Minor characters in the Superman universe

This article looks at the minor characters in the Superman universe .

An introductory section provides an overview of the general development of the ensemble of minor characters in the Superman universe. This section deals with general trends and tendencies in the application of the narrative-theoretical concept of the minor character in the Superman adventures, it shows in which form this concept was used at different times in the Superman comics .

In the second section, a selection of minor characters is presented in short character sketches. The descriptions are arranged according to thematic-alphabetical aspects, i. H. the figures are divided into specific context groups (e.g. employees of the Daily Planet or members of the Metropolis police ) and within a group the various figures are again arranged alphabetically.

history

1930s and 1940s: the lone fighter

In the earliest Superman adventures of the 1930s and early 1940s, there was only a minor character with the journalist Lois Lane . She was put by Superman's alter ego , the meek journalist Clark Kent , as a professional rival and the title hero himself as an admirer. Lane already appeared in the first Superman story in Action Comics # 1 from June 1938 and was henceforth represented as a companion figure in almost all adventures about the superhero.

There were no other assistant figures until 1940. In 1940 and 1941 respectively, Perry White, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, the newspaper for which Kent and Lane worked, and Jimmy Olsen, the planet's photographer, were two other permanent characters. In addition, Ma and Pa Kent, the foster parents of young Clark Kent, occasionally appeared in flashback sequences of the Superman stories. Since they had already died before the beginning of Clark Kent's career as Superman, according to the then applicable canon of the Superman myth, they could not appear in the hero's present-day adventures. For this, the Kents from the 1950s as a permanent addition to character were based in the in Superman's youth as a teen hero Superboy, in the town of Smallville in the Midwestern United States playing series Superboy ( "The Adventures of Superman back when he was a Boy") used.

1950s and 1960s: small circle

Two additional supporting characters were also introduced in the Superboy series. In 1950, the red-haired Lana Lang was introduced as the childhood sweetheart and opponent of the “boy made of steel”, who charmingly makes life difficult for the protagonist with her attempts to expose him as her classmate Clark Kent. In 1961, Pete Ross, a school friend of Clark Kent and the only one who knew about his double life as Superboy / Clark Kent besides the Kents , added the quartet of permanent supporting characters in the Superboy series (Kent, Ross, Lang). In addition to these four, the young Lex Luthor, in the future Superman's archenemy, but here still a youthful genius and the best friend of the boy made of steel, appeared as an occasional supporting character. In addition, there were no minor characters, just characters who served a purpose in a single story and never reappeared afterwards.

Lana Lang remained the only real supporting character alongside White, Olsen and Lane until the 1970s. While the Olsen / Lane / White triangle grouped itself as something of a permanent institution around the title hero - all three of the characters were included in almost all Superman adventures - Lang appeared frequently, but significantly less than those three. Lucy Lane, the sister of Lois Lane and friend of Jimmy Olsen, also appeared just as frequently as Lang. She was a stewardess who often got Olsen into trouble, or was put into trouble by him. Very sporadically, Perry White's wife Alice and Lois Lane's parents Sam and Ella were seen as secondary characters, although these mostly served more as instrumental plot elements and were only characterized to a limited extent. Lex Luthor's sister Lena Luthor and the mermaid Lori Lemaris, an old friend of Clark Kent, performed even more rarely than this, but nonetheless recurring.

The “bad scientist” Lex Luthor, a villain and Superman's archenemy, could be classified as a minor character, with some cutbacks, because he hatched relatively naive “villains” in the harmless, playful, “innocent” stories of the 1950s, so that he does not necessarily have to is to be classified as an antagonist.

The popularity of Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane went so far that both figures were given their own series, whose degree of identification with the Superman figure or the Superman series was so extensive that Superman was included in the titles of their respective series ( Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane ). The adventures in the 1950s and 1960s (" Silver Age ") revolved around everyday situations and problems that arose during the joint work of the "Gang of Four" Lane / Olsen / White and Clark Kent. The main location of the Superman adventure was therefore also the editorial rooms of the Daily Planet.

In the World's Finest Comics series , Superman went on monthly adventures with Batman and his partner Robin , with the heroes from Gotham City something like equal partners of the "man of tomorrow" - as Superman was called in the age of Sputnik shock and high-flying space ambitions - and therefore were not secondary characters.

In Superman's solo series, beginning in 1959 with Supergirl , Superman's cousin from the planet Krypton, other “super” characters were finally introduced that appeared from time to time, especially the “super petting zoo” with “Krypto” the super dog, “ Streaky ”, the super cat,“ Comet ”, the super horse and“ Beppo ”, the super monkey.

The following picture emerged at the end of the 1960s: There were three permanent secondary characters (Olsen, Lane, White), two very frequent secondary characters (Lucy Lane and Lana Lang) and a handful of rarely occurring secondary characters (the Lane couple, Alice White, Lena Luthor, Lori Lemaris), as well as various super animals as occasional co-stars of the title hero. In the Superboy series there was a permanent cast of minor characters from Lana Lang, Pete Ross, the couple Kent and Lex Luthor.

1970s to mid-1980s: tentative expansion

In the 1970s, the basic setting of the Superman stories changed forever when Clark Kent, in addition to his work as a journalist for the Daily Planet, also accepted a job as a news presenter at WGBS, a television station in Metropolis. While Lane, White and Olsen took a back seat as minor characters - but remained essential components of the Superman story - for the first time since 1951, seriously new minor characters could be established. So came the sports presenter Steve Lombard , who made life difficult for Clark Kent at WGBS, and Morgan Edge, the head of WGBS, who used his position to cover up his own machinations as the secret boss of Intergang.

Lombard and his capers in particular were a main element of the Superman stories of the 1970s, when the DC-Verlag tried to tell “depoliticized” stories so that neither left nor right readers would be in favor of one or the other against the backdrop of the Vietnam War to alienate the other side. Accordingly, the idea of ​​Superman as a "world saver on behalf of the US government" and defender of the American way of life was buried for the time being in order to denigrate the protagonist as a "robot in the service of power", as sometimes expressed by left groups was to withdraw the ground.

With the Hairies , a group of idealistic high-tech hippies who lived in the Wild Area in the outskirts of Metropolis and who had clear elements of the drop-out culture and the peaceful anarchism of the autonomous, even left-wing identification figures were added. The bow to the changed zeitgeist was particularly evident in the choice of guest stars for the Superman stories. While in the 1960s US President John F. Kennedy was put to the side of the man of steel to save the world together and to promote the "Sport keeps America fit" program of the White House, now the boxer and Vietnam war objector got Muhammad Ali made an appearance on the series. This went so far that the left-wing athlete, insulted as a “slacker”, was attested that he was “harder than Superman”. There was even a fistfight to decide who should represent Earth in a galactic contest. Ali managed to knock out the superheroes (see Superman vs. Muhammad Ali ).

The Superman series received a significant boost in secondary characters through the “Fourth World” mythology devised by Jack Kirby , which was told, among other things, in the Superman series, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen . As new, more frequently recurring characters, the Superman material was enriched by the employees and the creations of the Cadmus project. This is an American government research facility operating in Metropolis. a. specializes in creating clones from human and extraterrestrial DNA. Cadmus staff included a modern version of the hero Guardian (the clone of a murdered police officer named Jim Harper), the second generation of the Newsboy Legion (a group of five boys who went on their adventures on the streets of Metropolis), and their fathers (the original Newsboys) and the Telepath Dubbilex.

Mid-1980s to late 1990s: expansion

After the restart of the Superman series in 1986 (see Crisis on Infinite Earths ), the number of supporting characters of the hero was continuously increased. In addition to the old acquaintances (Olsen, White and Lane), it was decided not to let the Kent couple die shortly before the start of Clark Kent's career as Superman, but to put them as advising parents as parents who gave advice to the adult hero - but not in Supermans At home in Metropolis, they live in rural Smallville, where they can be found quickly at any time thanks to the (adoptive) son's super speed. Lucy Lane and the mayor of Metropolis, Frank Berkowitz, appeared in the miniseries Man of Steel, which formed the starting point for the new start, and from then on acted as occasional supporting characters.

Numerous new figures were added in quick succession. The Adventures of Superman series featured characters such as police officer Harry Henderson, gossip reporter Catherine Grant and her son Adam, Perry White's son Jerry, scientist Professor Hamilton, sports teacher José Delgado and the former boxer in the first few months after the series restart and hard-drinking pub-goer Bibbo Bibbowski. STAR Labs scientist Kitty Faulkner, prison director Stryker, and Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin from the Metropolis Police Force made their debut in the Superman and Action Comics series .

These expansions to the ensemble of minor characters proved to be so successful with the readers that new characters were finally introduced into the Superman series at ever shorter intervals. Finally there was a move to let characters die again and again (Jerry White, Paul Westfield, Sydney Happersen and others). Instead of a single narrative thread that dealt exclusively with Superman's adventures, there was an increasingly complex and interleaved narrative structure with more and more, more and more independent side stories, in the center of which there were various minor characters. All of them interacted with Superman and their experiences in the side stories flowed into his adventures, but for a long time these stories were independent that they could also be viewed for themselves.

Since the late 1990s: reduction

In 1997/1998 the system of constant expansion of the secondary characters finally culminated in the fact that five to ten secondary scenes were woven into one issue, which ran alongside the main plot. As a result, more than 20 minor characters appeared in a booklet, so that it became increasingly difficult for new readers to keep track of characters and events. The falling circulation of the Superman series to a few tens of thousands of issues per issue was also attributed to this. In 1999 it was decided to reduce the number of permanent minor characters to the core trio Olsen-Lane-White and the opponent Lex Luthor and to keep three to four other characters as a theme, depending on the series. The other supporting characters did not disappear entirely, but they were only used sporadically.

overview

Daily Planet staff

Numerous colleagues at Clark Kent and Lois Lane's Daily Planet newspaper appear in the comic series and are covered below.

Allie

Alice "Allie" ("Allie the Copy Girl") is an employee of the Daily Planet , the newspaper for which Superman works in his secret identity as the journalist Clark Kent. The character made his debut in US Superman # 5 in May 1987 and is one of the longest-running supporting characters in the Superman series. At the same time, Allie is an almost "blank slate". Since she has almost exclusively cameo appearances in those scenes from the Superman adventures that take place in the editorial offices of Planet , where she works as a copyist and secretary, next to nothing is known about her person and her life. In the past she only got short dialogue parts and was hardly involved in the actual plot of the stories. The only thing that can be said about her is that Allie - a bespectacled, slightly chubby woman with a reserved manner - always seems a little " wallflower " and shy in both her appearance and behavior .

Dirk Armstrong

Dirk Armstrong is a Conservative political columnist who previously wrote for the Daily Planet. Armstrong made his debut in 1997's Superman: Man of Tomorrow # 6 (Author: Roger Stern) and was a regular supporting character in the monthly Superman series in the late 1990s.

Because of his decidedly right-wing attitudes, Armstrong constantly came into conflict with his left-liberal colleagues Clark Kent, Perry White and Lois Lane. His political views (he is in favor of liberal gun laws, against welfare state interventions, for strict prison sentences, etc.) and his function as the “conservative mouthpiece” of Metropolis have often brought him into conflict with dissenters in the past, such as his blind daughter Ashbury kidnapped by a man he violently attacked in one of his articles. Despite, or perhaps because of, their sharp polemics and polarizing opinions, Armstrong's leading articles and columns in the Daily Planet, which significantly increased the circulation of the newspaper, enjoyed great popularity with readers. Regardless of their political differences, Armstrong has a timid friendship with the Kent / Lane couple.

His daughter's relationship with the alien Scorn, who is constantly rebelling against his domineering, overprotective upbringing style and running away on adventures larger or smaller, was hostile and hostile to him. After Lex Luthor closed the Daily Planet, Armstrong worked briefly for the Internet news agency LexCom, which had recently named him Journalist of the Year. When the Superman series were handed over to new creative teams in 1999, Armstrong disappeared from the repertoire of the minor characters without comment.

