Superman

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Though he is not a Kryptonian, Kaleb demonstrates most of the same abilities at similar levels once exposed to stellar radiation. He possesses vast strength, durability, flight speed, and is able to fire beams of heat from his eyes.

Unlike Kryptonians, Kaleb can also fire concussive blasts from his hands and has learned how to open up warps in space-time that allow him to instantaneously traverse interstellar distances. Those warp-holes can also be used to observe others from afar without their knowledge.

Even in his very first battle with his powers, when he had only been charged up to 24% of his full capacity, Kaleb was capable of engaging imperial military starships one-on-one. At this stage he could still be overwhelmed by multiple such vessels, particularly when they were armed with weaponry specifically designed to exploit his weaknesses.

Now that he has reached full capacity and become proficient with his powers, he is routinely capable of crippling three cruisers or a single battleship in one phase by simply punching through their center-of-mass at top flight speed.

His early life as a fisherman on the primitive world Hydros left Kaleb with extensive experience as a mariner and fisherman and a high degree of general athletic skill. The rebellion provided the necessary knowledge and skills for Kaleb to properly coordinate his actions with other rebel military forces.

His ability to adapt quickly to the profound changes in his life demonstrates an overall high intelligence and mental fortitude.

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Visitor from Another Planet

Hydros’s sun was red with a slight magenta tinge, as were Kaleb’s eye-beams and many of the energy attacks used by Luthor’s forces (which were apparently specifically intended to exploit weaknesses of Kryptonian-like superhumans). I am assuming for purposes of this writeup that these radiation wavelengths fall under the general umbrella of “red sun radiation.”

This is thematically similar to Kryptonians and Daxamites, both of whom were powerless under red sunlight and fired red beams from their eyes. It may be easier for GMs using this character to simply write off the magenta tinge as a creative team error and assume the energies in question were plain red.

Green hydrosite was never referred to as such in the stories. However, the unnamed material was derived from core elements of Hydros just as green kryptonite was derived from core elements of Krypton, so the suggested name seemed apt. When Kaleb appeared in the present day, rays simulating green kryptonite affected him in the same manner as green hydrosite, which might suggest that the materials and their effects are as generic as the varieties of red sunlight above.

However, that same simulated kryptonite, refined by subsequent experimentation on Kaleb and then later refined again using samples of Superman’s DNA, would only weaken Superman temporarily. To confuse the issue further, Dominus later stated that the simulated green kryptonite would have worked had he not secretly sabotaged the research.

In the Universe AZ setting, the simulated kryptonite is assumed to be inaccurately replicated at first in a way that coincidentally duplicated green hydrosite. Dominus only intervened when Luthor got closer to properly simulating green kryptonite while using Superman’s DNA for his later research.

Based on this information, green hydrosite only weakens those vulnerable to kryptonite for two phases before they can throw off its effects, and vice versa. This same relationship extends to other Kryptonian-like characters and their material vulnerability, such as Supreme and supremium.

Luthor could conceivably create other forms of hydrosite that have effects like other forms of kryptonite on Superman. See the Diverse Kryptonite Drawback in the Superboy UAZ writeup for ideas.

History

By the mid-45^th Century, humanity had spread to many systems throughout the stars, even colonizing other galaxies. In the Viltrumite Galaxy (known as the Sombrero Hat Galaxy in the 21^st Century), most of the inhabited worlds fell under the dominion of the Empire, centered on the planet Metro-Pole.

Metro-Pole was the planet Counter-Earth of 21^st Century fame, which had been teleported to its new location in the mid-24^th century after Lex Luthor V manipulated the remnants of the Skrullian Empire into an all-out attack on Earth.

The people of Earth believed Counter-Earth had been destroyed in the battle. So did Earth’s allies, who mounted a retailiatory strike against the Skrull which resulted in the “Six Minute War” annihilating the Skrullian culture and giving eventual rise to the Durlan people.

