Sorry about that. “Pre-Crisis” refers to DC Comics continuity (such as it was) from ~1937-1986. Over this fifty-year period, the “canonical history” and origin stories of various comics characters had been changed multiple times, timelines had been altered, and a number of alternate-reality dimensions had been created to resolve the tesulting paradoxes. By the mid-80’s, DC felt that their “comics universe” had become too complicated for the average reader to follow, especially in comparison to Marvel Comics, which was percieved as more streamlined and accessible.
In 1986, DC launched a storyline called “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” which encompassed all the titles then published. The idea was to wipe out all the alternate Earths, contradicting storylines and silly stuff and rebuild DC continuity from the ground up into one seamless whole. (As it turned out it didn’t really work out that way, but that’s a whole other story.) In the process, they decided to make substantial changes to some of their star characters, the most prominent example being Superman.
Writer John Byrne was entrusted with establishing a whole new backstory for the Man of Steel. Gone was the art-deco retrofuturistic Krypton, the adventures of Superboy with the Legion of Superheroes, Krypto the Superdog, etc. In the reboot, Clark Kent develops his powers slowly as a teenager, and Lex Luthor is not a brilliant criminal scientist, but a ruthless business tycoon. My snipe at John Byrne was directed at these and other, later changes. But that’s a whole other story.)
Events occurring after the reboot are termed “Post-Crisis” because they adhere to the new history rather than any of the earlier material (which is regarded as having “never happened.” Or at least was, until Mark Waid introduced Hypertime. But that’s a whole other story.)
Oh, and everyone knows Ma Kent got little Clark to help her with the tailoring for his costume. He used his heat vision to cut the indestructible threads.
In the 1977 theatrical movie, Kal-El arrives on earth completely nekkid. My vhs copy is old and grainy and it’s difficult to see properly (plus I’m not in the habit of staring at little boy’s peepees lol) but from what I can tell, he does appear to be snipped. He’s definitely got all the standard plumbing, in any case.
There was also that WW2-era Superman strip in which Supes confronted Hitler and Stalin, threatening der Fuehrer with a “strictly non-Aryan” sock on the jaw.
I’ve always wondered when the Kents first get the baby Supe wouldn’t they take him to a doctor? If only for his vaccination shots and whatnot even if they weren’t inclined to get him snipped wouldn’t that of given the whole ballgame away when the doctor tries to give him his shots?
I think it was before we got in, actually. He grabbed Hitler and then Stalin and then took them to (The League of Nations? The World Court? Some international tribunal), to "Stand trial for your crimes.
Booker57: Your memory is absotootly, posilutely correct. Ma Kent made Li’l Clark’s playsuit out of three blankets made of indestructible fabric found in his rocket; he needed an invulnerable playsuit because, being super and all, he was always knocking the silo down on himself or what have you, which tended to wear out normal baby clothes rather quickly. Later the playsuit was unraveled and made into the costume we recognize today. The original baby blankets were colored red, blue and yellow, which explains the outfit’s color scheme. It’s a good thing for truth, justice and the American way that Kryptonians weren’t hugely into plaids.
The interesting thing about the costume was that it was actually more indestructible than Superman himself; it didn’t lose its tear-resistance when exposed to kryptonite or red solar rays or whatever. This came in handy for Supes, since it gave him the equivalent of a bulletproof vest even when he was deprived of his powers for some reason. The fabric also had other, less often used powers; it could be stretched to virtually unlimited distances in case Superman had to rig up a firewall or something. Obviously he just used his cape for this, not the whole outfit, or else we’d have an answer to the OP.
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PRE-Crisis explaination! See Ike? You were right twice with one answer!
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She unravelled the blankies. L’il Kal cut the threads with his heat vision. Ma used a needle made from a shard of the rocket.
And I’m guessing that Kryptonians practice circumcision. A) Seigel and Shuster were Jewish. B) There’s hints of the Moses story in the Superman origin. C) There’s other Jewish bits (“El” means “son of” in Hebrew" for example. D) Plus some of their religious rituals have a Jewish…flavor.
I was going to ask about the pre- and post-crisis thing, but someone else beat me to it. Terrifel, thanks for the explanation! Could you also explain hypertime? Never heard of it before, but the name intregs me.
I’m not Terrifel, he might know more about it than I, but since you ask I’ll tell you what I know about Hypertime.
The concept of Hypertime, in essence, was to reintroduce the mulitversial element of the DC Universe that the Crisis did away with. The idea is everything that DC ever published really happened (Well, maybe not Mad Magazine . . .) in some alternate dimension or other, including all the Pre-Crisis stuff, all the Vertigo titles, all the Elseworlds stories all the intercompany crossovers, all the stand-alone titles outside the main DC superhero universe that they ever published.
I’m not sure about the mechanics of it all, but I think at its core Hypertime is about infinite branching timelines representing infinite possibilities whereas Pre-Crisis was about a limited number of alternate Earths/dimensions, connections between which I know nothing about.
Most likely, Hypertime was invented because Gen-X types were getting nostalgic for the Red Kryptonite stories they’d read as kids in the seventies and early eighties.
It’s irreleveant whether Kryptonians practice circumcision. Superman wasn’t born on Krypton, he was born on Earth. Kryptonian women didn’t carry their children, the children gestated in a chamber designed for that purpose. Kal-el was sent in his gestation chamber to earth, where he was born shortly after the rocket carrying it crashed. I’ve always read this revision of the origin as the writer’s way of saying Superman is an American, not an illegal alien. The Kent’s farm was snowed in for months following his arrival, so Ma was able to claim Clark as her own child. It makes sense to assume that he’d be treated the same as any other male child born in Kansas in the 50’s or 60’s, which means he very likely is circumcised.
Here’s my completely and totally nerdy answer to the “quandry”:
In the “old” Pre-Crisis continuity, Superman couldn’t have been circumsized by any normal method since he was invulnerable the moment he arrived in a solar system with a yellow sun.
In the “new” Post-Crisis continuity, he could be, because his invulnerability and super powers were “soaked up” from the yellow sun over a long period of time. He didn’t start noticing his super strength, ability to fly, invulnerability (etc.) until he was in his late teens.
