Kal-El (Earth-22)
From DC Database
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History
The Earth-22 Kal-EL differs from his Kingdom Come counterpart in several ways, though is largely parallel to the Kingdom Come Superman. The major difference is in the Joker of his reality decides to attack and kill the staff of the Daily Planet of Earth-22.
Unlike the Kingdom Come Superman who arrives after all of the Daily Planet staff are already dead, Earth-22 Kal-El arrives to find that his wife has survived the initial attack due to her concealed gas mask. The battle between Lane-Kent and the Earth-22 Joker ends similarly, but on Earth-22 the Joker bashes her skull with a weighted scale globe instead of stabbing her through the chest.
The attack does not immediately kill her and allows her to survive long enough for her husband to find her dying. Using his x-ray vision he reveals that he cannot save her. Knowing his human anger, Lois makes the visibly murderous and angry Clark promise not to kill the Joker in retribution. He solomnly agrees as she dies. Trying to maintain his faith in humanity he arrests the joker. But like the earlier Kingdom Come Superman, the Earth-22 Superman's faith in general goodness is shattered when the general people accept the murderous Magog, who kills the Joker.
Defeated by the general populace's acceptance of murder as a reasonable way to deal with the criminal problem, the Earth-22 Kal-El gives up and retreats for several years until he is inspired to return less than a decade later.
It was during his return that the extra-dimensional energies of Goth take him from his own Earth and bring him to New Earth.
Superman entered New Earth through a dimensional portal created inadvertently by Starman (Thom Kallor) when he opened a black hole to stop a raging mystical fire the JSA couldn't contain that was emanating from the hole in the chest of the villain Goth. Starman succeeded in creating a black hole and placing Goth inside it. Goth's powers harmlessly erupted in the black hole, causing a dimensional rift that brought this Superman to New Earth.
The Earth-22 Superman was shown to have been greatly depressed due to the deaths of his friends several of whom he sees in the Justice Society which never formed on Earth-22. The Earth-22 Superman attempted to escape from JSA headquarters and exerted his impressive power levels doing so, including defeating Starman's gravity powers, which made Superman ten times heavier than normal. It was soon revealed that he escaped not to run from the JSA, but rather to save a young woman who was attempting suicide. He had heard her mumble about how the "world doesn't need her" from blocks away. Her depth of despair snapped him out of his own feelings of failing and loss with his own response of "Giving up never helped anyone miss, trust me on that." In saving her, he began to save himself. The Earth-22 Superman returned to the JSA headquarters and met with the JSA and Justice League and his own younger counterpart, the Superman of New Earth to determine his real identity and background.[1]
Later, when dealing with Japanese metahuman assassins trying to kill the new Judomaster, Superman showed he had little or no problem threatening the lives of his opponents. Having become more hardened over the years, where as in the past he would have prevented a villain from causing civilian casualties, he has shown he would sooner assault or harm the villain rather then remove them from the area.[2]
The Earth-22 Kal-El came to an understanding with Power Girl, that they could be each others' family since each of them reminded the other of deceased family members. Power Girl accepted.[3]
Later Mr. America brings word of his run in with Gog to the JSA. He then visits Metropolis, and while there he uses his powers to hear the various conversations around the city and his super vision to check for his New-Earth counterpart, which leads him to the Daily Planet. There he is almost overwhelmed by the sight of his friends and Lois being alive. He is then interrupted by the New Earth Superman and they talk about Gog and the danger he represents. Superman demonstrated how much more powerful he was than the New Earth Superman by hearing something in Gotham City with his super-hearing that New Earth Superman could not. Arriving in Gotham City, they both address Hercules, who had been fighting Gog and survived his attack. When New Earth Superman goes to question him, Hercules elbows him in the face causing Superman to bleed and then he punches him, who goes flying into a building. When Hercules comes face to face with Earth-22 Superman, Hercules goes to punch him, only to find out his attack has no effect whatsoever, except to damage Hercules' hand. The Earth-22 Superman smacked Hercules away in the same way Hercules had done earlier to the New Earth Superman.[4]
