Martha Kent, née Martha Clark, also known as Ma Kent, is a fictional character published by DC Comics. She is the foster mother of Superman, and the wife of Jonathan Kent (also known as "Pa Kent"). Martha lives with her husband in the small town of Smallville, USA. Martha is usually portrayed agewise as either late middle age or elderly. In comic books, first appearance refers to the date or issue of a characters first appearance. ... Superman is a fictional character and regarded as the most influential and popular superhero of DC Comics. ... Jerome (Jerry) Siegel (October 17, 1914 - January 28, 1996) was the co-creator of Superman, the first of the great comic book heroes and one of the most recognizable fictional characters from the 20th century. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Superman is a fictional character and regarded as the most influential and popular superhero of DC Comics. ... Superman and his secret identity Clark Kent being portrayed as distinct individuals. ... Jonathan Kent, also known as Pa Kent, is a fictional character published by DC Comics. ... Lois Lane is a fictional comic book character who appears in DC Comics’ Superman stories. ... Superboy is a superhero in the fictional DC Universe. ... Here are some examples of French words and phrases used by English speakers. ... A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. ... DC Comics (originally called Detective Comics, Inc. ... Foster may refer to: // People See Mark Foster (surname) Fictional characters Foster, Ellen Foster, Robert (protagonist in the adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky) Places Foster, Clark County, Wisconsin, USA Foster, Missouri, USA Foster, Nebraska, USA Foster, New South Wales, Australia Foster, Rhode Island, USA Foster, Victoria, Australia Other uses... Jonathan Kent, also known as Pa Kent, is a fictional character published by DC Comics. ... Smallville is a fictional town in the United States which Superboy protects and where most of his crime-fighting adventures take place. ... Middle age is a non-specific age when a person is not old, not young, but somewhere in the middle. ... Old age consists of ages nearing the average lifespan of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle. ...

In all versions of Superman's origin story, Jonathan and Martha Kent were the first to come across the rocket that brought the infant Kal-El to Earth, with their adopting him shortly thereafter, deciding to rename him Clark Kent---"Clark" having been Martha's maiden name. Superman, looking over Metropolis, his home, with the Daily Planet building in the background. ... Superman and his secret identity Clark Kent being portrayed as distinct individuals. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup. ...

Martha Kent is usually portrayed as a kind and caring parent, who helped to instill within Clark a strong sense of morals. She is also the one who originally created Clark's superhero costume.

Martha's most frequently associated catchphrase is "land's sakes!" A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ...

Before the 1985-1986 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, Martha Kent (and her husband) died after Clark graduated from high school; in the current comics continuity, Martha is still alive when Clark is an adult. The limited series is a term referring to a comic book series with a set finite number of issues. ... Crisis on Infinite Earths was a twelve-issue comic book limited series (identified as a 12 part maxi-series) and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 in order to simplify their fifty-year-old continuity. ... High school - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

History

Golden and Silver Age versions

While a "passing motorist" was described as having found the infant Kal-El (or "Kal-L" as the earliest comics stated his Kryptonian name) in Superman's first appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938, Superman #1 in 1939 is the first story to introduce Superman's adoptive parents to the mythos, with "Mary Kent" being the only parent given a name. Ma Kent's first name remained in an uncertain state during the 1940s; a 1942 Superman novel named Ma "Sarah Kent" (this name was also used in the Adventures of Superman television series) while the first extensive retelling of Superman's origins in Superman #53 in 1948 named Ma "Mary Kent." In the early 1950s, however, Ma's name was definitively given as being "Martha Kent," and has been as such ever since. This article is about Krypton, the fictional planet which was the birthplace of the comic book superhero Superman. ... Adventures of Superman is a series produced by DC Comics. ...

Later stories, after the early 1960s introduction of DC's multiverse system, declared that the earliest versions of Ma was named "Mary Kent" and lived on the world of "Earth-Two" (home of the Golden Age DC superheroes), while the more familiar Martha Kent lived on the mainstream world of "Earth-One" (home of the Silver Age DC superheroes). In DC Comics, the Multiverse is a continuity construct in which multiple fictional versions of the universe exist in the same space, separated from each other by their vibrational resonances. ... Superman, the catalyst of the Golden Age, from Superman #14, January-February 1942. ... Showcase #4 (September-October 1956), often thought the first appearance of the first Silver Age superhero, the Barry Allen Flash. ...

Martha and Jonathan Kent, as they appeared in comics during the 1970s and 1980s. From New Adventures of Superboy #1, January 1980. Art by Kurt Schaffenberger.

