Chapter Two:
The Secret
The Man Of Steel # 1
July 1986
Written and drawn by John Byrne
'Superman' created by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster
Cut to Smallville, 18 years later…
Smallville High football field, it's the last game of the season, and the Smallville Crows are winning, 52 to nothing.
Thanks, in no small part, to the star quarterback. Clark Kent.
ANNOUNCER:: …and this Smallville crowd is going absolutely wild as number 15 races down the field for his tenth touchdown! Smallville high has just never seen a football player like this amazing, all-round champion, young Clark Kent!
Clark races across the field, players from the opposite team at least two steps behind.
CHEERLEADERS: Go! Go! Go, Clark, go! Go! Go! Go, Clark, go! YAAY! CLARK!
Clark scores a touchdown.
ANNOUNCER:: TOUCHDOWN!!!
In the audience, the team coach is talking with Jonathan Kent.
COACH: Yeah! Yeah! I tell ya, Kent, that boy of yours is the best! He's gonna make millions as a pro! Millions!
JONATHAN: Maybe, coach. Maybe…
Jonathan looks at the bench, towards some of the other players. Each of them are looking at Clark with sour looks.
JONATHAN: But I can't help noticing his teammates don't seem too happy.
COACH: Them? They're just jealous! There's never been a champion like Clark at Smallville High. An' anyway, the game's over, an' he's won us another one! So what's to worry?
JONATHAN: What indeed…
Back in the field, the cheerleaders and people from the audience have lifted Clark on their shoulders.
CROWD: YAY CLARK! YAY CLARK! YAY CLARK!
Jonathan watches his son, an angry look in his eyes.
*****
Cut to later, Clark is talking with his girlfriend, Lana Lang, by the bleachers.
LANA: Oh, Clarkie, you were just magnificent again! The best yet!
She puts her arm around his shoulder.
CLARK: I do seem to keep getting better and better, don't I, Lana? Pretty soon I should be better than even…
Before he can finish, his father calls out to him.
JONATHAN: (off-screen)Son…
Clark turns to look at him, and smiles.
CLARK: Oh, hi Pa! Glad you were able to make it! Did you see that last touchdown? I was…
JONATHAN: Son, we have to talk.
Clark doesn't notice his serious look.
CLARK: Sure, Pa. I promised Lana we'd go out for a soda after the game, but I'll be home as soon as…
JONATHAN: Now, Clark. Let's go.
Clark begins to look worried.
*****
Cut to a back road, near farmland. Clark and Jonathan are in the car, talking.
CLARK: Are…you mad at me for something, Pa?
JONATHAN: Not mad exactly, Clark. A little disappointed, maybe.
Clark looks over at him, confused.
CLARK: 'Disappointed'? But…I just won the last game of the season! And almost completely by myself!
JONATHAN: I know that, son. I know. And that's what we need to talk about. That's why it's finally time to show you something. Something I maybe should have shown you a long time ago.
CLARK: Where are we going, Pa?
The sun starts to set.
*****
Clark and Jonathan park the car and walk out into a field.
JONATHAN: We're going back in time, son. It's been eighteen years since your ma and me last came to this field. I've let it lay fallow ever since.
Clark looks around, slightly scared.
CLARK: This…this is the field you told me never to play in, when I was a little kid.
They come some sort of cellar, built into the ground. A large wooden door covering up a giant hole there.
JONATHAN: That's right. And I posted 'No Trespassing' signs all around, and put up the nastiest barbed wire fence I could find. All to hide this. Lift it away, son. You should be more than strong enough by now.
CLARK: But, Pa, what…?
Clark complies. The door is huge, and made of solid oak. Yet Clark lifted it with ease.
CLARK: Omigosh!
Inside was some sort of mechanical device. A strange metal, with markings of no known language all over it. At the center was a egg-shaped globe, opened, with alien machinery on the inside. It was a rocket ship…unlike anything ever seen on earth before.
Clark looked on in amazement. Not knowing what to say.
CLARK: P-pa? What is this?
JONATHAN: It's where you came from, son. It's where your ma and me found you.
Clark turns towards him, his face a mixture of shock and horror.
CLARK: 'Found me? You mean…I'm adopted???
JONATHAN: Something like that. Yes, 'adopted' is as good a word as any. I should have told you earlier. Should have told you years ago…
It all began late one night. A big winter storm was brewing, and your ma and me was fixing to close up the house against it. Then…
A younger Jonathan and Martha are closing up their house in preparation for a snowstorm. In the distance, a large blast is heard…and a streak of light fell from the sky.
Jonathan turned in that direction.
JONATHAN: What in tarnation?
MARTHA: Jonathan!
We drove out to this field, where the streak had seemed to hit, and we found…
The two of them approach the ship, which had made a small hole in the ground.
JONATHAN: Oh…my…
MARTHA: Jonathan…what in the world is it??
They move closer.
JONATHAN: It's some kind of little rocket! A sputnik, like the Russians…
Martha reaches out to touch it.
JONATHAN: Martha! Stay clear!
She peers at it, noticing something.
MARTHA: But…look, Jonathan! There's something inside! Something alive!
Jonathan touched it himself.
JONATHAN: Well, they've been sending dogs and monkeys up into orbit. This must be… That's funny… It's cool to the touch. I read they get awful hot when…
Suddenly, the metal started to flow, like liquid metal, until it opened up.
JONATHAN: It's opening!!!
Inside was what looked like a newborn child.
Martha picked it up out of the ship.
MARTHA: Oh! Ohhh, Jonathan! It's a baby!! Those…those monsters!! They put a poor little baby into a rocket ship! And then they shot him off to the moon or somewheres! What kind of people are they?
