As a distant planet was destroyed by science run amok a scientist placed his infant son in a hastily devised space-ship, and launched it toward Earth! When the vehicle landed on earth a passing motorist, discovering the sleeping babe within, turned the child over to an orphanage. Attendants, unaware the child's physical structure was millions of years advanced of their own, allowed him to be adopted by farmer Johnathon Kent and his wife Martha. As the child grew he developed phenomenal powers – Incredible strength, speed, durability and senses far beyond those of a normal human!
Johnathan Eben Kent had left his parents farm years ago to become a race car driver, but had returned to take over the farm when his father had died. Martha Hudson Clark was a school teacher in Smallville who fell for the roguish Johnathan and when he finally worked up the nerve to ask her she married him and moved out to the farm. Raised by the Kents in rural Kansas the boy named Clark Joseph was brought up with his parents practical morality. When he started to develop abilities beyond those of the average man the Kents cautioned him to keep his these powers a secret.
When Clark was eleven three strange visitors appeared out of nowhere and explained they were from the far future and were there to help him become the hero their history books told of. They told Clark and and the Kents of his origins, where Clark had come from and the fate of Krypton. With the blessing of his parents, adopted though they may be, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy took Clark back to the future with them where they provided a costume much like their own and over the following years would train him as Superboy.
Because he aged slower than humans when he should have been eleven to eighteen Clark spent fifteen years in the future with the Legion of Super Heroes so it would appear that he aged at a normal rate to the world at large. They would record his memories before they left for the future and after a year or so when Clark returned to his present they would suppress his memories of the future and reload the previously recorded memories of the present so his life in Smallville would be seamless. The next time he was in the future they would unlock all his memories so Clark could remember everything that had happened both in Smallville and in the future. Clark's last adventure to the future ended the day before he graduated high school. He wouldn't remember any of his adventures in the future until he returned from space almost forty years later.
Johnathan Kent died of a heart attack the summer before Clark went off to Metropolis University. At MetU Clark studied journalism and it was there he met and fell in love with Lori Lamaris. They would carry on a relationship throughout the Golden Age. After graduating Clark took a job at the Daily Star where he covered the crime desk until the war when he became a foreign corespondent. Martha Kent died soon after the start of the war.
After arriving in Metropolis Clark decided there was more he could do with his powers and when the papers starting calling this new blue marvel Superman, he let it stick. Before and throughout the war he worked with Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. His primary foe at this time was Lionel Luther who's son Lex would end up President of the United States and Superman's nemesis in the modern age. Before he left for space Superman would cause Luthor's entire criminal empire to collapse.
When McCarthy went haywire and the Mystery Men retired Superman took the opportunity to hop a spaceship with Captain Comet and see the universe. Lorie Lamaris's return to Tritonis spurred Clark's decision to go into space. Over the years, and through exposure to unfiltered solar radiation and who-knows-what-else Clark's powers expanded beyond the physical enhancements to include flight, beams of energy from his eyes, and x-ray vision. It seemed those “bluest of blue eyes” were a crystalline structure capable of projecting the solar energy Kryptonian physiology absorbed.
During his time in space he dropped the Clark Kent name and found Kal El was more widely accepted. Kal would develop a disturbing habit of referring to Clark in the past tense. When Kal returned to Earth decades later and tried to find Thomas Wayne, if not an old friend then at least the one person who could help him establish a new life. By this point Thomas had been shot to death by his own son and Kathy Kane was running about as Batwoman. Kane – through contacts – helped Kal El put together a new life as Thomas Henry Kent. Kal El – now Kent – then went through the Keystone City Police Academy and in time rose to the rank of detective. He had learned in his travels that sometimes the best way to keep an eye on crime was from the inside, and soon enough “Teflon Tommy” gained a reputation as the most corrupt cop in Keystone. Eventually he put in for a transfer to Metropolis – the only place he'd ever felt at home – and due to people owing people favours and his sergeant REALLY wanting to get rid of him the transfer was expedited.
To alleviated suspicions Kal waited a year from the time Tommy hit town to continue his role as Superman. Soon after he re-connected with Batwoman and after hunting down the Martian Manhunter the three re-formed/took over the Justice League as “Less reckless and more dedicated to the public than adventure for its own sake.”.
Lois Lane and the Daily Planet became a thorn in both Superman's and Teflon Tommy's lives.
A strange incident in Gotham lead to a chance encounter between Teflon Tommy and Matches Malone which in turn cemented a friendship between Kal El and Bruce Wayne that would prove both unorthodox and enduring.