| Origin & Backstory |

1988-1998: Death of a Family
In 1988 Danny Rand-Kai was born to Heather Duncan Rand and businessman Wendell Rand-Kai, CEO of Rand-Meachum Inc. Danny's childhood was about as uneventful as the son of a billionaire's could be until the year he turned ten years old, when his father decided to take Danny, Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum with him in search of the mythical city of K'un-Lun. Meachum betrayed the Rand family, pushing Wendell off a cliff and abandoning Heather and Danny to die on the icy mountain slopes they were journeying through when they wouldn't join him in his hostile takeover of Wendell's former life. The two wandered lost through the mountains, stalked by wolves and weakened by cold and starvation. Eventually the wolves struck, and as Heather sacrificed herself to give Danny a few brief moments more to run the last thing he saw before collapsing in exhaustion was a set of shining, golden gates burning through a haze of snow.

When Daniel Rand next awoke, it was within the walls of the Eternal City of K'un-Lun. Its Immortal rulers had rescued him and taken him in, as he happened to arrive during the once-every-decade period when K'un-Lun intersects directly with the mortal plane. As an apology for failing to save Danny's mother as well, they offered to grant him any one request. It barely took Danny Rand any time at all to ask them to teach him everything they could about combat. Thus, while the world mourned the death of one of New York's most high profile philanthropists and his family, Danny Rand began his apprenticeship under Lei Kung The Thunderer.

1998-2008: Birth of an Iron Fist
The Thunderer's training was brutal if also enlightening, designed to hone mind, body and spirit into a weapon forged with an immortal lifetime of experience. Danny's fellow students made his life no easier as he was constantly isolated, mocked and attacked due to his foreign heritage and status as an outworlder. But Danny persisted, the desire for revenge on Harold Meachum lending an angry fire to his efforts that no amount of guidance from his mentors or torment from his peers could extinguish. All the while Danny and the other trainees were told stories of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, how he eternally guards K'un-Lun, his still beating heart magically separated from his body and placed inside an enchanted brazier that forced it to beat so that he would never die. They were also told that once in each generation a worthy warrior would be chosen from among trainees like them to face Shou-Lao and attempt to claim the Dragon's power as their own to become the Iron Fist, Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun. Danny desired this above all else, both to prove himself to those who mocked him and to better exact his revenge against Harold Meachum.

It took ten long years of nearly endless training, but finally the day arrived when a warrior would be chosen to face Shou-Lao the Undying. To the surprise of nearly everyone but himself and Lei Kung, Danny managed to defeat every other challenger and earn the right to face the Dragon. When the time came Danny entered Shou-Lao's mountaintop cave and fought the massive dragon with his bare hands. It was a grueling fight, but in the end Danny was able to grapple with Shou-Lao and cover the still-gaping chest wound which tied the great serpent to its' still beating heart with his own body. The heat of the beast's fiery blood was so intense that it branded the dragon-shaped wound of Shou-Lao into Danny's chest, but in the end he held on long enough to subdue Shou-Lao. With that done Danny plunged his fists into the Undying dragon's molten, still beating heart again and again, until it truly died. The process infused Danny with the dragon's powerful chi and enabled him to channel it through his fists. Thus The Immortal Iron Fist was born!

2008-2009: Iron Fist, Wanted Man!
Afterward it was revealed to Danny that his coming to K'un-Lun was no accident, in fact his father Wendell was the brother of the Immortal lord Yu-ti and Danny was K'un-Lun royalty. The Yu-Ti offered Danny the chance to live forever in K'un-Lun as an immortal and a prince, but he rejected life in paradise, instead returning to the mortal world to seek revenge on Harold Meachum. He was able to track Meachum down to the Rand Tower in New York and fight past innumerable traps and bodyguards, only to find Harold Meachum a broken shell of a man not only confined to a wheelchair after losing both of his legs but already driven to insanity by guilt for his past crimes. However, before Danny could decide what to do, Meachum was killed by a mysterious assailant dressed as a ninja and Iron Fist was framed as Meachum's murderer. Danny found himself at the center of a nationwide manhunt after murdering the well known billionaire. Worse yet, Harold Meachum's daughter Joy put a sizable bounty on his head and he had no real civilian identity to hide behind. Danny spent the majority of his time alternately avoiding the police, fighting bounty hunters and misinformed superheroes alike, and desperately searching for the ninja to clear his name. He eventually found out that The Ninja was a vengeful wraith of a warrior and assassin who had once fought against K'un-Lun. He had been raised from the dead by an unknown master and framed Danny to try and destroy him and leave the Eternal City defenseless. However in their final confrontation the increasingly unstable Ghost Ninja ended up gleefully confessing all of this in front of a rather large crowd during their rather flashy battle and as a result Iron Fist was cleared of all charges with minimal difficulty.

2009-present: A New Life

With help from a penitent Joy Meachum, Daniel Rand was able to prove his identity as the boy who vanished into the mountains many years ago and take back his father's company though he was mainly put in charge of public relations and Rand Incorporated's numerous charitable organizations. With vengeance long out of his reach Iron Fist decided to put his training to good use instead, becoming one of New York's many street-level heroes, though his duties as the Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun also bound him to a world of martial arts and mysticism. Now as 2010 begins Daniel Rand-Kai is living a new life with new friends and new enemies, all while serving as a bridge for two very different worlds.

K'un-Lun-Daniel Rand-Kai's adopted home, K'un-Lun is an ancient and mythical city whose dimension only overlaps with Earth once every ten years. While legendary for its' martial arts among those who know of its' existence, K'un-Lun is also a place of great mystical and occult importance as it is in truth one of the Seven Cities of Heaven, seven locations that form a nexus for all the world's chi and serve as a mirror to the world itself, collectively known as the Heart of Heaven. K'un-Lun is a place of magic and wonders in many ways. A tree whose fruit grants everlasting life, Immortal Sorcerer-Kings, dragons both great and small and ancient technologies and arcane artifacts lost to mankind for ages are all things residents of K'un-Lun hardly spare a second glance at. However in many other respects K'un-Lun is much like ancient China, especially for the common folks who are not immortal but live much as their ancestors have for untold centuries.

H'ylthri Jungles-When K'un-Lun is not connected to the mortal world, it is often surrounded by dense and wild jungles more vibrant and ravenous than any known on Earth. Apart from numerous strange plants and creatures the primary inhabitants of these jungles are the H'ylthri, a race of sentient plants that are uniformly powerfully telepathic and also capable of creating clones of other sentient beings given enough time. The H'ylthri hate K'un-Lun with a passion and desire it and its' peoples to be swallowed up by the jungles. Danny once spent considerable time stranded in the H'ylthri Jungles, and described it as the toughest environment he has ever experienced.

Rand Incorporated-Formerly Rand-Meachum, a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York and founded by Danny's father Wendell-Rand'Kai and his business partner Harold Meachum. While Rand Incorporated has subsidiaries involved in a wide variety of businesses, Rand Inc's initial focus was on real estate and land development, and as a result the company actually owns more buildings in New York City than any other, though many of them are leased to Tony Stark and Norman Osborne respectively. Shipping, Freight and Transportation are also a specialty of Rand Incorporated and it actually holds the patents to and manufactures high-speed mag-lev trains used for everything from the Tokyo subways to American freight cars. RandMedia is also a well-known branch of Rand Inc, subsidizing cable TV companies, radio stations and newspapers like the Daily Globe in New York and the Daily Star in Metropolis. Rand Incorporated also began using its' control over advertising, shipping and building-space to break into retail and distribution, with Rand-Mart quickly becoming one of the bigger retail chains in the U.S. It's overseas where Rand Incorporated really makes its' money and image however, as the company has incredibly strong long-standing relationships with business partners in East and Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan, Japan and China. There Rand Incorporated is involved in a wide variety of business ventures and often serves an intermediary role in American markets. It also has a large philanthropic and charitable branch.

The Rand BuildingThe most iconic structure owned by Rand Incorporated, the Rand building is a towering skyscraper that serves as the headquarters and financial heart of Daniel Rand's empire. It also houses a Wuguan as well as a small living area and meditative space custom built for Danny when his duties to the company call him away from his actual home. A secret sub-basement of the building links into a network of tunnels to other Rand-owned buildings Iron Fist uses to get around the city. The windows of the skyscraper's top floor in Danny's office are also designed to secretly open and are positioned in such a way that he can effectively jump to surrounding buildings for vigilante activities. Also although Danny declines to use any such function ordinarily, Harold Meachum installed a series of death-traps into the building including hidden wall-spikes, collapsible machine-gun turrets, camera-mounted lasers, sprinklers that dispense acid, rooms that lock and emit hallucinogenic gas and stairs, elevators and floors that collapse into bottomless pits on command. Danny has since modified all of these to be decidedly non-lethal but they are considerable measures.

