Superman (Earth-Two)

Superman
Superman. Also pictured; Earth-2's Lois Lane Kent, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor, Jr. Art by Phil Jimenez
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Justice League Vol 1. #73 (August 1969) (retroactively stated to have originally appeared in Action Comics #1, 1938)
Created by	Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
In-story information
Full name	Kal-L/Clark Kent
Species	Kryptonian
Team affiliations	Daily Star Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron Black Lantern Corps
Notable aliases	Black Lantern
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, senses, endurance, and longevity Flight Heat vision Freezing breath Extrasensory and visual powers, including X-ray vision Black Lantern Power Ring

Superman of Earth-Two is a superhero in comic books published by DC Comics, who first specifically appeared in Justice League of America (volume 1) #73 (August 1969). He is a version of the Kryptonian superhero Superman from an alternate reality called Earth-Two. Unlike the Earth-One Superman, the Earth-Two Superman is portrayed as significantly older and is given the birth name of Kal-L.

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. It was eventually resolved that there were two Supermans. 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. George Pérez famously redesigned Kal-L's 1940's S shield (starting in JLA (Vol 1) #197) to be mostly the main S symbol with five sides and to merely reflect the tilt connecting the upper edge to the side of shield. Some artists such as Alex Ross and others including Justice Society series artist Dale Eaglesham continued to use the specific 6 sided 1940's S shield after Perez' change for Kal-L. Stories featuring both Supermen also indicated that Kal-L was the older of the two, being depicted as late-middle-aged, with grey or solid white hair at the base hair-line and face wrinkles, while his Earth-One counterpart was a youthful man of modern times.