Ma made few appearances in Superman stories until the introduction of the Superboy comic in 1949. In this series, Ma Kent made a lasting mark, being a regular supporting character of the teenaged superhero. Image File history File links Kents_silverage_young. ... Image File history File links Kents_silverage_young. ... Kurt Schaffenberger (December 15, 1920-January 24, 2002) was an American comic book artist. ... Superboy is the name of several DC Comics superheroes, all of them youthful incarnations of Superman. ...

The Superboy stories established Martha's backstory, stating she married Jonathan years ago, and became a farmer on a farm just outside of Smallville. After Martha and Jonathan found the toddler Kal-El in his rocket, they took him to the Smallville Orphanage and, several days later, formally adopted him. Renaming him "Clark," Martha and Jonathan took him back to their farm to raise him; there, they soon discovered that Clark possessed a fantastic array of superpowers (gained, as Martha learned years later, from exposure to Earth's yellow sun and its lower gravity). In narratology, a back-story (also back story or backstory) is the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. ... Farmer spreading grasshopper bait in his alfalfa field. ... Bales of hay on a farm near Ames, Iowa A farm is the basic unit in agriculture. ... An orphanage is an institution dedicated to caring for orphans (children who have lost their parents). ... The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system. ... Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ...

Around the time Clark started school, Ma and Pa sold their farm, and the family moved into Smallville where the Kents opened a general store. A general store is usually a retailer located in a small town or in a rural area with a broad selection of merchandise crammed into a relatively small space. ...

At the age of eight, Clark began a superhero career as Superboy, with Martha creating Superboy's costume (out of the blankets inside the rocket that brought him to Earth---which she had originally used to create a playsuit when Clark was a preschooler). Martha continued to assist her adopted son on his various adventures as Superboy over the years. A nursery school is a school for the education of very young children (generally five years of age and younger). ...

In Superboy (volume 1) #145 (March 1968), Martha and Jonathan Kent were rejuvenated physically into appearing younger, due to the influence of an alien serum. Martha and Jonathan continued to be drawn as late middle-aged, versus elderly, in appearance until Superman's 1986 origin reboot.

After Clark graduated from high school, Jonathan and Martha took a vacation to the Caribbean Islands, where they contracted a fatal and rare tropical disease after handling materials from a pirate's treasure chest they had exhumed; despite Superboy's best efforts, they both died. After his parents' passing, Clark mourned his parents' loss, before eventually moving to Metropolis to attend college. This is a list of inhabited islands in the Caribbean. ... Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Metropolis is a fictional city that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. ...

Modern Age versions

The Man of Steel

Martha Kent, Superman, and Jonathan Kent. Art by Jim Lee.

After comics writer John Byrne rewrote Superman's origin in his 1986 six-issue Man of Steel limited series, one of the key changes he made was in keeping Jonathan and Martha Kent alive into Clark's adulthood. Martha still had a similar role as in the earlier stories, however, of instilling within Clark the morals needed to become a strong figure. Image File history File links Ma_PaKent01. ... Image File history File links Ma_PaKent01. ... Superman is a fictional character and regarded as the most influential and popular superhero of DC Comics. ... Jonathan Kent, also known as Pa Kent, is a fictional character published by DC Comics. ... Lees depiction of DC Comics Batman. ... John Byrne. ... Man of Steel may refer to: The Man of Steel, a common nickname for Superman Joseph Stalins last name, roughly translated into English This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The limited series is a term referring to a comic book series with a set finite number of issues. ...

In this version of events, after Kal-El's "birthing matrix" landed on Earth, Jonathan and Martha found a newborn-aged infant inside. Taking the infant in just before a major snowstorm struck (that buried Smallville in snow for some number of months and cut off outsiders' access to the Kent family farm), the couple decided to pass the infant off as their own natural child, naming him "Clark."

Clark's powers slowly developed over time in this version, with all of his powers fully emerging once he reached his late teen years. After Clark's high school graduation, Martha and Jonathan told Clark about his extraterrestrial origins, after which Clark soon left Smallville to explore the outside world. When Clark eventually settled in Metropolis, Martha had a hand in helping Clark create a superhero identity as Superman. Extraterrestrial, as an adjective, refers to something that originates, occurs, or is located outside Earth or its atmosphere. ...

Another change in this version was that Martha remained a farmer through Clark's adult years, though an early 2000's comic storyline featured the Kents having opened a general store in Smallville.

Martha's post-Crisis history was more fully fleshed out in the late 1980s miniseries The World of Smallville. Crisis on Infinite Earths was a twelve-issue comic book limited series (identified as a 12 part maxi-series) and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 in order to simplify their fifty-year-old continuity. ...