Dojo of Thunder-A martial arts school at which Danny teaches as part of Rand Inc's charity and youth outreach programs. Danny actually has come to deeply care for the students there, and while he doesn't teach them the secret martial arts of K'un-Lun he tries his best to teach them not only how to fight but how to live well and improve themselves and their communities.

Allies
Lei-Kung the Thunderer-an Immortal of K'un-Lun and Danny's primary instructor in the martial arts, Lei-Kung trained not only Iron Fist but all the warriors of K'un-Lun past and present and is a martial artist, warrior and leader with thousands upon thousands of years of experience. He was also one of Danny's primary mentors and caretakers from the age of nine or ten until he was twenty and is one of the closest things Danny has to a father figure.

Yu-Ti the August Personage in Jade/Nu'An-another Immortal and the ruler of K'un-Lun. The current holder of the title Yu-Ti is Nu'An, a powerful sorcerer and mystic who also happens to be Danny's uncle. Nu'an allegedly rules K'un-Lun with benevolent wisdom along with the four Dragon Kings, but he has occasionally shown darker and more pragmatic tendencies though he maintains all that he does is for the good of both K'un-Lun and the mortal world.

Miranda Rand-Kai/Deathsting-Danny's older half-sister born in K'un-Lun, Miranda was secretly trained to be a master of the martial arts by her betrothed despite the laws of the Eternal City unfairly forbidding women from combat roles, and is currently exiled to Earth. She is nearly as skilled in the martial arts as Danny and after a few misinformed fights, is aware of his identity as Iron Fist. She also possesses mystical gauntlets known as the Serpent's Sting that are capable of focusing her own chi into a powerful attack similar to the Iron Fist. While she hates K'un-Lun with a passion and is determined to do whatever it takes both to survive on Earth and have her revenge, she still cares about Danny and struggles with his role as guardian of the place that destroyed her life.

Colleen Wing-A close friend of Danny and a skilled martial artist and detective, Colleen was one of Danny's first real allies and friends outside of K'un-Lun and helped him track down the ghost ninja that framed him for murder. She is extremely skilled with a sword as well as unarmed combat, and is a member of the Daughters of the Dragon detective agency along with Misty Knight.

Misty Knight-A former police detective and expert martial artist, after she lost her arm in a police raid and was forced to retire Misty Knight decided to become a private investigator and bodyguard for hire, even replacing her missing arm with a cybernetic prosthetic developed by Tony Stark, whose life she once saved. Misty was invaluable in tracking down the Ghost Ninja and helping Iron Fist clear his name, and Danny has been openly in love with her since she first knocked him unconscious with one swing of her cyborg fist when they first met, though she's unsure of where she stands on the issue.

Jeryn Hogarth-Danny's chief financial and legal adviser, while Jeryn is no kung-fu expert or crime-fighter by himself, he performs the vital task of running the day-to-day affairs of Rand Incorporated as well as keeping both Danny and his 'bodyguard' Iron Fist out of legal trouble should the need arise.

Antagonists

Davos/The Steel Serpent-Davos is the natural born son of Lei-Kung the Thunderer and was once friends with Wendell Rand-Kai during their time together in K'un-Lun. However, Davos' pride lead to him challenging the dragon Shou-Lao when doing so was Wendell's right, and his failed attempt at becoming the Iron Fist drove him into both exile and a seething hate for the line of Rand-Kai. Davos has had identical training to Danny plus several additional decades of practical experience to apply it along with none of Danny's restraint. as a result he is more than capable of defeating Iron Fist despite the latter's skill. In addition his incomplete Mark of Shou-Lao also allows him to absorb Danny's Iron Fist chi through a crushing technique, as well as literally drain the life out of others he gets in his death grip. Danny and Davos have fought only once, and Danny only survived the experience because Davos insisted killing 'an inexperienced child' would taint his revenge.

Chiantang, The Black Dragon-Formerly a dragon who terrified K'un-Lun, Chiantang was defeated by a previous Iron Fist, bound to a human form by K'un-Lun sorcery and banished to Earth ages ago. He has since made a living as the leader of one of New York City's most notable tongs given his ageless nature and supernatural powers. Although Chiantang is powerful and established, within recent decades his organization has become increasingly pushed back by new players including the Golden Dragons.

The Twelve Brothers in Silk-Twelve brothers and martial arts masters of the highest caliber, each one skilled in a different animal-style of martial art. The Silk Brothers are freelance assassins of great renown and both while he was on the run and over the past year, they have crossed paths with Iron Fist many times, each time Danny barely defeated them, but losing only seems to make them more determined to kill him.

Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger-A martial artist of world-class skill with affiliations with the League of Assassins, Iron Fist first encountered Ben Turner when he was hired by Joy Meachum to kill her father's alleged murderer. Danny was narrowly able to defeat Bronze Tiger, who has since taken up the idea of trying to recruit the Immortal Weapon to the League of Assassins himself, though Danny has always adamantly and violently refused such offers.

The Foot-While Iron Fist tries to stay out of the affairs of ninjas and their ever raging shadow wars the Foot's recent battles with the mysterious Kingpin have attracted his attention, not to mention they and the Hand are the top candidates regarding who sent a centuries banished ghost ninja to frame him for murder in the first place. Danny has begun investigating the Foot Clan on his own to try and find out if and why they sent such a creature after him.

The Hand-Another ninja group Danny has been investigating for ties to the ghost ninja that tried to ruin his life, Danny treads equally carefully around the Hand, preferring to leave ninjas to ninjas unless they threaten other people. That said, if the Hand have really already tried to destroy his life once, Iron Fist prefers to take them down before they try it again.

Items

The Jade Mirror-A massive mirror of polished jade through which the Yu-Ti can gaze upon all that occurs in numerous dimensions, and also open up portals between them if so desired. Nu-An mainly uses this to watch over Earth, though it is also used when he desires to transport others into or out of K'un-Lun as when Davos and Miranda were banished.

The Anomaly Gem a gem which contains the souls of every past Iron Fist, the anomaly gem was fragmented into many pieces ages ago, many of which were lost in the mortal world. As they contain the collective power of numerous Iron Fists, even the fragments are mystical sources of great power.

Dragonslayer a jian which is the traditional sword of the Immortal Iron Fist made from a fang of the first incarnation of Shou-Lao and dipped in the beast's own heart, it is forged to resonate with the Chi of Shou-Lao better than any mortal weapon. While the Dragonslayer is locked deep within K'un-Lun, it has been used in the past to defeat and bind Chiantang, slay the Sorceror God Khan and defeat numerous great evils in the past.

Danny Rand-Kai slumped against a wall in his little corner of a restaurant that the characters blazing outside assured him was named Fujian Family Restaurant while the English lettering beneath muttered something neighborhood kids probably snickered at. All things considered it was pretty much a hole in the wall, run-down, neglected and usually without more than a handful of customers in sight. A fine layer of dust would have coated everything if the dust wasn't too embarrassed to be seen there and the decor had to be going on a few centuries old and was likely begging to be put out of its' misery.

But it really was family owned, the tea was always hot, Mandarin twanged rhythmically outward from the kitchen like notes from a half-familiar song punctuated by occasional breaks of vibrant Cantonese swearing, and they served some of the best damn jiaozi in the city. It also helped that they were willing to serve weirdos in costumes.

After half a lifetime in the mythical, ageless city of K'un-Lun few places in New York felt like home to the Immortal Iron Fist, but here in a dumpy restaurant still halfway-stuck in tradition he could at least close his eyes and pretend for a minute that that wasn't so. Besides, after a long day of sitting in on Rand Incorporated meetings for matters he was still barely learning to understand and fighting crime in a city that hardly seemed to notice it was nice to just lose himself in the mechanical, barely conscious motions of his chopsticks as he ate. It was only when he brought the chopsticks to his mouth that he realized he'd just used them to snatch at a dart instead of a dumpling. He sighed and set his chopsticks down, realizing for the first time how unusually crowded the restaurant was today. Danny had really been hoping for a break, but as his master Lei-Kung would say, the path of the righteous is endlessly long and full of many sharp rocks and pitfalls.