The Emperor, Lex Luthor the 60^th, was in fact the original Lex Luthor reborn again and again in successive clone bodies. Luthor suspected that his arch-enemy Superman still lived somewhere in the universe, for his enemy had been believed dead before only to return anew, and thus had his armies pursuing the “Krypton Protocol.”

They scoured space for any planets that might host humanoids similar to Kryptonians, humanoids that had the potential to develop superpowers when exposed to sufficiently powerful stellar radiation. When such worlds were discovered, Luthor’s legions would descend upon them and eradicate every person living there.

In part, this was because Luthor assumed Superman must be living somewhere like his native Krypton that negated his powers (otherwise his old foe would never have let Luthor’s plans get so far), but it also removed the potential threat of other Kryptonian-level powerhouses taking up the never-ending battle themselves.

The rebels opposing Luthor’s brutal regime learned of the Krypton Protocol and sought to use it for the very end that Luthor strove to prevent: finding a hero who could topple his empire. Though the rebels did not know the parameters of the Krypton Protocol, they were able to get a list of such planets known by the empire.

36 teams were sent to try and retrieve suitable candidates from those worlds before the empire arrived. 35 of them were too late and destroyed in the attempt.

The 36^th team arrived at Hydros, a relatively primitive waterworld with no knowledge of life off-world until that moment, concurrently with the Empire’s forces. The rebel team managed to find the last remaining Hydrosian, a fisherman named Kaleb, as he fled Luthor’s armored troops.

The imperial troops’ attack on the team convinced Kaleb that they were allies. He risked his life to save a wounded rebel agent, Lang, though he himself was injured while retrieving her. The rebels then spirited Kaleb away from Hydros.

Charging the wounded Kaleb with stellar energy quickly healed him and proved Luthor’s theories correct as he began to exhibit abilities similar to the original Superman’s. The rebels told Kaleb of the Empire, the Krypton Protocols, and the legend of Superman. They then asked him to assume the identity of Superman to not only fight the Empire but also inspire those who would stand with the rebellion. Kaleb accepted the burden.

As Superman, Kaleb began with attacks against isolated imperial forces and outposts, developing his proficiency with his growing powers and letting rumors of his fight against the Empire spread. Soon he moved to more populous areas, inflicting major losses against the Empire and inspiring more and more of its citizens to join the rebellion as they remembered and retold the legend of Superman.

Kaleb also began a romance with Lang, one of his closest colleagues among the rebellion and one of the few people with whom he could simply be himself.

In an attempt to strike directly at the heart of the Empire, the rebels planned a more subtle mission than usual for Superman. He assumed the role of a regular citizen competing to join the elite Imperial Guard. The intent was for Kaleb to eventually let his cover slip, be taken prisoner, and inevitably be brought before the gloating egomaniacal Luthor. The rebellion believed this to be the only way Superman would be able to get close to the Emperor.

Though he was exposed sooner than planned, the plot worked as the rebels thought it would, in part because the somewhat senile Luthor believed that Kaleb was the original Superman and was foolish enough to blunder in alone. A team of rebel assassins managed to burst in and free Kaleb, who then kept Luthor’s protective forces occupied while they attempted to take the Emperor out.

They had underestimated Luthor’s defenses, which included a powerful personal force field and a green hydrosite ray. The rebels were ultimately forced to flee, but not before Kaleb destroyed the new clone body Luthor had almost finished growing.

The battle between the rebellion and the Empire raged on. Luthor was now desperate to stop the rebels — clone bodies took years to prepare and he was afraid that they would be able to mount a second more successful assassination attempt before he could prepare a new body to transfer to.

Superman manifested a new ability to generate spatial warps, allowing him to instantly transit between stars and thus conduct his campaigns against the Empire with even greater celerity.

The rebellion also acquired the parameters of the Krpyton Protocol and identified a new as-yet-unnamed world undiscovered by the Empire from which they could recruit an entire super-army. Debate raged about the use of the Protocols.

Some rebels desired the reinforcements, which could bring the Empire down in days. Others feared the possibility of such powerful beings becoming oppressive monarchs in their own right and wanted to follow Luthor’s policies.