Birthright

Martha's character was slightly altered in 2003 when Mark Waid penned the limited series Superman: Birthright which revised Superman's origins yet again and represents the current official canon, despite not being widely advertised at the time as a definitively canonical reboot.[1] In this latest version, Martha is portrayed as having largely the same personality but is shown to be much younger at the time of Clark adopting his Superman Identity, appearing barely middle-aged.

The younger, most recent versions of the Kents from Superman: Birthright.

Her appearance is also tailored to more closely resemble a slightly older version of actress Annette O'Toole who portrays Martha in the Smallville television series (many of the continuity changes in Birthright were designed to bring the comics' Superman origin closer to that depicted in Smallville.). Although now shown wearing glasses, her red bangs are still present (as is Jonathan's blonde hair) in current depictions set an undefined number of years after the events of Birthright, suggesting that this version of the couple are still far from elderly in the present day (or that they both colour their hair). This "Post-Birthright" Martha Kent is additionally somewhat sassier and more at odds with her husband over how Clark should live than previous comic incarnations. Indeed, in this version Jonathan has little to do with the creation of Clark's superman identity, and thus Martha plays a more prominent role in this regard. She is also far more technologically savvy than ever before, communicating with Clark via encrypted email as he travels around the world. Image File history File links KentsInBirthright. ... Image File history File links KentsInBirthright. ... Promotional photo from www. ... Smallville is an American television series that debuted in 2001 on the WB Television Network. ...

Whether the reality-shattering events of Infinite Crisis will alter this version of Martha Kent any further is as yet unknown. Cover to Infinite Crisis #1. ...

In other media

Glenn Ford as Jonathan Kent with Phyllis Thaxter as Martha in Superman: The Movie (1978)

• Virginia Carroll was the first actress to portray Martha Kent. She appeared in the 1948 Superman serial starring Kirk Alyn.

• Frances Morris played Ma Kent in the pilot for the 1950s The Adventures of Superman television series (as Sarah Kent).

• Phyllis Thaxter played Martha in 1978's Superman: The Movie.

• Salome Jens played Martha on the 1980s television series Superboy.

• K Callan played Martha on the 1990s television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The series portrayed Martha as a lively sixtysomething, interested in all sorts of creative and self-improving pursuits. Among the activities this version of Martha pursued included taking classes at the local university extension, trying yoga, and once posing for a nude study by an artist friend, leading Jonathan to think she was having an affair.

• Ma Kent made occasional appearances in the 1990s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series. Shelley Fabares provided Martha's voice on the series.

• On the 2000s television series Smallville, Martha is played by Annette O'Toole, who played Lana Lang on Superman III.

• In the 2006 movie Superman Returns, Martha Kent was portrayed by Eva Marie Saint.

Image File history File links Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) in Superman: The Movie (1978) This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Image File history File links Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) in Superman: The Movie (1978) This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Glenn Ford Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford (born May 1, 1916), better known by his stage name Glenn Ford, is an actor. ... Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) in Superman: The Movie (1978) Movie actress Phyllis Thaxter (born Phyllis St. ... Serial is a term, originating in literature, for a format by which a story is told in contiguous installments in sequential issues of a single periodical publication. ... Kirk Alyn (October 8, 1910 - March 14, 1999) was an American actor. ... The cast of The Adventures of Superman from 1953 to 1957. ... Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) in Superman: The Movie (1978) Movie actress Phyllis Thaxter (born Phyllis St. ... Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel, Superman Superman, also known as Superman: The Movie, is a 1978 Warner Bros. ... Salome Jens (born May 8, 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an actress best-known for portraying the Female Shapeshifter on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ... Superboy was a half-hour, live-action TV series based on the fictional DC Comics character. ... K Callan (born Katherine Borman January 9, 1942 in Dallas, Texas, USA) is an actor best known for starring in the films The Unborn (1991) and Joe (1970). ... Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was a live-action television series based on the Superman comic books. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Superman: The Animated Series is the unofficial title given to Warner Bros. ... Shelley Fabares (born January 19, 1944) is an American actress and singer. ... Smallville is an American television series that debuted in 2001 on the WB Television Network. ... Promotional photo from www. ... Lana Lang is a supporting character in DC Comics Superman series. ... Superman III is a 1983 movie that was the third of five movies based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero produced in the late 1970s-early 1980s (and later in the 2000s). ... Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character, Superman. ... Marie Saint in North by Northwest. ...

External links

• A pre-Crisis biography on Ma and Pa Kent
• Supermanica: Jonathan & Martha Kent Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Jonathan & Martha Kent