After returning to the JSA headquarters the Earth-22 Superman and the JSA team discuss of the coming battle with Gog, when the JSA headquarters is attacked by Gog, who impales Sand on his power staff. While the JSA tries to mobilize a counter-attack, Jakeem Thunder is knocked out before he can summon Thunderbolt and Cyclone is knocked out before she can use her powers to suffocate Gog. The team is at a disadvantage in the dark with only Dr. Mid-Nite able to see where Gog is attacking from, before he and Hourman are knocked out. The fight eventually spills into the street, where Power Girl knocks Gog down, causing him to drop his staff and allowing Amazing-Man to absorb its properties. The fight teleports to the African Congo where Gog II (William Matthews) is attacked by a revived Gog I, who states that Williams has abused his powers. Gog I then absorbs Gog II, reclaiming all of his powers.[5][6]
The Earth-22 Superman continues to remain with the New Earth JSA, even becoming a member of the team.[7]
Kingdom Come: Again
The Earth-22 Superman is later suspicious of David Reid, who has been revived as Magog, and fearful that if Reid is like the being he knew on Earth-22, great danger will befall New Earth as well. To address this concern, Superman meets with Lois Lane and others to get other perspectives on what has happened and what can possibly happen.
When confronting Gog with the reality of the danger he caused in the future, a battle between the old god and the JSA commenced. In the end, Gog was knocked down by Citizen Steel and beheaded by Magog. Superman and Starman took the severed head to the edge of the universe to place it on the Source Wall, where the rest of the old gods were entombed. Gog ridiculed Superman for leaving his world to die saying that Earth-22 survived the nuclear war and Earth-22 Superman was being a coward for staying on New Earth rather than returning to Earth-22. The Earth-22 Superman was surprised to discover that his own Earth still existed despite his earlier observations that nothing remained after the explosion that pushed him to New Earth. Earth-22 Superman decided to return to his reality. He then asks Starman to use his suit to teleport him back to Earth-22 directly as it is a map to the current 52 Multiverse. He decides to avoid a long goodbye to his friends in the JSA asking that Starman deliver his "thank you" to them.
When he returns to Earth-22, Superman arrived at the point shortly after Captain Marvel had set off a metahuman-destroying bomb over the Gulag. Enraged at what became of his friends, Superman proceeds to the United Nations, where he is intent on bringing down the building with all foreign dignitaries in it. That is, until he is approached by a familiar "watcher" and shown to see compassion and remember what he once stood for. Superman is then stunned to see his old friends enter the building alive. One year later, he creates a great memorial in Kansas to those friends who died, as well as the innocents who lost their lives. Wonder Woman brings him a gift, his old glasses, and they share a kiss.
On New Earth, Starman comments how he has seen Superman's future and it's a great one, full of more adventures.
During the event of the Final Crisis, the Earth-22 Kal-El was part of the 52 universe Superman army [8]. It was not revealed if he visited New Earth after this adventure.
Possible Earth-22 Future
Ten years later on Earth-22, Superman and Wonder Woman are married with four children with Bruce Wayne as a "Godfather."
Twenty years later, the family, along with many heroes and civilians, are prominent at the funeral of Bruce Wayne.
One hundred years later, Superman and Wonder Woman watch the advancement of humanity leaving Earth for the stars.
Two hundred years later, Superman and his family stand vigil over a waterworld that was once Earth.
Five hundred years later, the rebuilding of settlements on Earth are in development as a aged Superman continues to farm.
One thousand years later, Superman, now a very old and very retired man, takes appreciation at a galactic federation of planets protected by a Legion of Superheroes, based on the very concepts he upheld during his time. He smiles happily at his legacy. [9]Powers and Abilities
Powers
Kryptonian Physiology: Superman's cellular structure is more dense, resilient and biologically effective than human tissue. As an alien, he possesses several organs with functions not yet disclosed or understood, but are believed to be part and perhaps even the source, of his biomatrix force field and reclamation aura.[citation needed] Superman's body also stores energy actively within his bio-cellular matrix as an energy pattern that is linked to his body's electromagnetic field.[citation needed] This energy powers most of Superman's electromagnetic capabilities such as flight and heat vision. It also supplements his physical strength.
