Krypton, a highly advanced alien planet, was facing imminent destruction due to its unstable core.
Recognizing the impending catastrophe, Jor-El, a brilliant scientist, devised a plan to save his son (Kal-El) and ensure the survival of the Kryptonian race.
Jor-El constructed a small spacecraft to transport Kal-El to a new home on Earth.
The spacecraft was designed to withstand the rigors of space travel and protect the infant during the journey.
Before launching the spacecraft, Jor-El and Lara placed a data crystal containing knowledge about Kryptonian culture, history, and technology inside it.
This was done to preserve their heritage and provide Kal-El with a connection to his origins.
As Krypton faced its final moments, Jor-El launched the spacecraft into space, aiming it towards the distant planet Earth.
Eventually, the spacecraft crash-landed in a rural area of Smallville, Kansas, in the United States.
The impact of the landing was softened by the spacecraft's advanced technology, ensuring the infant's survival.
The Kent family, Jonathan and Martha Kent, discover the crashed spacecraft and find the infant inside.
Martha and Jonathan Kent were on their way home, back to their farm after having just visited the hospital.
The pair was told that they would be unable to conceive a child of their own.
Martha is somberly looking out the truck window when suddenly, through the side-view mirror, she sees a meteor coming closer and closer.
The pair let out a scream as a ball of fire quickly shoots past their car forcing them off the road.
Jonathan stops to ask Martha if she's okay, then they proceed to step out of the truck and investigate the explosion.
Lost in the smoke Martha wanders off until she sees it.
There in the middle of a small pond was a spacecraft, burning hot it was emanating smoke.
The craft pops open much to Martha's surprise, but not as surprised as she was to find what was in it.
It was a baby.
An infant that barely looked a couple of weeks old.
Cautiously, Martha picks the baby up and makes her way to Jonathan who is calling for her.
At the sight of the baby Jonathan is adamant they leave him and get out of there, however Martha has already grown attached and unable to convince her otherwise they take the baby home.
After a few days Jonathan returns back to the crash site and finds the ship still there.
With much effort he manages to take the ship and conceal it in his barn.
He only returned for it after recognizing the child's extraordinary abilities, due to Earth's lower gravity and yellow sun.
Jonathan and Martha decided to adopt the baby and raise him as their own son, giving him the name Clark Kent.
For most of his childhood Clark struggled with attempting to conceal his powers.
From covering his eyes and ear to holding back against bullies, there were times when he couldn't escape the deathining noises and flashing light causing him to see things that would scare him.
With his parents' support he learns to control his powers.
Upon witnessing Clark's abilities, Jonathan and Martha initially keep his powers a secret, understanding the potential consequences of revealing them to the world.
They take it upon themselves to guide and teach Clark about his powers, emphasizing the importance of using them responsibly.
The closest the family ever came to having Clark's abilities revealed was an incident that happened in his teenage years.
It was a day like any other with Clark waiting for the school-bus home alongside his friends Pete and Lana.
Suddenly somewhere near them a car with a family inside hits a bus and goes crashing into a gas station.
Everyone sees this and are shocked, except for Clark who almost caught the event happening in slow-motion.
His sense of responsibility outweighs the fear of being discovered and without his friends noticing he runs into the fire and pulls the family out.
He goes back a second time however, after hearing a little girl's cries.
The car explodes much to the families horror until Clark emerges from the flames with both him and the girl unharmed.
Many questions were asked by all; the surrounding people, the police and even his friends (who wondered how he got to the explosion so fast).
His parents had to convince everyone they were mistaken.
This was also the day he discovered his origins as an alien.
Jonathan takes him out back to where the ship was hidden and explained; "We never showed you this, son. I guess we didn't know how to explain it. Still don't. This is how we found you. This was in that chamber with you" Jonathan says as he hands over a small artifact to Clark.
"I took it to a metallurgist at Kansas State. He said whatever it was made from didn't even, didn't even exist on the periodic table. That's another way of saying that it's not from this world, Clark. And neither are you".
