Flashback Friday: Kal-El's (and Kal-L's) Name

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Kal-El's name (and Kal-L's)!

Everyone knows Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 (April 1938), and that's where his origin was told for the first time. What many people don't realize is how bare-bones the origin was at the time. A scientist on a dying planet sent his infant son into space, where he landed on Earth, grew up as Clark Kent, and used his superpowers as Superman.

All of that is still accurate today, but it's missing a lot of detail. Luckily, Superman became very popular very quickly, so in January 1939, a Superman comic strip started - which, incidentally, was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's preferred format for Superman in the first place (the first Superman story was simply the first 38 strips they had produced when they were shopping the character around). This new strip allowed them a do-over, so it started with a more detailed origin, where we learn the baby's name is Kal-L in the first strip ("Superman Comes to Earth").

Superman's origin was re-told again when he got his own series (Superman #1, April 1939), but it didn't include the baby's Kryptonian name.

Soon after, Superman got a radio adaptation and one of the radio show's writers, George Lowther, wrote a book called The Adventures of Superman (1942). In this re-telling of his origin, his name is spelled "Kal-el" for the first time. I couldn't find proof of that, but here is an image from the book of "Jor-el" being spelled the same way.

Surprisingly, the spelling "Kal-El" (with or without a capital) wouldn't appear in comics until Superman #113 (March 1957).

Over time, it was established that one of the differences between Earth-One and Earth-Two is Kryptonian naming conventions, with Earth-One using "-El" and Earth-Two using "-L". The name "Kal-L" would appear as the birthname of the Superman of Earth-Two in Action Comics #484 (April 1978).

In the New 52, the primary Earth's Superman is still called Kal-El, but Earth-2's Superman is also called Kal-El. However, the Pre-Crisis Earth-Two's Superman is still known as Kal-L when he appears (such as in Convergence: Action Comics #1, April 2015).

Flashback Friday: Krypton's Name

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Krypton's Name!

Krypton first appeared as a nameless "distant planet" in Action Comics #1 (April 1938)...

...but was given a name in the first Superman daily strip, "The Superman is Born" (part 1 of Episode 1:"Superman Comes to Earth", January 1939).

It later appeared in the retelling of Superman's origin in Superman #1 (April 1939).

And, of course, it's been a part of Superman's origin ever since...with one exception that I know of. Superman: Red Son (spoiler alert) has Superman hail from a far future Earth. Of course, it also makes Kal-L a distant, distant descendant of Lex Luthor, so it's kind of just doing it's own thing. Every other version of his origin, from comics retellings to adaptations, has him come from Krypton.

Character Spotlight: Gordon Tracy

A character who's been around as long as Dick Tracy is bound to have some canon immigrants, so I don't know why it took me this long to learn about them. But I found a few that we'll talk about over the next several weeks.

This week: Gordon Tracy!

Gordon Tracy first appeared in the original Dick Tracy Republic serial (1937), where he was Dick's brother and a lawyer. Gordon hired Dick to investigate a murder, but during the course of the serial, Gordon was captured and brainwashed by the bad guy - who has like three different names, it's not important - to do his bidding. During a fight with Dick, he runs off the road and gets injured, recognizing his brother right before he died.

Gordon has been mentioned exactly once in the comic strip, on November 10, 2013. Dick is being interviewed on tv and runs through his family members. Gordon is mentioned as being deceased, so it's possible the serial - or some version of it - is canon to the show. Or based on the verbage, it's possible Gordon became evil but never died. PS. Every other name is the family of Chester Gould, Dick Tracy's creator. A fitting tribute!

We're not even halfway through the Dick Tracy characters, so come back next Wednesday for more!

52 Shakeup

The Batman Beyond post from earlier this year made me realize that the New 52 has affected this site more drastically than I originally thought. No longer can I go on just presuming that past stories still "count", however loosely. They do for the purposes of this site, but in terms of the New 52, nothing exists until we see it again. So I think it's important to take note of what makes it through and what doesn't. And let me tell you...not a whole lot has made it through. Below is the list of everything I could find, and most of it is exactly what you would expect. In the future, if anything else shows up, it'll get a brand new spotlight and a "52 Shakeup" tag, because it's essentially a new character

Batman:
Harley Quinn

Batgirl first appeared in Batgirl #1 (September 2011). She's Barbara Gordon again and looks like Batgirl.