- Solar Energy Absorption: Technically, this is the main source of Superman's powers. Because Superman's powers are greatly due to exposure to Earth's yellow sun, his powers have been affected by extreme absorption of solar power, whether voluntary or involuntary.
- Superhuman Strength: While the exact magnitude of Earth-22 Superman's strength is unknown, it is possibly greater than that of New Earth Superman. The exact specific range is unknown as Superman's strength, like his other powers, has fluctuated over time. Earth-22 Superman's normal strength levels are easily in the multi-megaton range.
- Invulnerability: Superman's body is nigh-invulnerable to extreme energy forces. Earth-22 Superman's body is able to withstand extreme energy forces, as shown when he survived a direct nuclear blast that ripped a dimensional hole between his home world and New Earth, one with no effect on him other than rips in his costume. Superman is at "the height of his invulnerability" due to his prolonged exposure to sunlight. But he does have limits as shown when he was knocked out by Magog II with a blast from his staff. In addition, his immune system protects him from toxins and diseases.
- Superhuman Stamina: Superman has the ability to maintain continuous strenuous physical action for an undefined period. Theoretically, most incarnations of the character has unlimited stamina as his enhanced nourishment is produced from the solar energy his cells process; however his base physical structure still needs to process food stuffs as well as needs to eat and drink just as do, despite the fact that he receives the majority of that power from a yellow sun. He does require sleep on occasion so he can dream. He can also hold his breath for an undefined duration.
- Flight: Earth-22 Superman possesses the ability to fly without any known means of support. It is unknown how he is able to lift off the ground at present though he does so very easily.
- Superhuman Speed: Earth-22 Superman is very fast and has been shown to be at least the same speed if not faster then New Earth Superman. How much faster is not known.
- Super-Breath: Earth-22 Superman has the ability to create hurricane force winds by blowing air from his lungs, and to chill his breath in order to freeze a target (this latter ability has also been called "freeze breath" and "arctic breath"). Superman can also breathe in large amounts of air, an ability used when dealing with and disposing things like clouds of Kryptonite gas, as shown when he got rid of the gas cloud around the Earth-22 Daily Planet.
- Super Hearing: The ability to hear any sound at any volume or pitch. He can identify a person by their heartbeat, or pick out a single voice in an entire city. Earth-22 Superman has better hearing than New Earth Superman as evidenced when he heard Hercules crying out in pain.
- Heat Vision: The ability to fire beams of intense heat by sheer concentration of will at a target. Visually, the power is depicted as two beams of red light firing from his eyes. These beams can be made invisible, allowing Superman to work undetected. The exact details are not known right now.
- Super Vision: Earth-22 Superman has at least the same level of super vision that New Earth Superman has. Abilities include:
- Electro-magnetic Spectrum Vision: Earth-22 Superman can see well into most of the EM Spectrum. He can see and identify radio/television and any and all broadcast/transmitted frequencies, allowing him to avoid detection through radar or satellite monitoring methods.[citation needed] Superman can see the aura that every living thing generates.[citation needed]
- Telescopic Vision: The ability to "zoom in" his visioin to see something at a great distance.
- X-Ray Vision: The ability to see through anything except lead. He can see things behind a wall as though the wall were not there, or can "peel back" layer after layer of matter in his mind. Opponents sometimes used lead-lined constructs in an attempt to hide things from Superman. Kal-El is able to focus his vision past layers of matter, seeing "through" them -- possibly perceiving x-rays, cosmic rays or other forms of energy invisible to normal human vision that pass through Earth's atmosphere (and solid objects) after emission from stars. Since it is passive, this ability would not generate harmful radiation in the same manner as a focused projection of hard X-rays.
- Microscopic Vision: The ability to see extremely small objects and images down to the atomic level (normal optical microscopes can only see objects down to the size of chromosomes).
