Superman

Superman of Earth-Two is an alternate version of the fictional superhero Superman, who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was introduced after DC Comics created Earth-Two, a parallel world that was retroactively established as the home of characters whose adventures had been published in the Golden Age of comic books. This allowed creators to publish Superman comic books taking place in current continuity while being able to disregard Golden Age stories, solving an incongruity, as Superman had been published as a single ongoing incarnation since inception. This version of the character first appeared in Justice League of America #73 (August 1969). Fictional character biography When the Golden Age of Comic Books came to a close in the 1950s, most of DC Comics' superhero comic books ceased publication. At the start of the Silver Age, characters such as the Flash and Green Lantern were revamped for more modern times, ignoring or abandoning established continuity and thus making a clean break between the two eras. It was later established that the Golden Age and Silver Age heroes lived on Earth-Two and Earth-One respectively, these being separate parallel Earths in a single Multiverse. Superman was one of the few exceptions; his stories had been published without interruption since his 1938 debut in Action Comics #1. This caused a continuity problem, in that Superman was simultaneously a member of the Justice Society of America on Earth-Two and also member of the Justice League of America on Earth-One. Writer Dennis O'Neil eventually resolved that there were two Supermen. The Silver Age Superman was Kal-El from Earth-One, and the Golden Age Superman was Kal-L from Earth-Two. Several differences between the two Supermen were established to clarify the distinction. The Earth-One names "Kal-El," "Jor-El," and "Jonathan and Martha Kent" became "Kal-L," "Jor-L," and "John and Mary Kent" on Earth-Two, as in the original Golden Age stories. Kal-L's costume was largely adapted from the 1940s drawing style, retaining the famous sweatshirt wrist-cuffs, while his S-shield symbol was originally very different from the main Superman S-symbol, adapting the 1940s six-sided version with the tail endings and hard-left tilt of the S-edges.