Superman

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Other characters

Supporting characters

Familiar supporting characters in the Superman mythos include:

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• Lois Lane: Superman's love interest, who is traditionally portrayed as being indifferent to Clark, but in love with Superman; in current comics, Clark and Lois are married. Actresses portraying Lois have included Noel Neill, Phyllis Coates, Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Erica Durance, and Kate Bosworth.
• Jimmy Olsen: Daily Planet photographer who often works with Lois and Clark, and has become a good friend to both. Jimmy is also known to have associated with Superman, earning him the nickname "Superman's Pal."
• Perry White: Editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. Is noted for his trademark cigars and gruff but caring demeanor with his staff.
• Lana Lang: Clark Kent's childhood friend from Smallville. Pre-Crisis, Lana often suspected Clark of being Superboy; post-Crisis, Clark told Lana about his powers in high school before leaving Smallville. Later, Lana married Pete Ross, and had a son named Clark; Lana and Pete later divorced. At one time Lana gained super powers and had several adventures as the Insect Queen.
• Pete Ross: Clark Kent's childhood friend from Smallville. Pre-Crisis, Pete accidentially discovered Clark was really Superboy, but kept the knowledge a secret from Clark. Post-Crisis, he didn't learn Clark's secret until much later, and had married Lana Lang, with whom he had a son named Clark; Lana and Pete later divorced. Pete Ross was recently revealed to be a villain named "Ruin."
• Lori Lemaris: A mermaid who Clark Kent dated while attending Metropolis University, and was the first person he proposed marriage to (though Lori turned him down). Lori returned to current comic continuity as a prelude to Clark and Lois's short-lived breakup in a 1996 storyline.
• Jonathan and Martha Kent: Superman's foster parents who adopted and raised him after he landed on Earth. Often referred to as Ma and Pa Kent.
• Supergirl: Pre-Crisis, Supergirl was Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin from Argo City, a city that for a time had survived the destruction of Krypton until its residents died of kryptonite radiation. Post-Crisis, several unrelated versions of Supergirl have been introduced. In recent issues of Superman/Batman, a new "Supergirl from Krypton" (looking very much like the original) arrived on Earth.
• Steel: An engineer genius named John Henry Irons who created a high-tech, mechanized suit of armor to fight crime in, after Superman's death in the Death of Superman storyline, and still serves as a superhero today.
• Superboy: Pre-Crisis, Superboy was Superman's superhero identity as a teenager. Post-Crisis, Superboy is a clone, originally thought to have been of Superman, that was created after Superman died during the Death of Superman storyline. He soon found out that he was a clone of Paul Westfield. However, recently in Teen Titans, it was revealed that Superboy is actually a hybrid of human and Kryptonian DNA, with the human DNA coming from Lex Luthor. The Westfield connection has not been re-explained since.
• Krypto The Superdog: Pre-Crisis, Krypto was the El family's pet dog on Krypton, who eventually wound up on Earth and gained superpowers like Superman's. Recent comics have introduced an updated version of Krypto; this version currently lives with Superboy (Kon-El).
• Professor Phineas Potter: Pre-Crisis, Professor Potter was an eccentric scientist who used his talents to sometimes assist Superboy or Superman. Potter was depicted in Superboy stories as Lana Lang's maternal uncle.
• Professor Emil Hamilton: Post-Crisis, Professor Hamilton fills the role that Professor Potter did pre-Crisis, as a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist who lends his assistance as needed to Superman.
• Police Chief Douglas Parker: The chief of Smallville's police department; Chief Parker mainly appeared in Silver Age Superboy stories, but has been little seen in recent years.
• The Justice League of America: a team of superheroes of which Superman is a member and often the leader. Other notable JLA members include Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern.
• Kelex: In post-Crisis stories, a Kryptonian robot who originally served Jor-El on Krypton. Kelex currently maintains Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

In Metropolis, Superman enjoys a close relationship with the police department. This especially applies to the Special Crimes Unit (SCU), a police unit that deals with superpowered threats, led by Captain Margaret Sawyer, one of the few openly gay characters in mainstream superhero comics today.

Related Topics:
Margaret Sawyer - Gay

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There have been a number of characters called Superboy. The original Superboy, introduced in 1944's More Fun Comics #101, represented "the adventures of Superman when he was a boy." This Superboy is no longer in publication, as post-Crisis continuity deemed that Clark Kent did not become a superhero until he reached adulthood. A new Superboy character who is a clone of Superman was created in the early 1990s; adventures featuring this character continue to be published. The Superboy name has also been the name of denizens of other dimensions, such as one from a "pocket universe" parallel dimension in the late 1980s post-Crisis Superman comics, and several individuals the current Superboy encountered during his trip through Hypertime (one of those essentially being an exact double of the pre-Crisis Superboy). See also: Superboy.

