THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON
BASICS
NAME: kal-el BYNAME: clark kent NICKNAMES / ALIAS(ES): kal, superman, supes, smallville (lois) AGE: 28 (is also verse-dependent) BIRTHDAY: february 29th WESTERN ZODIAC: pisces BIRTHPLACE: krypton, andromeda galaxy RESIDENCE: metropolis, delaware FAMILY: jor-el (father, deceased), lara lor-van (mother, deceased), jonathan kent (adoptive father, deceased), martha kent (adoptive mother, deceased), kara zor-el (cousin, alive) SPECIES: alien, kryptonian GENDER & PRNS: cis male, he/him HEIGHT: 6' 3" / 191 cms WEIGHT: 225 lbs / 102 kgs HAIR COLOR: black EYE COLOR: a very unnatural/hyper blue (the glare of his glasses tends to mask them well enough and make them look more dull) ORIENTATION: bisexual OCCUPATION: reporter with the daily planet publishing house LANGUAGES: clark is a polyglot and speaks multiple languages fluently, and he learns very quickly due to his ability to quick read, but the most common languages he speaks are english and kryptonese
BACKSTORY
kal-el was born to parents jor-el and lara lor-van on the planet krypton, located in the andromeda galaxy, which orbited a red sun. krypton had a volatile core, and in order to save their son's life from its eventual destruction, jor-el and lara sent him away to earth in the hopes he'd be able to blend in and survive with the inhabitants, as they knew he'd resemble them. they were also aware that earth's yellow sun would potentially awaken powers that were otherwise dormant under their native red sun's radiation, and believed he would be most safe in the milky way.
his rocket landed in smallville, kansas where he was discovered by farmers jonathan and martha kent. the pair, who couldn't conceive children of their own, decided to keep the boy and forged adoption papers to establish his legitimacy. the kent home was warm and loving, but clark began to gradually discover over time that he wasn't normal like the other kids. first came the super strength, which he discovered on accident by lifting heavy farm equipment, then the speed, and so on. by the time clark was 17 years old, jonathan revealed clark's origins to him, and showed him the rocketship that brought him to earth that they've kept in the storm cellar.
on clark's prom night, martha kent was killed in a car accident. shortly thereafter, jonathan kent passed away from a heart attack.
with a heavy heart, clark chose to leave smallville behind after graduating high school and began traveling the world to help people in secret. he visited various countries and assimilated into their cultures, learning their languages and customs, and assisting the locals as needed. after 3 years of traveling, he relocated to metropolis to pursue a degree in journalism at metropolis university.
upon completion of his degree, he took a job at the daily star, and also turned to vigilantism. he spent the first few months as superman wearing a t-shirt and jeans. during an encounter (at least 6 months after donning the superman mantle) with an avatar of braniac, the collector of worlds, clark retrieved kryptonian bio armor that fused itself to his dna. it was here that he learned more about krypton and its heritage, and found a sunstone crystal. with the crystal in hand, he flew to the north pole and buried it into the ice to create his fortress of solitude, so he could have a static base of operations.
once the justice league was formally established, clark took a job with the daily planet, which is where he met pulitzer prize-winning reporter lois lane.
PERSONALITY
clark is a good person... but only to good people. he has an extremely low tolerance for those that abuse their positions of power to get ahead, and an even lower tolerance for people who think he won't strike them down because they believe he's "too polite". if he witnesses any kind of injustice, he'll call it out and intervene, regardless of the consequences. confident in himself and in his beliefs, he's very headstrong and rushes into danger in order to do what needs to be done. as superman, he can be very beligerent towards authority especially if he feels they don't do enough work to curb corruption, or if he feels they actively participate in it. he's not above mouthing off to law enforcement, or even militaristic institutions, if he feels he has to clean up their messes. as clark, he unfortunately also has a lot of the same mouth, but it's more subdued and he's likely to conceal it more often to avoid causing fights and to protect his civilian identity. all in all, he's bold, occasionally rude, and he can be quite arrogant.
despite his ego, clark is staunchly loyal to his loved ones and prioritizes them a lot whenever he can help it. while he's always likely to put superman and those duties first, he always tries his best to make time for the people he loves and uses his powers to his advantage to try to always be present in those moments. however, he has a distinct tendency to close himself off from those interpersonal relationships, believing that he shouldn't be saddling them with his thoughts and feelings, so he doesn't often outwardly communicate his negative thoughts. clark is fiercely sentimental, almost to a fault. he has hyperthymesia (HSAM) and never forgets a name or a face of any person he meets.
clark is always grieving, and when alone or when he thinks no one else is there, he is very lonely and can be pretty melancholic. he loves his life and values his relationships, but the experience of growing up an alien in a world away from the one he wishes to know is a heavy burden he carries that he doesn't want other people to know about. to this end, he often comes off somewhat superficially or shallow, and somewhat avoidant during more intimate conversations. there's a part of him that wants to indulge in his connections, and rely on them, but he's superman; he can't show weakness. he can do anything.
ABILITIES
SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH: superman is often regarded as one of the most powerful beings in the universe and can lift things more than hundreds of thousands of times his own size with no issue SUPERHUMAN SPEED: superman is said to be faster than a lightning strike, and the only person known to be faster than him is the flash SUPERHUMAN BREATH: superman can inhale and exhale an extreme amount of air, and is able to convert the gases he expels into frost that can freeze things upon contact SUPERHUMAN HEARING: superman is able to hear many sounds across the earth all at once, but has learned to focus his hearing to what he wants to hear SUPERHUMAN VISION: superman can both see impossibly far away, or extremely microscopic, with perfect accuracy X-RAY VISION: superman is able to see through objects and people, the only exception to this being lead HEAT VISION: superman can emit solar energy through his eyes in the form of heat, sometimes taking the form of lasers, but he can also concentrate it in an invisible quantity to still warm things up FLIGHT: while not initially able to do this and he could only take large leaps at one point, superman eventually develops the ability to fly by generating various amounts of electricity that react to the earth's magnetic fields and solar magnetic fields in space SOLAR FLARE: superman is able to expel all the solar energy in his body, turning him into a living bomb and decimating everything in a quarter-mile radius