"Really, guys? I can't even finish my lunch first? Y'know it's safer by far to pull a tiger's tail than to pull a starving man from his meal, right?" The only answer was a chorus of scraping chairs and one dropped blowgun.

By the time the first assassin rushed him with a knife in hand Iron Fist was already vaulting across the table in a perfectly executed jump kick that snapped the killer's head back and sent him crumpling to the floor. Two more lunged at Danny as the first went down and he turned to grab the recently delivered teapot off of his tabletop. He tossed the scalding liquid in their faces before kicking one man in the chest hard enough to send him flying into another table that promptly collapsed, then casually smashed the empty ceramic kettle into the face of the second and slammed an elbow into his temple in the same motion. Honorable combat was fine and good, but Lei Kung himself would laugh in Danny's face for playing fair with would-be assassins. Nevertheless, he tossed the remains of the teapot aside and gestured for the last four to hurry up already.

They fanned out, wary now that they’d already seen him take down three of their comrades. One of them picked up a broken table leg and charged, roaring as he swung it. Iron Fist barely shifted as the heavy wooden club missed twice by a hair’s breadth, lashing out to shatter it with one punch then knocking the assailant unconscious with a well-placed spear-hand to the throat. But the thug wielding the table leg was revealed as a distraction as soon as he fell, one of his allies grabbing Iron Fist in a crushing grip while the other stepped in with yet another upraised knife. In less time than it took to blink the Living Weapon broke the grip along with a few of the now agonized man’s toes and threw him hard into the knife-wielder and several splintering chairs.

As the last assassin standing reached for a concealed gun heedless of keeping a low profile, Daniel Rand-Kai turned to him and sighed.

“See, here’s how this part goes. You do the dishonorable thing and pull the gun, I let you take five, maybe six shots-“

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*-

The gun was out of the shooter’s hands and being casually disassembled before he got to shot number five. He tried to bolt for the exit, but as soon as the last piece of the handgun hit the floor he found himself suddenly slammed against the wall and held there by the neck.

“Now interrupting like that was just plain rude. You need to learn some respect, and you can start by answering my questions.”

As Iron Fist lifted his free hand up so it was right in the hired killer’s face, he found himself focusing on his love for the place they’d ruined along with all of his anger and all of his sorrow at the assault on one of his last few sanctums. Focusing all of that and really all of his being into his fist, along with just a touch of the fiery Chi of Shou-Lao. His hand began to glow, to smolder, to burn.

“Now, who hired you?”

---

Afterwards, he put down enough pocket change to more than make up for the damages but he doubted the terrified owners would let him come back again any time soon. As he left the Fujian Family Restaurant, he contemplated both the latest attempt on his life and his still empty stomach.

Well, it's fine if the path of the righteous is strewn with many sharp rocks and pitfalls...but it had better lead to a new restaurant eventually.

Jonathan Kent was never much of a religious man; the praying and spritiuality, he left up to his wife, Martha. He believed that if men and women were put on this Earth for a reason, then it was up to themselves to determine what that reason was, and if there was any cosmic design at work, then it wasn't apparent to him. Martha often told him that the universe worked in 'mysterious ways'......which was a small comfort during their difficult early years of marriage, when the harvest went fallow, when Jonathan had to take out a second mortgage to keep the farm, and most devastatingly of all, when the doctor told them they would never be able to conceive children of their own.

While Martha loved Jonathan and believed in him with all her might, she wanted a family, and their inability to conceive became a strain on their marriage. One night in the summer of 1978, a drive into Smallville to visit their friends the Langs became an argument, the argument became a fight, and the fight became the two of them riding home in a heartbroken silence, both of them knowing a divorce was almost inevitable.

The inevitable, however, was denied, when a shooting star streaked over Jonathan's truck and came crashing down into Ben Sutton's corn fields not a hundred yards from the road. Pulling off the road, Jonathan and Martha rushed out to see if anyone had been hurt in the crash....and found not a meteor or a crashed satellite like they had expected, but a gleaming metallic craft, its hull a bright blue with red fins and gold trim, sparkling with multicolored lights and adorned with glyphs and runes in a language neither of them could understand....

....and sitting inside, wrapped in a red cloak, carrying a strange crystalline sphere, and completely unharmed, was a smiling baby boy. The universe, the Kents agreed, worked in mysterious ways indeed.

Minutes later, the area was swarmed with black helicopters, men in unmarked cars and no identifying badges. The alien pod was taken into the custody of the United States government for analysis.....but the pod's occupant was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, the Kents took the child to their home and agonized over what to do, whether to turn the baby over to the proper authorities or keep it as their own. The next day, a brief and intimidating visit from the men in black made up their minds; a lost, lonely newborn baby needed a family, not a lifetime in a laboratory. Jonathan and Martha spent the next few weeks and their meager savings forging all of the necessary documents to 'legally' adopt their first child, a beautiful black-haired boy they named Clark Joseph Kent.

Clark's childhood was a difficult and isolated one, as his 'condition' made him too fragile to play with the other boys his age, for fear of him getting hurt (though the truth was quite the opposite-- even as a toddler, Clark was inhumanly strong). This wasn't helped by Clark having sudden outbursts in school, caused by sensory overload-- sometimes, he claimed, he could see through solid objects, hear conversations on the other side of Smallville, look at radio waves in the air.....for a while, the Kents were worried that their adopted son was experiencing hallucinations, until the day he saved Jonathan from a collapsing barn roof, having heard the sound from over five miles away.

While Clark was often an outcast from his peers, he still found friends, fellow outcasts like the bookish Lana Lang, and the attention-seeking geek Pete Ross. The three were an eclectic but tightly loyal clique throughout their childhood, and Clark learned a lot from both of them. From Pete, he learned to stand up to bullies even when it meant taking a beating, and the importance of big, dramatic (and in Pete's case, often disgusting) acts to get people to hear what you had to say. From Lana, he gained enthusiasm for seeking knowledge, understanding the truth even when it wasn't what you wanted to hear, and the value and power of a really good story.

Not that Clark didn't have plenty of stories of his own. In their down-time, the three of them would make up tall tales about what they were doing when the other two weren't looking-- although at the time, Clark didn't know that Pete and Lana were simply making things up. He told them all about how he lifted his grandfather's old tractor over his head with one hand, how the 'summer blizzard' of '85 was him sneezing, and how he once tried to grab a handful of clouds for his Ma by jumping into the sky to swipe at them.

He showed them the red cloak and crytsal ball he had had since he was a baby, and tried to explain how the cloak couldn't be hurt by anything, and how when you brushed your fingers against the crystal ball just right, it would show you pictures and stories about strange people talking in a language he didn't speak.

He told them all about Krypto, his invisible dog that only he could see (dismissed by his friends and family as an imaginary friend--not unlike the 'funny man in the orange suit' and his 'super friends from the 31st Century', stories which Clark could never actually remember telling anyone). While the other kids called Clark a freak and a weirdo for constantly making up such outlandish stories, it captivated young Pete and Lana for years.

While Clark knew he was different, he never truly understood what it was that made him so. Whenever he asked his parents, Ma would always reassure him that he was simply special, and his father would allude to the costumed crime-fighters in the Justice Society....and how their being careless with their power led to their destruction. It wasn't until Clark, at age 9, saved a crashed bus full of children, many of whom claiming he was a 'miracle worker,' that his parents sat him down and had a long, honest talk about that night in Sutton's field. They didn't honestly know where he was from, or why he wound up on Earth, but told him that what truly mattered was what he chose to do with the time he had on this world.

As Clark began to enter adolescence, his strange abilities became more erratic, and harder to control. His strength, already far greater than that of other boys his age, began to skyrocket with every growth spurt he had, causing him to fear for the safety of those around him. His eyes were not only taking in the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but emitting bursts of radiation as well, everything from spikes of radio static to destructive X-Ray lasers. One night, after staring up at the stars (and trying to shake off the ghostly image of his imaginary dog sitting next to him), Clark drifted off to sleep.......only to wake up floating above the clouds. While he could always leap high into the air, this was something different entirely; Clark Kent could fly.

Worried about just how different he was becoming and fearing that he might turn into some kind of monster, Clark withdrew even further from the community, only rarely speaking to even his closest friends. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt someone because he couldn't control himself.