Renee Montoya first appeared in one panel of Batwoman #1 (September 2011) and then appeared in one panel of Batwoman #0 (September 2012). That's it so far.

Mr. Freeze's real name, costume, and part of his backstory haven't changed from the Animated Series version. And of course he still calls himself "Mr. Freeze", which is from Batman '66. And, as part of his backstory, Nora Fries is still around..sort of. Her name is Nora Fields, and Mr. Freeze is obsessed with her but they were never actually married. In fact, they never even met. (Batman Annual #1, May 2012)

Clayface is looking more like his animated self than ever in Justice League #30 (May 2014).

The Batmobile's afterburner is still around, but I don't have a first appearance for it.

Presumably this whole page, if the Batman Inc. stuff still counts

Superman:
Perry White and Jimmy Olsen first appeared in Superman #1 (September 2011).
The Daily Planet has definitely appeared in the New 52, but I can't find what issue. I'm sure it came out in September 2011, though.

Mercy Graves first appears in Justice League #31 (June 2014). She's Asian now, supposedly to match Tao Okamoto in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but I don't know which one really came first.

Livewire first appears as a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villians in Justice League #30 (May 2014).

Non first appears by name in Action Comics #23.2 (September 2013), although I've read he appeared as early as Action Comics #5 (January 2012). Interestingly, he appears with Faora instead of Ursa; presumably this is to be more like Man of Steel, but then why wouldn't they use Jax-Ur instead of Non?

Sgt. Casey is mentioned in Action Comics #1 (September 2011). As far as I know, he hasn't actually appeared yet, but he's out there somewhere.

Mr. Mxyzptlk first appeared in Action Comics #15 (December 2012) with a new backstory: he's now a court jester for the 5th-dimensional King-Thing Brpxz of Zrff.

Bizarro first appears in Superman #23.1 (September 2013) as a failed Kryptonian/human-hybrid Superman clone called Subject B-0.

Metallo first appears in Action Comics #1 (September 2011) as John Corben, a soldier under Sam Lane. In issue 2 (October 2011), he joins John Henry Irons's Project: Steel Soldier and wears the Metal-0 suit, The Metal-0 suit is then revealed to be sentient - thanks to a Brainiac virus - and through a series of events, Metallo and Corben become one person and they get a Kryptonite heart in issue 8 (April 2012). Later, they upgrade to Metal-2.0, and then by Forever Evil they begin calling themselves Metallo.

This whole page, except for maybe the Phantom Zone appearance

Other:
Giganta's powers, as seen here in her first appearance, Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2 (August 2013):

Green Arrow's costume, as seen here, seems to be a mixture of his Smallville and Arrow outfits. From what I've seen, it tends to lean more toward one or the other based on the artist:

John Stewart's costume, as seen here. John Stewart first appeared in Green Lantern Corps #1 (September 2011).

Superman Super Post! (Part 2: Appearances and Stuff)

Today we continue our look at all the parts of the Superman franchise that originated outside of comics with a study of appearances and other things:


Lex Luthor's baldness

Left: Luthor's original appearance (from Superman #4 (April 1940))
Middle: Luthor's first appearance in the Superman daily strip ("Pawns of the Master", October 1940), due to an artist error
Right: How Luthor has looked ever since (starting with Superman #10 in May 1941)

Metropolis

Metropolis first appeared in the Superman newspaper strip in May 1939 ("The Most Deadly Weapon").  Before then, Superman just protected a nameless city.  The name transitioned to comics later that year in Action Comics #19 (September 1939).

The Daily Planet

Clark Kent originally worked for the Daily Star, but this was changed to the Daily Planet in the Superman newspaper strip ("Underworld Politics", November 1939); the change was made in the comics is Action Comics #23 (February 1940).  The building design first appeared in the Superman animated short "The Arctic Giant" (February 1942) and first appeared in the comics in Superman #19 (November 1942).  However, at first it was just a simple globe that adorned the building; it wouldn't gain a ring until Superman #25 (November 1943).

Krypton's name

Jor-El's and Lara's names

 Jor-El was just an unnamed scientist until the Superman comic strip ("Superman Comes to Earth", January 1939), where he was referred to as "Jor-L".  The spelling changed to "Jor-el" in the 1942 George Lowther novel The Adventures of Superman, which was introduced to comics as "Jor-El" in More Fun Comics #101 (November 1944).