Clark is dumbfounded, he doesn't know what to say.
Jonathan makes his way towards Clark and embraces him.
"Can't I just keep pretending I'm your son?" Clark asks.
"You are my son" Jonathan says, "But somewhere out there you have another father too, who gave you another name. And he sent you here for a reason, Clark. And even if it takes you the rest of your life, you owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is".
These words stick close to Clark and are what inspire him to travel the world in search for answers after his fathers death.
After Jonathan Kent died, Clark was numb.
Everything he was, he owed to his family, and to have half of that family ripped from him so early was a shock.
A heart attack, probably one of the most, if not the most, common causes of death in the world.
And something that despite all his power he couldn't fix.
He was devastated, lost, angry, but most of all he was lost.
His father passing away had never crossed his mind and he didn't know if he could've done more to save him.
Not for the first time he was plagued with doubts.
He didn't want to be different and he didn't like not knowing what he was.
After this passing he has never felt so alone with his doubts.
His mother was the one who shook him out of his depression and was the reason he left in search of answers.
Martha Kent was a strong woman; and a very scary mother when she needed to be.
She told Clark, not too gently, that he had a choice: he could stay there, depressed and whining about all his questions in life or he could get up and do something about it.
Clark took her advice and searched for years, learning everything he could, training his abilities and searching for answers.
Surprisingly, he ended up learning more about his own morals than anything else, at least in the beginning.
He found out that he liked to help people and so he did, as often as he could.
Clark finally found answers when he came across an alien ship on Ellesmere Island.
The weather was cold; it was basically the arctic, though Clark would barely notice.
He was surprised to see, however, what appeared to be a military base set up in the area.
Clark sneaks his way around the base, eventually coming across the main computer, seeing that the mystery object is actually buried in the ice.
He realizes that he could use his heat vision to make his way through the ice and decides to wait until nightfall to go unnoticed.
Come nightfall Clark makes his way up the side of the mountain and begins to burn through the ice with his heat vision.
As he made his way through the ice a smile came across his face when the alien artifact he was carrying had a reaction, as if to tell him he's going in the right direction.
Unknown to Clark, Jane Foster and her assistant Darcy Lewis were outside studying the stars with their telescope when Darcy spotted what appeared to be a man casually walking up the side of the mountain.
Jane and Darcy tried to follow the man as quickly and as quietly as they could, which proved to be harder than they thought.
On the upside, the howling wind made it difficult to hear, so the guy probably wouldn't hear them, Darcy thought.
It wasn't easy, holding to the frozen rocks, trying not to fall to their deaths in the raging sea, but they managed.
They were shocked to see the 20,000 year old wall of ice wasn't as impenetrable as they thought.
There was a tunnel going into it. Both of them stopped to look at it, going as far as to forget the cold for a minute.
Jane was stunned.
There was simply no way that Shield had dug that tunnel in such a short amount of time, at least not without some serious equipment to do so on the side of a very high cliff.
"What the hell?!" exclaimed Darcy, conveying exactly what Jane was thinking.
She touched the walls of the tunnel. "It looks like it was melted" she added.
It did. But by what? A laser?
What kind of laser could melt a wall of ice that thick? And with that kind of precision, without making a sound?
Jane's scientist mind was working overtime trying to make sense of this.
Darcy on the other hand was much more practical, simply walking inside the tunnel.
She felt like she was in the depths of the sea walking under all that ice.
There was no wind there and the sound was muffled. The light of the flashlights glowed against the walls.
It was like another world entirely.
And that's when they saw it: their mystery object.
An alien ship, in all its glory.
Even Darcy stopped moving for a second, while they tried to take in the view.
The ship was huge, encrusted into the ice, like a sculpted mountain of metal, beautiful and at the same time clearly not from Earth.
In silence they walked towards it, eyes wide until they found an entrance.
The inside of the ship was maybe even more impressive.
