══ III ══
-
"You will give the people an ideal to strive towards.
They will race behind you.
The will stumble. They will fall.
But, in time, they will join you in the sun.
In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."
-
Clark Kent
The last son of Krypton, Kal-El, ventures justly into a world not of his own with an unerring desire to do what is right. Clear, blue eyes kindled with affinity lament his inability to liberate all and sundry, often restive by his accountable acts of failure. His earnest demeanor personifies optimism despite the throe of affliction that he conceals. Like a pennant, his blazing cape dances sublimely as a marker in the darkness enlightening the path to justice.
|ORIGINS|
For eons the Kryptonian civilization had evolved from humble beginnings through vast planetary wars and a flowering of both cultural and scientific thought to become one of the most technologically advanced cultures in the Galaxy. However, there was a price to pay for this Utopian world. As their technology grew and they achieved near immortality via medicine, their society lost a certain human aspect -- they shut themselves away in ivory towers fearing unprocessed soil and individual thought.
It was in to this dying society that the scientist Jor-El was to come. One of Krypton's greatest thinkers for generations it was he who finally diagnosed the strange "Green Death" that was killing the population. He discovered that the ancient wars had taken a toll on the structure of the planet unleashing tremendous forces that were fusing the native elements into a new radioactive compound. It was the radiation from this now deemed Kryptonite that was killing his people. However, the ruling body would not believe Jor El's prediction that the continuing synthesis of Kryptonite would cause a chain reaction that would inevitably destroy their planet.
Knowing that the end was near for his home world, Jor-El removed his son (still in his artificial womb) from the traditional chambers and placed him in an experimental space craft. Jor-El and his partner Lara Lor-Van launched the craft as Krypton began to die. In their last moments together Jor-El declared his love for Lara, an act that was totally alien to that of Krypton's cold, dead society.
Upon landing, the child was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville, Kansas. The kindly couple decided they would adopt and raise him as their own, eventually settling on the name Clark Kent, which was Martha's maiden name. He grew up on the Kent's values, and as such, became fallible to a fault which gives way to his sense of humanity, and stands as proof that Clark is also good to the core.
Clark was not like the other normal children in Smallville, and although the differences were not immediate to start with, he grew to find that he possessed powers and abilities that were far beyond those of his fellow mortal men. These abilities increased steadily as he matured, with super-strength and invulnerability manifesting at an early age and the power of flight developing during high school. His adopted parents revealed the rocket and his foreign heritage to their son when he was 18, leading Clark to the decision that he would become a hero in secret and use his powers to protect innocents.
After graduating high school, Clark entered Metropolis University where he majored in Journalism. With an interview eventually lined up for a position at the Daily Planet, Clark was waiting around in Metropolis savoring the sights of the vast city. Nearby, however, tragedy struck when a small plane crashed into the Space Plane, a vessel where a gathering had amassed in celebration of it's completion. In an instant Clark knew what he had to do. Using his secret abilities to catch the falling plane he, at last, revealed his existence to a watching world. Moving at superspeed he was able to save the plane and make a get away however, barring a brief encounter with the reporter Lois Lane.
Clark returned to his parents in Smallville to seek their advice over what to do next. The world had seen him as a superhero, but had not yet made the connection to Clark Kent, thankfully. It was Jonathan Kent who came up with the idea of a costumed identity of Superman modeled on those of the mystery men from the Justice Society.
After settling on a disguise as a newly established version of a mild-mannered Clark Kent, he returned to Metropolis where he was able to deliver to Perry White, Chief Editor of the Daily Planet, the inside scoop on 'Superman', a name coined by Lois Lane, earning him the job as a field reporter for the Daily Planet. With Perry, Lois and club photographer Jimmy Olsen, Clark was able to build himself a second family in Metropolis. All the while Superman patrolled over head fighting the forces of evil that threatened the world and the city.
═════════════════
|DAILY PLANET|
"Whenever a story happens,
The Planet gets it first,
And has it webbed and in print
While the New York Times is still fishing for sources."
The Daily Planet is one of Metropolis's oldest and most respected newspapers. The paper's slogan is "Straight from the Source." The Daily Planet is based in a tall skyscraper building with a rooftop that overlooks the entire city of Metropolis. It is located at address 355, 1000 Broadway in Metropolis, Kansas, next door to LuthorCorp Plaza and across the street from the Ace of Clubs, and is a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises. There are also Daily Planet subsections located in cities like Gotham, Central, Coast City, to name a few.
Indoors, junior reporters and photographers at the Planet work in exposed desks in a basement bullpen. The top reporters/senior reporters at the paper work on higher level floors in the building. Top reporters, columnists and editors typically get their own offices. The building has a large staircase in the center of leads all the way from the basement to the roof with a bank of elevators that connects the floors within the building.