Franklin Stern

Franklin Stern was formerly the editor of the Daily Planet. In this capacity he occasionally appeared on the fringes of the Superman adventures in those scenes of the stories that took place in the editorial offices of the planet; especially when Clark Kent was temporarily made editor-in-chief of the newspaper to represent the ailing Perry White, the strained relationship with Stern, which resulted from Kent's seemingly unfounded constant absence from the newspaper due to his assignments as Superman, was a constant subplot of the Stories. Stern eventually left the Superman series as a supporting character after Lex Luthor bought the newspaper, which was temporarily bankrupt. Nor did he return when the paper was later owned by Bruce Wayne and the rest of the planet's staff returned to the series.

Jimmy Olsen

→ Main article : Jimmy Olsen

Lois Lane

→ Main article : Lois Lane

Perry White

Perry White is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet . As a paternal friend, he is a valuable asset to Lois Lane and Clark Kent.

Ron Troupe

Ronald "Ron" Troupe is the husband of Lucy Lane, the sister-in-law of Clark Kent (Superman), and thus his brother-in-law. He is a reporter and social worker in Superman's hometown of Metropolis and made his debut in Adventures of Superman # 480 in July 1991.

Troupe began his journalistic career at Newstime Magazine, a successful weekly newspaper published by businessman Collin Thornton after his application to the Daily Planet was rejected by editor Sam Foswell. After his dismissal from Newstime as a result of a conflict with Thornton, he succeeded in finding a job with the Planet on the second attempt. There he made friends in particular with Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. From that point on, Troupe was a regularly appearing supporting character in the various Superman comic series.

During the Reign of the Supermen storyline in 1993, Troupe experienced a career boost and rose to become one of the Daily Planet's top journalists. Unlike Jimmy Olsen or Lois Lane, for example, the intellectual and collected troupe is a less impulsive and more cautious and circumspect reporter who tries to get his headlines without daring stunts. Troupe - an African American - has a particular hostility to the racist terrorist Bloodsport II (Joseph DuBois), whom Troupe once put down and who has been trying to kill him ever since. Troupe began a leisurely relationship with Lois Lane's sister Lucy Lane immediately after the "Death of Clark Kent" storyline, which eventually led to a wedding ( Adventures of Superman # 584). The marriage resulted in a son, Sam Troupe, who is named after Ron Troupe's father-in-law, Samuel Lane. Troupe has faded into the background as a character, but still appears every now and then. Ron Troupe had various small appearances in the animated series Superman: The Animated Series (US dubbing voice: Dorian Harewood ).

Sam Foswell

Sam Foswell was temporarily the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. Foswell made his debut in Superman # 50 from 1991 (Author: Roger Stern). He took over this job when Perry White temporarily gave up the job of managing editor after the death of his son in order to relax on a trip around the world with his wife Alice. Foswell fired, among other things, Jimmy Olsen from the staff of the Planet employees (this was later hired again by White) and restructured the newspaper organizationally. Foswell was released after White's return. At times he fell under the spell of the demoness Blaze, who made him a living gateway to hell: through the intervention of Superman and the intrigues of Blaze's brother, the demon Satanus, Foswell was redeemed from this fate ( Superman # 71, 1992) . At the end of this story, Satanus referred to Foswell as "a new faithful servant" whom he had won, and it was suggested that Foswell would appear again. Interestingly, this thread was never taken up again, but fell under the table without being resolved - probably due to the insertion of the relatively long story about Superman's death and his resurrection.

Simone D'Neige

Simone D'Neige was a journalist and editor at the Daily Planet, the newspaper Superman works for under his secret identity as Clarke Kent, who appeared as a minor character in Superman stories from the late 1990s. She made her debut in Adventures of Superman # 0 from 1994 (author: Karl Kesel, illustrator: Tom Grummet). As a regularly appearing character, she appeared from Adventures of Superman # 544 from 1996. D'Neige was mainly seen in those scenes of the Superman adventures that take place in the workrooms of the Daily Planet, one of the main locations of the series.

Simone, a French journalist, began her career at the weekly Le Journal du Monde in Paris, where she met young Clark Kent, who was doing an internship with the magazine after graduating from college to prepare for his journalistic career. She took the young American under her wing and taught him various tricks of the trade. By the way, both also got closer erotically. However, when Kent let the headline opportunity slip by to rescue people from a damaged vehicle, they split - professionally and privately.

Years later, D'Neige came to Metropolis to work as a marketing editor for Franklin Stern, editor of the Daily Planet, the newspaper for which Kent was now working. In order to achieve this goal, she used all sorts of questionable methods, in particular she tried to make the serious traditional paper more "compatible with the masses" through sensational headlines and content - which brought her resistance from Kent, Lois Lanes' and the editor-in-chief Perry White. In addition, she tried to get closer to Clark Kent in an amorous way, which earned her the dislike of Lois Lane and was used by the authors as a basis for all sorts of minor subplots, which revolved around office intrigue, relationship problems, situational twists and turns and other "complications". which took place on the edge of the main adventure.

After the planet was temporarily sold to Lex Luthor, D'Neige worked with Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Dirk Armstrong for LexCom, an Internet news agency that the planet was transformed into. After the planet became independent again from Luthor (1999), D'Neige disappeared as a character from the Superman series. The figure has not yet been taken up again.

Member of the Kent / Lane family

Ella Lane

Ella Lane is the mother of Lois Lane, the wife and professional rival of Clark Kent (Superman). She is married to Samuel "Sam" Lane and has, in addition to Lois, another daughter, Lucy Lane, and a grandson, Samuel Troupe, who emerged from Lucy's marriage to journalist Ronald "Ron" Troupe. Ella Lane made her debut in Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane # 13 in November 1959. Though one of the oldest supporting characters in the Superman franchise, Ella appears rarely, mostly in stories that revolve around Lanes / Kent family matters. She is an extremely elegant and ladylike woman who approaches her daughter's adventurous profession as a journalist with a mixture of timid disapproval and reluctant respect. Although Ella appears reserved and nonchalant next to her spirited husband, she has a strong will, which is sometimes the basis for stories that wrestle about smaller or larger family disputes.

Lucy Lane

Lucy Lane is the younger sister of Superman's wife, Lois Lane. She is married to Ronald Troupe, a fellow reporter with her sister and brother-in-law at the fictional newspaper The Daily Planet, and has one son, Sam Troupe. Lucy Lane made her debut in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 36 from April 1959. In the 1960s she appeared mainly in the Jimmy Olsen series but occasionally in the other Superman series as the constant flame of Jimmy Olsen, a young photographer who is employed by the Daily Planet.

Unlike her sister - a brunette career woman - Lucy fulfilled the traditional role model in the 1950s: she worked as a stewardess and was committed to various role clichés that were intended for women at the time: she was in excessive ways about her make-up and worried about her wardrobe and often got into “woman in need” situations from which she had to be rescued, and was otherwise not very emancipated. In the modern version of the Superman material, Lucy Lane still appears quite often, but not with the regularity of earlier times: after the series was restarted in 1986, Lucy initially worked as a stewardess - as in the old version - until she went blind in some unexplained way . She regained her sight through contact with the creature named Bizarro - a failed attempt by Lex Luthor to clone Superman - who secreted crystalline particles that restored Lucy's damaged optic nerves ( The Man of Steel # 5, 1986). Over time, Lucy has been attacked by Superman opponents on various occasions, such as the alien Sleeze ( Adventures of Superman # 475) who kidnapped her, the mercenary Slade Wilson who inflicted a serious gunshot wound on her ( Superman # 68) and the vampire Ruthven, who temporarily took over the mental control of Lucy. After years of dating Ronald Troupe, she married Ron Troupe, another Daily Planet employee. Troupe's African American origins caused complications with their parents at times, but these were eventually resolved.

In other media, Lucy Lane made appearances in the 1984 Supergirl film (played by Maureen Teefy ), in which she was portrayed as a teenager, and in three episodes of The Adventures of Lois and Clark (played by Elizabeth Barondes and Roxana Zal) and in an episode of the animated series Superman: The Animated Series (US dubbing voice: Aria Curzon), in which she was shown in a flashback. In the series Smallville , she appeared in the episode Lucy , in which she is portrayed by Peyton List as a "scheming beast" who comes to Smallville to get money through shady machinations.

Ma and Pa Kent

See under Jonathan and Martha Kent .

Ron Troupe

See under Staff of the Daily Planet

Sam Lane

Samuel "Sam" Lane is the father of Lois Lane and thus the father-in-law of Clark Kent (Superman). He made his debut, as did his wife Ella, in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane # 13 in November 1959. In that first story, Lane was a horse breeder in the rural town of Pittsdale. In this role he appeared on various occasions on the sidelines of Superman stories until 1986.

In 1986, after the reboot of the Superman series, Sam Lane was redefined as a General. The relationship with his daughter was fundamentally defined as difficult: as has been emphasized several times, Sam Lane wanted his oldest child to be a boy so that he could follow in his footsteps. Since he could not come to terms with having a daughter as a firstborn, he treated Lois like a surrogate son ( Adventures of Superman # 424 from January 1987). After the engagement of Clark Kent and Lois Lane in 1991, the character of Sam Lane came to the fore: mostly as a conceited man who was repulsed by having a son-in-law with the intellectually sensitive Clark Kent who did not meet his expectations of a "real guy" was enough. At the time of Lois Lane's wedding with Kent, he had finally come to terms with his son-in-law - but still thought he was a "sleepy girl". His relationship with Ron Troupe, the husband of his second daughter Lucy Lane, was far better. After Lex Luthor became US President, he took Lane as Secretary of Defense into his cabinet. In this role he was eventually killed by an alien drone during the Imperiex War.

In the series The Adventures of Lois and Clark , Sam Lane was used as an expert on cybernetics (played by Denis Arndt and later Harve Presnell). In Superman: The Animated Series he appears again in his well-known role as General Lane (US dubbing voice: Dean Jones ), who is involved in the American space program. In Smallville he was portrayed - again as a general - by Michael Ironside .

Metropolis Police officers

Dan Turpin

Dan Turpin is a Metropolis Police Inspector. He made his debut in New Gods # 5 from 1971 (Writer and Illustrator: Jack Kirby). Turpin, a somewhat stout older man with a spherical head and a strong physique, is known as the "toughest cop in Metropolis". His trademark is a brown derby hat that he wears at all times. Turpin is best known for not avoiding any challenge, his sparring partners included the aliens Orion and Kalibak and the high-tech thief Barrage. Because of his argumentative nature, the daredevil is also called “terrible”. Superman values ​​him as an ally.

In Metropolis SCU # 1 from 1994 Turpin was also equated with the 1940 (also created by Kirby) created children's character "Brooklyn", a tough street boy who appeared in the series Boy Commandos . Brooklyn was a teenage drifter who hunted down Nazi spies with other street boys and was particularly noticeable because of his derby hat, which he always wore. Since Turpin always has one on his head, it seemed obvious for later authors to identify both characters with one another. Kirby himself may have had this idea when creating Turpin, but there is no clear evidence of this. Since the restart of the Superman series in the 1980s, Turpin has appeared relatively regularly as a supporting character in the Superman comics. In the superhero's modern adventures, Turpin is a member of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit, the special police force. In this capacity he was for many years the assistant and partner of Maggie Sawyer, the former head of the force, to whom he showed boundless loyalty. He finally gave up his romantic interest in her when he found out that she was a lesbian. After Sawyer's departure from Metropolis, Turpin was promoted to head of the SCU.

Turpin also appeared regularly as a supporting character in the animated series Superman: The Animated Series - modeled after the author Jack Kirby and dubbed by Joseph Bologna . There he finally died in the episode "Apocalipse ... Now!" In which he was killed by the alien Darkseid because of his resistance to the invasion of Metropolis. For the funeral sequence at the end of the episode, a real rabbi was hired to lend his voice to the cartoon rabbi who is hosting the funeral and reading from the kaddish.