Surrounded by the alien metal, both of them followed the corridors, the weak lights doing little to stop them from looking around, both trying to make sense of that weird environment.
Until they crossed an open door and saw an odd floating robot.
The robot didn't move as they approached, just kept itself floating in the air.
They looked at each other, smiling, amazed by what they were seeing.
Darcy fumbles through her thick clothes and pulls out her cellphone, pointing it at the robot. "Say 'cheese'!" Darcy said, grinning.
Jane's own smile quickly began to disappear when the robot seemed to open and started vibrating, like an angry wasp.
"Darcy, no!" she yelled, pushing her friend to the side just at the moment the robot lashed a strange metal whip at her.
It missed Darcy, but hit Jane in the stomach, throwing her in the air, until she hit up against the wall.
It hurt so much that she could barely breathe, but adrenaline was running through her veins as she tried to get away.
Darcy ran to her, putting herself between her and the robot with a ridiculous taser in her hand.
And then he was there.
The man they were following.
Even in pain and as panicked as she was, Jane couldn't keep herself from watching as Clark grabbed the robot and crushed it with his bare hands, sinking his fingers into the metal and then pulling it apart.
She heard as the metal was torn apart, the sound echoing across the narrow corridors.
Clark gave the robot a last look, probably assessing if it was still a threat, and then looked at the girls.
"Don't even think about it, pal!" Darcy warned him, her hand and taser shaking, as if it would actually do anything.
Clark simply raised his hands, a universal sign that he didn't want to fight, and started walking closer to them.
"It's alright" he said, his voice calm. "It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you".
Jane was trying to keep herself from passing out and Darcy was shaking like a leaf, but neither of them did anything.
Clark crouched over Jane, ignoring the taser right in front of him.
He moved slowly, making sure not to startle them and opened Jane's coat.
He sighed and looked at her.
"You are hemorrhaging internally. Now, if I don't cauterize this bleed" he said, giving her a look of seriousness.
"How!?" Jane questioned.
"I can do things that other people can't," he answered and offered her his hand.
"Now, hold my hand. This is gonna hurt" he answered as he looked down and his eyes began to glow red.
The heat from his eyes cauterized Jane's bleeding and she let out a scream until she passed out.
The room was quiet for a minute until Darcy asked, "Uhm, excuse me, sir. Can I ask you a question?".
"Let me guess, what am I, right?" Clark responded.
"Exactly! I mean, you're from Earth, right? Are you Asgardian?", she asked.
"Asgardian?" Clark questioned.
"Hey, so, you seem like a nice guy", Darcy interrupts.
"Would you like to grab a coffee sometime or something?" Clark glares at Darcy, surprised that she would ask him out at a time like this.
"What, it worked for Jane" continued Darcy.
"Thanks for the offer, maybe some other time".
And then, before she knew it she and Jane were both suddenly back in their tent and he was gone.
It wasn't long after that, a tremor started shaking the entire base and the alien ship came straight out of the ice.
Darcy and all the other agents in the base could only look in awe as the ship flew off into the sky.
Days later the pair would be questioned by SHIELD over the events that happened that day.
SHIELD has been on extra high alert about anything concerning aliens ever since the incident in New York, where actual aliens attacked the city.
It was only because of the actions of The Avengers that they saved what could have been the beginning of the end.
Natasha Romanoff walks quickly through the corridors of The Triskelion (SHIELD's headquarters in Washington, D.C).
As quickly as she walked, though, the people who crossed her path moved even quicker out of her way.
Natasha was an intimidating woman.
There were several factors that contributed to it, like her confidence, her phenomenal good looks, her immense sharpness, her no-nonsense attitude and her Avengers membership.
Her ability to kill any person, armed or unarmed, trained or untrained, using any kind of weapon or simply her bare hands probably was a factor too.
She stopped in front of a door and knocked, entering soon after without waiting for permission.
"You called?" she asked.
Nick Fury didn't even turn his chair.
"I have a job for you" he said, still looking through the big window of his office.
