Superman
From ArticleWorld
Superman, also known as the Man of Steel, made his debut in Action Comics #1 in 1938. Created by Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegal for National Comics, which is now DC Comics, Superman appeared in radio serials, television programs, films and video games. Superman was born on the planet Krypton as Kal-El. His father, Jor-El, sent him in a ship to Earth right before his home planet exploded and was destroyed. He landed in the small town of Smallville, and was found and adopted by Martha and Jonathan Kent. While growing up he discovered that he wasn't like every other kid because he had immortal powers such as invulnerability, x-ray vision, heat vision, super hearing, and the ability to fly as well as super human strength. As Superman he fights evil but his alias is just Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter from the Daily Planet.
Clark Kent
Superman's human alias is a mild mannered reporter named Clark Kent. Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet in the fictional city of Metropolis. This job enables his to keep an eye on what's going on and often gives him inside information that his superhuman alias can attend to. The superhero identity of Kent is kept a secret form the outside world. Kent is seen wearing his Superman costume underneath his clothes, which helps his transfer from one personality to the other quickly and with ease. Clark Kent is often portrayed as introverted clumsy. The object of his affection, Lois Lane, an often rebuke Kent's romantic advances as her heart belongs to Superman.
Abilities
Superman's powers are great. He can do almost anything from reversing the Earth's orbit, super speed, flight, super hearing and x-ray vision among many others. The comics explore that there are no known limitation to what he can do. One theory is that his mild-mannered ways cause a mental block thereby rendering him unable to explore the extent of his powers.
As with all characters, however, there is one thing that will bring Superman to his knees. Kryptonite is a rock from his native planet that arrived on Earth with Kal-El. There are two kinds of kryptonite, red and green. The green kryptonite causes his powers to fail while he is in its vicinity. He is virtually paralyzed and can easily be defeated. Red kryptonite, however, causes Superman to become reckless, rebellious and selfish. He uses his powers for his own purposes rather than for the good of the community.
Adversaries
Lex Luthor is probably one of the most thought of characters in regards to evil adversaries. In the beginning, Luthor was an evil genius scientist bent on bringing down Superman. Braniac, an alien android is another arch nemesis. Perhaps the villain with the most credit is Doomsday who actually killed Superman in one of the editions. Darkseid, the Parasite and the Prankster are a few other evildoers. In an interesting twist, General Zed, is a criminal from Kal-El's home planet of Krypton who was also mistakenly released when the planet exploded.