She wrapped him up in her jacket. Jonathan walked up to her.
JONATHAN: Now…you be careful, Martha! We don't know this baby came from earth! He could be some kind of…Martian!
MARTHA: Oh, now you hush, Jonathan Kent! You've been reading too many of those science-fiction magazines! He's as human as you or me.
She hugs the baby. And then begins to walk back towards the car.
MARTHA: And I'm going to make sure that whoever the monsters were who shot him up in that tin can…Well, they're never going to get their hands on him again!
Jonathan chases after her.
JONATHAN: MARTHA!
But it was already too late. She's a stubborn woman, your ma, and she'd decided right at the moment she first saw you that she was going to keep you. By the end of the drive home, I agreed.
And that was when mother nature herself clinched the bargain. We'd no sooner pulled into the yard than the grandfather of all blizzards slammed down. It was the worst storm of the century, and we didn't get back into Smallville for five months!
And when we did, why, Martha just plainly announced our new family member as our own natural child. We'd been trying for eight years to have a baby of our own…and after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, our friends were just thrilled as could be to meet little Clark Kent.
You seemed in every way to be the baby we'd so often prayed for. Beautiful, bright…perfect.
And when it came time to start school, you fit right in with the others…especially little Lana Lang. Seemed like you two were kindred spirits right from the go! Although, I guess you didn't think so at the time.
Everything went along just fine, until that day when you were eight, and you decided to take a short-cut across old man McCullogh's pasture.
I was driving by. I saw you. I also saw McCullogh's prize bull.
Cut to Young Clark, walking across the field. Suddenly, the bull began to race towards him. Clark didn't notice.
But there was no way to get to you before…
The bull stampeded right over him. Jonathan leapt out of his car and raced towards him.
I felt like I'd seen my own life end at that moment, Clark. I ran to where you'd fallen, fully expecting to find you all crushed and bloody, the way my big brother Harry had looked after he fell under my pa's thresher.
But instead…
Jonathan looks at Clark, who just sits up. His clothes are a little torn, but there is not a scratch on him. Jonathan looks at his son in shock.
CLARK: P-pa?
JONATHAN: Cl-clark?!!? You're…you're all right???
That was the first sign. I didn't tell your ma about it. Didn't know how to tell her. But your secret wasn't one that could be kept from her for long.
You couldn't be hurt. You got stronger and stronger. One day you even started to see through walls!
Cut to Clark, now 13. He looks at a blank wall, then turns to Martha.
CLARK: There's your purse, Ma. On the kitchen table.
Martha goes wide-eyed.
MARTHA: In…the next room?
Then came that day, late last summer. You were romping your way home with old Rusty…
Cut to Clark, now 18. He is running by the side of a chasm with his pet dog, Rusty.
CLARK: Come on, Boy! Catch me if you can!!!
Rusty jumps on him, causing Clark to step backwards. He steps over the edge of the chasm, but miraculously doesn't fall. He just hovers there, in mid-air.
Clark looks down, and realizes what he is doing.
Then he looks up, and shoots into the air like a missile.
CLARK: Holy cow!!! I CAN FLY!!!
JONATHAN: I'll never forget how you came swooping home, happier, I guess than anyone in the world had ever been.
Just then, it started to rain.
CLARK: But…why are you telling me all this, pa? I mean, most of it I know. Except about this rocket-ship…
Clark approaches the ship, curious.
CLARK: If that's what it is, how do we know, Pa? How can we know?
JONATHAN: Maybe we just weren't meant to know, son. Maybe we'll never know. And maybe it doesn't matter. Whatever this thing really is, wherever you came from, you're our son now. You're an American citizen…and that means you've got responsibilities!
Clark doesn't notice something stuck to the back to the rocket. It's a small green rock, which glows brighter the closer Clark gets to it.
Just then, Clark starts to get dizzy.
CLARK: I know that, pa. But I can't help…help…ohhhhhhhh…
Clark starts to collapse, and Jonathan rushes over to catch him.
JONATHAN: Clark! Clark! What is it, son? What's wrong?
CLARK: Don't…know… Just…feel so…weak…all of a sudden. So…dizzy…
Jonathan walks him back to the car.
JONATHAN: Come on, son. Let's get you back home. I should have told you all this more gently. Not even someone with your constitution can take so many shocks in one day!
They drive off. Not noticing someone, their face surrounded by shadows, watching them leave. But we'll leave that story for another day.
*****
Cut to the Kent farm. Jonathan and Clark pull up to the door, where Martha is waiting for them.
MARTHA: You told him?
JONATHAN: I told him.
CLARK: He told me.
They all walk inside. Clark goes over to Martha and hugs her.
MARTHA: Clark…honey, don't hate us for keeping this secret from you all these years…
CLARK: I don't' hate you, ma! I could never think badly of you or pa. He and I had a long talk on the way home.
Clark become serious.
CLARK: He's right to say he's disappointed in me. After all the times you and he have talked to me over the years, as each new power came along…You told me all those times that I should never use my special abilities to make myself better than other people…to make other people feel useless. But that's just what I've been doing.
Clark walks over to the window and looks outside.
CLARK: And…it's time to stop. It's time for me to face my responsibilities. I have to leave Smallville. I have to seek out the people and places that need somebody who can do the things I can do. But I have to do it in secret. The world mustn't ever know it's me. It must always seem like good luck, or nature.
He opens the door.
CLARK: So…tomorrow I'm heading out. Out into the world. But…before I go there's someone I have to see…
And with that, he leaves