Inspector Henderson

Inspector Willam Henderson is a member of the Metropolis Police Department. He made his debut on the Superman radio series of the 1940s as Superman's police contact and was eventually incorporated into the Superman comics in Action Comics # 442 in December 1974 . In the 1970s and early 1980s in particular, Henderson - a rock solid, honest, honest, courteous, and intelligent police officer - used his forensic expertise to help Superman solve many tricky cases. In the same role he appeared - here still with the rank of detective - in the series Superboy, which is set in Superman's youth.

After the restart of the Superman series in 1986, the Inspector Henderson became the Chief of Police or Commissioner Henderson. In this role he still appears frequently in Superman adventures, but as a desk-based chief of the police force he plays a less visible, superficial role in solving cases and thus experiencing adventures. In his role as an active helper to Superman from the ranks of the police, characters like Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin have mostly appeared. The figure has appeared in Superman adaptations for other media: In Superman adventures that aired in the 1950s on television, he was played by actor Robert Shayne, in the series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman had he frequent appearances (played in the pilot by Mel Winkler, otherwise by Richard Belzer and once by the black Brent Jennings ), in the animated series Superman: The Animated Series , Henderson, as Commissioner, also appeared (dubbed by Mel Winkler ).

Metropolis residents

Adam Grant

Adam Grant was the son of Catherine Grant from her marriage to Mr. Morgan. He made his debut in Adventures of Superman # 429, June 1987 (Author: Marv Wolfman). Adam appeared frequently as a supporting character in Superman adventures in the early 1990s. Most of these stories revolved around his tense relationship with his mother's partner, José Delgado, or about little pranks and adventures that he experienced. In Superman # 84 from 1993, Adam was finally kidnapped by the insane Winslow Schott (Toyman) and taken to his hiding place with several other children. The children were supposed to serve as "playmates" for the deranged Schott: when they tried to escape, Schott murdered the children in a hysteria attack ( Superman # 84) by stabbing Adam.

Alice White

Alice White , nee Alice Spencer, is the wife of Perry White, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. She made her debut in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 42 from January 1960. Apparently descending from Alice's marriage to Perry White, son Jerry was, as it later emerged, the product of an affair between Alice and Perry's former boyfriend Lex Luthor and conceived while Perry was out stayed in Europe for professional reasons. When Luthor later revealed this to Alice's husband, the marriage of the two nearly fell apart, but was ultimately saved. Various other crises followed, which they both mastered together, such as Jerry's violent death, Perry's lung cancer - which was eventually cured - and the adoption of an orphaned boy named Keith.

Ashbury Armstrong

Ashbury Armstrong is the blind daughter of Dirk Armstrong, a columnist for the Daily Planet. She made her debut in Adventures of Superman 546 from May 1997 (Author: Karl Kesel; Illustrator: Stuart Immonen).

In the 1990s, the writers of the various Superman series told in various sub-plots to the actual Superman adventures small side stories that revolved around Ashbury. Above all, it was about the permanent conflicts that arose from the enterprising spirit of the adventurous Ashbury and her strict father, who tried to forbid the girl from any risk to life, about the clash between Ashbury's liberal views and the Republican-conservative positions of her father and especially her relationship with the alien Scorn stranded in Metropolis. With this, Ashbury traveled wildly through the slums of Metropolis, through the Wild Lands around the city and experienced all sorts of adventures there. At one point they both even traveled to the miniaturized town of Kandor (a town that has been shrunk to the size of a snow-glass town and housed in a bottle). Together with Jimmy Olsen and the magician Misa, Ashbury and Scorn briefly formed a kind of team that was a mixture of hippie youth and futuristic avant-garde. Ashbury received magical glasses from Misa which enable her to see for one hour a day, but which she is by no means allowed to wear for longer than this hour, otherwise she will die. At her father's request, Scorn finally gave up the relationship with Ashbury. Neither of them appeared in the Superman series in a very long time.

Bibbo Bibbowski

Bibbo Bibbowski is a former boxer and dock worker who runs a pub called Ace O 'Clubs in the Suicide Slum, the worst part of Metropolis. Bibbowski, a tall, bearded man with strong arms and a beer belly, made his debut in Adventures of Superman # 428 (author. Marv Wolfman, illustrator: Jerry Ordway). Bibbo is known as Superman's biggest fan. To identify himself as Superman's greatest admirer, he always wears a t-shirt with the famous Superman emblem (stylized S) and usually a dockworker's hat.

Originally a "Comic Relief" character, whose good intentions are mostly undermined by clumsiness and low intelligence, Bibbowski gained more and more personal contour and depth of character over time. In its outward appearance and mentality, it is designed as a parody of the cartoon character Popeye, "the sailor with the hard blow". He's a somewhat gruff, always a bit grumpy, but also always hearty and cheerful, easily irritable but also quickly reconcilable, optimistic, amicably coarse, roaring, rowdy and happy to drink, gnarled and tough extroverted guy. His clothes always look a bit torn and dirty (sometimes his huge belly peeks out from under his T-shirt).

When he first met Superman, he injured his hand while trying to prove that Superman was not as hard as it always said. Bibbowski then developed an inordinate, admiring admiration for Superman, which he justified with the fact that he was "tough". Since then he has always been wearing a Superman T-shirt and describes the superhero as his “fav'rit” (meaning: champion in slang pronunciation). From then on, Bibbowski appeared again and again in small subplots. He figured as an example of how Superman influences "ordinary people" to do good and to help their fellow human beings within the scope of their possibilities. So after winning the lottery he bought his favorite pub , the Ace O'Clubs . In addition to his work as a bar owner, he makes his premises available to the homeless and poor in particular as a warming room and occasionally feeds them. Other stories told how Bibbowski tried to help the poor in the slum, how he resumed his previous career as a boxer and even advanced to heavyweight world champion, how he took and raised a small dog (Krypto) under his wing, and how he occasionally took on Superman his own shirt-sleeved manner was on hand when it came to averting threats from Metropolis, and especially from ever new brawls in his pub.

His attempt to continue the legacy of his idol after Superman's alleged demise as "Superdood" and to become a superhero himself failed at the outset. In the series The Power of Sahazm! came his brother, a pacifist scientist named Professor Bibbowski.

In the series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman , Bibbo, played by Troy Evans , made a brief appearance. In the animated series Superman: The Animated Series, he also appeared in an episode - as an informant for Lois Lane - on (US dubbing voice: Brad Garrett ). In the movie Superman Returns , Bibbo was played by Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen in a Superman film adaptation in the 1950s.

Burton Thompson

Burton Thompson is a former director of STAR Labs, the main research facility in Superman's hometown of Metropolis. Thompson made his debut in Action Comics # 724 from August 1996. From 1996 to 1999, Thompson was a recurring supporting character in the Superman comics, after which he disappeared from the series without comment. Thompson's nickname is “Hunter”, which he owes to his previous activity as a big game hunter. In the meantime, Thompson has given up the prey "animal" in favor of the prey "monster" and primarily recreates meta beings that he interned and researched in the STAR Labs after capture. When he was on the hunt, he mostly wore African hunting implements such as a skull helmet made from animal bones, a “Bushman” shield, a throwing spear and a loincloth. From his first appearance in Adventures of Superman , it was always suggested that Thompson was an extremely seedy figure - but it was always unclear what exactly was his ominous agenda. Thompson appeared repeatedly when any monsters such as B. the ripper monster or a giant gorilla ran amok in Metropolis. He then always helped to bring them down, and at the end of the story it was always indicated that he was in some way responsible for the original appearance of these beings.

Catherine Grant

Catherine "Cat" Grant is a television journalist who works for Metropolis-based television station WGBS and a close friend of Clark Kent (Superman) and his wife Lois Lane. Grant made his debut in Adventures of Superman # 424, January 1987 (Author: Marv Wolfman), as an ambitious gossip columnist for the Daily Planet. In the first few issues she appeared in, Cat Grant also acted as a potential partner for Clark Kent (Superman), creating the traditional love triangle “Clark Kent loves Lois Lane, who loves Superman, who is really Clark Kent, who is as him himself and not want to be loved as Superman ”has been enriched by a new shade.

Grant was a divorced woman (ex-husband: Joseph Morgan), mother of a son (Adam Grant) and an alcoholic - and thus one of the first non-rogue characters in the Superman comics to show decidedly negative traits. To help Clark Kent uncover the criminal activities of Morgan Edge, the programming director of the television broadcaster World Galaxy Broadcasting System (WGBS), Grant quit her job at the Daily Planet, moved to GBS as a journalist and settled in a love affair with Edge a. Together with Kent she finally exposed Edge as the secret head of the Intergang, the most powerful gang of criminals in Metropolis. To protect Grant from acts of revenge by the Intergang, she was assigned José Delgado, a former physical education teacher, by the police as a bodyguard. With this she finally entered into a new, long-lasting love relationship.

After Edge was convicted, Grant stayed at WGBS as a journalist and stage manager, where she rose to the rank of producer. Her eternal adversary in this position was Vincent Edge, the new program director and father of the incarcerated Morgan Edge. The murder of her son by the mentally ill Winslow Schott (alias Toyman ) threw Grant into a serious crisis in which she almost started drinking again. However, with the help of her friends, she eventually managed to cope with this trauma. A long series of professional successes at WGBS followed. Among other things, she was able to get Jimmy Olsen to work as a reporter for the station and even managed to convince the directors of WGBS to let Vincent Edge fire for sexual harassment. When Lex Luthor was elected President of the United States, he made Grant his Secretary of Press ( President Luthor Secret Files # 1).

In the television series Superman: The Adventures of Lois & Clark , Grant appeared in the first season as a gossip columnist for the Daily Planet (played by Tracy Scoggins ). In the television series Supergirl , Grant is the director of the media company Catco (played by Calista Flockhart ) and thus the boss of Kara Danvers (aka Supergirl).

Contessa del Portenza

The Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza is the wife of Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor. The Contessa made her debut in Superman: The Man of Tomorrow # 1 from July / August 1995 (author: Roger Stern, illustrator: Tom Grummett). The Contessa is an immortal, eternally young woman of unknown origin. According to hints in some stories, she is said to have lived as far back as ancient Rome. Like her husband, the Contessa is an extremely determined and power-conscious businesswoman who knows how to secure her advantage in every situation.

The Contessa had met the young Lex Luthor in Europe and had a brief relationship with him before they finally went their separate ways again: While Luthor returned to America, where he became the richest businessman in the States, the Contessa became a respected figure in the European financial world. She also founded the crime syndicate The Agenda . After Lex Luthor was temporarily convicted as a criminal and was forced to give up control of his corporate empire LexCorp, flee and go underground, the Contessa came to Superman's hometown of Metropolis. She acquired the majority of shares in LexCorp and became the new group president. She ran the company with an iron hand for several months, tried in vain to harness Superman for her own purposes, and made the superhero Alpha Centurion the new security chief of LexCorp. During a visit to a casino in Monte Carlo, she met Lex Luthor again and they both renewed their relationship: They became secretly engaged and the Contessa made it possible for Luthor to return to Metropolis, where he hid in the bowels of the LexCorp Tower.

They both got married in secret ( Man of Tomorrow # 5) and went on a honeymoon in the Caribbean. Later both returned to Metropolis, Luthor managed to rehabilitate himself in the public eye and once again to be considered an honorable businessman. The Contessa and her husband henceforth made common cause in their dubious ventures. Among other things, they provided Superman with a containment suit that enabled him to keep his powers under control after he had transformed into an energetic being through contact with the wizard Tolos. After the Contessa gave birth to a child by Luthor - Lena Luthor - her husband had her put into a coma with strong medication in order not to have to compete with her for his child's love. By forging her will, he succeeded in getting the majority of shares in his company that were in the hands of the Contessa back into his hands. After the destruction of the nursing home in which Luthor had his wife spent, the Contessa is officially dead and Luthor is a widower. As Luthor himself immediately suspected, his wife had only staged her demise to improve her starting point for planned acts of revenge.