While this self-imposed solitude caused a wedge between Clark and his classmates, it caused an even further fascination for Lana, who had developed a deep-seeded crush on Clark. She frequently pried and prodded to get Clark to open up, to become more confident and proud of himself, and while he very rarely ventured out with her, he had to admit it did him a world of good.

Slowly but surely the two of them became more than friends, with Lana being the one to work up the courage to ask Clark out to their sophomore prom at age fifteen. That night they shared their first kiss, and Clark confessed everything to Lana: his feelings for her, the reasons he'd been hiding away, the things his parents had told him......and then took her hand, and flew her into the night sky. When they touched down, Lana looked into Clark's eyes, kissed him one more time, and ran away-- not just from Clark, but from home, from her family, from all of Smallville.

Heartbroken, Clark fell into a deep depression, a condition not helped when he tried to reach out to another outsider in his class: an extremely wealthy transfer student named Lex Luthor. While his time in Smallville was short, Lex's presence was felt by practically everyone in the community-- he tinkered with school property without asking and turned it into technology so advanced that some half-believed it was witchcraft, he bombarded local officials with proposals for radical overhauls of city government, and he vocally and brazenly defied teachers and authorities and anyone else he deemed 'backwards' and 'small-minded'-- which happened to be everyone he met. Despite this, Clark believed he sensed a kindred spirit in Lex, someone who saw the world in ways that no one else could, and who suffered because of it. For a short time, young Lex humored "Farmboy" and believed he could take him under his wing, so to speak, but their differences of opinion on the people around them kept them from ever truly becoming friends. Tragically, any attempt to bridge the gap between them came to an abrupt end when, during a wild experiment involving the use of a radioactive meteor fragment, Lex caused an explosion that killed his father and burned their house down, as well as covering himself in burns all over. While Clark rushed in to help, the radiation from the meteor fragment caused a crippling sickness in him, and he passed out before he could save them. Lex moved away from Smallville, practically salting the Earth to eradicate any trace that the Luthor family had ever been there.

Less than a year later, a massive storm rolled over Smallville, the already dangerous winds spinning up into a gigantic, devastating F-5 tornado. With potentially thousands of lives in danger, Clark sprang into action, moving as fast as he could to keep from being seen, pulling people out of potentially deadly spots, catching flying debris, holding up falling buildings, all to save the lives of his home town. He wasn't alone in helping out that day, as Jonathan Kent risked his own life in the storm to save a small child who had been separated from her parents. While he managed to get the child to safety, his old war wounds caught up with him, and Jonathan collapsed from over-exertion and his heart gave out. By the time emergency services were able to reach him, Clark's adopted father was dead.

After Pa's funeral, Clark went out into the old field where they had found his ship so many years ago, and pounded his fist into the ground out of frustration....causing a shock wave that people for nearly fifty miles mistook for an earthquake. The pain of losing so many people close to him so quickly, his frustration at being unable to help people without putting his family and friends at risk, and his concerns over rumors spreading about a 'guardian angel' in the wake of his actions, made Clark realize that if he was ever to find any purpose or meaning in his life, he wouldn't be able to do it here. Taking enough extra classes to graduate early at age sixteen, Clark packed up his old red cloak and alien crystal ball, kissed his mother on the cheek and promised to call once a week to catch up, and left Smallville behind to travel the world.

For over seven years, Clark traveled the world alone, helping people whenever and wherever he could, only to disappear from their lives as soon as the danger had passed. While he longed to connect to the people he met along the way, the distrust and fear he met when people saw what he could do taught him to keep his distance, to simply be a 'ghost' that came and went without leaving any trace of who he was, only what he did.

Needing a reason to be found in dangerous places where his powers could be needed, Clark took up journalism, and paid his way through the world as a freelance reporter. He was embroiled in wars, and even in days of heavy fighting, the loss of life was minimal when he was around. He exposed terrorist cells and criminal organizations, shedding light on corruption and injustice whenever he found it. Clark Kent would have been making quite a name for himself, if another fearless reporter named Lois Lane hadn't been consistently beating him to the by-line. While he was never comfortable writing about the mysterious life-saving intervention of a mysterious stranger, Ms. Lane was eager to track this being down, and Clark found himself having to be more and more careful to keep the rival reporter off his heels.

Around his twentieth birthday, Clark finally managed to unlock the secrets of the mysterious crystal sphere that had come with him in his ship. As he expected, it was some sort of alien computer, and while navigating the orb's interface was nearly impossible, the images and impressions he got from it were astounding, glimpses of a world and a people that he had never seen, but that he immediately knew were his heritage. Strangely, the computer orb also seemed to contain some form of homing beacon, which always pointed due North. Eventually his curiosity led Clark to follow this beacon, traveling all the way to the North Pole, and there he found something incredible.

Hidden beneath the polar ice cap, expanding for miles in all directions, was a massive complex, an alien fortress that had been lying in wait for years for his arrival. Upon interacting with the Fortress's own computer systems, Clark's orb became far more active, speaking to Clark in his own language and telling him the truth of things.

The orb introduced itself as Kelex, an AI assigned to oversee and assist members of the House of El. Clark's true name was Kal-El, the last surviving member of his House, and indeed, the last survivor of his home world, the lost planet of Krypton. Facing a world-shattering cataclysm, Kal's biological father Jor-El had tried to enact a desperate plan to save his people: warping the entire population into the extradimensional void known as the Phantom Zone, then sending a single survivor on the material plane to a hospitable planet and bringing the population out into a pre-established colony. Sadly, Jor-El did not have enough time to put his plan into motion, and he chose to save the life of his son in the one ship capable of delivering him to safety; the colony meant to house millions of Kryptonians would now be a refuge for one, a Fortress of Solitude.

Krypton, Kal learned, was a world of adventurers and scientists, of dangers and wonders. Its people had eschewed traditional gods and demons in favor of worshipping a set of ideals called the Jirrod, and each of the Great Houses strove to be the embodiment of one of these ideals. The House of El, Kal's bloodline and legacy, represented above all other things, Hope. And Clark Kent, the mild-mannered son of Smallville--also Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton-- swore to himself that he would strive to the ideal of Hope that his lost world had entrusted in him, and his adopted world so badly needed.

After seeing the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, Clark Kent realized he could no longer hide himself from humanity. Putting on his old indestructible red cape, and a T-shirt with the House of El's insignia painted on it, he openly and directly intervened on what appeared to be a follow-up attack in Metropolis a few days later, diverting the plane from crashing into the old Science Spire and setting it down in the river, before disabling the terrorists inside. Dubbed "Superman" by Lois Lane, the super-powered vigilante quickly began a career in righting the wrongs in the city of Metropolis and the world at large.

Realizing the scale of the job he had taken upon himself, Clark took a permanent residence in Metropolis, renting out a small apartment in the Hob's Bay area with an old contact of his, a Daily Planet photographer named Jimmy Olsen. Clark and Jimmy became fast friends, and Jimmy eventually convinced Clark to apply for a job at the Planet. While Clark blew the initial interview with Chief Editor Perry White, he ended up getting the job after a glowing recommendation from his old freelancer rival Lois Lane, who had started working at the Planet a few months earlier. Together, Lois and Clark exposed the terrorists behind the failed attack on the Science Spire, and revealed that they were not in fact Islamic extremists, but instead were being blackmailed into cooperation by the vicious criminal syndicate known as Intergang.

What Bruno Mannheim's motivation was for destroying the Spire remained a mystery, but the more Lois exposed in the wake of Superman's resulting battles with Intergang showed that while Mannheim was indeed the one pulling the strings of the crime syndicate, someone else was manipulating Mannheim from higher up.

Mannheim threw everything he had at Superman to no avail, until his pressuring of Amertek scientists to develop anti-Superman weapons resulted in a catastrophic explosion which created the radioactive villain known as the Atomic Skull. The Skull fought Superman across the entire city, and while the villain was eventually defeated, there were many who noted Superman's apparent weakness towards certain forms of radiation.

Six months after Superman's debut in Metropolis, the world was shocked to see the City of Tomorrow suddenly and inexplicably disappear, as if the entire thing had just been snatched up into thin air. Springing into action, Superman discovered this was the work of The Collector of Worlds, an ancient and malevolent artificial intelligence which traveled the universe looking for 'doomed' worlds and, upon finding one, would capture a population center for study and then abandon the planet to its destruction. Kelex was able to impart this information to Kal because a few short years before Krypton's end, The Collector had come and taken the shining city of Kandor. The Collector's intelligence spread throughout intelligent civilizations across the cosmos, using a different name on every world where it allowed itself to be 'invented.' On Krypton, the last place it had been, it used the name Brainiac.