There is an enormous walk-in freezer in the building, presumably servicing the Daily Planet kitchen, plenty of supply closets to service and maintain the building. Some floors appear to be dedicated to specific departments; for example, the entire sixth floor is dedicated to political correspondence.
-
Superman
"It's not an 'S'. On my world, it means 'hope.'"
|POWERS AND ABILITIES|
- Superhuman Solar Energy: Superman gets the majority of his powers from Earth's yellow star, effectively making him a giant solar battery; when he uses Super Flare he expels that stored up energy in the form of a giant blast.
- Solar Energy Absorption and Healing Factor: Superman's powers rely on his cells' ability to absorb and metabolize solar energy from yellow stars like Earth's sun. His Kryptonian body is a living "solar battery" that absorbs solar energies and converts them to fuel for vast superhuman abilities that wouldn't otherwise be afforded under Rao, Krypton's red supergiant. His cells also store yellow sun energy so he can use his powers under objects, at night, in dark places, and in space. Superman possesses remarkable recuperative powers that allow him to quickly heal from wounds and makes him immune to all forms of human or Earthly diseases, illnesses, viruses and toxins. Superman heals faster when he is closer to the sun.
- Heat Vision: Ability to emit solar energy from his eyes. This usually resembles bright red or orange laser-like beams, which may be invisible at low temperatures but extremely bright at high ones. The effective range of his beams are hundreds of feet. It can also reach hundreds of miles wide, instantly disintegrating a person. In addition to varying the beam width, height, and intensity, Superman has demonstrated a high degree of skill and accuracy in manipulating his beam, being able to use this power with surgical precision and at microscopic levels.
- Solar Flare: This power utilizes all the solar energy stored within Superman's cells, allowing him to resort to an all-out attack. However, Superman cannot use it more than occasionally, as it drains him of all the solar energy he has stored up until he can recharge his cells with solar energy which takes him about 24 hours. During this time frame, he is essentially human in his abilities.
- Super Longevity: Superman is known to have an extremely long life span and much slower aging process, even potentially ageless. Staying inside a star for about 1000 years stopped his aging process entirely at one point.
- Solar Invulnerability: Immunity to almost all forms of harm and ailments, including extreme force and extremely high temperatures. Effectiveness has ranged from nothing less than a "bursting shell" being able to pierce his skin to being completely unharmed by a star going supernova to the collapse of universes.
- Flight: Because Earth and the Sun exhibits less gravitational pull than that of Krypton, and also due to his solar-powered body, the Man of Steel can also alter his personal mono-directional gravity field to propel himself through the air at will.
- Superhuman Strength and Endurance: Enhanced physical strength far above that of a human and even most super-humans, is one of Superman's signature powers and has often been described as chief among his other abilities. While in direct yellow sunlight, his strength and stamina can be augmented to incalculable and limitless levels.
- Superhuman Speed and Reflexes: Another one of Superman's signature abilities is his superhuman speed, allowing him to move, react, run and fly faster than the human eye can perceive. His thoughts, perceptions and reflexes are also accelerated to be able to control his actions while moving at high speeds and being able to perceive the world in slow-motion. Some claim him to be faster than the speed of thought.
- Superhuman Intelligence: Superman is often shown to have a flawless, eidetic memory of everything he has ever seen, read, heard, or otherwise experienced. In most portrayals, Superman is capable of multilingualism and is able to learn, speak and understand any language he comes in contact with.
- Martial Arts: He has fought and learned from Wonder Woman and has also learned martial arts techniques from Batman. To a lesser degree, Superman is also adept at armed combat, as he is shown to be decent with a sword and hammer. He has also learned two different types of Kryptonian fighting styles, Torquasm-Rao and Torquasm-Vo to enhance his body and mind.
- Superhuman Breath: The ability to inhale and exhale huge volumes of air with great force, capable of extinguishing large fires and moving heavy objects such as cars. Super-breath also allows Superman to hold his breath for extended periods in airless environments. He also has Ice Breath which can cool almost anything to sub-zero temperatures and freeze air moisture solid, effectively creating ice.
- Superhuman Senses:
- X-Ray Vision: The ability to see through solid objects, usually with the exception of lead, without actual emission of harmful radiation.
- Superhuman Hearing: Can hear far more sounds with far more detail and at far greater distances than normally humanly possible, including sounds on frequencies undetectable by humans such as dog whistles. Superman is able to mentally screen out most of these sounds to be able to function normally, even in a noisy environment, and can focus in on specific things, like a person's voice or heartbeat (typically focused on Bruce Wayne's), even if they are in another part of the city.
- Superhuman Vision:His senses grant him the ability to see farther and with greater accuracy and detail than humanly possible. Sometimes includes the ability to see EM frequencies invisible to humans, such as radio transmissions, infrared light, and the bioelectric aura which surrounds all living things, even in pitch-black darkness. Offshoots of this power include Telescopic Vision, which allows him to "zoom in" on far away objects, sometimes hundreds of miles away, and Microscopic Vision, which allows him to zoom in on objects that would normally be too small to see, like those on a cellular or molecular level.