The Contessa then withdrew to the headquarters of the secret organization Agenda, which she founded, and continued her plans from there. So she had the polar bear-human hybrid created ( Lois Lane # 1), tried with the help of her agent Armanda Spence and the extraterrestrial scientists Simyan and Mokkari to take control of the Cadmus project (a research facility of the American government for the investigation of extraterrestrial DNA) and teamed up with the teenage wizard Klarion to make life difficult for Superman and the other heroes of the Justice League team he led. Her other allies include the scientist Dabney Donovan - who created another offshoot of the Superman clone Bizarro for her - and the eccentric Russian artist Dmitri Potemkin. Finally, Luthor finally succeeded in apparently killing his wife in their arctic headquarters with the help of some missile warheads ( President Luthor Sectret Files # 1).

Councilman Sackett

Sackett , a former Metropolis councilor, is the mayor of Superman's hometown. He made his debut in Action Comics # 741 in January 1998. Sackett became mayor of Metropolis after his predecessor was murdered by assassin Cathy Griggs at the instigation of Lex Luthor. Sackett's favorite project was the construction of the Hyper Sector, a futuristic part of Metropolis.

Dingbats of Danger Street

The Dingbats of Danger Street are a gang of children who go on adventures in the suicide slum of Metropolis. The Dingbats made their debut in issue # 6 of the September 1976 anthology series First Issue Special (author and illustrator: Jack Kirby), in which they teamed up with cop Mullins to hunt down crooks Jumpin 'Jack and Gasser. Although the adventure of the dingbats was viewed as a failed experiment, Kirby admirer Karl Kesel adopted the group in his Superman stories ( Adventures of Superman # 549) in the '90s . Here the dingbats appear, among other things, as opponents of the newsboys with whom they argue about the right to use an abandoned movie theater as a gang shelter. The main characteristic of the clique is their basic distrust of all adults. Her mentor was police officer Terry Mullins .

Members of the group were: Good Looks (the good-looking leader and the brain of the group), Krunch (the group's ragged mane and strong punch), Non-Fat (a kid who eats constantly but never gains weight and always has a hot dog in holding hand) and Bananas (the madman of the group who demonstratively and proudly carries his madness in front of him).

Doctor Cordoba

Doctor Cordoba was at times the personal physician and assistant to Lex Luthor. Among other things, she gave birth to Luther's daughter Lena and put the child's mother, the Contessa del Portenza, into an artificial coma.

Emil Hamilton

Professor Emil Hamilton (first appearance in January 1987 in US Adventures of Superman # 424) previously worked for LexCorp , but left the company due to a dispute with Lex Luthor. Hamilton made friends with Superman and supported him with his technical knowledge and skills.

Frank Berkowitz

Frank Berkowitz was the long-time mayor of Metropolis. He made his debut in Issue # 4 of the November 1986 miniseries Superman: Man of Steel (Writer and Illustrator: John Byrne).

Berkowitz was the mayor of Superman's hometown Metropolis (four terms) in the Superman adventures from 1986 to 1998. He was a decent and honest man who once had Lex Luthor arrested by Superman for negligently endangering the lives of innocent people by provoking a terrorist attack to get Superman's attention ( Man of Steel # 4). Luthor retaliated for this years later by having Berkowitz shot with a sniper rifle by an assassin named Casey Griggs ( Superman # 131). Berkowitz left two daughters: Julianna Berkowitz , best known through a short-lived affair with Superman's friend Booster Gold, and a second daughter.

In the television series The Adventures of Lois and Clark , Berkowitz was played by actor Sonny Bono .

Green Team: Boy Millionaires

The Green Team is a group of super-rich kids who use their fortune to go on all sorts of crazy adventures in Superman's hometown of Metropolis. The group made their debut in First Issue Special # 2, May 1975 (Author. Joe Simon, Illustrator: Jerry: Grandenetti). The group consists of Commodore Murphy , a juvenile major shipowner, JP Huston , an oil tycoon, Cecil Sunbeam, a child-like Hollywood director and star-maker, and Abdul Smith , the former shoeshine boy of a millionaires' club who made a fortune on the stock market through a computer error. The condition of admission to the group is the possession of over a million dollars.

The green boys offer a fortune to anyone who can offer them great adventures. Among other things, they fought a giant lobster, built an amusement park, quarreled with the Russian Navy and settled a dispute between the Newsboy Legion and the Dingbats of Danger Street.

Gretchen Kelly

Doctor Gretchen Kelly was Lex Luthor's physician and personal assistant for many years. She made her debut in Superman # 2 on February 1987 (Writer and Illustrator: John Byrne). After Luthor faked his own death, had his brain transplanted into a cloned younger body, and returned to Metropolis as his own "son," Lex Luthor II, Luthor II alleged that his father (and therefore himself) was having an affair with Kelly come from. Kelly was a constantly appearing supporting character in the Superman comics from 1987 to 1994, in particular she was included in almost all Superman stories that contained Lex Luthor (or Lex Luthor II). The author Roger Stern used the figure particularly often. She was arrested after the temporary destruction of Metropolis ( Action Comics # 700) and has not appeared again since.

In Superman: The Adventures of Lois & Clark , Gretchen was also seen in several episodes. She revived Lex Luthor, who was believed to be dead, and fought against Superman. In one episode, William Wallace Webster Waldecker was saved from suicide by Superman. When a lightning bolt came from the sky, parts of Superman's powers were transferred to William, which Gretchen took advantage of to receive superpowers from Waldecker herself.

Harold Vekko

Doctor Harold Vekko was at times Lex Luthor's personal assistant. He made his debut in Man of Tomorrow # 1 from the summer of 1995 (author: Roger Stern, illustrator: Tom Grummet). Vekko freed, among other things, the prisoner and seriously ill Luthor from the STAR Labs,after he was transferred there for his crimes, and brought him back to the LexCorp Tower. From there he helped Luthor escape overseas where he could be healed. After that, he continued to act as the villain's personal factotum for a while. In this capacity, Vekko et al. a. the wedding of Luther to the Contessa del Portenza and initiated a deception that resulted in Superman bursting into the fake wedding - Vekko's wedding to a LexCorp employee named Janice - while Luthor had already escaped. Vekko finally disappeared from the Superman ranks without comment in 1997 with the departure of its creator Roger Stern.

Hope and Mercy

Hope Taya (first appearance in December 1999 in US Adventures of Superman # 573) and Mercedes "Mercy" Graves III (first appearance in September 1996 in the Superman cartoon series , in the comic in November 1996 in US Superman Adventures # 1, im DC Universe in US Detective Comics # 735 from August 1999) are Lex Luther's helpers and bodyguards . On his behalf, they also monitor LexCorp's secret projects and carry out assassinations on Luther's behalf against people who stand in the way of his goals.

Hunya Adams

Hunya Adams is a boxing champion who appeared frequently in the Superman comics in the 1990s, particularly as an opponent of Superman's friend Bibbo Bibbowski in the battle for the title of heavyweight boxing champion. Adams is a cartoon of Mike Tyson: he's huge, powerful, brutal, unfriendly and arrogant.

Jebster Friedman

Jebster "Jeb" Friedman was a trade unionist who was friends with Lois Lane. He made his debut in Superman: Man of Steel # 4 from October 1991 (Writer: Louise Simonson, Illustrator: Jon Bogdanove). Friedman, a "good ol 'boy" from the American South, was a full-time union official for the Metropolis Dockers' Union, who organized strikes. During one of these actions he met Lois Lane, who was hoping for possible underworld connections from Friedman, who was considered to be half-silk, in order to find clues for an article about the Intergang. Friedman promptly fell in love with the brash reporter. When he realized that Lane wasn't reciprocating his feelings, they both stopped being friends. Occasionally, Lois Lane used Friedman - with his consent - to make Clarke Kent "jealous" by staging the two smaller flirts or dates. This schema was an occasionally recurring plot element, v. a. in Superman stories by Louise Simonson. Friedman was finally shot and killed in Man of Steel # 55 from 1996 during an altercation with criminals trying to use the union to launder money. His body was recovered by Superman and given to his family.

Jerry White

Jerry White was the son of Perry White, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet and his wife Alice. He made his debut in Adventures of Superman # 428 in May 1987 (Author: Marv Wolfman). However, his biological father was Lex Luthor, who fathered Jerry during an affair he began with Alice while Perry was on a European trip. Jerry was a good friend of Jimmy Olsen and had various adventures with him in the Superman magazines of the late 80s and early 90s. He and Olsen were eventually taken to the realm of the demon Blaze, where he was killed. The Whites later learned from the demon Lord Satanus, Blaze's brother, that Jerry's soul had found peace in the world of the dead ( Superman # 71, 1992).

Keith White

Keith Robert White is the adopted son of Perry and Alice White, the boss of Clark Kent (Superman) and his wife. Keith White made his debut in Superman: Man of Steel # 1 from 1991 (Writer: Louise Simonson, Artist: Jon Bogdanove). Keith was orphaned after his single mother died of AIDS. Having come into contact with Superman through various adventures, he met the Whites, who finally decided to adopt him despite their advanced age in order to make good on him what they could not give to their own late son Jerry. Keith's African-American ancestry earned the Whites a lot of criticism, particularly from Franklin Stern, the black editor of the Daily Planet, but ultimately the adoption was respected by all. At the wedding of Lois Lane and Clark Kent, Keith took on the very traditional role of wearing the wedding rings in the USA.

Lena Luthor

Lena Luthor is the daughter of Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor and the Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza. She made her debut in the comic book Superman # 131 from January 1998 (author: Dan Jurgens, illustrator: Ron Frenz), in which the story of her birth is told. Since then, Lena, who is still an infant and therefore mostly only plays a passive role in various stories, has been a frequent supporting character in the Superman comics. Lena is named after Lex Luthor's childhood sweetheart who was killed in an accident. Lena's mother, Contessa, the temporary CEO of Luthor's LexCorp company, was drugged and locked away by Luthor after giving birth because Luthor did not want to have to compete with anyone, not even the mother of his child, for their love. Lena Luthor may have inherited superhuman strength from her mother, an "immortal" who is more than 2000 years old, even though she is eternal youth.

Unlike other people, whom he always meets with extreme emotional coolness, Luthor shows his daughter extremely strong feelings of love and affection and is even willing to take risks and make sacrifices on her behalf. This was shown, for example, in the anniversary edition of Superman Forever from 1998, in which, plagued by deep despair and fear, the whole of Metropolis is turned upside down in order to get his kidnapped daughter back. Superman occasionally bribes Luthor by making it clear that he has at least the experience of fatherhood ahead of him, which he - Superman - will never enjoy due to his incompatibility with human DNA. After Lena Luthor was abducted into space by the alien Brainiac 13 in the Y2K storyline, where she quickly grew into an adult woman under the influence of Colan technology, she returned to earth in the Our World's at War storyline, to support her father in the fight against the invader Imperiex - at the end of this storyline she was put back into her pillar-self and resumed her old role as a growing toddler. Since then, she has been an occasional supporting character who appears on the sidelines in stories about Luthor.

Lenda Troupe

Lenda Troupe is the sister of Ron Troupe and sister-in-law of Lois Lane's sister Lucy. She made her debut in Man of Steel # 77 from March 1998. Lenda appeared briefly in 1998/99 as an occasional supporting character in the monthly Superman series. She attracted attention mainly because of her objections to the relationship of her brother Ron (a black) with Lucy Lane (a white), which she did not consider socially viable. However, she later came to terms with this and also attended the marriage of the two. Lenda herself was intermittently in a relationship with Franklin Stern, editor of the Daily Planet , the newspaper her brother works for. She disappeared from the Superman ranks again in 1999 without her departure being explained.

Loren Jupiter

Loren Jupiter is the second richest man in Superman's hometown of Metropolis after Lex Luthor. He made his debut in Teen Titans # 25 from January – February 1970. Jupiter is a philanthropist and occasional helper to Superman. Among other things, he financed the second incarnation of the Teen Titans ( Teen Titans (Vol. 2) # 1-24, 1997-1998).