The debate was finally settled by Kaleb, who noted that either dragging the people of that primitive agrarian world into a war they knew nothing about or exterminating them all as a potential threat would make the rebels the same as the empire. Instead, he convinced the rebels to simply conceal the existence of that world and let them find their own destiny.

Some time later, shortly before the final assault that would bring the Empire to its end, Kaleb and Lang travelled to that same planet, landing in secret well away from any natives. Lang was now pregnant and the doctors advised her to have the baby on Solitude where it would not yet have any powers that could complicate the birth.

This also served as an idyll for Kaleb and Lang before the final battle, both of whom had been fighting without respite for their entire time with the rebellion. They planned for their future together after the end of the Empire, on the planet now called Solitude. (Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #5)

Despite the rebellion’s optimism about the last push to topple the Empire, Lex won the day through treachery. Now housed on his latest clone, Luthor the Sixty-First crushed the rebellion and resumed his Krypton Protocols.

The few surviving rebels pinned their last hopes on sending Kaleb into the past, using technology based on Kaleb’s spatial warping ability. Kaleb’s arrival in modern-day Metropolis was inadvertently presaged by the appearance of other anachronisms such as futuristic attack vessels and dinosaurs that rampaged briefly before returning to their native times.

Kaleb eventually arrived in Metropolis in the year 2001 and tracked Luthor down only to be blocked in his assassination attempt by the original Superman.

The two Supermen had a brief, relatively even fight before Luthor had Kaleb subdued with rays simulating green kryptonite radiation. This radiation coincidentally had a yellow glow similar to Kaleb’s time-warps, obscuring the fact that Kaleb had not returned to his own time but had been blasted and then spirited away by Luthor’s men through a hole torn in the street during the preceding fight.

Luthor later gloated over Kaleb, whose unconscious body now rested in a containment tube; Lex saw the event as confirmation that he would live far into the future and rule the entire universe. (Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #11)

For the next two years Luthor’s scientists continued to refine their simulated green kryptonite, using Kaleb as a test subject while still keeping him unconscious at all times to prevent any escape attempts. This project, dubbed Operation: Greenlight, was assisted by S.H.I.E.L.D., who wanted some means to stop Superman should he become a public menace.

While the simulated kryptonite actually worked, the powerful entity Dominus surreptitiously tampered with the final result to insure it had little effect on Superman. Dominus needed the Man of Steel alive for his own insidious plot to conquer the world by mentally manipulating Superman.

Unaware of Dominus’s sabotage, Luthor continued his efforts to make the simulated kryptonite work, now using samples of Superman’s DNA taken from S.T.A.R. Labs by S.H.I.E.L.D..

As Superman’s actions became increasingly drastic due to Dominus’s influence, he eventually traced the simulated kryptonite back to Luthor. Superman got rid of the remaining stock of replicated kryptonite and the lab that had been developing it by throwing the top half of Lexcorp Tower into orbit.

Luthor made one last effort to destroy Superman using the simulated kryptonite by contriving to have the lab fall from orbit onto the Fortress of Solitude. However, Dominus’s tampering ensured that even the large supply of faux kryptonite in the lab was only sufficient to weaken the Man of Steel.

Dominus’s mental manipulations drove Superman to attempt a global takeover in July 2002, but the Man of Steel eventually overcame Dominus’s influence. Soon afterward, Luthor’s efforts to simulate kryptonite were quashed by S.H.I.E.L.D..

S.H.I.E.L.D. believed that the effects of Luthor’s replicated kryptonite might have contributed to Superman’s delusional state under Dominus’s influence, thus inadvertently contributing to the very situation the substance was meant to stop.

Furthermore, S.H.I.E.L.D. noted that Dominus’s tampering had hopelessly corrupted the available data and thus rendered further testing along those lines moot anyway. (Superman – King of the World storyline)

Kaleb’s containment tube, which was also stored in the kryptonite lab, was weakened when Lexcorp Tower fell upon the Fortress of Solitude. The radiation from the various forms of simulated kryptonite present still enfeebled Kaleb enough to keep him unconscious for some time afterward.

