Thursday, September 26, 2024

Two worlds, one family (Part 26)....

Heroes of Two Earths

Today, we've got the first, the greatest, Superman!


At the bottom we have Kal-L, the Superman of Earth-2, first appeared before World War II and was active throughout those years.  In the late 1950s, he went from Daily Star reporter Clark Kent to the Editor of the newspaper.  He married his longtime love Lois Lane, and more or less retired from super-heroing, although he'd reappear periodically throughout the years. 

In his later years, he was drawn different from the Earth-1, younger Superman.  He had gray at his temples and his hair receded further back on his head, he was a bit thicker (as older men get), his cape was drawn shorter, being just about waist length instead of the knee length one of Superman1.   He was also less powerful than his Earth-1 counterpart: not as fast, or as strong, or as resilient.  He tired faster.  And as he aged, he flew less and just had amazingly long leaps, as he did when he first appeared in the comics back in 1938. 

Kal-El, the Superman of Earth-1, was decades younger, trimmer, more powerful, and just a reporter at the Daily Planet.    He had a career as Superboy in Smallville, which Earth2, never had.  He was a founding and long term member of the Justice League.  Superman2 was just a sometimes member of the Justice Society. 

So while they were similar in a lot of ways, they were far from identical. 

POLT

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