Mick Cardoni

Mick Cardoni is Bibbo Bibbowski's best friend and a regular at his tavern, the Ace O'Clubs . Cardoni was originally Bibbowski's boxing coach before he became addicted to alcohol; since then he has remained loyal to him as an assistant in Bibbowski's bar; Cardoni also coached Bibbowski again when he briefly returned to the ring and won the title of boxing world champion.

Misa

Misa is a rebellious and mischievous young woman who is looking for the "big adventure" in Metropolis and the surrounding area. She made her debut in Superman # 115 from August 1996 (Author: Dan Jurgens, Illustrator: Ron Frenz). Misa belongs to the people of the so-called Hairies, a group of human-like clone creatures created by the scientist Dabney Donovan who live in the Wild Area in front of Metropolis near the facilities of Project Cadmos, a research facility of the American government. She was from 1997 to 1999 for a time a regularly appearing supporting character in the four Superman series that appeared at the time; Together with her friend - Superman's "buddy" Jimmy Olsen - she experienced all sorts of fantastic vicissitudes mostly in side stories that played on the margins of the main stories in the magazines about Superman's own adventures. Misa is the daughter of Jude, the leader of the Hairies, and, like all Hairies, is astonishingly technically adept: she is able to build and use all kinds of high-tech objects, the possibilities of which almost border on magic: there she has technical accessories that she carries around in a girlie handbag, with which she can fly, teleport, erase people's memories or cause explosions. Like all hairies, Misa is visually a kind of futuristic hippie: she wears clothes (mostly a light green dress with a matching headband ) that are reminiscent of the eccentric fashion of the 1960s, but always with a high-tech touch.

In denial of any form of authority, the rebellious Misa broke away from her father and the rest of the Hairies and went for a while as a stray loner through the Wild Area and through Cadmos. She came into various conflicts with Superman, as well as the security guards from Cadmos around Roy Harper (Guardian), who “annoyed” and sabotage their work was one of her favorite amusements at the time. Morgan Edge, a powerful boss of the underworld of Metropolis, was able to briefly win Misa for a membership in the Superman-Revenge Squad, a team with changing cast, which is recruited from opponents of Superman with the aim of killing him. Since Misa - despite all the joy of provoking and piesaking - was not seriously interested in injuring or even killing Superman, she eventually sabotaged the efforts of her "allies" and so indirectly helped Superman, some other members of the group - Riot, Barrage , Anomaly - to ask. While the other members of the group were arrested, Misa escaped comfortably.

In the Wild Area, Misa eventually met Superman's boyfriend, Jimmy Olsen, with whom she began a long-term relationship, as well as Ashbury Armstrong and Scorn. The four of them formed a kind of clique for a time and traveled adventurously through the surroundings of Metropolis in a futuristic, oversized, airworthy motorcycle: They got it, among other things, with the crazy scientists Symian and Mokkari and with all kinds of monster beings that live in the Wild Area to do. In addition, Misa succeeded in dissuading the Intergang, who had persecuted Jimmy Olsen for weeks in the belief that he knew who was behind Superman, from this assumption and thus put an end to their stalking. Ashbury Armstrong gave Misa "magic glasses" that enable the blind girl to see for an hour a day. After the adventures of the "Olsen Gang" in the Wild Area, Misa and Jimmy Olsen continued their love affair for a while. In 1999 Misa disappeared as a supporting character from the Superman series without comment and has not yet appeared again. Her relationship with Jimmy Olsen also ended unexplained.

Morgan Edge

Morgan Edge is a power-hungry media tykoon based in Metropolis. Edge made his debut in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 133, October 1970 (Writer and Illustrator: Jack Kirby). In the different versions of the Superman material he was, among other things, the boss of Clark Kent at the broadcaster WGBS and as the secret leader of Intergang, a gang based in Metropolis, one of Superman's greatest enemies.

In his first incarnation, Edge was the president of Galaxy Communications (aka Galaxy Broadcasting System ), the most important media group in Metropolis, which includes the television station WGBS. Edge appeared in this capacity in the early 1970s as a constant supporting character in the Superman comics, initially appearing as a stereotypical, unscrupulous capitalist who bought and then sold companies as it was in his business interests and maximizing profits was beneficial. The companies that Edge acquired immediately after its first appearance included the daily newspaper The Daily Planet , the employer of Superman's alter ego, the journalist Clark Kent. In the course of the stories of the 1970s, the character finally matured, and over time Edge took on a thoroughly ambivalent role: on the one hand, he was a greedy "greyhound" who was constantly in trouble with the editor-in-chief of Planet, Perry White - because he wanted to make the planet more sensational, while White wanted to maintain a more serious line - at the same time, Edge also demonstrated quite noble character traits: sometimes a certain kindness shimmered through, and Edge also maintained a somewhat friendly relationship with his employees, including Clark Kent. After the planet was completely in his possession, Edge finally made it the news presenter at WGBS. This step led to the fact that the Superman supporting cast was enriched by several employees from the television station, such as sports reporter Steve Lombard, producer Josh Coyle and weatherman Oscar Asherman. Clark Kent Lana Lang was made available as co-host.

As one of the richest men in town, Edge also emerged as one of the most influential figures on the Metropolis political scene over time. In connection with this role he often met Superman, but behind whom he never recognized his employee Clark Kent. Although Edge rarely played a key role in the plot of Superman stories, he was a constant supporting character in Superman comics well into the 1980s. After the Superman ranks restarted in 1986, Edge was reintroduced as President of WGBS. In this new version, he had no connection to the planet and to Clark Kent: instead, he abused his media power to shield his criminal machinations as the boss of the Intergang. Edge was later convicted and jailed by Superman and reporter Cat Grant, who entered into a sham relationship with him to collect incriminating material. As a result, his father Vincent Edge took over the helm of WGBS. Edge Junior was later able to escape from prison and regroup the Intergang underground, but he fell in part to the help of the extraterrestrial scientists Simyan and Mokkari and on different recruited by him supervillain that the strain for a rotating cast Superman Revenge Squad formed , back. These villains included Anomaly, Barrage, Baud, Maxima, Misa, the Parasite, Riot, and Rock, among others. Edge appeared in the television series Smallville (played by Rutger Hauer and later Patrick Bergin ) and in the animated series JLU .

Natasha Irons

See article Steel (comic series) .

Riot Girrrls

The Riot Girrrls are a music group from Superman's hometown Metropolis consisting exclusively of “wild” young women. They made their debut in Adventures of Superman # 515 from August 1994 (Author: Karl Kesel). The band - whose members are close friends with Superman's sister-in-law Lucy Lane - played at the wedding of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, among others.

Sarah Olsen

Sarah Olsen is the mother of Superman's best friend Jimmy Olsen. She made her debut in Superman # 15 on March 1988.

Steve Lombard

Steve Lombard is a sports writer employed by Galaxy Broadcasting System (WGBS), the main television network in Superman's hometown of Metropolis. The character debuted in Superman # 264 from June 1973.

In the Superman adventures of the 1970s and 1980s - when Clark Kent was a news presenter at WGBS - Lombard, a confident and rumbling, but basically decent greyhound, appeared as a constant supporting character. He was a former football player ( quarterback ) who worked as a sports reporter for WGBS after his sports career ended. There he moderated the sports section of the evening news presented by Kent as anchorman . In addition, Lombard, who was always in the mood for pranks of all kinds, was an eternal tormentor for the meek and apparently clumsy Clark Kent (Lombard always called him "Clarkie"), whom Lombard constantly pestered with the craziest jokes (e.g. the famous water bucket over the door ). Kent occasionally retaliated for these jokes through the skillful, covert use of his superpowers on Lombard, to whom these acts of revenge always appeared as strange accidents and accidents. Still, both men were basically good friends.

Toby Raines

Toby Raines is the partner of Maggie Sawyer, the former head of Metropolis SCU, the special unit of the Metropolis Police. She is a longtime, albeit extremely subtle, supporting character in the Superman series, who almost never has a text and about whom almost nothing is known, except that she has a lesbian relationship with Sawyer. In the latter capacity, the figure gained a certain fame as one of the first expressly homosexual comic characters at all.

Vincent Edge

Vincent Edge was intermittently CEO of Galaxy Broadcasting in Metropolis. Edge made his debut in Superman # 35 from September 1989. He was the father of gangster Morgan Edge, whom he succeeded in the position of CEO. Edge eventually lost his job at WGBS when he was suspended for sexually harassing its female staff - particularly producer Catherine Grant. He then worked briefly with the criminal boss Moxie and helped him to re-form the so-called Intergang, a criminal syndicate based in Metropolis. Edge eventually died when his apparent Compagne Moxie betrayed him and carried out a bomb attack on a gathering of various gang chiefs from Metropolis, in which Edge took part.

Smallville residents

Clark Ross

Clark Ross is the son of Superman's childhood friends Lana Lang and Pete Ross. It is named after Clark Kent, Lang's childhood sweetheart, whom she now regards as a brotherly friend. The reason for the name sponsorship is that Kent brought Lang and Ross together and rescued both from dangerous situations several times (among other things, he saved both of them from a tornado and exonerated Ross from false murder allegations). Clark Ross was born in Superman / Doomsday: Doomsday Wars # 1 in 1999 (author and illustrator: Dan Jurgens).

Jonathan and Martha Kent

Jonathan Joseph Kent and his wife Martha Clark Kent are a farm couple in Smallville, Kansas and run a farm just outside of town. They couldn't have children of their own naturally. When one day while they were out and about , the rocket landed containing an infant , they took the orphan boy in as their own child and named him Clark Joseph Kent . The boy grew up like a normal child in this way, but showed outstanding skills at the age of an adolescent. Despite this outsider role of their adoptive son , they always stood by him and kept his secret. In the end, it was Martha who designed and sewed the well-known super costume.

Lana Lang

Lana Lang is Clark's school friend and youth romance. Their original Silver Age version always had a keen interest in discovering Superboy's identity, unaware that Clark and Superboy were one and the same person. Later, as an adult (in the more modern version from the eighties), she learns of Clark's secret identity and remains a good friend to him, even if she sometimes courted Lois Lane for his favor.

Through a special ring, Lana was also a reserve member in the legion of superheroes .

Lana first appeared in Superboy # 10 (1950).

Pete Ross

Pete Ross is a childhood friend of Clark Kent (Superman) and has been one of the most consistent, if not very common, minor characters in the Superman universe since the 1960s. In the current continuity, he is the husband of Superman's childhood sweetheart Lana Lang and still lives with her in Superman's childhood home, the sleepy town of Smallville in rural Kansas. Ross made his debut in Superboy # 86 from January 1961.

Ross was introduced to readers as a school friend of young Clark Kent in the 1961 series Superboy, a series that recounts Superman's childhood adventures as a Superboy. From then on he was a constant supporting character in this series: once as a comrade and playmate of Clark Kent and next to that as a helper of Superboy. By chance, Ross found out on a camping trip that Kent led a double life as a teenage superhero Superboy: he kept this knowledge to himself (he did not even tell Kent anything of his discovery, so that he believed himself undiscovered) and decided to go on with his friend assisting in his adventures, such as creating diversions to enable Kent to break away and transform himself into Superboy. As a teenager, Ross was made an "honorary member" of the Legion of Superheroes in recognition of his services . Within a short time, Ross - admittedly "matured" into a man by now - was taken on as an occasional supporting character in the Superman series. He still knew about Superman's double life as Clark Kent and finally revealed his knowledge of his secret to him ( Action Comics # 457). In this version, Ross was a widower who alone raised a young son named Jonathan. When Superman was unable to assist Ross' seriously ill son, Ross suffered a nervous breakdown and tried to publicly discredit his former friend. He was eventually admitted to a mental institution for treatment until his son was finally rescued by doctors. After that, he and the boy almost completely disappeared from the Superman series and became obscure, gradually forgotten characters.