After the radiation had faded a month later, he awoke and escaped the wreckage. Kaleb was wary of engaging Luthor directly again after his previous defeat, so he instead sought out Kal-El to reconcile with him and seek his advice and assistance.

Superman was still rebuilding the public’s trust in him in the wake of his Dominus-influenced world takeover and asked Kaleb to work alongside him, hoping that the future Superman would see the potential dangers of unilateral action.

Kal-El was particularly remorseful over the death of Colossus, who had sacrificed himself to cure the Legacy Virus shortly after Superman had taken over Earth under Dominus’s control. Colossus believed that the spreading virus would cripple the ability of the heroes to defeat Superman, especially since Superboy had contracted the virus shortly before the take-over.

Superboy’s illness proved to Colossus that the other Kryptonian-level beings on Earth who had the best chance of stopping Superman were also vulnerable to it spurring him to take his last drastic step. While this example did indeed cause Kaleb to reconsider his original plan to simply assassinate Luthor, he also pointed out to Superman that his unusually sweeping actions had in fact accomplished some positive ends. (Based on the Superman – Rebuilding Trust storyline)

Shortly after Kaleb began working with Superman, the Man of Steel was taken captive by an alien coalition and placed on trial for a crime committed by one of his ancestors. Kaleb was part of the team who went to rescue him, dubbed “Team Superman” and his ability to form portals became invaluable in rescuing Kal El and evacuating the team.

His extensive use of his warping ability taught him to make larger portals than he had before and he has continued to cultivate that particular skill. During this ordeal Kaleb and Caitlin Fairchild, who had already become acquainted during Kaleb’s work with Superman, became good friends.

While making himself available to assist his new friends whenever they needed him, Kaleb began using his free time to carefully study all of the information he could gather regarding time travel. Kaleb had come to realize that killing Luthor would wreak havoc with the thousands of years of history between the modern day and his era, with unknown but possibly even worse results than those Kaleb already feared.

Furthermore, Kaleb had consulted with time travelers Booster Gold and Rip Hunter about the problem while trying to find a means for time travel now that his vest was gone. They both suggested that such profound attempts to alter the timeline might well be undone by the elastic nature of history. Simply put, sometimes history had an inertia of sorts and changes that altered the flow of events too drastically might be undone or even prevented ab initio by various means.

While he knew the very nature of what he was doing meant that he did not need to hurry — he could return to the future at the moment he chose regardless of the time elapsed in his past — Kaleb always felt the pressure to find a solution that would save his family and his cause.

At the same time, he knew that a plan made without proper respect for the variables of time could well be worse than no plan at all. Kaleb also appreciated the value of the experience he was getting working alongside other superheroes.

In early 2003 Kaleb was the first on the scene when Kara El landed (Superman Memorial Park, Washington DC) and despite being mistaken (briefly) for Kal he was able to get her to the Fortress where Kal met them. Kara was taken in by Fred and Silvia Danvers, the same people who raised Caitlin Fairchild.

Kaleb had became friends with the entire Danvers family, including Caitlin’s biological mother Carol Danvers, whose presence in his life assuaged some of the loneliness he felt being so far away in time and space from his own loved ones. His joy in the Danvers’ company became troubled by a growing mutual attraction with Fairchild, who reminded him in some ways of his wife Lang.

Kaleb also served as a substitute Avenger while Valor was gone for a few months assisting the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 30^th Century. This gave him further access to scientists and databases that could help him find a solution to the dilemma that awaited him in his native time.

After his extensive studies of time travel and temporal alterations, Kaleb came up with a new approach to saving his rebel friends. He asked Team Superman to accompany him back to the future on the eve of the final assault. With their help, he hoped to keep Luthor’s treachery from completely undermining the rebellion.

Kaleb believed that this more subtle change would avoid any of the major issues that might otherwise arise from tampering with the timeline. Despite their initial misgivings about changing history even in this limited way, Superman and the others ultimately agreed to Kaleb’s plan but insisted on doing so covertly to further minimize the effects of their presence.

