Kal-El (New 42 Earth-1)

Krypton: Beginnings and Ends
Kal-El's father, Jor-El, was Krypton's greatest scientist, but he was also a diplomat. His best friend, General Zod, was leading an insurgency against Krypton's United Governments, and for a time Jor-El had supported them. However, it was not long until he betrayed Zod and alerted the government. After he had moved his wife and unborn son to a safehouse, he begin working on his research, attempting to find something that may convince Zod to give up his uprising. Jor-El got what he wished for. He'd discovered that the radioactivity that Krypton had been exposed to in the war was going straight to the planet's core. In exactly 32 days, Krypton would explode. He created a contingency plan to send his son, who Lora had named Kal-El, to a nearby Solar System, in specific, the planet known as Earth. After this plan was complete, Jor-El contacted the council. They refused to believe his findings, and Jor-El became an outcast. In the time it took Jor-El to contact Zod, Kal-El had been born. Lora begged Jor-El not to alert Zod, but it was too late. Jor-El quickly strapped Kal-El into his ship that would take him to Earth and prepared to face his friend. Unbeknownst to Lora, Jor-El had installed an AI copy of himself into the ship that would prepare Kal-El for his life. His son was sent off, and a second later Zod was bursting down his door. By then word had gotten out of Jor-El's insane predictions.

Arrival on Earth
Kal-El had not been around to witness Krypton's destruction or the death of his father at the hands of Zod. Approximately one and a half Earth months later, Kal-El crashed on the Earth. His ship was supposed to land somewhere in New York City, but an asteroid had set it off course, and it had landed in a small town, called Smallville Kansas. It wasn't long until the ship was found by Jonathan and Marian Kent. The two of them had longed for a child, although they were unaware that Marian was already pregnant. They took the baby in, unaware of where he came from, but they intended to find out. After naming him Clark, Jonathan examined the ship carefully, but he had no idea how to read Kryptonian. He kept it under wraps in his storm cellar, and the two of them tried not to think about it as they raised Clark.

Growing Up and Power Development
Clark had developed quickly. He was able to speak and walk by the time he was only 9 months old. By that time, it had been made clear that Marian was going to have a baby of her own. They named him Christopher, and as a child he always looked up to Clark. But as Clark got older, he realized that Christopher should choose a different role model. He didn't have any friends, he was terrible at sports, and he felt sick almost all the time. As each of them got older, Clark and Christopher would argue nearly all the time. They were very different. Clark wasn't very good at anything, but Christopher was one of the smartest kids in Kansas. Clark tried not to be bothered by it, but it was hard. He eventually found a friend in another social outcast, Lana Lang. He found it odd how hardly anyone liked her since she was the prettiest girl in the school, and she was very nice. In 8th Grade, Lana's popularity began to grow, but Clark was still a loser. It was around this time where he started noticing the changes. He often had to walk to and from school, but on one particularly sunny day, he felt like running. Eventually he realized he was running faster than he thought he could, faster than he thought anyone could. He was so amazed by this that he tripped. But he didn't hit the ground. He hovered in inch over it. He pushed himself up higher, and he was flying. He was more freaked out then interested, and he fell, making quite a large crack in the ground. He didn't tell his parents since he thought they might take him to the government, and he definitely didn't tell Christopher since he knew that he would just tell everyone.

The Bus
Clark had begun "practicing" with these new powers. Mostly he was just screwing around, trying to figure out everything he could do. He'd gotten over his fear of them, but he was still unsure as to why he could do these things, so he continued to keep it a secret. He wondered if he should tell Lana, but she hadn't talked to him for a while. So he decided to keep it to himself. A few weeks later, Clark was being bullied on the bus by a guy named Jake Suffridge. Everyone called him Jake Suffer behind his back, but no one knew. Clark thought the nick name was stupid. Eventually, he told Jake to back off and he pushed him into the side of the bus, which was a very bad idea. The force caused the entire bus to tip over. Another downside was that they were on a bridge and it was storming. The bus plunged into the lake below. Everyone was confident they were going to die. Everyone but Clark. He'd broken one of the windows and he swam outside. He was unsure if he was capable of surviving under water, but he didn't find it too hard. He quickly grabbed the bus and pushed it forward with all the strength that he could muster. Within seconds, they were on land, and everyone was marveling at what Clark had done.

Answers are found in the Fortress
After that day on the bus, more and more people had started noticing Clark. But Christopher tried to notice him less and less. Clark's parents constantly claimed that they had no idea how he could do the things he could do. Eventually, he became 18. His father took him into the storm cellar and showed him the ship. He said that Clark was an alien, and that when he was 8 years old, he'd gotten a video to play. It translated well into English, and the message the man gave was full of answers.

The message gave Kal-El more questions than answers. He told his father that he had to find the Fortress of Solitude, he had to find out who he was. His father didn't argue with him. He said goodbye to his mother, and Christopher seemed happy that he was going. He didn't care. He was going to get answers and Christopher would no longer be a bother to him. The search was long, and far from easy. But after nearly two years of travel, Clark had found the Fortress of Solitude. At that point, he'd faked his identity so many times he was probably wanted under 5 different names. He didn't care. The only thing on his mind was getting more answers. The Fortress opened after it had scanned his DNA, and he was greeted by the robot helpers. This surprised him, but it was nothing compared to what was about to come.