After the restart of the Superman series in 1986, Ross's history changed fundamentally: The story of Kent and Ross' childhood friendship is still valid, with the only difference that Lang, who in the old version did not know anything about Clark Kent's double life, still applies before is informed about this, while Ross, who previously knew about it, knows nothing about it. Since in the modern Superman canon there never was an existence of Clark Kent as a Superboy in Smallville, Ross never found out (was able to find) this (no longer existing) secret. After Kent became Superman, Ross initially had no idea that he was none other than Kent, but eventually found out when the villain Manchester Black informed him indirectly about it. In the modern continuity, Ross grew up in Smallville with Clark Kent and Lana Lang, with whom he formed a school clique. Lang and Ross later fell in love and got married. The marriage produced a son, whom the two named after Clark Kent: Clark Ross. Ross initially made a career as a local politician and finally came to Washington DC as an assistant to the Senator for Kansas. After the assassination of his boss by the terrorist group Sons of Liberty , he took his place as Senator for the State of Kansas in Congress and was finally - after he was temporarily in Home Life Was Returned - Appointed Vice President in the government of Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor ( Lex 2000 # 1, 2000). Since everyone except Superman himself thought Luthor was a selfless philanthropist at the time, Ross had no qualms about taking this step and served Luthor loyally for several years. After Luther's criminal machinations became public and he was removed from office by a vote of no confidence, Ross took his place briefly, but eventually resigned and retired again into private life. Various allegations at different times that Ross himself was involved in criminal activities - such as the allegation that as a member of the Sons of Liberty he was partly responsible for the death of his predecessor as a senator or that he was the man behind the super villain Ruin - proved always prove to be wrong. Most recently, Ross divorced Lana Lang and moved back to Smallville to raise their child alone.

Ross made a cameo on the first episode of the Superman animated series Superman: The Animated Series from the 1990s. In the youth series Smallville , which takes place in Superman's youth in the city of the same name, Ross is portrayed by the African-American actor Sam Jones III . His role corresponds to that of Pete Ross in the comics (Ross as childhood friend of Clark Kent) only with the difference that Ross is a black-skinned boy here. This has often led to criticism, in particular from the American feature pages, who accuse the producers of having built Jones into the series as "quota blacks", so to speak, in order to appeal to a larger audience, regardless of the fact that black-skinned people in small Kansas towns are extremely rare. Here Ross visits with Kent and Chloe Sullivan - with whom he is secretly in love, but to whom he does not confess his love, since she is immortal in Kent and he regards advances towards her as hopeless. Together, the three research bizarre phenomena in the city on behalf of the school newspaper The Torch . Ross finally learns about the powers of his friend (who in this version is not on the road as a superboy, but tries to do something good with his superpowers). When a corrupt agent tries to beat Kent's secret out of Ross, the latter can force himself to be silent, but fears that he will not be so steadfast next time, and leaves Smallville to live with his mother in Wichita.

Professor Potter

Professor Phineas Potter is a maternal uncle of Lana Lang. He made his debut in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 22 from August 1957. He is an eccentric scientist who appeared frequently in Superman adventures in the 1950s and 1960s, in which his whimsical or fantastic inventions provided the impetus for all kinds of crazy adventures ( Jimmy Olsen, for example, was once transformed by a machine in Potter's laboratory into an intelligent being from the future). Occasionally, he also made his scientific know-how available to Superman in solving tricky cases, such as when a device with certain properties was needed to defeat a villain.

In the 1950s series Adventures of Superman , Sterling Halloway played a character modeled after Potter. On the whole, Potter was a stereotypical inventory character of the "Scientist" brand from the construction kit for functional figures that were not interesting for their own sake but as a means to an end. After the restart of the Superman series in the 1980s, Potter was replaced as a scientist of genius by Professor Emil Hamilton. A tribute to the character was a Professor Potter who was employed in the Superboy series of the 1990s at STAR-Labs, an important scientific research facility in the Superman series, which is located there in all major cities, at its branch in Hawaii was.

Resident of the bottle town of Kandor

Cerimul

Cerimul was the father of the hero Scorn and long-time chairman of the high council of Kandor, the government of the bottle city. He was in constant conflict with his son, whom he wished he would one day succeed him because of their different attitudes towards life. Cerimul - like Scorn, a blue-skinned giant with mighty horns and tusks - was distinguished by his wisdom and temperance as a regent, for which Superman in particular valued him. After Scorn escaped from the bottle city, Cerimul's daughter Cerizah took over as council chairman after Cerimul was murdered by Superman's enemy, the killer cyborg. Before that, however, he was allowed to reconcile with his son.

Ceritak

Ceritak is the Kandoric name of the hero Scorn, who comes from Kandor.

Cerizah

Cerizah is the sister of the hero Scorn and the daughter of Cerimul, the chairman of the high rate of Kandor. After the death of her father, she took over his post as chairman of the council and thus the government of the city of bottles. She made her debut in Action Comics # 733 on May 1997.

Cil Gand

Cil Gand was a scientist who came from the planet Daxam and lived in the bottle city of Kandor. Like all Daxamites, he possessed powers and abilities that were in no way inferior to Superman's, but was allergic to metal, which went so far that contact with this material could ultimately kill him. Cil Gand eventually sacrificed his life by committing suicide to escape the control of the villain Tolos, an evil magician who owned the Bottle City and who controlled Cil Gand's body, thereby enabling Superman to defeat the magician.

Faern

Fern is a Kandor warrior. The blue-skinned beauty temporarily served the evil magician Tolos as a human hiding place, in which he nestled himself without the knowledge of his victim. After Faern was freed from Tolo's spell, she - who had previously been a rebel and resistance fighter against the authorities in the Bottle City - took over the management of the Kandor security forces and from then on stood by Superman with words and deeds during his adventures in the city .

Scorn

See under Other Heroes of Metropolis .

Cadmus project staff

Adam Winterbourne

Colonel Adam Winterbourne is the Cadmus Project Security Chief. He made his debut in Superboy # 63 from October 1998 (author: Karl Kesel, illustrator: Tom Grummet). Winterbourne involuntarily lived for several years after a jet crash in the Wild Lands , a forgotten world on an island in the Pacific, populated by intelligent animals. From there, the stranded Winterbourne was finally rescued by Superboy. Upon his return to civilization, Winterbourne rejoined the military and became a security advisor on the Cadmus project in Metropolis. There he is responsible, among other things, for the proper implementation of all field operations, i. H. all assignments of employees of the project outside of the project.

Auron

Auron (Latin for "gold") is a clone that was created by mixing genetic material from the dead police officer Jim Harper with extraterrestrial DNA from Project Cadmus, a secret research facility of the US government. He made his debut in Legacy of Superman # 1 from 1993 (Author: Karl Kesel, Illustrator: Walt Simonson).

Auron was created after the supposed death of Superman on behalf of Paul Westfield, the then head of Cadmus. He hoped to be able to use Auron as an instrument of power in order to be able to assert himself in the power vacuum that had arisen after the supposed death of the superhero in Metropolis. Auron possessed superhuman physical strength, a nearly invulnerable body made of the same indestructible alloy as the Guardian's shield (also made from Harper's DNA) and the ability to breathe without oxygen. A rocket backpack also gave him the ability to fly. Auron eventually turned on Westfield and left Metropolis and Earth to live in space. There he later met the resurrected Superman, whom he assisted in the fight with the alien named Massacre, who killed him (Auron) ( Adventures of Superman # 509).

Bron

Bron is a member of the Hairies, a group of hippies who live in the Wild Area around Project Cadmus. Like all hairies, it is a mixture of human and extraterrestrial DNA and was created in the project's laboratories through clone experiments by scientist Dabney Donovan. Bron was previously married to Misa (an adversary / ally of Superman's), with whom he has since fallen out. Both decided to go their own way: while Bron stayed with the Hairies and still lives in the group's headquarters, the Mountain of Judgment , Misa went to Metropolis. Bron occasionally helps Superman by giving him advice, action and technical aids, for example in Superman # 115. In this issue he saves Superman from Misa's technical gimmick.

Dabney Donovan

See article Newsboy Legion .

DNAliens

In the Superman universe, DNAliens are all “monster beings” created by the scientists of Project Cadmus or by the crazy scientist Dabney Donovan after his departure from Cadmus, which are clones that are based on a mixture of extraterrestrial and human DNA based. Most DNAliens are benign, a few are among Superman's enemies, but only rarely out of their own “badness”, but mostly due to manipulation or a low level of intelligence, which enables them to behave in an animal-like manner without deeper reflection on their own actions . The DNAliens include Dubbilex, the Underworlds, Simyan and Mokkari, and Auron.

Dr. Helen Angelico (Doc Angel)

Dr. Helen Angelico is a doctor at Project Cadmus who specializes in meta-human medicine. Because of her healing skills, she is also known as "Doc Angel". She started working for Cadmus at the request of her former lover Mickey Cannon.

Dubbilex

See article Superboy .

Jew

Jude is the leader of the Hairies and commander of the Mountain of Judgment , a traveling city located in the Wild Area, an inaccessible area around Metropolis. He made his debut in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 134 from December 1970. Jude, like all hairies, is a creation of Project Cadmus, a secret research facility of the American government for the study of extraterrestrial DNA, where he was led by the scientist Dabney Donovan by combining human and extraterrestrial DNA in the Laboratory was generated. Jude's daughter is Misa, a former adversary and now reluctant ally of Superman and the former partner of Superman's best friend Jimmy Olsen.

Mickey Cannon

Mickey Cannon , called "The Mechanic" (dt. The mechanic ), the head of the project Cadmus, one kilometer deep below Metropolis nearby research facility of the US government to investigate extraterrestrial genetic material. Cannon made his debut in Superboy # 56 from October 1998 (writer: Karl Kesel, illustrator: Tom Grummet). Before working at Cadmus, he ran a workshop in the Suicide Slum, the poor district of Metropolis (nicknamed "the mechanic" because of this work). Cannon is best known for being a "fixer"; H. someone who can get everything working again, be it mechanically, organizationally or personally: his magical hand has the reputation of being able to repair everything that needs to be repaired. Because of this reputation, the US government hired Cannon to restore management to Cadmus, which had a bad name for its involvement in various scandals and "incidents" among the public.

Cannon's assumption of office as head of the project led to the previous directors of the project - Gabrielli, Rodrigues, MacGuire, Johnson, Thompkins - quitting their work at Cadmus and looking for other fields of activity. Along with the directors, her clones, the Newsboys, also left Cadmus. As a replacement, however, Cannon managed to win Superboy and Dubbilex back for the project and for its reorganization and also to recruit new employees with the scientist Serling Roquette and the officer Colonel Adam Winterbourne.

Newsboy Legion

→ Main article : Newsboy Legion

Paul Westfield

Paul Westfield was the director of the Cadmus project for a number of years and in that capacity a constant supporting character in the various Superman series. He made his debut in Superman # 58 of August 1991. Westfield was an intrigued, ethically indifferent, irresponsible and power-hungry bureaucrat, under whose aegis Cadmus became a questionable entity: he was involved in all sorts of dubious deals and used dubious methods to achieve his goals: for example, after Superman's supposed death, Westfield had his body stolen from his grave and examined in Cadmus. The attempt at Westfield's instigation to clone Superman culminated in the creation of Superboy. For a number of years it was believed that Superboy was the product of combining Westfield's genetic material with Superman's "aura". as it later turned out, however, the stem cells from which Superboy was generated came from Lex Luthor. His other creations included the Bloodhounds, a kind of special Cadmus task force that was supposed to be in the long run to stop and capture Superman if something went wrong. Westfield was finally surprised and murdered in Superman # 94 by Dabney Donovan in his private quarters in Cadmus.

