CLARK

Real Name: Clark Kent, possibly Ken Clarke (See Comments)

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Newspaper and television journalist

Group Membership: Employee of an unknown Metropolitan newspaper/television station (possibly the Daily Planet [See Comments])

Affiliations: Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Joe Robertson, Phil Sheldon

Enemies: Avant Guard, Blackout (Lilin), Mojo

Known Relatives: Lois Lane (wife)

Aliases: None, possibly Ken Clarke (See Comments)

Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: (DC) Action Comics#1 (June, 1938);
    (Marvel) X-Men I#98 (October, 1971)

Powers/Abilities: Clark Kent is a capable newspaper reporter and television journalist.

History: Very little is known about Clark except that he appears to be a friend of Joe Robertson of The Daily Bugle.  He is on the staff of a prominent but unrevealed tabloid newspaper agency in the New York City area with a television news crew as well.  Clark seems to be fascinated by the super-hero population around Manhattan, a trait which irks his frequent associate and news partner, Lois Lane.

(Marvels#4) - Around the time of the first public appearance of Solarr, as well as Thundra's challenging Ben Grimm to a duel in Shea Stadium, Clark, with Lois and Jimmy Olsen, attended a party with famed photojournalist Phil Sheldon.

(X-Men I#98 ) - While in Manhattan, Clark encountered the X-Men in public shortly before the mutant group was attacked by the murderous, mutant-hunting Sentinels.

(Marvel Team Up I#79) - Clark was invited to a Christmas party at the Daily Bugle, and was asked by Joe Robertson as to how he liked working for a major Metropolitan newspaper.

(Captain America I#260) - Clark was present at a press conference at Ryker's prison when Warden Michaels used Captain America to test out the new security of the facility.

(Avengers I#228) - Clark watched a telecast of Henry Pym's trial on television with several other civilians.  He commented that it could be the biggest peacetime treason case since the United States vs. Rosenberg.

(Thor I#341) - Bereft of his persona as Don Blake, Thor was granted the non-conspicuous identity of Sigurd Jordson, replete with glasses to avoid being noticed in public.  Despite normal attire, Clark nearly recognized him after bumping into him on the SHIELD Helicarrier, while attending a press conference with Lois.

(Secret Wars II#7) - On the evening news, Clark discussed the notoriety of a self-taught guru in the South Pacific.  In actuality, the guru was the extra-dimensional being known as the Beyonder living in seclusion.

(Uncanny X-Men Annual#10) - At New York City's Delacorte Theatre, Clark attended the New York Shakespeare Festival's summer production of "A Comedy of Errors."  The play was interrupted by the extra-dimensional being Mojo, who took the theatre hostage and forced the New Mutants to battle brainwashed X-Men for his violence-obsessed movie industry.  Wolverine, Psylocke and Rogue overcame their programming and defeated Mojo, saving Clark and all other spectators present.

(Avengers I#296) - Clark and members of his film crew attempted to interview the Black Knight after he was overcome by the curse of the Ebony Blade.  They were warded off by the god Thor who spirited the Black Knight to safety.

(Excalibur I#8) - Covering a news story in Manhattan, Clark and Lois noticed Captain Britain flying overhead in his search for missing Excalibur member Meggan.

(Uncanny X-Men#245) - Clark decided to drop a story of the X-Men fending off an invasion by the extra-terrestrial race called the Cadre from the news.  Instead, he covered the inauguration of the new President of the United States.

(Amazing Spider-Man Annual#23) - While visiting Joe Robertson at the Daily Bugle, Clark witnessed Jennifer Walters (The She Hulk) storm out of J. Jonah Jameson's office after trying to get his paper to make a retraction on a story.

(Avengers I#325) - While covering one of Sersi's parties, Clark danced with the She-Hulk.

(Avengers I#327) - While taking the subway, Kent saw the young hero Rage running alongside it in the tunnel.  He compared the hero's speed to that of a speeding bullet.

(Web of Spider-Man#75 [BTS]) - After realizing their feelings for each other, Clark and Lois decided to get married.  They spent their honeymoon in New York City.

(Web of Spider-Man#75 )- While in Manhattan, Clark and Lois were trapped in a freak snowstorm created by Bora of the Avant Guard.  They were saved by Namorita and Nova of the New Warriors.

(Thor I#476) - Clark and Lois were seen reading a newspaper outside of the Brighton and Associates Office.

(Ghost Rider III#26) - Walking along the street, Lois and Clark were attacked by Blackout, who was on the run from Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance.  Clark attempted to protect Lois, saying, "Stand back, Lo!  This is a job for --!"  When Ghost Rider appeared, Blackout grabbed Clark and threatened to kill him.  Ghost Rider transformed back into his mortal alter ego, Dan Ketch, causing the killer to drop Clark in favor of a new target.  But then, Ghost Rider returned and subdued the killer.  Clark and Lois hugged each other as Ghost Rider carried Blackout away.

