DeConick A.D

K
CHAPTER THREE
Superpowers and Monsters
Clark Kent
Lara screams the primal scream of a mother giving birth. Jor-El stoops
to deliver their son, a beautiful infant glowing in his father’s hands, the
first natural birth on Krypton for centuries. We know that these parents
have gone to extreme lengths and that they are alone in what they are doing.
This is confirmed when Jor-El transfers the Codex into his newborn
son, infusing his cells with the DNA of all people who have ever lived on
Krypton.
Krypton is dying, its core depleted from eons of mining, but Jor-El
has a plan for its survival. He and Lara will send their son Kal-El down
through the stars to earth, where they hope Krypton will survive through
their son (figure 3.1). Whether the Krypton DNA will survive by replacing
human DNA or merging with it must be Kal’s choice, once he has had a
chance to live among humans and get a feel for things on earth.
Lara is worried that Kal will be an outcast among humans, alone. Jor-El
responds, “No, he will be a god to them.” Jor-El sees Kal as humanity’s
guide and beacon of hope. This hope is the potential that every human
can be a force for good. This is what he thinks Kal can bring us. He will
be an ideal for humans to strive for, to be the greatest we can be.
Yet things turn out not to be so easy on earth, where Kal, as Clark
Kent, has superpowers that set him apart from everyone else. Whenever
he uses those powers to help the people around him, the people become
suspicious and afraid. His human father councils Clark to hide his powers