Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Help Support the Channel: patreon.com/ZCInfinity
Let's take a look through DC Comics' first alternate universe series Imaginary Stories, and discover the What Ifs of the Comic Silver Age!
Transcript:
My Father Superman. On a whim, Superman uses his computer simulator to answer what if Krypton had been destroyed before he was even born. He sees two young scientists being laughed out of a meeting for their world-ending theories, realizing one of them is his grandfather Jor-El senior. His friend Lor-Van talks him out of revealing his findings to the world, suggesting it'll just cause widespread panic and the planet will end regardless. But he does take Jor-El to a secret base, where he reveals he's been studying the spacecraft of the long-extinct Krull empire. They hurriedly reverse engineer the ship until it's capable of carrying the two men and their families, but right at launch time, they're accosted by the police who try to arrest them for possessing illegal technology. With no time to spare, they launch the spacecraft containing a child from both families, right as a giant comet shatters Krypton. The ship carries the two children to Earth, where it crashes into Smallville a generation before Superman would have landed, and the nearby couple of Clark's adoptive grandparents on his mother Martha's side gladly adopt the young girl, while they hand the boy off to be adopted by his father Jonathan's parents. An observing Superman realizes they're his future parents Jor-El and Lana, and, overwhelmed by the fact his parents survived in this timeline, decides to take a rest to recover. In the next issue, he resumes his inquiry and is shocked to see that in 1930s Smallville, it's his mother, not his father, who steps up and becomes the hero Supergirl, defending the town from gangsters. As the cops come to arrest the gang, Jonathan and his adoptive brother Jack happen to arrive, where Jonathan asks Supergirl to the town dance on the shy Jack's behalf. Who of course is actually the naturalized Jor-El, Supergirl teasing him by saying he already has a girlfriend in Laura Clark, her secret identity, before flying off. She returns home and changes back to Laura, where she laments to her family that Jack only loves her as Supergirl, her parents finally revealing her origin to her, and that they think Jack is actually her brother. Superman watches and accepts their logic, but is horrified as that means they'd never get together and produce him. He sees Jack creating a rain-making formula, when Supergirl interrupts his experiment, asking if he can test if two people really are brother and sister. After he confirms, she tells him of their mysterious past, before providing a sample of her skin cells, Jack finding that, indeed, they're not related. Supergirl takes her leave, but not before dropping a not-so-subtle clue about her identity that Jack finally catches onto. And it ends with Superman overjoyed that his parents would have met up in any reality. I don't know. I want to say I like this one. It's not a bad idea showing Superman's parents being raised on Earth a generation before Superman would have been, and I like that his mother wears the cape in this relationship, but it doesn't do enough with the idea. I would have loved to see this Supergirl's rogues gallery, or at least Jack and Laura growing up, finding careers, and getting married, eventually producing Clark. Instead, most of what we get is just an AI-generated answer to Clark wanting to know if the universe would always force his parents together. As with the last stories, I really like the concept, I just wish there was more to it. And yes, we will eventually talk about the Super-Sons saga.
Help Support the Channel: patreon.com/ZCInfinity
Let's take a look through DC Comics' first alternate universe series Imaginary Stories, and discover the What Ifs of the Comic Silver Age!
Transcript:
My Father Superman. On a whim, Superman uses his computer simulator to answer what if Krypton had been destroyed before he was even born. He sees two young scientists being laughed out of a meeting for their world-ending theories, realizing one of them is his grandfather Jor-El senior. His friend Lor-Van talks him out of revealing his findings to the world, suggesting it'll just cause widespread panic and the planet will end regardless. But he does take Jor-El to a secret base, where he reveals he's been studying the spacecraft of the long-extinct Krull empire. They hurriedly reverse engineer the ship until it's capable of carrying the two men and their families, but right at launch time, they're accosted by the police who try to arrest them for possessing illegal technology. With no time to spare, they launch the spacecraft containing a child from both families, right as a giant comet shatters Krypton. The ship carries the two children to Earth, where it crashes into Smallville a generation before Superman would have landed, and the nearby couple of Clark's adoptive grandparents on his mother Martha's side gladly adopt the young girl, while they hand the boy off to be adopted by his father Jonathan's parents. An observing Superman realizes they're his future parents Jor-El and Lana, and, overwhelmed by the fact his parents survived in this timeline, decides to take a rest to recover. In the next issue, he resumes his inquiry and is shocked to see that in 1930s Smallville, it's his mother, not his father, who steps up and becomes the hero Supergirl, defending the town from gangsters. As the cops come to arrest the gang, Jonathan and his adoptive brother Jack happen to arrive, where Jonathan asks Supergirl to the town dance on the shy Jack's behalf. Who of course is actually the naturalized Jor-El, Supergirl teasing him by saying he already has a girlfriend in Laura Clark, her secret identity, before flying off. She returns home and changes back to Laura, where she laments to her family that Jack only loves her as Supergirl, her parents finally revealing her origin to her, and that they think Jack is actually her brother. Superman watches and accepts their logic, but is horrified as that means they'd never get together and produce him. He sees Jack creating a rain-making formula, when Supergirl interrupts his experiment, asking if he can test if two people really are brother and sister. After he confirms, she tells him of their mysterious past, before providing a sample of her skin cells, Jack finding that, indeed, they're not related. Supergirl takes her leave, but not before dropping a not-so-subtle clue about her identity that Jack finally catches onto. And it ends with Superman overjoyed that his parents would have met up in any reality. I don't know. I want to say I like this one. It's not a bad idea showing Superman's parents being raised on Earth a generation before Superman would have been, and I like that his mother wears the cape in this relationship, but it doesn't do enough with the idea. I would have loved to see this Supergirl's rogues gallery, or at least Jack and Laura growing up, finding careers, and getting married, eventually producing Clark. Instead, most of what we get is just an AI-generated answer to Clark wanting to know if the universe would always force his parents together. As with the last stories, I really like the concept, I just wish there was more to it. And yes, we will eventually talk about the Super-Sons saga.