The team — Kaleb, Superman I, Superboy II, Matrix, Steel (Irons), and, secretly, Fairchild — used technology borrowed from Rip Hunter to travel to Kaleb’s era. Returning to the future as the rebel fleet closed around Luthor’s capital world of Metropole, the older Kaleb quickly met with his younger counterpart in private, telling him what had happened and wishing his younger counterpart well.

As the changes in the timeline already began to take effect, the two Kaleb’s merged. The younger Kaleb remained, but now had the older Kaleb’s memories of their alternate future.

Team Superman went to war. Superman (wearing a copy of Kaleb’s costume), Matrix (shape-shifted into Kaleb’s twin), and Kaleb himself began causing as much damage to imperial forces as possible, making Kaleb seem even more omni-present than he had before when using his warps to rapidly shift locations.

Meanwhile, Steel used his technical prowess to sabotage imperial ships and to foil sabotage attempts by traitors among the rebellion. Fairchild protected Lang and Kaleb’s son, allowing Kaleb to focus on the battle without distractions.

While all of this was going on, Kon directly confronted Luthor. He was counting on Luthor’s twisted kind of affection for him to generate an intense mental shock on seeing him. Luthor was indeed shocked to see him and completely ignored his tactical command screens for critical minutes.

Kon was also able to discover the presence of the traitor’s family as prisoners and when he left (after a superspeed spin/heat vision attack on the entire command room) he took them with him.

The rebellion’s forces were still routed as they had been originally, but the defeat was no longer devastating enough to completely reverse the tide of war. The weakened rebellion was still able to oppose the Empire on even terms and Kaleb’s family was no longer lost to him.

As Kaleb prepared to send his allies back to the past he asked them to visit his home on Solitude. The group spent a pleasant few days together, and Caitlin finally recognized that Kaleb’s love for his wife was the true center of his world. As the friends said farewell Caitlin tearfully kissed Kaleb goodbye and asked him to remember her. Kaleb was himself distraught that he could do nothing to make the situation less painful for her or himself.

Not long after Kal and the others returned to their own time Kaleb received a message in Kryptonian directing him to travel to a specific location on Solitude. When he arrived he was greeted by a holographic representation of Kal-El, this representation welcomed Kaleb warmly and informed him that he had constructed a device to build Kaleb his own Fortress of Solitude.

The hologram wryly stated that one couldn’t really be Superman without a proper Fortress and informed Kaleb that this Fortress would also conceal the planet Solitude to protect it and its people from the Empire.

After his allies returned to the past Kaleb returned to the never-ending battle with renewed hope for victory. An intelligence report indicating an upcoming attack on the Krypton Protocol planet of R‘hinn led Kaleb to depart for that world immediately.

He was able to rescue another young man named Toral from this world. A short time later, imperial forces began sighting a being calling himself Valor (the most legendary name aside from Superman).

More heroes emerged soon after, and Kaleb found himself building an entirely new Justice League in emulations of the legends that he had lived among in the Twenty-First Century and whose legacies were still remembered in the Forty-Fifth.

