In a flashback sequence I saw in a 50s-early 60s Superman (or Superboy), there is a panel with a doctor commenting on how that’s the 3rd (or whatever) needle he broke on young Clark Kent’s arm.
Since Clark Kent went to high school, had gym, etc., and no one noticed anything odd, he presumably looked fairly normal “all over”. Doesn’t really answer the OP, but does suggest that he wasn’t a real freak in that deparment.
Incidentally, in the “alternate future” Armageddon 2001 storyline referenced above (the one that introduced Monarch), no less an authority than the U. S. Supreme Court agreed with this, ruling that Superman wasn’t “born” until his birthing chamber opened in Smallville - and thus he was qualified for the office of President of the United States.
Still doesn’t answer the circumcision thing, though.
I’m far more interested if Reed Richards asks Sue The Invisible Girl to go invisble while he’s stretching inside of her to see how far he can go.
I’m fairly certain the ever-lovin’ Ben Grimm is orange and rocky all over.
Fibber McGee did a pretty neat job of summing up, I’d say. (Thanks, dude!) Here are a few random links that go into some of the details.
The idea that “since Superman’s creators were Jewish, therefore Superman himself must be circumcised” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, actually. Circumsision is a rite very strongly identified with the Jewish faith; Superman’s creators had plenty of opportunity to draw explicit parallels between the character and Jewish culture, yet we never really get the sense that this relationship is being very strongly, if at all, asserted. Kryptonians were never conspicuously religious; they were nominally sun-worshippers, and their society was ruled by a Science Council. I’m not saying that Superman wasn’t circumcised, just that his creators’ ethnic identity isn’t a serious argument for it. Somehow I doubt that Siegel or Shuster would, if asked the question, have replied: “Yes, Superman is circumcised, because we are Jewish.” More likely, their response would have been, “Get the hell away from me! Security!”
God, I can’t believe I’m even trying to rationalize this topic.
So, who do you guys think would win, Superman’s foreskin or an Imperial Star Destroyer?
If it’s a Pre-Crisis foreskin, the Star Destroyer’s goin’ down, Post-Crisis foreskin the Star Destryer wins. 
[hijack]
According to Stan Lee (in MallRats,, some things were never defined.
On a semi-related note, there was a brief “interlude” story (i.e. after the Crisis, but before the retcon took full effect) in which Superman discovers an artifact that had belonged to (the then-dead) Supergirl. He eventually tracks its origin and discovers Supergirl had suffered a bout of amnesia after getting hit in the head with an asteroid while on space patrol, and had actually married an alien superhero, drifting away from him as her memory returned. It was a flimsy premise at best, but it does raise the question of how and if the marriage was cosummated. If Supergirl had a hymen, could it have been sundered by anything less than than a kryptonite dildo?
[sub]…boom-chicka-wa-waaaaa…[/sub]
Sex with Supergirl would carry with it many of the same Man-of-Steel-Woman-of-Kleenex-esque problems that sex with Superman would. What happens when, in the throes of passion, Supergirl grabs onto her man and digs her fingernails into his back flesh? What happens to the poor guy’s member when she starts involuntarily doing her Kegel exercises? What about when the abductor muscles in her thighs come on line while she convulses with pleasure? (Insert “Nutcracker Suite” joke here.)
Didn’t the very first Superman comic show the toddler Superman holding up a car? I think I remember seeing that in a comic’s history book. And there was a scene like that in the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie. So he seemed to be powerful right off the bat. Betcha if he was cut it was done on Krypton, for whatever reasons they might have.
How was Superman raised as a child? What do you do when a super-toddler throws a temper tantrum? What did Ma and Pa Kent do when young Clark disobeyed them? (I guess spanking is out of the question.)
Of course, this all became irrelevant post-Crisis, but I still wonder.
BTW, the newer Superman animated series had an episode where we see Clark Kent getting ready for work. He shaved by reflecting his heat vision off the bathroom mirror onto his face. Kinda corny, but cool 
But… didn’t he arrive in the 1930s? Originally, that is. I have no idea what was customary in Kansas in the '30s.
The Superboy radio show in the fifties covered this. Superbrat pointed out that he was invulnerable and didn’t need food, hence the conventional spanking and sending-to-bed-without-supper penalties were meaninless. Ma ‘n’ Pa Kent later had a private discussion about not loving him any more or sending him away or some such crap, knowing his super-hearing would let him eavesdrop. Naturally, he felt terrible at the idea of alienation of affection so he toed the line pretty quick.
Personally, I thought it was kinda cruel.
On “Smallville” (not that they strictly adhere to canon, but what the hey) they said he once had a tantrum when he was “too young to remember.” Busted some holes in the walls, but since he was generally a good kid, he never really caused a whole lot of damage.
“Ow! Uh, son, let go of daddy’s femur, please.”
When he arrived would depend upon the current year. In the 80’s, post crisis, he’d have been about 30. Working backwards, that would put his arrival mid to late 50’s. In the “Death of Superman” run, after Superman is killed, Clark Kent is reported missing and presumed killed, and his age is reported as 34. Going by that, and working backwards from 2003 (comic characters tend not to age or age verrrrrrrry slowly) would put his arrival in the late 60’s. That’s how I arrived at the 50’s and 60’s.
Like anything else, dating when a character was born is tricky when characters don’t age or age very slowly.
“Smallville”, like all of the tv shows, is non-conon. It has a continuity all it’s own that need only stick to the basic outline of the story. I personally liked the early 90’s syndicated “Superboy” better.
Uh, actually “El” means “G-d” (the ineffable name of you-know-who") in Hebrew. In Hebrew, “Son of” is “Ben”. For example, the name “Elimelech” literally means “My G-d is King”. The name “Yisrael” means “Struggled with G-d”.
Thank you. You may continue.;j
What religions were practiced on Krypton?
Regards,
Shodan
Pre-crisis, they practiced the Kang-el religion. Kang means “rivet” in the language of Krypton. Nobody is sure why the religion was named after rivets, although it’s interesting to note that rivet is “Niet” in German. The Kryptonian godhead’s name is “Fred-el”.
:rolleyes:
This guy has done more analysis that I ever will. He describe “Raoism” (a form of sun-worship) s being the primary religion of the post-Crisis Krypton.
Pre-Crisis, Rao was also worshipped as a sun-god, along with Yuda, a moon-goddess, though the implication I always got was that religion wasn’t especially important to the technologically advanced Kryptonians. I remember a pre-Crisis story in which Clark Kent tells Josh Ross (son of Pete Ross) a ancient story about a Christ-like Kryptonian with a similar martyrdom, but aside from being an interesting myth, this figure was never elevated to “son of Rao” status.
Many of the religion-based Krypton stories were like that; thinly-veiled copies of Earth religions (the martyr story was published around Christmastime). I’m pretty sure the guys at DC never really put their backs into defining a Kryptonian religion. Even the whole Rao thing was probably invented so Superman could say “Great Rao!” when he was surprised, replacing the hackneyed “Great Scott!”