Magic Immunity: Normally, Superman is also vulnerable to magical effects. Although he is no more detrimentally affected by such effects than a normal human would be, this is a significantly exploitable weakness in comparison to his incredible physical resilience. Due to being exposed to concentrated high-level magical lightning due to battle with Earth-22 Captain Marvel, he has become amazingly unaffected by magic. When hit with a blow from Hercules, Superman remained unmoved and unaffected where the New Earth Superman went flying from the same blow.
Kryptonite Resistence: The Earth-22 Superman has a high tolerance to Kryptonite though it is still able to affect him. But the effect level is more an irritation than a lethal force as he was only temporarily blinded by it when a ground up gas form was sprayed directly into his eyes, much like pepper spray on a human being. This is very different from the Kingdom Come Superman who was not affected by Kryptonite at all. [10]
Longevity: In the projected future of Earth-22, the Earth-22 Superman, while not necessarily immortal, is very long lived, still existing well into the 30th century.Abilities
Genius-Level Intellect: Superman has shown enhanced intelligence and computational abilities; his mind is sharp and with extremely quick. His analytical powers are impressive but subject to his emotions as evident by his lack of social skills when he met with and talked to the Lois Kent of New Earth.Strength level
Presently undetermined, though it appears to be similar to, if not superior to the mainstream Superman, as evident by the battle with Hercules.Weaknesses
Psionics
Solar Energy
Notes
There are some notable differences between the Kingdom Come Kal-El and the Earth-22 Kal-El, including:
- Kingdom Come Kal-El retired for over 15 years before becoming active as a public hero again where the Earth-22 Kal-EL was retired for less than 10.
- Earth-22 Kal-El is older than Kingdom Come Kal-El as Earth-22 Kal-El is shown with grey hair in his ponytail when he arrives to find his wife dying. (Justice Society Vol 3 #13) Kingdom Come Kal-El is shown with complete black hair at that point. (Kingdom Come #1)
- Kingdom Come Kal-EL is no longer effected by Kryptonite unlike his Earth-22 counterpart who is shown to be still effected by Krptonite (Kingdom Come Special: Superman #1)
- Kingdom Come Kal-EL did not arrive before his Lois died, though he decided not to kill the Kingdom Come Joker on his own in a last ditch effort to keep his faith in the general good nature of humanity alive. The Earth-22 Kal-El arrived before his wife died and directly talked with his wife which was the reason he did not kill the Earth-22 Joker. (Kingdom Come Special: Superman #1)
- Kingdom Come Lois Kent was stabbed through her chest with her own name plate. (Kingdom Come #2) Earth-22 Lois Kent's skull was smashed with a heavy Daily Planet paperweight which killed her. (Kingdom COme Special: Superman #1)
- Kingdom Come Kal-EL only had one child with Kingdom Come Diana, a son named Johnathan as shown in "The Kingdom". Earth-22 Kal-El is shown to have 4 children with Earth-22 Diana -- at least. And two of his children are girls.
- Unlike the true Kingdom Come universe, which happened in the future of the New Earth history, Starman states that the Earth-22 Superman is natural to the current time line, though on a different reality. "The future, Wildcat? That's where I come from. Not him." (referring to Earth-22 Superman).
Trivia
- This incarnation of Superman is briefly mistaken for the dead Earth-Two Kal-L though most of the JSA members immediately recognize that he is not the same man.
See Also
- Discuss Kal-El (Earth-22) on the forums
- Appearances of Kal-El (Earth-22)
- Character Gallery: Kal-El (Earth-22)
- Fan-Art Gallery: Kal-El (Earth-22)
- Quotations by Kal-El (Earth-22)
- Images featuring Kal-El (Earth-22)
Links and References
- None.
Footnotes
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #10
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #11
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #12
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #13
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #14
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #15
- ↑ Justice Society of America (vol 3) #18
- ↑ Final Crisis #7
- ↑ Justice Society of America Vol 3 #22
- ↑ Template:Kingdom Come: Superman
