Is Superman immortal? Why are Ma and Pa alive?

[SteamTeck]

OK So I'm  little post happy, but I've got a few questions. I dropped out of comics during the Doomsday stuff and It took the JLA cartoon to rekindle my interest so I missed a few things.
           In the JLA 1 million Superman is apparently immortal but in the present  Batman / Superman title a greying Superman ala Kingdom Come shows up. So what's the current view on Kal's lifespan. I must admit one of if not my all time favorite character was the greying but spry earth 2 Superman of the All-star squadron.
             In our worlds at War the Kents are killed but in recent stories theyr'e back . What gives? I guess we never saw the bodies in the war arc but I'm curious as to what happened.

[Super Monkey]

OK So I'm  little post happy, but I've got a few questions. I dropped out of comics during the Doomsday stuff and It took the JLA cartoon to rekindle my interest so I missed a few things.
           In the JLA 1 million Superman is apparently immortal but in the present  Batman / Superman title a greying Superman ala Kingdom Come shows up. So what's the current view on Kal's lifespan. I must admit one of if not my all time favorite character was the greying but spry earth 2 Superman of the All-star squadron.
             In our worlds at War the Kents are killed but in recent stories theyr'e back . What gives? I guess we never saw the bodies in the war arc but I'm curious as to what happened.

I don't know. The writing in the  post-reboot Superman comics is very inconsistent.

In the classic Superman comics... well reading this story should answer your question, enjoy!

http://superman.nu/tales2/ghost

[Defender]

Kal-L remains a favorite character of mine, the original Superman, the model upon which the latter editions have all been based. Some great issues featuring the classic Supes can be found on this site.

 As to the current incarnation's lifepsan, he is technically immortal. The older he becomes, the slower he ages until eventually he may even become a godlike being on par with Rao. Superman can die; by kryptonite, magic, or accident, and should he die he won't come back again, but barring injury or the other factors above as long as he's got a steady supply of yellow solar radiation he's effectively immortal.

 -Def.

[nightwing]

The graying Superman that showed up in Superman/Batman was a riff on the Kingdom Come version, I think.  I don't think either KC or DC 1M were supposed to be set in stone, they're each just two possible futures, written by guys with differing ideas on how time will affect Kal.  The fact that both of them have interacted with members of the official DCU is, I suppose, attributable to "Hypertime," Mark Waid's grand apologia for editorial incompetence which says, in essence, "No matter how bad we screw up continuity, it's all part of the master plan."  

Anyway, Superman's future ended in 1986, so none of them count!

[Defender]

Don't mince words wing, tell us how you really feel.

 But yeah, the Older Supes from Superman/Batman was in fact the Supes of an alternate reality. Seems they're doing a lot to play with the fabric of the space/time continuum in that title, which heightens my suspicions about this upcoming 'crisis' Luthor mentioned in the issue #8. . .makes you wonder what's coming next, the next big revamp to 'fix' DC Continuity, or perhaps a return to basics a la All-Star Superman? We can only hope. . .and maybe dread a bit as well.  :?


 -Def.

[Super Monkey]

Anyway, Superman's future ended in 1986, so none of them count!

I just started referring to them as imaginary stories  

[dto]

SteamTeck, the Kents weren't killed in Our Worlds at War, though a dazed Pa Kent was missing for a while.  However, the Birthright origin shows the Kents much younger.  There are inconsistencies -- Identity Crisis shows older Kents, so apparently the word didn't reach the creative team in time.

[SteamTeck]

It must have been in the regular title later that the Kents weren't killed. In the trade paperback that is  the impression you are given . Thanks for clearing that up.
  So Perez didn't come up with the super-convoluted at least as annoyng as the legion new "Troia" that existed afterwards. The wierd convolutions and timewarps were a later idea? Well even so it's just one character not the whole fututre I suppose  but I've never cared for the new character. The legion characters were at least left intact for all the good it does now.
    I think retroconning and rebooting must be like drug addiction once you start :roll:  you can't stop.