Lara first appeared as "Lora" in the Superman comic strip ("Superman Comes to Earth", January 1939). She was first called "Lara" in the Superman radio show ("The Baby from Krypton", February 1940), which was also the name used in Lowther's The Adventures of Superman, and she was brought into comics with that name in More Fun Comics #101 (November 1944).

Kal-El's name

George Taylor's name

 Although George Taylor first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), he did not receive a name until the Superman newspaper strip gave him one ("The Most Deadly Weapon", May 1939).  The name first appeared in comics in Superman #2 (Fall 1939).

The Phantom Zone

Fortress of Solitude

Top Left: The Fortress of Solitude's original appearance
Top Right: How it appeared in Superman: The Movie (1978)
Bottom: The Fortress of Solitude in comics, beginning in Superman #653 (August 2006).

Superman's Flight

When Superman first appeared, he was super-strong, bulletproof, had super-hearing, and could jump an eighth of a mile. In the Superman animated shorts by Fleischer studios, he was given the ability to fly because it looked less goofy than having Superman jump everywhere.  Technically, he flew from the very first short ("Superman", September 1941), but in the first couple of shorts (the second one, especially), he travels in arcs that make it look like he's jumping, and you can see just how silly it appears.  Regardless, flight made the jump to comics in Action Comics #65 (September 1943).


"Look, up in the sky!  It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Superman!"
This phrase first appeared in the introduction to the Superman radio show (1940).  When it first appeared, however, the word "look" came after "up in the sky" (the order was changed after only two weeks).

"A strange visitor from a distant planet"
This phrase first appeared in the introduction to the first episode of the Superman radio show ("The Baby From Krypton", 1940).

Sidenote: This phrase is popular enough that it got an actual character named after it, "Strange Visitor" (first appearance: October 1999), who wore Superman's electric suit after he got rid of it.

"This looks like a job...for Superman."

This first appeared in the Superman radio show (1940).

"Up, up, and away!"
First appeared in the Superman radio show (1940).

"Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"
This phrase first appeared in the revised introduction to the Superman radio show (1940).

Superman's changing in a phone booth

The first time Superman used a telephone booth to change into his costume was in the Superman animated shorts, specifically "The Mechanical Monsters" (1941).  This isn't something that was specifically adapted to comics, so much as became a standard part of the Superman mythos, but the earliest I can find its being referenced in comics is Action Comics #345 (January 1967).  More can be read at Superman Homepage.

"A mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper"
This phrase was first used in 1941, though I can't tell if the Superman radio show or animated shorts used it first.

"A never-ending battle for truth and justice" 

 This phrase was first used in 1941, though I can't tell if the Superman radio show or animated shorts used it first.

"Truth, Justice, and the American Way"

This phrase was first used in Autumn 1942 on the Superman radio show, although it wouldn't be codified as such until the Adventures of Superman tv show in the 50s.

Kryptonite

Kryptonite first appeared in the The Adventures of Superman radio show ("The Meteor from Krypton", June 1943) as a way to give Superman actor Bud Collyer some time off.  Although a similar substance first appeared in the unpublished 1940 story "The K-Metal From Krypton" by Jerry Siegel, Kryptonite proper was introduced in Superman #61 (December 1949).

Smallville's location
In Superman: The Movie (1978), Smallville was said to be located in Kansas.  In the comics at the time, Smallville's location was as variable as any other DC Comics city, but it was generally located on the eastern seaboard near Metropolis.  For instance, in New Adventures of Superboy #22 (October 1981), Smallville was said to be located in Maryland, and in Legion of Super-Heroes #313 (July 1984), it was thought to be located in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey.  It wasn't until Man of Steel #1 (or Action Comics #596, depending on your point of view) that it was first placed in Kansas in the comics.

The Superman Shield as El Family Crest

For the longest time, the "S" simply stood for "Superman" and was created by the Kents (usually designed by Jonathan and/or Clark (see Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #9 (September 1997), among others)).  But in Superman: The Movie (1978), the shield was worn by Jor-El as well, and assumed to be the El family crest.  This made the transition to comics in Superman: Birthright (2004), where it was not only the El family crest, but a Krypton-wide symbol of hope.  Although Birthright has been replaced by Superman: Secret Origin (2008), the family crest aspect has remained.