyborg Superman nearly destroyed Eradicator in an elaborate plot to frame him for the attack and establish another Warworld. Eradicator returned to The Fortress of Solitude and discovered Superman, alive and well. Kal-El thanked the Eradicator for reviving him and touched by that sentiment, Eradicator then joined forces with Superman, Steel, Supergirl, and Green Lantern to fight Mongul and Cyborg Superman from destroying Metropolis. In the process, Eradicator sacrificed himself again by shielding Superman from a lethal-blast of Kryptonite fuel, thereby giving Kal-El his powers back as result of Eradicator's mass which altered the kryptonite radiation, allowing Superman to absorb power from it. Soon thereafter, S.T.A.R. Labs employee David Connor merged with the dead Eradicator, forming another being. After another fit of villainy in which Eradicator/Connor attempts to merge with Brainiac 13 to recreate Krypton, Eradicator returned to his humanoid state of being, changing his costume to have more Kryptonian roots like Superman, and becoming a superhero of sorts. Just before Infinite Crisis, Connor went into a coma after fighting OMACs.
After being a crucial figure in saving the world many times, John Irons retired up until 52 where he had to don his costume again in order to fight off the Secret Society of Super-Villains.
More to come...
Paraphernalia
Equipment: Steel uses a large steel hammer to inflict damage to his enemies.
Transportation: Self-flight,
Weapons: Various superpowers including super-strength, X-ray vision, heat vision, super-telescopic vision, invulnerability
Trivia
- A comic book series entitled "Superman Family" ran from 1974 to 1982. The series included the adventures of Kal-L with his wife, Lois Lane; the first Krypto's adventures and Clark Kent's life without being Superman.
See Also
- 114 Appearances of Superman Family
- 29 Images that include Superman Family
- Organization Gallery: Superman Family
Links
- None.