Superman tracked Brainiac's ship in the upper atmosphere before it was able to warp away, and attacked it, crashing through the ship's defenses and legions of drones before making his way to the Collector's den. There, he found hundreds of 'bottle cities,' pocket universes where millions of lives were trapped in nightmarish isolation. The Brainiac AI assumed a physical form and subdued Superman, attempting to add the orphaned Kryptonian to his collection, but was unable to decide whether to add it to Kandor or to Metropolis. This hesitation was all Superman needed to break free, disabling Brainiac's ship and reversing the 'bottling' process to restore Metropolis to its proper location in timespace. The Collector ship crashed to Earth and was allegedly taken into SHIELD custody for study, but the Bottle Cities were taken by Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, in the hopes that he could one day set them free.

Superman's first year as an publicly active hero closed in a dramatic fashion, as a terrorist group called the Olmec Dawn captured a nuclear missile silo on the West Coast, calling for the destruction of Superman and all other non-human influences on the world. Planning to destroy the 'alien invader' along with themselves, they launched a missile at the heart of Metropolis, then set a second warhead to explode inside the silo, located extremely close to the San Andreas Fault. While Superman was able to extract the terrorists from the silo, he was unable to stop the first explosion, and had to spend precious time preventing catastrophic damage to the West Coast in the resulting earthquakes, before speeding back across the country as fast as he could to divert the second missile into space. The missile exploded in high orbit before Superman could get away, and the Man of Steel fell miles down to Earth.....but, incredibly, survived.

In the wake of this event, investigations led by Lois and Clark, as well as confession from the terrorists captured by Superman, revealed that the "Olmec Dawn" was working for a network of criminal organizations that, when the evidence was followed to the very top, led to LexCorp C.E.O. Lex Luthor. Indicted for responsibility behind the attacks, Lex was cleared of all charges, but not before having to spent a single night in prison. This indignity, the realization that someone could not only oppose him but actively punish him, sparked a hatred in Luthor that would last a lifetime.

With his original costume destroyed by the nuclear blasts, Superman had a new outfit created for him inside the Fortress, blending the traditional attire of Krypton's elite Sapphire Guard with the colorful outfits of the old Justice Society of America. With a new, more durable look, Superman was ready to take on an increasingly dangerous and uncertain world.

Over the next two years, Superman's gallery of enemies continued to grow. A thrill-seeking internet personality named Leslie Willis was transformed into the anarchic Livewire, who could absorb and emit huge amounts of electrical energy. A LexCorp janitor named Rudy Jones was mutated into the monstrous Parasite, who fed off of the energy of anything he touched. An amoral hacker named Oz Loomis took up the alias Prankster, and delighted in creating havoc for Superman by manipulating Metropolis's central operating systems. And a US Army soldier named John Corben was bonded into an experimental Kryptonite-powered battle-suit to combat metahumans, taking the codename 'Metal-Zero' but upon his death, the suit's AI continued on, becoming the deranged cybernetic psychotic Metallo.

Each of these villains threatened Superman or the city in their turn, but time after time the Man of Tomorrow overcame his adversaries, his reputation growing brighter and brighter with every consecutive victory.

This string of wins came to an end when a large black spaceship appeared in the skies over Earth. This ship, identified by Kelex as the Black Zero, was the flagship of General Zod, a rogue Kryptonian whose followers had been banished to the Phantom Zone. Free of the extradimensional void, they followed Kal-El's Star Drive signature to Earth, and intended to create a 'New Krypton.' Using a massive terraforming device called the World Engine, Zod and his followers planned to wipe out all life on Earth and begin anew.

Superman engaged Zod, begging him to leave and start over on a new world, but the fanatical Zod saw Earth's destruction as his revenge on Jor-El, Kal's father, who had sentenced him to the Phantom Zone. Since Zod refused to be reasoned with, the only option was to stop him by force. The resulting Battle of Metropolis was devastating, leaving huge portions of the city destroyed between the World Engine's gravitational shockwaves and the subsequent battle between the enemy Kryptonians. In the end, Superman was able to destroy the World Engine, then caused the Black Zero's Star Drive to implode on itself, creating a singularity that pulled most of the ship--as well as Zod and his minions--back into the void from which they had escaped.

While the world was saved, the damage done was absolutely devastating. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the battle, and much of Metropolis lay in ruins. Ever the opporunist, Lex Luthor took the initiative in leading the reconstruction of the city, and sowed a narrative in the media blaming Superman for the entire incident, claiming that Zod and his army would have never come to Earth if it weren't for the alien's presence. Several higher-ups in the military agreed, and LexCorp secured numerous extremely lucrative contracts for the development of anti-Kryptonian weaponry.

Despite this, there were several who remained loyal to Superman, citing all of the millions of people he had saved in spite of the carnage, and all the good he had done in the past. In the painful reconstruction of Metropolis, other heroes emerged following Superman's example, most notably the inudstrialist turned vigilante Steel, and the JSA-inspired Guardian.

Also, an unexpected fallout from the Zod invasion was the escape of an animal from the Phantom Zone: none other than Krypto, Clark's invisible dog he had until now believed to be only in his imagination. As people and cities and whole nations turned against Superman, Clark at least had the small comfort of his loyal dog at his side.

Clark had been aware of the presence of other heroes and vigilantes working in other cities, but had never gone out of his way to contact them-- while he considered the old JSA an inspiration, the group's eventual failure led him to be skeptical of attempting another 'super-team.' However, when he heard that the Batman of Gotham City was recruiting children in his war against the criminal underworld, he could not ignore it-- recklessly endangering a child was unconscionable, and he intended to set the Batman straight.

Seeking the vigilante out in Gotham, Superman caught up with Batman, and the two of them engaged in a brief verbal skirmish, correctly guessing each other's secret identities and arguing over the efficacy of the other's actions. However, their dispute was interrupted by the rampage of the undead creature Solomon Grundy, and the two of them joined forces to take the monster down. Upon seeing the Batman in action, his careful attention to detail and his willingness to endanger his own life to save those of others--including his protégé Robin-- Superman concluded that Batman could be trusted, and the two stayed in contact, realizing they could be more effective working together than alone.

Not long after this, Superman encountered another metahuman like himself, attempting to stop a war from breaking out between the nations of Pokolistian and Bialya. The metahuman in question, the stunningly gorgeous Wonder Woman, claimed that the hostilities in the region were caused by another superhuman entity, calling himself Ares. Together, Superman and Wonder Woman routed Ares and got the two nations' diplomats to speak to each other, avoiding a potentially bloody conflict.

In addition to being a powerful new ally, Wonder Woman was someone who Superman believed he could relate to, someone who saw the world the way he did, and struggled with the increasing distance between himself and humanity. The Amazonian Princess sympathized, and the two became fast friends, and briefly lovers. Despite their mutual attraction for each other, they realized that a relationship would complicate their respective duties-- to say nothing of Clark's increasingly complicated love life in Metropolis, given that Lois had been making advances at Kent, and that his old flame Lana Lang had come to Metropolis to help with the relief effort-- and after a few brief affairs, Clark and Diana agreed to keep their relationship strictly professional.

While Superman had his share of hard-fought wins and often paid steep costs for victory, he had never actually been defeated at anything before. This changed when, in order to raise money for charity, Superman challenged the speedster known as the Flash to a race around the world. While the two stayed neck and neck for a time, Flash eventually poured on the speed and left the Man of Steel in the dust, shocking the world as the first man to defeat Superman.

Slowly but surely, Superman's list of allies grew, in the hopes that if another threat arises that he couldn't handle alone, they would be able to overcome it together.

The threat that many of them worried about manifested in the form of the Star'ro, a race of parasitic aliens who invaded Earth with the intention of feeding off of the sentient thoughts of all life on the planet. Individually, Superman and the other heroes were overwhelmed by the Star'ro parasites, and all seemed to be lost, were it not for the intervention of the psychic Martian Manhunter. Acting in concert, Superman and seven other powerful defenders (Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Hawkgirl) managed to drive off the Star'ro threat, saving mankind.

The eight heroes, realizing the potential they had to change the world for the better, banded together, taking their cue from the old Justice Society and naming themselves the Justice League. With deep resources and immense power, the League became a major world power overnight, much to the concern of the powers that be.