- Superhuman Olfaction: A heightened and highly accurate sense of smell comparable to some animals such as dogs.
- Vocal Abilities: Superman is capable of raising his voice to loudspeaker levels, for purposes such as delivering a message to a large crowd, and is capable of mimicking the voice of others.
- Energy Awareness: Superman is able to detect and comprehend the very flow, consistency, and application of waves, signals, and transmissions throughout the world. This gives him access to new forms of information, including perceiving radio-waves and other such communications.
|WEAKNESSES|
- Kryptonite: Superman's most famous weakness, Kryptonite, originated as radioactive fragments of the planet Krypton. Kryptonite was created by fusion during the explosion that destroyed the planet. When Superman is exposed to the most common variety, green Kryptonite (within roughly ten feet/three meters or less of any size or amount), its high-band radiation rapidly interferes with this cellular process, causing severe physical pain and the loss of his powers (or at least a portion of them). Prolonged exposure to green Kryptonite may eventually lead to his death. There are other colors and affects of Kryptonite, and likely some of which that have yet to be discovered.
- Red Kryptonite: Red Kryptonite inflicts random effects on Kryptonians, typically giving the affected an initial "tingling sensation". Other forms of Red Kryptonite cause unpredictable reactions in Kryptonians where they begin acting purely on erotic and selfish emotions, effectively losing all of their inhibitions.
- Gold Kryptonite: Gold Kryptonite has an effective range of two feet, and permanently removes a Kryptonian's super-powers. It can only be found on a meteor drifting in space and can be negated through some very particular circumstances.
- White Kryptonite: White Kryptonite is harmful to plant-life.
- Black Kryptonite: Black Kryptonite causes Superman to split into two different beings, one manifesting a good and pure personality, and the other an evil personality.
- Silver Kryptonite: For Kryptonians, exposure to Silver Kryptonite yields effects similar to that of Cannabis on a human being. Those affected by it experience a loss of inhibition, altered perceptions, extreme hunger cravings and some psychotropic hallucinations. Prolonged exposure creates severe paranoia.
- Blue Kryptonite: Blue Kryptonite, thankfully, only affects Bizarro.
- Pink Kryptonite: Pink Kryptonite creates attraction to the holder, and gives Superman a more flamboyant persona. No joke, kids. This is legit canon.
- Purple Kryptonite: Some speculate that Purple Kyrptonite may have been an incredibly rare version of Kryptonite that disappeared some time ago. The affects are claimed to be similar to that of Green Kryptonite.
- Jewel Kryptonite: Jewel Kryptonite possesses the ability to grant and amplify psychic powers of those affected.
- Opal Kryptonite: Opal Kryptonite is a synthesized version of Kryptonite which can apparently drive Kryptonians temporarily insane. Opal Kryptonite can only work for a short time however, and will eventually burnout and turn into an ordinary stone after the term of exposure.
- Red Sun Radiation: Natural in Krypton's planetary system, red solar radiation replaces the higher-yield yellow solar energy in Superman's cells, robbing him of the fuel for his powers. Essentially it leaves Superman with the normal health and abilities of a human of his age and fitness level, as it did for the entire population of Krypton during its existence.
- Magic: Superman's powers, as great as they might be, are the result of biologically natural phenomena, not a supernatural phenomenon. As a result, he is affected by most all forms of sorcery in the same way as any mortal.
- Lead: Although the element lead is the one substance that blocks Kryptonite radiation, it is also the one substance through which Superman cannot see with his X-ray vision.
- Solar Energy Exhaustion: If Superman is forced to engage in strenuous physical activity for a large amount of time or is forced to perform one very difficult task without continuous solar energy absorption, he will end up expending all of his stored solar energy and will continue to be weaken and be rendered vulnerable until he replenishes his solar "fuel."
- High Pitched Frequencies: Because of Superman's super-enhanced hearing, high pitched frequencies can range from annoying him to seriously harming him.
- Blunt Force Trauma: Like everyone, Superman can be hurt if you get him hard enough. He has to be hit hard, but after a severe beating, he'll eventually fall.
- Telepathy and Telekinesis: Like with magic, his mind is mostly vulnerable to its effects, yet despite any mental boundaries built up through training, Superman is unable to brandish a whole defense against those with psychic or telekinetic abilities.
- Morality: Superman is always concerned about doing the right thing and not losing control. With this, he is always saving those in need and holding back his abilities in fear of harming those around him. Those he loves and cares for also become a target and despite all the odds against him, he will stop at nothing to keep everyone safe, even if it means letting the bad guy get away.
-
