The concept of Earth-2 was introduced in "The Flash of Two
Worlds" (Flash #123, 1960). In this story, the Silver Age Flash
(Barry Allen) met the original Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick) for the
first time. In order to explain why this meeting
had never taken place before, it was surmised that the original Golden
Age Flash actually lived on a parallel world - named "Earth-2".
Eventually, this world became home to all of DC's Golden Age versions
of their superheroes:
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. Since these heroes had been
operating since the 1930s and 1940s, they were now much older than
their Silver Age ("Earth-1") counterparts.
The "Earth-2 Superman" first appeared in Justice League of
America #73 (1966) and was
introduced as continuing the adventures of the Golden Age Superman into (what was then) the
present.
His powers and costume were based on the powers
and costume that
Superman had in the early 1940s, while his career as both Clark Kent
and as Superman was extrapolated from what it was around the time of
1939.
Clark Kent was a reporter for the Daily Star (rather than the Daily
Planet) and Superman and his father had the original forms of their
names: "Kal-L" and "Jor-L" (rather than the later Kal-El and Jor-El).
Similarly, his adoptive mother was given the name Mary Kent rather than the
later Martha Kent.
Like his Golden Age counterpart, the Earth-2 Superman has a
secret
mountain citadel, rather than the Earth-1 Superman's
Fortress of Solitude.
Since this Superman was supposed to have been the "original" Superman
as first seen in 1938, by 1966 he was in his late 50s, with the
accompanying career and life changes that come with maturity.
This was presented as a yet-unseen, newly constructed
back-story.
Foremost among these changes was his marriage to Lois Lane, which had
happened sometime in the 1950s after he revealed his secret identity
to her.
There were a number of Mr. and Mrs. Superman stories told, but the
wedding itself was not presented until September 1978 in
Action Comics #484:
Another change was Clark Kent's having been promoted from senior
reporter to Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Star.
When George Taylor retired from the office of Editor-In-Chief, Kent
was promoted to that post over Perry White (Superman
Family #197).
Over time, Superman began to experience a bit of melancholy that he
alone was the sole survivor of a dead world.
In the 1970s, a
spaceship arrived from the planet Krypton, sent by his uncle
Zor-L. The ship contained his cousin, Kara, who had taken a longer
route to Earth but had matured more slowly, being only 20 years old
when she arrived on Earth (revealed in
Showcase #97).
Superman trained Kara in the use of her abilities and she eventually
took on a super-powered role of her own as Power Girl
(All-Star Comics #58), thereby becoming the
Earth-2 equivalent of Supergirl.
Superman went into a bit of semi-retirement after Power Girl's arrival
on the scene, but he
continued to be active when needed with the Justice Society.
In 1981, in a story by Gerry Conway, George Pérez, and Romeo Tanghal,
Superman returned to full-time activity.
Justice League of America #195-197 presented a monumental epic
involving the Ultra-Humanite, the Justice
League of America, and the Justice Society which resulted in the
formation of a new super-team composed of a younger
generation of heroes, many of whom were related to the
original JSA members (Infinity Inc. #3-10).
Like the
Golden Age Superman, the Earth-2
Superman's powers are the result of his Kryptonian birth,
his "flight" ability being limited
to very long leaps.