The League's first real test in action was against a purported opposite number, led by the villain Libra and calling themselves the 'Injustice Gang.' Despite a few close shaves, the League came through in the end and defeated Libra and his gang. Though the routing of the Injustice Gang was a resounding victory, it would hardly be the only time the League would be tested by rival factions.

Superman himself ran afoul of a band of anarchistic metahumans calling themselves The Elite. Led by a nihilistic punk named Manchester Black, the Elite saw the opportunity not just to challenge the governments and authorities of the world, but destroy them. They repeatedly hunted down and exterminated corrupt politicians, unethical bankers and businessmen, and even made an attempt on the life of Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor, which backfired so spectacularly that Superman had to intervene to save Black and his cronies from Luthor's trap. Eventually things came to a head, and Superman challenged the Elite head-on, and was nearly killed in the ensuing battle, but due to some clever planning ahead of time, defeated Manchester and his crew one by one. The Elite were imprisoned for their crimes, but mysteriously disappeared when being 'transferred' into the custody of SHIELD.

Around this time, Clark Kent had spent so much time working with Lois that he felt she deserved to know the truth. He confessed to her his identity as Superman--something that Lois had guessed since the day they met, but kept to herself unless she could prove it. Finally relieved that he no longer had to keep secrets from her, Clark also confessed his feelings for Lois, and the two began dating.

One morning in 2008, Clark woke up to discover that the sky and grass had switched places, the air had been replaced with chlorine, and everyone on Earth had been turned into cardboard cutouts of themselves. This was the work of an entity known as Mr. Mxyzptlk, an imaginary bogeyman from Clark's childhood who was, in fact, a mischievous force from a higher plane of reality called the Fifth Dimension. Mxyzptlk was entertained by Superman's adventures, and decided to amuse himself by making the Man of Steel's life increasingly difficult, warping reality further and further until either the universe tore itself apart or Superman managed to figure out the imp's weakness. Eventually, by drawing one bit of information at a time from the imp's relentless taunting, Clark pieced together that Mxyzptlk could be banished by tricking him into saying his name backwards.....which he promptly did.

A sore loser, Mxyzptlk grabbed Superman just as he was phasing out of timespace and pulled him into the Underverse, a chaotic realm of 'cosmic feedback' where matter and energy existed as distorted echoes of themselves. While there, Superman was infected with a self-replicating form of un-stuff Mxyzptlk referred to as 'bizarro matter,' and the infection grew until it split off from Clark and formed a deranged copy, a Bizarro Superman.

Incalculably powerful and with a mind of constant opposites, Bizarro put together a machine that could bore through dimensions back into regular timespace (Bizarro knew how to do this because Superman didn't, of course), and threatened to go on a rampage that could destroy the entire Earth. However, after a short but painful dust-up with the creature, Superman realized he could convince Bizarro to do the opposite of whatever he did. And since Superman worked out of the North Pole and could do nothing, it made sense to Bizarro that it should live at the South Pole and do nothing. It flew away to the Antarctic, where it would remain perfectly still for years.

A few months later, a spaceship came crashing down to Earth, and much to Superman's surprise, the being inside was a fellow Kryptonian, a young girl bearing the crest of his family's House. Introducing herself as Kara-El, the girl seemed to absorb solar energy far faster than Kal could, and soon developed a suite of superpowers equal to Superman's. Kal took his newfound cousin to the Fortress where she could learn what had happened in the years between her escape from Krypton and her arrival on Earth, and Clark and Lois helped set her up with a cover identity to avoid Superman's ever-increasing list of enemies.

Said enemies would soon band together, as a team of rogues calling themselves the SRS ('Superman Revenge Squad') laid siege to Metropolis, taking out Steel and Guardian and demanding a showdown with Superman. The combined forces of Parasite, Livewire, Riot, Silver Banshee, and Terra-Man proved too much for Superman to fight alone......but just when things looked bleak, Kara arrived on the scene, sporting a similar costume to Superman's, to even the odds. The SRS were defeated, and the world quickly learned that there was now a Supergirl to protect them.

The SRS, however, were not the only alliance between Superman's enemies. In the years since Brainiac's invasion, Lex Luthor had frequently attempted to access the alien AI's inner workings, to unlock the secrets of ancient and incredibly advanced technology. Luthor managed to re-activate the AI and strike a partnership with it.

Together, Luthor and Brainiac formulated a plot that would destroy their mutual enemy once and for all. Luring Superman into a confrontation with the resurrected Brainiac, Luthor caught the Man of Steel in a wormhole, teleporting him through space and directly into the exploded remains of Krypton, now a ring of continent-sized shards of pure Kryptonite. Exposure to such incredible amounts of K-radiation would kill Superman almost instantly....

....and 'almost' is all that Mr. Mxyzptlk needed. In the fleeting microseconds before Superman's death, the Fifth Dimensional imp stopped time and gave Superman an offer: he would save Clark's life, in exchange for a 'terrible secret' that would be determined at a later date. Leery of the imp but out of other options, Superman agreed to his terms, and Mxyzptlk sent him back to Earth.....in the 31st Century.

Disoriented and confused, Superman found it difficult to get his bearings in the far future, until he was found by the Legion of Super-Heroes, who restored memories of the times they had visited him in his past. Recognizing his old allies and remembering his previous visits to the future, Clark quickly regained his composure, until they were attacked by one of the Legion's arch-foes, the Time Trapper.

Together, Superman and the Legion defeated the Time-Trapper, but not before Clark learned the 'terrible secret' that was part of Mxyzptlk's bargain, by accidentally looking at the wrong files in Brainiac-5's database.....

Using a Legion time-bubble to return to the present, Superman returned to the present just a few seconds after Brainiac and Luthor had teleported him away, and defeated the two, exposing Luthor as a criminal and throwing Brainiac into the sun.

With Supergirl becoming an increasingly great hero with each passing day and Lois beginning to talk marriage, things seemed to be looking up for Clark. Or they would be, had he not seen Mxyzptlk's 'terrible secret'.....

.....according to Brainiac-5's records, Superman would be dead in less than five years.

Superman is a Kryptonian, one of quite possibly the most physically advanced beings the universe has ever known. Clark's abilities develop slowly during his early life, but seem to continually grow more and more potent as he goes on. Like exercising a muscle, the more he uses an ability, the stronger it becomes, some improving only gradually, some scaling up dramatically after repeated use. Kryptonians were a race that prided itself in its technology and ingenuity, and in order to survive and thrive on the unforgiving environment of Krypton, they had actually taken control of their species' evolution. Utilizing methods far beyond anything humans would consider to be any known form of genetic engineering or biotechnology, they shaped their own cellular structure to cope with their planet's crushing gravity (the fact that they had not evolved along those lines already suggesting that they may not have originally been from Krypton at all), transforming every cell in their bodies into microscopic fusion generators capable of seemingly impossible feats.

Flight: Superman can manipulate his personal gravitational field, causing a small, almost frictionless anti-gravity bubble around himself and, with some concentration, any person or object he touches. This allows him to fly through the air with ease, and assists him in lifting objects that should structurally collapse when moved.

Super-Strength: Superman's physical strength is incalculable, and has only grown with each passing day on Earth. Capable of lifting millions of tons of mass with virtually no effort, it is unknown whether his strength has any limits at all.

Invulnerability: Superman is resistant to virtually any and all physical means of harm. He has been bombarded with heavy artillery, buried under billions of tons of rock, been exposed to the vacuum of space, near-absolute-zero cold and the heart of nuclear explosions, and has come out with barely a scratch. While it is possible to injure or even kill Superman, thus far it seems it can only be done in ways that negate or subvert his powers. Attempting to defeat the Man of Tomorrow with sheer brute force is seemingly impossible.

Super-Speed: Superman is one of the fastest beings on the planet, at least among those who cannot tap into the Speed Force. The anti-gravity field that surrounds him in flight reduces friction to nearly zero, allowing him hypersonic flight with little concern for environmental damages. It is possible that he can travel near or at the speed of light, but because he cannot access the Speed Force, he would be subject to the phenomenon of time dilation, and therefore he keeps his movements at sub-relativistic speeds.