Serling Roquette

Serling Roquette is a brilliant teenage scientist employed by Project Cadmus , a genetic research facility in the Superman comics. The licensed geneticist is entrusted with the investigation of extraterrestrial DNA. Roquette made her debut in the Superboy comic series (# 56 from October 1998, author: Karl Kesel, illustrator: Tom Grummet) when Mickey Cannon, the project's director, brought her to Cadmus as an employee . Roquette, a scientific prodigy, was already 16 years old enough to qualify for the elite job as a member of the Cadmus project . She is also known as the Retro Roquette because of her fondness for the fashion, music and lifestyle of the 1940s and 1950s . At Cadmus , Serling has developed a particular fondness for the project's security chief, Jim Harper, who, however, has resolutely rejected their advances.

Fiends

The Fiends were a group of mostly benign "monsters" who lived in the sewers of Superman's hometown of Metropolis. They were created by the mad scientist Dabney Donovan in the facilities of the Cadmus project. Donovan - a genius of genius - created the underworlds by combining extraterrestrial DNA samples held by the Project with human or animal genetic material and creating new beings from the resulting conglomerate. Donovan's brilliant ability as a scientist made it possible for him to design living beings "as he pleased" that corresponded to his current wishes in terms of appearance and abilities. The underworlds consisted of a vast number of beings with the most adventurous appearances and abilities (e.g. telepaths with anteater-like noses, giant frogs and much more).

The underworlds finally fled the facilities of the Cadmus project and settled in the sewers and subway shafts below Metropolis, where they formed a settlement, a kind of colony of lepers. The underworlds were later joined by three aliens from the artificial planet "Warworld" (a moon-sized battle station that looks like a planet), who were stranded in Metropolis during a failed invasion of Earth by Superman's arch enemy Brainiac. The "most prominent" of these three aliens was a being called Clawster , a gigantic alien with powerful claws and fangs. These three aliens tried to lure the underworlders into "bad machinations", but ultimately failed because of the good nature and the pure character of most of the underworlders. Most of the underworlds eventually perished during the The Fall of Metropolis storyline, in the course of which Donovan unleashed an artificial plague that was fatal to all beings whose clone-based DNA was lethal by rapidly disintegrating their bodies. By the time a cure for the plague was finally found, most of the underworlds had already died of it.

Other heroes of Metropolis

Agent Liberty

Agent Liberty is the alias of former secret agent Benjamin Lockwood. He made his debut in Superman # 60 (writer and illustrator: Dan Jurgens). Lockwood was originally a CIA agent who resigned himself from his employer's disgust at the methods of his employer and the dubious assignments he was given, and from then on worked "freelance". When he felt increasingly alienated from the American government, Lockwood temporarily joined the terrorist organization Sons of Liberty , which sought to overthrow the American government. The "Sons" equipped him with a costume, a jet pack (a rocket backpack that enabled him to fly) and various weapons that he used to carry out his missions. When they finally gave him a murder assignment, he kept his distance and worked with Superman to put the Sons down. He then worked as an autonomous crime fighter for a few years. After Lockwood learned that the secret boss of the Sons of Liberty was none other than his former CIA boss, he felt betrayed and angrily revealed his identity as Agent Liberty in order to live as a private person from now on.

Gangbusters

Gangbuster ( Eng . "Gang smashers") is a crime fighter who used to work in Metropolis. The character made his debut in Adventures of Superman # 428 (in his identity as José Delgado) from May 1987 and in # 434 (as gangbuster) from November 1987 (author: Marv Wolfman, illustrator: Jerry Ordway). Gangbuster is not a superhero in the true sense of the word, but a normal mortal person who has no actual superpowers, but only martial arts training and great athletic ability. He appeared as a frequent supporting character in the Superman comics from 1987 to 1993.

Delgado is a former professional boxer and high school teacher hailing from Suicide Slum, the slum area of ​​Metropolis. There he took young people - including Jerry White, the son of Superman's boss Perry White - under his wing and tried to show them "how to get by in life". When businessman Lex Luthor, Superman's archenemy, tried to unite the city's youth gangs under his leadership and move them from their activities in the field of petty street hooliganism to the realm of organized crime, Delgado assumed the identity of the "gangbuster" in order to to protect the children of his community.

After he was seriously injured by a shot in the spine in an argument with the fighting robot Metallo and spent a long time in the hospital, Delgado found on his return that another person had usurped his identity as a gangbuster: As it turned out, this was " other person “none other than Superman, who under the influence of the telepathic villain Brainiac had developed a split personality in the meantime. Accordingly, Superman was secretly out and about as a gangbuster at night without his own knowledge. After his healing, Delgado came under the influence of Luthor, who was able to control him with a steel implant that was implanted in his damaged spine during his treatment at the hospital (the device was manufactured by Luther's high-tech company LexCorp). . Luthor abused Gangbuster to attack the scientist Emil Hamilton, a personal enemy: He was able to defeat him and neutralize the implant. After that, Delgado began an unsteady life with numerous relationships (including Lois Lane) and constantly changing jobs that he could never keep for long. At the request of Cat Grant, with whom he lived in a marriage-like community for a while and who feared for his life, Delgado finally largely gave up his double existence as a gangbuster and became the educator for their son Adam. After Superman's apparent death ( Death of Superman storyline) and a conflict with the police who were able to uncover Gangbusters' secret identity as a gangbuster, he finally left Metropolis to seek his fortune elsewhere. He subsequently helped the Marvel Family in Fawcett City and the superhero Black Lightning from Brick City on their adventures ( The Power of Shazam # 34 and Black Lightning # 7-8).

Guardian

The Guardian , aka James Jacob “Jim” Harper is the clone of a deceased police officer who helps Superman to ensure “law and order” in Metropolis. The character made his debut in Star-Sprangled Comics # 7 from April 1942 (Writer: Joe Simon, Artist: Jack Kirby).

Guardian is basically a normal person who has a perfectly toned body (93 kg at 1.85 m height): He has excellent strength, endurance and speed as well as athletic and acrobatic ability and is an excellent close fighter. He is also equipped with a gold helmet and a gold shield in the shape of a police badge, which are made of an indestructible material and offer him protection from attacks. His name is in English a play on words from the two connotations of the English word "Guardian" which are translated in German as "Protector / Wächter" (his role as a superhero in general) and "(legal) guardian" (his role as an educator for the newsboys) can.

The original Jim Harper was a Metropolis police officer who patrolled the Suicide Slum, the city's worst neighborhood. He himself grew up in this part of the city and at times made his way through as a criminal as a teenager: With the help of Joe Morgan, a former professional boxer who had also trained the heroes Wildcat and Atom, Harper finally managed to get back on the wrong track to leave. The old athlete had taken him under his wing and trained him to be an excellent athlete. Harper had been able to attend police academy that way. In order to "give back" the achievements he had received - and spurred on by the murder of a friend - he vowed to protect the people in the suicide slum from these dominant criminals.

In order to be able to catch those delinquents who could not be attacked by him as a police officer due to loopholes in the law, he assumed the identity of the Vigilante Guardian at night in order to be able to collect evidence illegally. He was supported in this work by the Newsboy Legion, a group of street boys who lived in the suicide slum, where they sold newspapers and went on all kinds of adventures. After Sergeant Harper caught the boys in a criminal act, he asked the court for permission to become the newsboys' guardian in order to lead them back on the "path of virtue". Together with the newsboys - who knew nothing of Harper's identity with the Guardian, but occasionally tried to prove it - he arrested numerous criminals and fought Nazi spies on the "home front" during the Second World War . As a great friend of the newsboys, he had to free the boys again and again from dangerous situations that they had maneuvered themselves into.

Harper was finally shot from behind by a criminal on one of his tours of the slum. He left a sister - the grandmother of the superhero Roy Harper aka Arsenal and of Officer Harper of the Gotham City Police Department and grandmother of Roberta Harper, who later became a member of a new generation of newsboys - as well as the newsboys, who henceforth "fought" on their own.

A new version of the Guardian was introduced in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 133 of October 1970: This was a clone of the murdered Harper, created by the grown-up newsboys who were now respected genetic researchers at the ominous Project Cadmus. Cadmus, a government-launched human and extraterrestrial DNA research company, had brought Harper back to life after the newsboys felt they needed to give their old protector a second chance to come to terms with his past and his killers deliver. In addition, Harper, who now called himself the Golden Guardian , was appointed Chief Security Officer of Cadmus.

In addition, the Golden Guardian had miraculously "injected" all of the memory of the dead Harper and was able, with his memories in mind, to continue his life, so to speak, exactly where he had to give up because of his murder. Until the mid-1970s, Harper / Golden Guardian remained a frequent supporting character in the Superman stories.

After the Superman story was restarted in 1986, the character's backstory was retained: Harper was a police officer and vigilante during World War II and a mentor to the Newsboys, who was eventually murdered and brought back to life as a clone by his charges. Only the attribute “Golden” for the revived Guardian was dispensed with (it was now simply called “Guardian” for short like the original, without any addition). This "modern Guardian" was a constant supporting character in the Superman comics from 1987 until the late 1990s, especially in stories by Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway and Karl Kesel. Here Guardian was again the chief security officer of Cadmus, as well as the protector of the inhabitants of the suicide slum, over whom he watched at night. Among other things, the Guardian helped Superman to overcome a briefly developed personality split, rescued him during the Blackout storyline from a lonely island on which the hero was stranded with amnesia, and assisted Superman in the fight against the monster Doomsday, which the “man made of steel ”finally killed. Until the hero's resurrection, the Guardian also watched over the city as the new “protector of Metropolis”.

From 1998 he was mainly used as a supporting character in the series Superboy , in which he figured as the mentor of the teenage superhero. Since the Superboy series was discontinued, Harper has occasionally appeared as a supporting character in Superman stories , although not as often as before . Finally, the cloned Harper was eventually killed as well, but was immediately replaced by a second newly created clone who took his place (and shared memories). This finally left Cadmus after a dispute with his new leadership and went his own way.

In the 70s there was Mal Duncan, a member of the Teen Titans, who adapted the costume of the man believed dead in Teen Titans # 44 of November 1976 and declared himself the “new Guardian”, as well as a second superhero of the name (both met in Superman Family '1991–1993 from September 1978 – February 1979, a story in which Duncan freed Harper from the clutches of the Evil Factory, a criminal gang and counterpart to Cadmus). Grant Morrison created a new Guardian in the series Seven Soldiers in 2005, the Manhattan Guardian (Jake Jordan), which is based on the original version of the character.

Rose and Thorn

Thorn is a Metropolis crime fighter who suffers from multiple personality disorder. Behind her is Rhosyn "Rose" Forrest , the daughter of Phil Forrest, a member of the Metropolis police who was murdered by a gang called The Hundred . Thorn's hunt for the hundred to avenge her dead father is usually the central theme of their adventures. The character made his debut in Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane # 105, November 1970 (Writer: Robert Kanigher , Artist: Ross Andru). The name Rose and Thorn is a descriptive name that alludes to the paradox that two opposing things (English rose = "rose", and thorn = "thorn") are closely connected - just like the two personalities of Forrest as that delicate and gentle, almost fragile-looking rose on the one hand and as the ultra-brutal, no-scruple vigilante Thorn, who is the complete opposite of rose, on the other.

One can only speak of Rose as Thorn's secret identity to a limited extent, it is more correct to speak of two independent, separate personalities who share the same "host body" and use it to live their respective existences independently of one another: Whenever the one personality is active, the other is temporarily extinguished, i.e. H. Rose and Thorn do not have a dialogue in Rhosyn Forrest's head and coexist at the same time in parallel, but both control Forrest's body alternately, but completely and exclusively.

The stories about Thorn always followed a fixed pattern: Whenever Rose goes to bed to sleep, her second personality, Thorn, wakes up to haunt the streets of Metropolis as a vigilante and recreate the "hundred". When Thorn returns from her nightly forays and lies in Rose's bed, she in turn falls asleep and a few hours later Rose wakes up - without any memory of what happened the previous night - and continues her life where she did before hers had broken off the temporary transformation into Thorn as if nothing had happened.

Thorn is a normal person, so he has no superpowers in the true sense of the word. However, she has enormous athletic ability and has mastered various martial arts to perfection. It is also equipped with various weapons: two long-bladed daggers, a thorn-coated whip and various gadgets such as smoke bombs, explosives and stun grenades.