• The Lantern: While escorting Toral on a memorial visit to his homeworld, Lang found herself in combat with a group of Luthor’s imperial scouts who were checking the ruins of R‘Hinn for any possible survivors.
  The battle culminated in her rediscovery of the Blue Power Ring once used by Guy Gardner’s evil clone Joseph, long ago lost on R‘Hinn during the reign of the Sovereign on that planet. Her experience as a senior member of the rebellion and Kaleb’s partner allowed her to quickly master the ring’s abilities.
• John Fox, the Flash from the Twenty-Seventh Century: Having finally eluded those pursuing him for his unauthorized time travels and eager to redeem himself for his mistakes in the Twenty-First Century, Fox has offered his help to the rebellion.
• Redwing of Team Titans: Cast adrift on the temporal tides in the wake of Zero Hour, Redwing arrived in the Forty-Fifth Century and has taken up the fight against Luthor’s empire. Her experience in fighting a similar despot, the Monarch of her original timeline, has greatly aided the rebellion. In keeping with the theme of reborn legends of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries she has adopted the name of Red Raven.
• Batman: The son of political prisoners exiled to Luthor’s penitentiary planet, Batman was inspired not by his Twentieth Century counterpart but rather by another who assumed that mantle to fight Luthor’s empire during its formation. This Dark Knight began a separate rebellion that has now joined forces with Kaleb’s. He came to the rebellion along with his own cadre of heroes, a Forty-Fifth Century Batman Family.
• Agent Liberty II: Sent to the future from the year 2008 by Booster Gold to avoid his historically-fated death, the second Agent Liberty brought with him over a decade of military experience.
• The Martian Manhunter: Wandering the stars to provide aid where needed, the Manhunter passed through the Viltrumite Galaxy and encountered the Empire and the rebellion. J‘Onn served the rebellion as a strategic advisor, instructor, and a solo intelligence operative. While he will join the fray directly when he is most needed, his desire not to make humanity too dependent on his help encourages him to stay in the background as much as possible.
• Superboy: Kaleb’s 10-year-old son is already training with his father’s colleagues when they can spare the time, most predominantly with Kaleb himself and the Martian Manhunter. It is hoped that he can join the ranks of the Justice League in a few years, continuing the rebirth of Earth’s heroic legacy.

With new, powerful, allies joining him in taking up the mantle of legendary heroes, and the story of the rebels fight finally starting to spread beyond their own galaxy Kaleb believes the end of the war may finally be in sight.

Description

Kaleb is a handsome young white male with a shoulder-length mane of wavy hair and a strong but not quite square jaw. He has a muscular build with broad shoulders. His preferred civilian garb is tight-fitting athletic wear that leaves most or all of his limbs bare.

As Superman he wears a version of the original Superman’s outfit slightly modified for a more futuristic/military bearing. When Kaleb flies he is surrounded by a nimbus of yellow energy with red sparkles that trails behind him. Kaleb’s space warps and the concussive blasts from his hands have the same visual effect.

Personality

In classical heroic tradition, Kaleb began as an Everyman of simple circumstances, respected for being a capable and hardworking fisherman and brave enough to risk his life without hesitation to help a stranger even as everything he knew was being torn asunder.

Though he was appalled by the carnage the empire had wrought on his world, Kaleb’s first instinct was not to seek revenge but to use his powers to find a new home away from that same violence. This thought passed almost as soon as it had formed, for Kaleb realized that to do so would be to abandon others to suffer the same fate.

Though Kaleb recognizes in the abstract that carrying the banner of Superman gave the subject of the Empire hope, he is motivated on a more direct personal level by his love for Lang. He had become infatuated with he at first sight and came to respect her all the more as they worked together to plan strategies and tactics for rebel actions.

Perhaps most importantly, when he is with her, he can simply be Kaleb and not Superman.

Though Kaleb had a general reverence for life similar to the original Superman’s, he did not consider battlefield killings or assassinations out of line as part of his work for the rebellion.

When he first fled Hydros, Kaleb tended to use many marine-related references in his speech, as would be expected of a waterworld native. He quickly adapted to a more general, albeit somewhat formal, pattern of speech as he became familiar with larger galactic culture.

While he initially adopted the role of superhero out of duty, he no longer thinks of the end of the war as the time he can stop being Superman and live a normal life. Instead his thoughts now turn to ways in which he can help others in a galaxy at peace.

Quotes

“If she’s an enemy of yours, sharks, then she’s a friend worth having — and this is one kill you’ll have to do without !”

“What, five of you — to bring in one of me ? I’m impressed ! Well, what are you waiting for ? Let’s show these good people just how scared they should be of you ! Come on ! COME ON !”

“Those people down there — This is not their fight, not their war. To drag them into it against their will — or worse, to kill them all for what they might someday become — it’s slavery or genocide. It’s the Empire, all over again.”

By Roy Cowan and Azrael.

Source of Character: Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #5, Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #11, Superman: King of the World storyline (DC Comics).

Helper(s): Chris Cottingham, Darci.