Super-Senses: Superman's mind perceives the universe in a way that is alien to human conception. His senses are fine-tuned so that they can take in sensations from nearly anywhere on Earth as they happen--hearing sounds long before they could reach his ears, for example. This is due to his brain processing information at unfathomable speed and detail, becoming sensitive to vibrational changes to the environment on a quantum level, and subconsciously calculating the most likely cause and outcome of these changes in the universe around him. While it would not be accurate to say that he can 'hear' a gunshot on the other side of the planet as it happens, the infinitessimal changes in his environment allow his subconscious brain to 'guess' that it is happening, which then produces the 'sound' of the gunshot in Superman's mind.

All this is to say that Superman can see, hear, taste, smell, and feel everything happening on a planet at any time-- the trick, then, in the higher workings of his brain, is determining what events demand his attention the most. While his brain is absorbing and processing information on an unimaginable scale, his conscious mind is roughly equal to an average human being.

Superman's famous 'X-Ray' vision is a combination of his microscopic and telescopic vision, focusing on an object by 'zooming in' on the obstructing object's atomic structure and then past it. This, combined with his other senses creating a nearly 100% accurate model of the surrounding environment in his mind, allow him to see a complete image of people and objects, externally and internally, at will. His eyes are also sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, allowing him to see radio and wireless waves, pick up E-M disturbances like an enemy using a cloaking device, detect activity in various locations of the brain to determine a person's emotions or discern lies, and even see the bio-electric field that makes up a person's 'soul.'

In addition to this, Superman can adjust his perception of the passage of time, slowing it down to the zeptosecond level, able to sense events so quickly that they can hardly be said to have happened at all. However, this does not necessarily mean he can respond and move at the same speed--on a human scale, this would be the difference between seeing a bullet flying at you and being able to dodge it.

Heat-Vision: Superman takes in and processes energy at an enormous rate, and can release that energy through a series of biological focusing lenses in his eyes. This venting of his bio-energy most commonly manifests itself in the form of intense X-ray lasers, capable of cutting through titanium. These lasers can be broad enough to cover a hemisphere, or focused tightly enough to carve electrons off of an atom. Of all of Superman's powers, his Heat-Vision is the one that drains the most of his energy stores, and excessive use can deplete his powers entirely. As a result, he tends to use this ability sparingly, typically only using it for utilitarian purposes such as a cutting or welding torch, and only using its full offensive capability when all other options have failed.

While Superman is one of the most immensely powerful beings known to man, that does not make him indestructible or immortal. In the years since his debut, several methods have been found that can undermine or subvert his powers, cause him immense physical pain, or even kill him outright.

Kryptonite: By far the most infamous (and most effective) countermeasures against Superman, Kryptonite is a highly radioactive isotope of Kryptonian Sunstone, irradiated by the planet's destruction. Its radiation signature is unique in that it is astoundingly energetic (less than an miligram of Kryptonite could power Metropolis for a decade, or alternatively wipe out most of New England if treated into an explosive), yet completely clean. It is harmless to all organic life, except for lifeforms that contain traces of Sunstone in their genetic makeup.....namely, lifeforms from the planet Krypton. Exposure to Kryptonite interrupts the metabolic processes that take in solar energy, causing cell death in a Kryptonian lifeform. It causes crippling sickness, agonizing physical pain, the loss of any extranormal physical abilities, and if exposed for roughly one minute, death.

Even after the Kryptonite is removed, recovery from it is long and painful. A return to full power can take days, even weeks depending on the severity of the exposure. Early in Superman's career, Lex Luthor stabbed him in the side with a shard, creating a scar that has never fully healed.

Thankfully, only one fragment of Kryptonite ever made it to Earth: a two-pound meteorite that landed in Smallville not far from the pod which brought Kal-El to the planet. While a few ounces of the rock were broken off and now power the cybernetic monster Metallo, the rest of the Kryptonite is the exclusive property of Lex Luthor.

K-2: In the wake of General Zod's invasion of Earth, SHIELD and other military organizations agreed that humanity needed weaponry that could neutralize Kryptonians should they ever threaten the Earth again. Spearheaded by LexCorp, the goal was the creation of mass-produced, lab-grown synthetic Kryptonite, and after nearly five years of painstaking research and setbacks, a facsimile was produced. Dubbed 'K-2,' this yellow-green crystal emits a radiation similar, but not identical to Kryptonite, enough that could cause Superman extreme pain and disorientation, and could theoretically kill him if used in sufficient quantities. Unfortunately, K-2 has a very short half-life, and most K-based weapons are expended after a single use. Worse, its radiation signature is not as clean as true Kryptonite, and quickly becomes toxic to humans and other lifeforms as well.

Red Sun: Kal-El and other Kryptonians process solar energy at an incredible rate, and it is theorized this is because their bodies believe Earth, an alien environment, to be a hostile one, and thus they are storing energy in an 'emergency mode' at all times. Exposing Superman to an environment more similar to that of Krypton-- higher gravity, thinner atmosphere, or most effectively, the dim energy of a red sun-- will cause his body to believe it is in a 'safe' environment, and thus shut down the energy-storing processes. While this does not drain his powers the same way as Kryptonite does, it 'deactivates' them as long as the environmental conditions are in effect, rendering him effectively powerless.

Magic: Magic is, by its definition, not subject to the regular laws of nature, and as such, Superman has no inherent defense against it. A blade that is enchanted to cut through anything will cut through Superman just as easily as anything else, for example. This makes him understandably wary of anyone who claims supernatural abilities.

Sensory Overload: As previously mentioned, Superman takes in and processes sensation on a seemingly unthinkable level. Disrupting that sensory input, however, can cause him serious pain and disorientation. The most common effective method of doing so would be the use of hypersonic weaponry, throwing Superman off long enough to enact another, potentially more lethal attack against him.

Psychic Attacks: Superman has gone through intense mental training to defend his mind against intruders, but this does not mean he is immune to it. A powerful enough psychic could telekinetically control Superman's body, access his memories, or even take control of him entirely. While doing so is exceedinly difficult, it is not impossible.

Physical Force: Beings of equal or greater strength than Superman are not common, but they do exist. Villains like General Zod or the monstrous Bizarro have been able to match and even overpower the Man of Steel, and it is possible that such a being could overwhelm Superman's invulnerability enough to break bones, rupture organs, or sever his spinal column, which would kill him just as effectively as a normal human.

Metropolis, DE is a sprawling, highly populated major city in New England, rival to New York or Gotham as the 'king' city of the Eastern Seaboard. For most of its existence, Metropolis was a tough place to live, as its struggling economy and notoriously corrupt local government made it a breeding ground for organized crime. This can still be seen in the names of many locales in the city, most notably the bleak nickname of the Hob's Bay area as "Suicide Slum."

The city began something of a renaissance when billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor placed his corporate headquarters in the heart of the city, offering work to millions and buying up countless smaller businesses to reinvigorate them practically overnight. By 2001, nearly one in every three of Metropolis' seven million citizens, from white-collar executives to fast food workers, from respected city officials to beat cops and gangsters, worked for Lex Luthor, whether they knew it or not.

Superman's arrival in Metropolis sparked something of a cultural revolution in the city, as fascination with superheroes and their trends is one of the favored passtimes of Metropolitan citizens. While capes and boots aren't exactly common among normal men and women, the bright costumes and vibrant personalities of the Justice League and their like have become ingrained in the city's identity. While Gotham is infamous for its heroes and villains working in the shadows, Metropolis is a place one goes to get noticed.

Locations of note:
LexCorp
The Daily Planet
STAR Labs Metropolis branch
Centennial Park
Glennmorgan Square
Steelworks
The Science Spire

Smallville, KS is, as the name suggests, a small farming community in the Midwest. Settled by pioneers in the 1800s, Smallville has enjoyed a rather quiet, unassuming existence, at least on the surface. Ever since Kal-El's pod landed there, the US government has kept a file on the city and all of the strange occurrences documented there. Most dismiss this as the same sort of tourist-trap atmosphere surrounding cities like Roswell, however, and the citizens of Smallville are more than happy to brush off wild stories about space-men and 'guardian angels' with a laugh and perhaps a cold beer.

Locations of note:
The Kent Family Farm
Smallville High School
ruins of the Luthor Mansion

The Fortress of Solitude is a gigantic hidden complex deep beneath the North Pole. Originally meant to be used as a sort of transitional colony while the people of Krypton relocated to Earth (or failing that, another habitable planetoid), it has since been repurposed as Superman's base of operations and personal sanctuary. It is where he studies the history and culture of his lost people, keeps records of his adventures, and houses technology too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands. Overseen by the AI Kelex, it is also something of a museum, a time capsule in which Superman commemorates his friends and allies, as well as his enemies and his failures, in the hopes that he and those who follow behind him will learn from his past in order to secure a better future.

