Martha Kent

Martha Kent, nee Martha Clark, also known as Ma Kent, is a fictional character published by DC Comics. She is the foster mother of Superman, and the wife of Jonathan Kent (also known as "Pa Kent"). Martha lives with her husband in the small town of Smallville, USA. Martha is usually portrayed agewise as either late middle age or elderly.

History

Original Version

While a "passing motorist" was described as having found the infant Kal-El (or "Kal-L" as the earliest comics stated his Kryptonian name) in Superman's first appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938, Superman #1 in 1939 is the first story to introduce Superman's adoptive parents to the mythos. Ma Kent's first name remained in an uncertain state during the 1940s; a 1942 Superman novel named Ma "Sarah Kent," while the first extensive retelling of Superman's origins in Superman #53 in 1948 named Ma "Mary Kent." In the early 1950s, however, Ma's name was definitively given as being "Martha Kent," and has been as such ever since.

Related Topics:
Kryptonian - 1938 - 1939 - 1940s - 1942 - 1948 - 1950s

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Later stories, after the early 1960s introduction of DC's multiverse system, declared that the earliest versions of Ma was named "Mary Kent" and lived on the world of "Earth-Two" (home of the Golden Age DC superheroes), while the more familiar Martha Kent lived on the mainstream world of "Earth-One" (home of the Silver Age DC superheroes).

Related Topics:
1960s - Multiverse - Golden Age - Silver Age

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Ma made few appearances in Superman stories until the introduction of the Superboy comic in 1949. In this series, Ma Kent made a lasting mark, being a regular supporting character of the teenaged superhero.

Related Topics:
Superboy - 1949

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The Superboy stories established Martha's backstory, stating she married Jonathan years ago, and became a farmer on a farm just outside of Smallville. After Martha and Jonathan found the toddler Kal-El in his rocket, they took him to the Smallville Orphanage and, several days later, formally adopted him. Renaming him "Clark," Martha and Jonathan took him back to their farm to raise him; there, they soon discovered that Clark possessed a fantastic array of superpowers (gained, as Martha learned years later, from exposure to Earth's yellow sun and its lower gravity).

Related Topics:
Backstory - Farmer - Farm - Orphanage - Sun - Gravity

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Around the time Clark started school, Ma and Pa sold their farm, and the family moved into Smallville where the Kents opened a general store.

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At the age of eight, Clark began a superhero career as Superboy, with Martha creating Superboy's costume (out of the blankets inside the rocket that brought him to Earth---which she had originally used to create a playsuit when Clark was a preschooler). Martha continued to assist her adopted son on his various adventures as Superboy over the years.

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After Clark graduated from high school, Jonathan and Martha took a vacation to the Caribbean Islands, where they contracted a fatal and rare tropical disease after handling materials from a pirate's treasure chest they had exhumed; despite Superboy's best efforts, they both passed away. After his parents' passing, Clark mourned his parents' loss, before eventually moving to Metropolis to attend college.

Related Topics:
Caribbean Islands - Pirate - Metropolis

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Modern Version

After comics writer John Byrne rewrote Superman's origin in his 1986 Man of Steel miniseries, one of the key changes he made was in keeping Jonathan and Martha Kent alive into Clark's adulthood. Martha still had a similar role as in the earlier stories, however, of instilling within Clark the morals needed to become a strong figure.

Related Topics:
John Byrne - 1986 - Man of Steel

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In this version of events, after Kal-El's "birthing matrix" landed on Earth, Jonathan and Martha found a newborn-aged infant inside. Taking the infant in just before a major snowstorm struck (that buried Smallville in snow for some number of months and cut off outsiders' access to the Kent family farm), the couple decided to pass the infant off as their own natural child, naming him "Clark."

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Clark's powers slowly developed over time in this version, with all of his powers fully emerging once he reached his late teen years. After Clark's high school graduation, Martha and Jonathan told Clark about his extraterrestrial origins, after which Clark soon left Smallville to explore the outside world. When Clark eventually settled in Metropolis, Martha had a hand in helping Clark create a superhero identity as Superman.

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Another change in this version was that Martha remained a farmer through Clark's adult years, though a recent comic storyline featured the Kents having opened a general store in Smallville.

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Martha's post-Crisis history was more fully fleshed out in the late 1980s miniseries The World of Smallville.

Related Topics:
Crisis - 1980s - The World of Smallville

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