Superman started out as an infant alien orphan jettisoned into space when his home world and all its inhabitants, including most of his family, perished in an explosive cataclysm. Despite this, he found family and friends who became a part of his family, some from his native Krypton and others from his new home on Earth. This is the story of the golden age and modern day Supermen born Kal-El and Kal-L.
Kal-El would later meet his parents Jor-El and Lora on the wedding ceremony, after he had accidentally pierced the barrier in time and space which separated him from them, and was with them just prior to when he would be born. Through mishap, he would survive when cast as an actor in a drama, cast adrift in a space ship.
Kal-L had himself never had knowledge of his past as had his counterpart, as he hadn't been given a memory teacher like his twin to recall key events on his Krypton. Additionally, he was a new born when leaving his world, while Kal-El had lived on that world for a couple years before it detonated and he was sent hurtling to Earth.
As such, when Kal-L sought to track the origin of a green meteorite that criminal Swami Riva used to weaken him, he discovered his parents Zor-L and Lara, although since he arrived at the time that he was born, he appeared on his Krypton as a phantom, since he couldn't exist two places at the same time. Kal-El had the opportunity to interact with his parents, becoming a lab assistant of his fathers and romancing a famous movie star there!
Immediately upon arrival to his new home on Earth-One, the toddler Kal-El who became known as Clark Kent manifested superhuman powers which his adopted parents had to train him to harness responsibly. Although initially an older couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent regained their youthful appearance, and with this had the stamina along with patience to tutor young Clark into becoming the caped crusader known as Superboy. This lad would become his hometown of Smallville's heroic champion, gaining foes in Kryptonite Kid and Lex Luthor, among others.
Superboy would even be recruited into the 30th century teenage team, the Legion of Super-Heroes, as he was their inspiration.
On one occasion during his late teen years, a mishap with a tornado caused Superboy to travel to Earth-Two, decades prior to his own time period, where he met a near identical Clark Kent. This Clark hadn't manifested quite the range of superpowers as had his counterpart, although he did show phenomenal strength in an orphanage before being adopted by the couple who found him. This couple, John and Mary Kent, remained older and thus weren't as prepared to groom their son into a budding mystery man, as superheroes there were called. After attempting a brief career as Masked Wonder, Clark resolved to become Superman after following the example of Superboy.
One of the earliest friends whom Superboy met was his alter ego's next door neighbor, Lana Lang, who along with her family moved in next door early in his costumed career. Lana would begin to have an on again off again romance with Superboy, while scoffing at her clumsy classmate Clark.
While this Lana had a wealth of experience with both identities of Kal-El, her counterpart on Earth-Two didn't have the same opportunity. While Lana on Earth-One had moved to the town along with her father Professor Lewis Lang and her mother, where Superboy resided, this Lana and her parents moved from Smallville before she would have had opportunity to go to school with her world's Clark. As such, Clark met Lana when they were adults, and after he had already married Lois Lane. Because of this, they did not have a romance as had their dopplegangers, and remained plutonic friends. Later, Superman would meet Professor Lang when both sought to free Lana from the influence of a scarab her fatther discovered and gifted to her.
Back on Earth-One, the relationship between Lois and Lana was always a hot source of contention, with each lady attempting to win the right to be the girlfriend and, ultimately, wife of Superman. They even became superheroines on occasion when they had been granted powers. Both shared the bio-ring that Lana had been gifted, each would become an Insect Queen. While Lois also had the alter ego of Power Girl and later Super Woman, Lana beat her to the punch when she was given a pair of alien belts her father found on archeaologist digs, becoming Sky Girl and Gravity Girl.
The older Earth-Two Professor Lang also found an item of power in the form of the scarab broach which transformed his daughter into Insect Queen, who at first was evil but turned good with the help of Lois and her husband Superman. Lois had herself had experience on a couple of occasions as Super Woman, but would gift the Power Girl alter ego to her adopted daughter years later... Kal-L's cousin Kara Zor-L. Unlike that Kara, the Kara Zor-El of Earth-One settled on a name honoring her cousin when she became Supergirl. And she would have parents and cousins who lived in the bottled city of Kandor-One, while the L's only had virtual versions of their Kryptonian kin in a synthetic Kandor-Two housed within Power Girl's Symbioship that saved her life.
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