Superman

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Equipment

Given his abilities, personal equipment plays less of a role for Superman than for other superheroes.

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The Fortress of Solitude, located in the Arctic in the pre-Crisis version of the mythos and (until recently when it was moved to the Amazon Basin) in Antarctica in the post-Crisis version, serves as Superman's secret base of operations. The Fortress acts as Superman's personal getaway, although it has communications equipment for urgent messages. While various 1940s comics made mention of Superman having a "mountain retreat," the Fortress in its familiar sense was first introduced in the comics in 1958.

Related Topics:
Fortress of Solitude - Arctic - Amazon Basin - Antarctica - 1940s - 1958

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In pre-Crisis continuity, the Fortress included laboratories, a private zoo of alien animals, a room for communication with the Phantom Zone with a projector to place or remove people from it, a Krypton memorial, a trophy room, and a gym with custom exercise equipment. It also had tribute rooms to personal friends like Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Batman, and Clark Kent (to throw off suspicion about his secret identity by visitors unfamiliar with it), where Superman prepared special gifts for each in the event of his death. Most importantly, the Fortress was where Superman stored the bottle city of Kandor, which, in the pre-Crisis, was a Kryptonian city shrunken and stolen by Brainiac prior to the planet's destruction. For years, Superman worked to reverse the city's condition, while also enjoying the opportunity to visit a native community where he was an honored guest.

Related Topics:
Phantom Zone - Lois Lane - Jimmy Olsen - Batman - Kandor - Brainiac

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In post-Crisis continuity, the Fortress was originally created by the Kryptonian artifact, the Eradicator, when Superman tried to dispose of it in Antarctica. The device created the Fortress which contains much of Krypton's technology, including artificially intelligent robots. Superman and fellow superhero Steel encased the Fortress in a tesseract, permitting the Man of Steel to carry the Fortress wherever he travels. Superman also stores in the Fortress various equipment, weapons, and vehicles of Kryptonian design, including a large fighting mecha called a battlesuit and a means of accessing the Phantom Zone.

Related Topics:
Tesseract - Mecha

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A trademark of the Fortress in all of its incarnations is a memorial statue of his Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara, holding up a globe of the planet Krypton.

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Superman, in the pre-Crisis comics, also had androids that could impersonate himself (as both Superman and as Clark Kent). He largely abandoned them when Earth's pollution began to interfere with their functions. Post-Crisis, Superman at one time had built various Superman robots; however, all but one were destroyed, with the sole remaining robot currently being kept on duty at the Fortress of Solitude. This one remaining robot was destroyed by superheroine Donna Troy, at the expense of her own life, though she was soon resurrected.

Related Topics:
Android - Donna Troy

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For situations involving kryptonite, Superman in the original comics had a collection of lead-lined suits for protection. If his powers were disabled or he needed stronger protection, Superman also had his "Supermobile," a small flying car-like vehicle which could fly anywhere and use its powerful waldo arms to handle outside objects.

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Superman's costume was created by Ma Kent; pre-Crisis, she created it out of the blankets from the rocket that brought him to Earth. Said blankets, like everything else from Krypton under a yellow sun environment such as Earth's, shared Clark's invulnerability. His armor-like costume could also protect others that wore it. While carrying passengers in flight, Superman would wrap them in his cape to protect them from air friction. In the post-Crisis comics, his costume is invulnerable because of the bioelectric field that his cells produce (see how it works). Although much fun has been made over the years of the unusuality of his costume, it was in fact very practical in Superman's earliest stories due to its gliding cape and unemcumburing body suit (http://www.novanotes.com/specul/cape.htm).

Related Topics:
Ma Kent - How it works - Gliding cape

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In the original comics, Clark's eyeglass lenses were made from two small rounded pieces of glass from his spaceship. Since they were of Kryptonian origin, Clark could fire his heat vision through them without melting them (in contrast, the post-Crisis Clark has to lift his glasses off his eyes when he uses his heat vision). Superman also sometimes carries spare change in his hollowed-out belt buckle, which also doubles as a Justice League communication device. In recent comics (as seen in Superman/Batman), the belt buckle is made of lead and stored a fairly safe synthetic form of kryptonite for Clark to use. When he had Kandor in his possession in the pre-Crisis comics, all of these improvisations were supplemented by the products of the professional tailors and lenscrafters available in the bottle city.

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