Fury's office was a beautiful room, modestly furnished, bright and with a lot of space.
There were screens on the wall in front of his desk and, behind it, a striking view of the city.
Natasha walked with the sureness of someone who had been there several times and sat on a chair by Fury's desk.
"I do hope it's better than the last one. They can't all be alien invasions, can they?" she said, making herself comfortable on the leather chair.
Nick gave her a little smile much to Natashas shock.
"Don't tell me" Natasha said, already dreading what Fury would say.
Fury turned one of his monitors so she could see it.
"Three and a half months ago, the Canadian army found something buried in thick ice in Ellesmere Island. They didn't have the equipment necessary to know what exactly it was, so they made a joint operation with the American army to find out what they could" explains Fury.
"We didn't send anyone with them?" Natasha asked, her eyes on the screen.
"Of course we did, just not officially. A previous associate of ours was invited because of her expertise: Dr. Jane Foster and, of course, her 'assistant' Darcy Lewis. As I understand, they tried to contact Erik Selvig, but as you probably know, he is still being treated himself because of the number Loki did on his mind" says Fury.
Natasha liked where this was going less and less.
"What could an astrophysicist know about an object trapped in ice?" she asked, already guessing the answer.
Fury didn't disappoint her.
"It wasn't about where the object was at the moment, but where it was 20,000 years ago: not on this planet" he said.
Natasha curses in Russian.
"Yes, that was exactly what I said too, only in English!" Fury replied, laughing ironically.
"But wait, it gets even better. One day after Dr. Foster arrived, there was a huge tremor. The specialists would have thought it was an earthquake, if not for the fact that several lights turned on beneath the ice and, suddenly, an alien spaceship rose to the sky and flew off" Fury tells Natasha.
Her eyes closed for a moment as she refrained from cursing again.
"They lost an alien ship?" she asked, her voice perfectly calm.
"They did," confirmed Fury.
"They weren't exactly equipped to chase it and the ship simply doesn't show on any of our sensors. It either buried itself back on ice or…".
"Or its technology is too advanced to be noticed by ours" she completed his sentence.
"Precisely. We have no idea where this thing is" Fury tilted his head and continued; "but at least it isn't killing people. Nobody there died, the ship just took off".
Natasha studied the screen again, seeing the grainy images of the ship.
"What's the other lead you have then?" she asked, knowing she was there for a reason.
Fury smiled.
"A testimony from our Norse God's old friend, Darcy Lewis. I can't even begin to quote her from memory, so let me just show it to you" Fury said as he played a video of Darcy.
"He totally saved our lives when the killer robot attacked and almost killed Jane! He came out of nowhere and ripped the thing in two with his bare hands!" the recording of Darcy told.
"What did he look like? Wow, where do I start? He was a dark haired blue eyed hunk of a man and I wanted to bite him! I told Jane that I have dibs on this one, she can't just get all the good looking aliens for herself. How do I know he is an alien? That's a stupid question. He operated on Jane with laser eyes!".
The recording ends and Fury turns to Natasha who was taking it all in.
"So, an alien that looks like a human with dark hair and blue eyes, is strong and has laser eyes stole the ship." she stated.
"Well it's a lead. Though I probably should speak to them myself, they might know more" continues Natasha.
Fury nodded and suddenly looked very serious.
"We need to find this man, Romanoff. We have an alien with unknown strength and motivations who is in possession of an alien ship inside our planet. If we don't deal with this swiftly, it could turn into another Incident" he said.
Natasha got up.
"I can't believe they are calling it 'The Incident'. I was there, I remember it being a little more than an 'incident'" she said, looking at Fury.
"And I have no intention of letting something like that happen again," he replied.
Natasha Romanoff sat in silence as she digested the story they told her, trying to look past all the amazing things and analyze the details.
She looked at Jane and asked; "May I?". Jane nodded, understanding, and lifted her shirt.
There it was, the burned mark of the cauterized wound, proof of the story they just told her.
"He saved my life, but damn if that didn't hurt" Jane said, letting the shirt fall back down.