In the 1970s Thorn appeared frequently in the series Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane , in the 1980s and 1990s the character was often used as a supporting character in various Superman series, such as by the authors Karl Kesel, Roger Stern and J. M. DeMatteis. Thorn experienced her adventures on the edge of Superman's "never-ending fight" until the narrative threads running next to each other finally met and both went up against some villain.

After Rose hunted down all of the members of the 100, her Thorn personality eventually faded, but came to life again when the 100 escaped from prison and when The 1000 formed a new group. In order to crush this group, she has already worked with Superman and Booster Gold, among others. In the Superman series, Thorn was last seen as an involuntary helper of Lord Satanus.

In 2004, the Thorn character finally got its own mini-series ( Rose & Thorn by Gail Simone) in which Rose's origin story was slightly modified: According to this new version, Rose's two parents were murdered by the hundred and Rose became herself after she was Mr. Quince mutilated (the member of the 100 who carried out the bloody act) was admitted to a mental institution at the age of twelve. There she attracted attention because of aggressive and violent emotional outbursts. To calm them down, the psychiatrist Dr. Chritlow She's Questionable Experiments: These experiments forced her to suppress her more brutal emotions. These emotions were eventually transmitted to the sublimated Thorn personality, who would appear whenever the reticent Rose felt threatened or angry. The Thorn personality finally had a breakthrough when Rose's roommate Kimmy was killed by another patient: She attacked and seriously injured him. From then on, the Thorn personality got stronger and stronger and gradually took control: Under the name Thorn, Forrest became an ultra-brutal vigilante.

Rose's mentor was the detective Curtis Leland, a Metropolis cop, her parents' friend and godfather. He had previously accepted bribes from the 100 and watched their goings-on and was thus complicit in the death of the Cantons. Out of guilt that he had not been able to prevent the assassination of the Cantons, he supported Rose in her campaign: He murdered two members of the 100 and was finally killed by Quince when he tried to protect Rose from this. More recently it has also been shown that Rhosyn's mind is home to two other personalities besides Rose and Thorn: Mom (a projection of her mother) and Wild Rose, an Irish vigilante who is even wilder than Thorn.

Scorn

Scorn (Eng. "The Scorned") is an alien who comes from the bottle city of Kandort. Scorn, aka Ceritak, is a blue-skinned giant with a sturdy build and strong horns, and made his debut in Superman # 122 (author: Dan Jurgens) of April 1997. He is the son of Cerimul, the former chairman of the council of elders who ran the bottle city of Kandor ruled. Kandor is an alien city that was shrunk by the evil magician Tolos and stowed away in a large bottle. Superman was finally able to snatch this macabre collector's item from Tolos and take it to his fortress of solitude, where he endeavors to find a way to restore Kandor to its normal size and free the inhabitants. Ceritak is one of the few who has so far managed to escape Kandor. He was a rebellious young man who suffered greatly from captivity in Kandor and from the cramped conditions in the city and who eventually used a temporary disruption of the force field (which surrounds the city and maintains its shrinkage) to escape from it.

After a successful escape, Ceritak came to Metropolis, where he was initially thought to be a threat and named Scorn. Soon after, however, he turned out to be a hero. He temporarily wore the classic super-man costume.

Sindbad

Sindbad , aka Davood Nassur, is a little Arab boy who comes from the (fictional) dictatorial state of Quarci in the Middle East and lives with his family in Metropolis. He made his debut in Superman # 48 from October 1990 and was a recurring supporting character in the Superman series until 1993.

After the detonation of the so-called “gene bomb” - an extraterrestrial weapon that changes the genetic make-up of humans - Nassur suddenly acquired superhuman abilities, namely through his thoughts he is able to practice telekinesis. To support his powers, Sindbad wore an experimental belt at times, which strengthened them in an unexplained way. After this belt was destroyed, its capabilities have decreased significantly, but appear to increase with age.

Nassur apparently lives with his family in modest circumstances in Metropolis to this day. These include: the mother Muena Nassur , the uncle Jahir Nassur , the brother Hassan Nassur and the sisters Hoda Nassur and Soraya Nassur - the latter was an employee at LexCorp.

Nassur chose the name Sindbad based on the hero Sindbad of the Arab legend. After Sindbad Superman once helped thwart a Lex Lutheran plan, Nassur has repeatedly acted as a hero, most notably after Superman's alleged death ( Guardians of Metropolis # 1, 1993).

Strange visitor

Strange Visitor , aka Sharon Vance, is an incarnation of the being called Kismet. Strange Visitor made his debut in Superman # 149 from October 1999 (author: Dan Jurgens, illustrator: Ron Frenz). Strange Visitor is based on the temporary incarnation of Superman as "Zap-Superman", an energy being that Superman had temporarily transformed into in 1997/1998. Strange Visitor - an allusion to Superman's nickname from the 1930s "Strange Visitor from a Distant Planet" - was a copy of the Zap Supie in costume and strength. Like him, she had the ability to create electromagnetic fields and control their density, fire energy, “zap” through objects, and fly.

Sharon Vance was a childhood friend of Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent, from the small town of Smallville in the Midwest. Vance was a rebirth of the god-like being called Kismet, but knew nothing of her previous life until she was finally struck by lightning and became Strange Visitor, a creature of living electromagnetic energy. With the help of a containment suit made of special fabric created by Professor Hamilton, it was possible to contain Vance's energy body and give it a living shape. Vance used her powers from then on to support Superman in his "eternal struggle for good". As a heroine, she fought against the villain Gorilla Grod and the terrorist War, among others. Strange Visitor was eventually killed during the invasion of Earth by the alien Imperiex when she sacrificed herself to give Superman an opportunity to effectively counter the invading fleet.

Other minor characters

Hillary Chang

See article Superboy .

Kelex

Kelex is a robot who oversees Superman's Fortress of Solitude, the hero's headquarters in Antarctica. Kelex is a gold-colored little robot with a futuristic design: it has no legs, but "floats" in the air. He has two thin arms with three long fingers each.

He made his debut in Man of Steel # 1 (writer and illustrator: John Byrne). Kelex was originally a robot servant of Superman's father Jor El, a scientist who lived on the planet Krypton.

When the planet Krypton was destroyed, the shell of Kelex was also destroyed: however, the programmed consciousness of the robot came to Earth with Jor El's son Kal El in a small spaceship. There the essence of the robot was initially hidden in the technology of Kal El's spaceship. When the living alien artefact Eradicator, a thinking machine with its own will, tried to transform the earth into a new krypton, it first created the Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole as the starting point for further expansion. Among other things, Kelex was brought to life. Superman was finally able to defeat the Eradicator - but the fortress remained. He decided to leave the facilities of the fortress to Kelex and other robots for guarding and maintenance. Later, Kelex was reprogrammed by Natasha Irons, the niece of Superman's friend Steel, with the result that the previously robotic-appropriately speaking druid spoke from colloquial to slang language.

Ray Garnes

See article Superboy .

Rex Leech

See article Superboy .

Roxy Leech

See article Superboy .

Sam Makoa

See article Superboy .

Tana Moon

See article Superboy .

Wild men

See article Superboy .

Pets and super animals

Beppo (Beppo the super monkey)

Beppo the super monkey appeared primarily in science fiction stories from the 1950s and 1960s. He made his debut in Superboy # 76 from October 1959 (author: Otto Binder, draftsman: George Prapp). He has all the physical abilities of Supermans and other Kryptonians (super strength, flying, super speed, etc.).

In the Superman stories of the 1950s, he often appeared as a playmate of Superman, his teenage self, Superboy, and also of Superman's cousin Supergirl. The main topic was Superman's attempts to contain the acts of the super strong animal so that they would not harm anyone. Like Superman, the stories explained, Beppo was from the planet Krypton. Superman's father Jor-El, an eminent scientist, had used Beppo as an experimental animal to test whether a living being was able to survive in the missile he was using to take his son away from the doomed world. When the rocket was actually launched, Beppo hid in it as a stowaway and came to earth with the baby that was to become Superman. Beppo later formed the Legion of Super Pets together with other super animals . The character has not appeared in Superman stories since the 1980s, but was often used for allusions.

Comet (Comet the super horse)

Comet was the Kryptonian horse of Supergirl and made his first appearance in Action Comics # 292 (October 1962). It was invented by Jim Mooney .

Elroy

Elroy was Lois Lane's house cat . He was often seen on the sidelines of various stories, especially in the Superman adventures before Lane's marriage to Clark Kent in the early 1990s.

Krypto I (Krypto the super dog)

→ Main article : Crypto

Krypto II (puppy)

Krypto is a puppy who sometimes lived with Superman's friend Bibbo and Superman's “little brother” Superboy. Krypto had belonged to a litter of puppies that were supposed to be drowned in the harbor by their owner, an old lady, because she had no money to care for the puppies. Superman's friend Bibbo Bibbowski , a dock worker and pub owner, tried to save the three pups but was only able to recover one dog alive (this story comes from Superman's death when Bibbo tried to represent Superman; see US Adventures of Superman # 501 ). He named the puppy after Superman's home planet Krypton Krypto (the last letter n was canceled because of the special offer "Six Letters or less for 1 Dollar" for a dog tag). The dog lived for a while with Bibbo in his pub, the Ace'o'Clubs . Bibbo later - who thought life in Metropolis was too dangerous for a small dog - gave crypto to Superboy, who took him to Hawaii - Superboy's hometown at the time - where the dog lived with Superboy, Dubbilex and the Leech family. The dog got along well with the telepaths Dubbilex and Roxy Leech in particular - the relationship with Superboy, on the other hand, was characterized by a love-hate relationship. Later, after Superboy and Co. left Hawaii, the dog lived briefly with Superboy's school friend Hillary Chang ( Superboy # 49). Even later, Superboy brought the dog to his new home, Project Cadmus outside of Metropolis, where he lived again with the "boy made of steel" and Dubbilex ( Superboy # 69).

Streaky (Streaky the super cat)

Streaky is Supergirl's cat . She made her debut in Action Comics # 261 from February 1960 (Author: Otto Binder, Illustrator: Jim Mooney). Streaky was a cat who came into contact with the so-called “X- kryptonite ”, a new element created by Supergirl through a laboratory experiment from “real” kryptonite. The X-Kryptonite gave Streaky the superpowers of Kryptonians through its radioactive radiation, so that Streaky became a "super cat".

Streaky was one of a series of super animals that were particularly popular in the 1960s, but were later increasingly forgotten. Most recently, Straky appeared in Adventure Comics # 394 from June 1970. In the adventures with Streaky in the 1960s, the animal joined the Legion of Super Animals, a group of animals with super powers, regularly argued with Krypto the Super Dog (Superman's pet) and was a regular companion of Supergirl. After the restart of the Superman franchise in 1986, various non-superpowered cats appeared, going by the name Streaky and alluding to the old character. In 2005, Streaky became a supporting character in the cartoon series Krypto the Superdog on Cartoon Network. Here Streaky is Krypto's neighbor Andrea's pet and gets her strength from a laboratory accident.

See also

• Characters from the DC Universe
• Villains in the Superman Universe

literature

• Scott Beatty : Superman: The Man of Steel. Dino Verlag , Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-89748-690-3 .
• Scott Beatty et al. a., The DC Comics Enzyklopädie , Panini Verlags GmbH, Stuttgart March 2005, ISBN 978-3-8332-1213-0 .
• Daniel Wallace: Superman: The Man of Steel and His World. Dorling Kindersley , Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-8310-2357-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Allie. comicvine.gamespot.com, 2017, accessed October 8, 2017 . 
2. ^ Emil Hamilton (New Earth). dc.wikia.com, 2017, accessed March 15, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Emil Hamilton. comicvine.gamespot.com, 2017, accessed March 15, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Hope Taya (New Earth). dc.fandom.com, 2017, accessed May 5, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Mercy Graves (New Earth). dc.fandom.com, 2017, accessed May 5, 2020 .