What i would have done.

[llozymandias]

Here is how i would have rebooted Superman.  That is if i knew then what i know now, & were the one assigned to the job by DC.  Also i would have needed the freedom to do it however i wanted to do it.  First i get rid of that stuff about different kinds of stars (yellow, red, green, orange, blue, white, etc.) affecting Kal's powers differently.  Krypton's sun was not an ordinary star, it was made of kryptonite.  Kryptonite in plasma form generates a sort of field alters reality around it.  In that field super-matter behaves like "normal" matter, & kryptonians have no active powers.  Krypton's sun still looks like a red star though.  That field also nullifies almost all forms of ftl travel.  The guardians powers don't work there, nor do the power rings of the glc.  Over several billion years krypton's internal pressure converted its core into kryptonite.  When the entire core is so converted it becomes unstable.  Soon after the planet explodes.  


     The kryptonians are native to krypton, having evolved there.  Several hundred thousand (or a million or so) earth years ago, the kryptonians had their first space program.  Daxam is a sort of counter-krypton.  Or there is another kryptonite-sun in the DCU.  At first their travel is between krypton & daxam.  Later they send a group of "astronauts" to explore the rest of the universe.  This group consists of several families from both krypton & daxam.  Once they are away from the kryptonite-sun(or suns), they discover their latent powers.  One or more of the children using his/her telescopic & heat visions unintentionally destroys several inhabitted star systems.  They inform their governments about what happened.  Both governments decide to "quarentine" their planets.  On krypton all knowledge of their space program is suppressed.  From then on only the priests of Rao know what happened.  Also all scientific & technological progress is subtly manipulated to preserve an "illusion of progress" without allowing the kryptonians to get too far advanced.  The daxamites die if they are away from their sun for too long.  Lar-Gand/Mon-El is safe.  first he was in suspended animation in his ship before he reached earth. Then he was in the phantom zone for about a thousand years or so.  In the 30th/31st centuries he has the lead-antidote serum, which has kryptonite as one of its ingrediants.  Krypton's atmosphere (as well as those of its moons) is the only thing protects the kryptonians from the lethal effects of the sun.  When outside those atmospheres, they die within a couple of hours or so.  They still explore the rest of the DCU with their super-telescopes.  Their "modern" space program is more concerned with colonizing their own solar system.  Kal's rocket's warp drive is based on the ancient designs from krypton's first space program.  One (or more) of the high priests of Rao believe Jor-El's prediction of doom.  He/theyprovide Jor with information about the ancient warp drive & the latent powers of all kryptonians.   Jor intends to build a fleet to save most if not all of his people, his first attempt is in kandor shortly before Brainiac steals the city.  He knows time is short.  While trying again to build a fleet, he builds a model rocket to at least save Kal.  Because of the super-telescopes Jor know about earth.  He wants Kal to have something of a "normal" life, Kal's ship has an AI in it.  That AI creates an alternate body for Kal.  For the next 10-17 years Kal's real body is in his ship, while he experiences life on earth through a kind of tele-prescence.  And in what he believes are just dreams he experiences the life he might have had, if krypton had not exploded.  Also he the ship's AI teaches him how to control his powers.  


     To be continued.

[llozymandias]

Continued.  When Kal-El/Clark Kent turns 12 or 13 the teleprescence stops.  His real body is released from his ship.  The Kents were aware of their adopted son's true origins.  The ship's AI chose them to be Kal/Clark's parents.  And they were informed as to what they were getting into.  In 1928 or 29 he starts his career as Superboy.  He changes his Superhero name to Superman, when he turns 21 in 1937.  Other superheros start appearing over time.  He is a member of the Legion Of Super-Heroes, as Superboy.  As Superman he is a member of: the Justice Society of America & the All-Star Squadron in the 40s; the Club of Heroes circa the mid 50s; the Justice League of America from the late 50s on.  Superman's is uninterupted up to the present (& beyond), physically he & many of his contemporaries are in their late 20s to early 30s.  In fact on "Earth-DC" this phenomenon of super-slow (& in some cases halted) aging affects something around .1%-3% of earth's population.  Everyone knows this is happening, it's just that nobody ever finds out how or why it's happening.  In the 40s Superman has his Secret Citadel in a mountain somewhere in the vicinity of Metropolis.  By the mid mid-late 50s he relocates to his Fortress of Solitude in the arctic.  About the turn of the 21st century he remakes his Fortress as a tessaract, giving himself nigh-infinite room for expansion.  For one thing his trophy collection was starting to get too big for his old Fortress,  & as a super-packrat Kal hates to throw anything away.


      Kal's rogues gallery includes: the Phantom Zone Prisoners; the Ultra-Humanite; Brainiac; & many others.  Of course his main arch-enemy is Lex Luthor.  The origin of Lex's hatred for Kal is the Jerry Siegel story from 1960.  His main reason for hating Kal is that Kal is the main obstacle to Lex's goals & ambitions.  Plus the fact that Kal keeps sending Lex back to prison.  For most of his life world/universal conquest is Lex's main desire.  By the 1980s Lex creates Lexcorp.  He owns it secretly & runs it through underlings.  Even Superman  does not know that Lex Luthor is even involved with Lexcorp.  The people who publicly run Lexcorp are "owned" by Lex luthor.  They basically "sold their souls" to Lex, in exchange for things (they either wanted or needed) that only Lex could/would provide.  

      What do you think?