"Scared the crap out of me. I really thought we were done for" added Darcy, sounding serious for once.
"So what happened then?" Natasha asked.
"And then, he just looked at me, told me Jane was going to be fine, picked both up and before I could even say anything we were suddenly back in our tents. All I saw was a blur, and suddenly we were back to our tent and he was gone. It wasn't long until the tremor started and the ship flew off" said Darcy.
Natasha stayed in silence once again, contemplating everything she had learned, trying to form a clear picture of the man she was chasing.
So far all she had were physical attributes: appearance, strength, speed, the ability to shoot fire from his eyes.
But now, perhaps, she had just learned something new.
She had learned that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't a bad guy at all.
He had no reason to save their lives.
If he was an alien, which was pretty much confirmed, and was stealing an alien ship from under the nose of Shield, why would he risk himself by leaving witnesses?
Why would he save both women that had seen his face, that could give the army clues as to who he was?
If he just left them there, Natasha doubted she would have enough clues to even start this investigation.
But he didn't and instead chose to save them.
This told Natasha that he had a conscience.
Maybe that was something she could use, she thought to herself.
Natasha got up from her chair. "Thank you for your help. I believe you've given me something to go on" she said.
With that, she said her goodbyes and turned to leave but then she stopped as she remembered something and looked at Jane.
"Jane, I may not have known Thor for a long time, but I fought by his side. Even then, when his own brother was attacking Earth, he managed to tell us a little bit about you. So I can tell, with absolute certainty, that if he isn't here by your side it's because he can't be. He loves you. Never think otherwise" said Natashsa.
Now with her good deed of the year done, Natasha left; she had an alien to find.
Back aboard the alien ship, a holographic projection of Clark's biological father Jor-El appeared and revealed to him his origins as Kal-El and the purpose of why he was sent to Earth.
Jor-El informed his son that he had to begin testing the limitations of his powers and that he could be a symbol of hope for his adopted planet and lead it to glory and not into decay like Krypton.
Jor-El then showed Clark a native Kryptonian Garment which he proudly donned.
Stepping outside in his solitude, Clark began trying to fly, leaping kilometers at a time several times before heeding Jor-El's words and finally taking flight.
When Clark finally returned to Smallville, he did so with a sense of accomplishment.
He had done what he set out to do and seeing the knowing smile of his mother when he hugged her made it all worth it.
Martha smiled as if she knew, all along, that he would succeed. The only one who needed proof was him, apparently.
He spent a couple of months in Smallville after coming back, telling his mother everything he'd learned and seen, about his experiences and his past, about his biological family and his people.
He was happy, his mother was happy and for the first time since the passing of Jonathan Kent, Clark felt he could finally move on.
His moving on brought him to New York, to hopefully begin a successful career in journalism.
But first Clark needed to find a place to live.
There was probably only one place someone with no job, no family money and limited savings could afford to live.
The neighborhood that was almost wiped off the map during The Incident, Hell's Kitchen.
Walking through the streets of Hell's Kitchen, Clark could understand why the prices were so sympathetic to his pockets.
The place had been hit the hardest during the Battle of New York.
Everywhere he looked there were signs of the fight.
Destroyed buildings, debris still on the sidewalks and giant cranes making repairs.
The Avengers had saved the world, but the aliens had taken a piece of it before throwing the towel; that piece was Hell's Kitchen. Clark felt his mood dampen a little bit.
An alien invasion. An honest to god alien invasion had happened and he wasn't anywhere near, instead he was traveling through some barren desert looking for answers to his origins.
An alien invasion had happened while he was elsewhere looking for clues about aliens.
If it wasn't so tragic, the irony would have made him laugh. Well, that wouldn't happen again, Clark promised himself. Especially now that he had actually learned how to fly.
Shaking off his bad mood, Clark began to hasten his steps.
He was going to meet the real estate agent that had rented the place to him, and it wouldn't be very gentlemanly of him to keep a lady waiting, especially in this dangerous neighborhood.
