What would YOU have done?

[Defender]

No particular reason, save that I feel it thematically balances the scales a bit between Superman and Batman. Superman will always be missing his heritage, his world and place of belonging, but he has these two loving people who saw past the rocket and the growing strangeness of his abilities and accepted him for who he is. Apart from Kara and Krypto, they're the only ones who can really know him and accept him for who he is. That's a rare commodity in a life where so much of what he is day to day has to be hidden beneath a bushel.

 -Def.

[MatterEaterLad]

Fair enough, it meant a lot to me that Clark went to Metropolis to meet his destiny after the death of his aged adoptive parents...that was a real connection between the ages for me, more meaningful than making them young again or living to his adulthood...but we all have our symbols, I guess...

[Defender]

Heh, no worries M. I just like the fact that they're there and that they exist as an emotional resource. I think Birthright spoiled me on the notion of the Kents still being around. And the Animated series played them exceedingly well. It helps keep some of the man in Superman to me.

 -Def.

[Uncle Mxy]

Fair enough, it meant a lot to me that Clark went to Metropolis to meet his destiny after the death of his aged adoptive parents...that was a real connection between the ages for me, more meaningful than making them young again or living to his adulthood...but we all have our symbols, I guess...

In the initial years of Superman, there was scarcely a difference between "found by a passing motorist and raised in an orphanage" and "found and raised by parents who live just long enough to send him onto his first real story".  It was just background filler to get to Superman as a man.  Their first names weren't consistently defined for the longest time.  

As his Smallville past started became more developed, when Ma and Pa Kent became more than deathbed speeches, it made less and less sense to just jettison them as background filler.  That's especially true since Superman already has a set of dead parents coming out the gate.  

Look at the Superman I movie.  Even with Pa Kent dead (and Ma Kent doing a silent Aunt May imitiation), he's still talking to Superman.  Why lose that?  The only reason he had to be dead was so he could be a booming voice in the heavens along with Marlon.  

Does Superman need Pa Kent to be dead to do death to tell him he's not a boy anymore, to send him off into the world?  With a fleshed out past, one in which Clark is raised to greatness, I just don't think that's the case.  As far as I can tell, anout the only purpose for their death would serve was to show that even a Superman isn't a god.  But that got so convoluted during pre-Crisis with alien space plagues and de-aging and whatnot where it just never really resonated with me.

[alschroeder]

Great answers, all of you! And no hard feelings to those who would have done it differently---the Krypto cartoon series shows there are still some things that could have been done with Krypto (I actually like that he has a normal kid as a master) and I can understand the point that offing characters is often a waste.  I like Superman as pretty much the only survivor, but the only way to make him FEEL that is to get rid of the survivors he knows---and not forget about it.

I also agree with those of you who disliked Byrne's sterile THX-1138 type Krypton, in some ways a rip off of Asimov's Solaria.  I have to like a world to regret its passing...and the Silver Age Krypton was a fascinating place.

I DO think Byrne was right to emphasize the human heritage and upbringing of Superman.  I always thought the Silver Age writers should have had Kara swearing by Rao, but Superman back to "Great Scott!" or whatever.  The Kandorians should have regarded Kal-El the way we regard Tarzan, a human being raised by brutish, primitive inferiors---but Kara was raised in a Kryptonian culture until age fifteen. She should have been much more "alien", much more a "stranger in a strange land" than Superman, who was raised in Smallville.

Again, great answers!---Al

[Super Monkey]

When you think about Ma and Pa Kent didn't have to die, at least not on Earth-1, since he was already Superboy.

On Earth-2 Clark became Superman because on his death bed he made a promise to Pa, an incredible scene that is weaken if he was already a superhero, so it only truly works here, less so on Earth-1.

[alschroeder]

Actually, I prefer the Kents dead---it makes Clark seem a little more childish, with his parents to run home to every other issue....but it's not a major point with me, just personal preference.---Al

[Super Monkey]

I don't like him running home all the time, just for their birthday, mother's day, father's day, etc.