Points of Interest:
The Kelex computer interface
The Intergalactic Zoo
The Hall of Bottle Cities
The Phantom Zone Portal
The Cosmic Observatory
The Sunstone Furnace
The Foundry

(To be filled in.)
Lois Lane
Jimmy Olsen
Matha Kent
Lana Lang
Pete Ross

Daily Planet Crew:
Perry White
Cat Grant
Ron Troupe
Steve Lombard
Chloe Sullivan
Richard White

Allies:

Steel
The Guardian
Krypto
Supergirl

Enemies:

Class A "World-level" enemies:
Lex Luthor
Brainiac
General Zod
Bizarro
Mr. Mxyzptlk

Class B "City-level" enemies:
Parasite
Metallo
Livewire
Prankster
Silver Banshee
Atomic Skull
Terra-Man
Riot

Criminal/Hostile Organizations:
Intergang
The Toymen
Superman Revenge Squad
The Elite
Cadmus

“They will regret crossing her, but she will regret pursuing them so much more.”

| Identity |
Ava Ayala / White Tiger

| Origin & Backstory |
2005-2006: The Tiger of the Bronx
The story of the White Tiger begins with the first one to supposedly don the name and costume. Hector Ayala was a nursing student at Empire State University when he found himself in the possession of The Amulet of the Jade Tiger after stumbling on the scene of a grizzly crime in his neighborhood. The scene was dark as two bodies laid in the street, one of them ending up being the elderly Lin Sun— as Hector came to stabilize his wounds he told Hector a phrasing that he wouldn’t quite understand until much later: “For each is born anew, the tiger’s son.” As Lin Sun drifted to his death Hector found he had been given an amulet in his hand shaped of the head of a tiger and made of jade. Failing to save the man’s life and with ambulance on its way, he felt something within the amulet that he would only discover in the succeeding days as the deity within spoke obscurely through to him in his sleep and he found himself stronger, quicker, and with a seemingly endless stream of energy. At first he wasn’t sure what to make of it—but when his younger brother resurfaces as a corpse after meddling with The Jackson Corporation, the medical student decides to take the lead of the heroes of the past and present and use the amulet to protect his family and neighbors within the Bronx so it would never happen again.

Hector was no detective, but the criminal activities around the Bronx was clear and whilst his brother found himself with the wrong types of people he did still have friends. Tracking down the “crowd” his brother ran with in high school he realized that the gang his brother was a part of was a fringe operation of the mysterious “Corporation” as The Kingpin Syndicate had generally lacked much operations in The Bronx at this point rather focusing on Harlem at the time. This is where White Tiger armed in nothing but a hoody and a ski mask would eventually fight his first supervillain— Animus. The battle was long and fierce, one that the more experienced enemy had certainly had the edge on but in a mixture of surprise and celestial guidance it won out in Hector’s favor. In the shadows of the encounter was an injured photo-journalist by the name of Alexander Knox who would be the one to remark on the ferocity of Hector as like that of a tiger and would be the one to name Hector’s vigilante title: White Tiger. After defeating Animus, Hector discussed at length about the situation with the supposed criminal corporation and they shared notes which would foreshadow a long relationship between the vigilante and the reporter.

Despite uncovering that this criminal corporation was operating in the Bronx through a majority of smuggling, weapons distribution, and narcotics development—the newly named White Tiger hadn’t solved the murder of his dear brother completely yet. As his and Knox’s investigation continued they gathered a NYPD detective by the name of Nathaniel Byrd into their fold; eager to clean the streets of the unsaintly scum he found himself working the police angle and sharing non-essential information with the vigilante. These small tips would lead to the White Tiger decommissioning several of this corporations activities until they found themselves fed up and hired a hitman by the name of Gideon Mace to deal with him and to “send a message” to anybody else who could be inspired by this Tiger of the Bronx. Used to tracking military criminals and legal dodgers, Mace tracks White Tiger to his home and makes the connection between the Hispanic vigilante to his family & friends. The end of White Tiger’s first year against crime ends with the death of his parents in front of his sister, Ava Ayala. White Tiger arrives in time to stop his sister from joining his parents and a fight ensues between him and Mace—resulting in Mace being apprehended by Detective Byrd in the end.

Taking the guardianship of his sister and graduating from ESU, Hector realizes he needs employment to properly take care of his sister. Knowing such he ends up working at a small clinic in the Bronx as he continues his war on crime at night as he looks for justice for his parent’s execution under the orders of the corporation. After defeating Animus the year before, the criminal faction seemed to increase its manpower as it hired more specialists to oversee operations and specifically “deal” with White Tiger if he crossed their path. This would put Hector at odds with villains such as Kickback, Constrictor, Kangaroo, and Veil. In-between investigating the obscure criminal activities of the corporation Hector also had to deal with the mundane street crime of his city such as the expansion of the Golden Dragons Triad.

As time teetered on more pieces of the puzzle fell in place due to the investigative skills by Alexander Knox, Nathaniel Byrd, and the White Tiger. However the truth is larger than any of them could expect as the criminal network behind the strife they had been facing is the legitimate business of The Jackson Corporation led by the inner circle of entrepreneur Curtiss Jackson, politician Eugene Stivak, and prodigal scientist Dr. Karlin Malus. Attacking their main facility as Knox prepares an exposé, the White Tiger decides to damage their infrastructure whilst Detective Byrd gathers a warrant for a raid on their “legal” headquarters. The rest becomes history as the influence of The Jackson Corporation is wiped out from The Bronx—however, taking out one criminal faction leaves the borough open for entrance by other more dangerous elements…

2007-2009: Reign of the Tiger
The next three years proved good for The Bronx as Hector continued to look after it, coming at odds with various criminal factions ranging from the Golden Dragons Triad to smaller groups and gangs. At home, Hector began to instruct his sister in self-defense using his knowledge of martial arts from the amulet as a medium to do so. Unlike other superheroes Hector was always straight with his sister, never hiding his secrets from her—believing that outside of their cousin that they were the only family they had left so by proxy secrets were pointless and toxic. However, in the fall of 2009 all of this would all collapse when the amulet Hector held ultimately costs him his life.

Seeking to progress their goals and believing The Bronx’s vigilante to be in possession with the amulet they have been seeking for years, The Cult of Khan rears its head into the New York borough and attack Hector Ayala at his home as he is eating dinner with his sister. He is killed, much like his predecessor was and states the same chant that he had heard on his first day to preserve the Jade Tiger. Ava Ayala succeeds her brother as the wielder of the Jade Tiger. In the aftermath, guardianship of Ava goes to her cousin- a SHIELD agent and Bronx native. However, Ava would not forget what she had seen or what she had been gifted with; the retribution of the tiger would be swift. But she would not know in her anger what she had really gotten involved into as the surviving members of the clan who killed her brother report back to their master...

| Attributes |
The Amulet of the Jade Tiger – Removed from it's sacred temple, the legendary amulet is linked to a celestial spirit that resides in K’un Lun. Whilst imbuing the user with the unique chi of the Jade Tiger and knowledge of martial arts it also grants the attributes of a tiger to the user such as smell, reflexes, agility, and strength. It is said as a link direct to the jade tiger itself it can also be seen when used in unison with other fragments can serve as a gateway to K’un Lun which is more dangerous than the abilities the Jade Tiger grants through their sacred amulet.

Hand-to-Hand Combat – Despite the benefit of being the holder of an amulet of power, Ava has been mentored in martial arts previously by her brother, leading up to his death. This made the transition to using the powers of the amulet more cohesive for her.

Intelligence – While not a genius intelligence, Ava is quite astute and is dedicated to understanding more about the world and other cultures; perhaps due to her dual interests in her own culture and that the Jade Tiger originates from.

Meditation – In order to keep the precious balance of the amulet’s power and her own state of mind, Ava has been known to be adept at meditation, for if she did not find her “center” then the chances of the animistic natures of the Jade Tiger could end up corrupting her.

Physical Conditioning – Despite being a teenager, it is wise for Ava to keep her body dieted and exercised; for if it isn’t the amulet can put massive strain on the body.

| Character Notes |




| Character Goals |
to be edited in

| Sample Post |
to be edited in