Related Topics:
Superboy - 1944's - Clone - 1990s - 1980s - Hypertime

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Pre-Crisis, Superman's foster parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, died in the summer after his high school graduation; post-Crisis, the Kents are alive and well and are regularly visited by Clark, who relies on them for advice in difficult times.

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Villains

Superman also has a rogues gallery of supervillain enemies, including:

Related Topics:
Rogues gallery - Supervillain

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• Lex Luthor: Superman's most well-known enemy. Pre-Crisis, Luthor was a rogue scientific genius with a personal vendetta against Superman, using his scientific prowess to destroy the Man of Steel by any means possible. Post-Crisis, Luthor is portrayed as a powerful but corrupt CEO of a conglomerate called LexCorp, but still has the same hatred of Superman. Recently, Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Batman foe Ra's al Ghul, bankrupted Lex, so he is now without his corporate backing, with Lex as a result having returned more to his pre-Crisis persona.
• Darkseid: A cruel and merciless alien who rules the planet Apokolips and only deals with Superman when it benefits his own agenda. Not originally created as a Superman villain, but by Jack Kirby for his New Gods series.
• Bizarro: An imperfect duplicate of Superman. Pre-Crisis, Bizarro was created by an imperfect duplicator ray; post-Crisis, he originally was a failed experiment of Lex Luthor's. More recently, a newer version similar to the pre-Crisis version was reintroduced.
• Metallo: A cyborg criminal who prefers using kryptonite as his power source, which makes him a deadly threat to Superman.
• Mr. Mxyzptlk: A being from the fifth dimension with magical powers who delights in tormenting Superman and traditionally could only be made to return to his native dimension by being made to say or spell his own name backwards.
• Brainiac: An alien scientist from the planet Colu, intent on conquring Earth; pre-Crisis, Brainiac was portrayed as being an android. Post-Crisis, he was portrayed as a circus mentalist named Milton Fine who was possessed by a Coluian intelligence. During "The Doomsday Wars" storyline, however, Fine's body was destroyed and Brainiac once more inhabited a robotic body.
• Phantom Zone criminals: Pre-Crisis, these were Kryptonian criminals imprisoned in a dimension called the "Phantom Zone", in which they only existed in a ghostlike form; this allowed them to survive the destruction of Krypton. Various such criminals would sometimes escape and attack Superman.
• General Zod: Pre-Crisis, Zod was one of the main Phantom Zone criminals that fought with Superman. Post-Crisis, Zod was first depicted as a Phantom Zone criminal that Superman encountered in an alternate dimension; eventually, this Zod was killed by Superman with kryptonite. A second version of Zod was later introduced as a product of Soviet genetic engineering, surgically altered to mimic Superman.
• Parasite: A janitor (Maxwell Jensen pre-Crisis; Rudy Jones post-Crisis) who had been mutated into a super-powered man who could absorb the powers, strength, and memories of any organic being, and wanted Superman's power for himself.
• The Prankster: A villain who uses various practical jokes as a motif in his crimes. His real name is Oswald Loomis.
• Terra-Man: Pre-Crisis, a cowboy-dressed villain who uses various high-tech weapons digusised as those of the American Old West.
• Intergang: A nationwide organized crime syndicate armed with weapons supplied in part by Darkseid.
• Doomsday: A mindless, impossibly powerful, raging monster that killed Superman during the Death of Superman storyline. During the Last Laugh storyline, a "jokerized" Doomsday that had been reengineered with changes from Superman's DNA attained intelligence; Darkseid and Lex apparently had a deal to make clones of Doomsday. A version of Doomsday seen recently attained more than just the ability to talk, but the ability to reason and experience emotion, which ultimately turned him from an evil monster to a hero that saved Superman in the present and in an alternate future.
• Imperiex: An all-powerful force of nature whose purpose is destroying galaxies. Eventually, Superman, Steel, and Darkseid stopped Imperiex by using Doomsday as an ally, along with a powerful weapon called the Entropy Aegis.
• Toyman: An insane criminal who uses special equipment and weapons based on toys.
• The Cyborg Superman: A reanimated astronaut cyborg who briefly impersonated Superman after his death, and also destroyed Green Lantern Hal Jordan's home of Coast City.
• Gog: A human from the future who masters time travel, and hates Superman for allowing his parents to die.
• Preus : Formerly a law enforcement officer from the bottle city of Kandor, he escaped the city and hunts Superman.