A Personal Insight Into Superman – By columnist Adam Roberts

A personal insight as to why Superman is the greatest superhero.
Written by Adam Roberts. September 6 th, 2018.

Not only is Superman the greatest superhero, he is the beginning. First published in Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938, he became the first superhero in history. This is the day that hope was born.
As many of you know, usually superheroes are given extraordinary abilities after some kind of tragedy. For instance, a mugging leading to the death of a loved one or loved ones, like Bruce Wayne aka Batman.

Some even gain abilities by some sort of lab accident like Barry Allan aka The Flash.
Some are born with them just like Arthur Curry aka Aquaman.

But when it comes to tragedy, Superman aka Clark Kent aka Kal-El has the most tragic of all beginnings, this is where Superman stands alone. He’s the only one who had never been given the opportunity to live amongst his own people on his home planet Krypton. It is because of this he is the only being that can be the best of two worlds. Even though he may be an alien, he considers himself to be of earth and the love he has for humanity makes that his greatest strength.

When it comes to strength, Superman is probably the strongest being in all the known galaxies. Infact he’s so strong that in one comic book issue he actually punched a hole right through the very wall of reality. Apart from that he has more abilities than you can count on all ten fingers.
Why is it he has this strength you may ask?

For those of you who don’t know, the suns rays and natural minerals affect Superman’s alien cells. It’s in this that he is able to do so many amazing feats. The sun also feeds his skin cells making him completely invulnerable, he heals very quickly and doesn’t even age so he’s actually immortal. Sunrays feed the muscles too. Every muscle affected is responsible for each of his abilities. Physical muscles giving him superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, agility and durability. The heart muscle gives him inhuman stamina.

The lungs giving him Superhuman breath with a combination of wind and freeze breath. The eye muscles are affected, giving him heat vision, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, electromagnetic spectrum vision… whatever that is! Also infra-red vision. It goes all the way down to the bones too. Not one bone can break in his entire body. Even the bones in his ears enable him to hear for hundreds of miles. But my favourite ability he has that I wish I had is of course… flight. It would make it so much easier to get where I need to be.

On the whole, none of these abilities would amount to anything if it weren’t for the two people who found him as a baby. Johnathan and Martha Kent. Clark Kent’s adoptive parents. Driving home one day on a Kansas road, something crash-landed in a field right next to them. It was a spaceship. And we all know who was travelling in it! After finding young Kal-El in the crashed ship, it wasn’t long before they found out just how special he was. From that moment on, they took it upon themselves to protect his secret and keep him safe for as long as they could. It wasn’t easy for Clark growing up, not being able to play sports or do anything normal kids do. But Johnathan was always there to keep him on the straight and narrow as his guide, making certain he would grow up to become the man that humanity needed.

On the cusp of manhood and with the death of his father Johnathan, Clark embarked on his journey to find out who he is and where he came from. With a crystal that was found in his ship, it leads him to the North Pole. To his amazement, the crystal builds an incredible fortress that came to be called the Fortress of Solitude. This is where he finally discovers who he is. With the knowledge embedded in the fortresses information directory, he learns about the history of his family, his planet and why he was sent to earth.

This is why Superman is the greatest superhero. Not only because of his abilities. But because he’s the best of both worlds. With all the knowledge left to him by his birth father Jor-El, only Superman can ensure humanity’s survival as he will bring someday everlasting pieces to the world. He will also become an ambassador to alien immigrants from all over the galaxy and earth will learn to put aside their petty differences and see their better selves and join together to survive. Maybe even war will stop all together.

Thanks for reading.