Susan Harris (the real estate agent) was tapping her foot, impatiently.
It was bad enough to be in this part of town for any amount of time, surrounded by the unsavory elements and the ruined landscape, but to be here waiting indefinitely was cause for worry.
The damage to Hell's Kitchen was astronomical.
Several people lost their homes, the buildings that were left standing were in poor condition, water and energy were cut off and businesses had to close their doors.
Because of that, the prices had dropped tremendously.
Nobody wanted to stay there. Nobody that had options wanted to move there. Supply and demand.
Things would get better in time, she hoped, with how much work and money Union Allied Construction was pouring there, but for now, prices were low.
Which brought Susan to her current predicament: waiting for a client that was probably dirt poor, she could only hope he would arrive before she was mugged.
It wasn't such an absurd possibility. Susan Harris stuck like a sore thumb. Blonde, beautiful, dressed in a form fitting white dress and black high heels.
Given the rising numbers of violence and assaults since The Incident, she wasn't exactly crazy for being worried.
"Susan Harris?" asked someone from behind her.
"Finally" she muttered, turning to speak with Clark, an irritated look on her face.
As soon as she turned her angry frown disappeared, replaced by wide eyes.
She was not expecting this, Susan had to admit. She found Clark extremely attractive.
Clark cleared his throat when the silence extended.
"Mrs. Harris, I'm so sorry for being late. I guess I overestimated my sense of direction" Clark said, sheepishly.
The sound of his voice snapped Susan back to reality; her cheeks were a bit rosy now.
"Not at all, Mr. Kent, I wasn't here for long anyway" she said, suddenly cheerful.
She extended her hand; "And it's Miss" she added unconsciously.
The two shake hands and make their way in the apartment.
Strong hands, Susan thought, holding on a little more than what was socially acceptable.
"So, this is the place?" said Clark, since apparently Susan's mind was elsewhere.
"Yes!" she confirmed quickly.
For a few seconds, Clark didn't say anything, instead taking in the terrible state of the apartment.
"Don't let yourself be fooled by the plain look of the room. Regardless of how it looks on the outside, it's very well placed. There are several good restaurants here, the subway is a few blocks that way, and at night there are a few good bars around, if you like that sort of thing" Susan said, knowing that the condition of the apartment was poor.
She crossed her arm with Clark's and guided him around the room.
"There aren't a lot of occupied apartments in the building, but you will share your floor with 2 others" she said, as Clark looked around.
Looking back at the door they catch one of the residents leaving her apartment.
"There, that is one of your neighbors," Susan said, pointing at the woman.
She had black hair, very white skin and was wearing a black leather jacket and old jeans; her face, however, couldn't exactly be described as anything close to welcoming (her name was Jessica Jones).
Susan tried to call out 'hello' but the woman just flipped her off and yelled out; "fuck off!", walking past the open door and entering the elevator.
Susan just shared her nervous look with Clark.
God damn these people, if Clark hadn't already made a deposit, he would probably make a run for it.
This building was terrible and it was apparently full of aggressive nutjobs, Susan thought.
She tried to apologize to Clark, but he didn't let it affect him.
"I know that I can't expect much with a budget like mine. You don't have to apologize, Miss Harris, you did the best you could and I'm happy" says Clark.
Susan could have cried right then and there.
He was probably the nicest person she ever met.
"Well, Clark, if you are satisfied, so am I. Here are your keys" she said, handing him the keys.
"But I must say, if there is any problem, at all, give me a call and I'll see what I can do. Okay?" she added.
"I promise. And thank you, Miss Harris" says Clark.
She hesitated before leaving, then added; "and, you know, if you need someone to show you around, give me a call too" she said flirtatiously.
Clark was a little bit shocked; he definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore, he thought.
Now with this matter settled, Clark was going out and, hopefully, when he got back he would be employed.
He took the list from his pocket where he had written the names and addresses of the main newspapers of New York, opened the door, and left.