(Marvel Vision#1) - A news article by Clark about the Avengers/Force Works adventure known as "The Crossing" (circa Avengers#394) appeared in the Daily Bugle.

Comments: Created by Jerry Siegel and Joel Schuster, adapted by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.

Will and others express varying opinion's below, but to stay true to Marvel continuity, Clark as seen on Earth-616 is an alternate dimensional counterpart of Superman. DC exists in a separate dimension/continuity than Marvel. This was established decades before the Amalgam series and is the case in almost every single one of Marvel's greater than 20,000 stories and god only knows how many DC comics. Technically, Marvel and DC are within different Megaverses, but within the same Omniverse.
    On Earth-616, there is no evidence that Clark is anything more than a mild-mannered reporter, though there is nothing to refute that, either...other than legal issues, copyright, etc.!
    Also, though the homage is undeniable, I'm fairly certain in the Marvel Universe that he has only been named as Clark, and not specifically as "Clark Kent."
    So, with that in mind, let the games begin.

    --Snood.

    Obviously, Clark is Marvel's little homage to a certain Man of Steel over at the Distinguished Competition.  A few of Marvel's characters have been directly inspired by the extra-terrestrial hero, namely: Gladiator; he and his team, the Shi'Ar Imperial Guard, were patterned after Superboy, a younger derivative of Superman, and the Legion of Super Heroes, and Hyperion whose Squadron Supreme was patterned after the Justice League of America.
    One might add the first Captain Marvel since his female counterpart, the first Ms. Marvel, was also named Danvers like one certain Man of Steel's cousin, now since deceased.
    Sigh...now I'm going to be bombarded with updates regarding Captain Marvel (SHAZAM), etc.  That's all covered under the Miracleman profile.  Captain Mar-Vell is/was an alien hero on Earth, but that's about the end of the similarities.  Maybe the Danvers name was a tip of the hat, or maybe not.

 

In Imperial Guard#1 and Thor II#34, Gladiator wore a human disguise which closely resembled that of Clark Kent.  In addition, in the Imperial Guard series, Gladiator's name was revealed to be Kallark.

 

 

 

Will U comments: Personally, I think I prefer the idea more of the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe co-existing in the same tangent rather than the two-universe nonsense and confusion established in the Amalgam Series.  Certain aspects in the Marvel Universe concerning gods, ET's, Atlantis and the supernatural would work a lot better for the DC characters in my mind than over there [DC] where every time [something] goes wrong some crisis destroys everything and then restarts it from scratch.

Actually, Clark Kent is colored wrong in Avengers#296, but the profile and the fact he is a reporter makes it obvious it is him.  Similarly, he is credited in being in X-Men Annual#10, but he is very hard to find, though he must be part of the theater audience.
    Clark is not named in Cap#260 or Thor#476, but is seems to be him, based on appearance.

Rumor, fact or fiction?  Somewhere I heard that before he passed away, either Jerry Siegel or Joe Schuster sold the rights to their unpublished characters to Marvel or to a company that later sold them to Marvel.  Thereby, Marvel has a rather tenuous if not indirect link to the rights of their Man of Steel character.  Am I the only one who has heard this?

Per Degaton comments: Some evidence indicates that Crossover Earth, the world where, according to Mark Waid in the ICG DC Index series, the four 1970's and 1980's DC/Marvel crossovers took place, (or a variation of it at least) still exists in the Marvel multiverse.  In What If I#1, Uatu the Watcher made reference to the Superman/Spider-Man team-up.  During the Avengers Forever mini-series, the Avengers had the opportunity to see other universes in the Marvel multiverse-and we saw Doctor Octopus escaping from prison with Luthor on page 9 of Avengers Forever#8.  The trade paperback to the series confirmed that this scene referred to the first Superman/Spider-Man story.

So, although Crossover Earth may no longer exist in the DC continuum, it probably still exists in the Marvel Multiverse.  It probably got saved from the Crisis there.  I can imagine that far fringes of the multiverse have characters not often seen elsewhere (for example, the Transformers of Earth-Transformers UK).  
(Maybe DC's Crisis wasn't as complete as it thought -Will U)

Also, the online fanzine Fanzing in their 44th issue, did an informative article on the DC Marvel tie-ups.  From there, they noted that the Superman/Hulk one-shot from the early 1990's got officially marked as a What If, again indicating that it took place somewhere in the Marvel Multiverse.  Also, in Superman/Fantastic Four, Superman in one panel notes that he had to ask Access to send him to Earth-616!  It would be highly appropriate for Clark to meet Fastforward someday, but besides that, I would point out one omniversal oddity: in JLA#142, written by Steve Engleheart, the JLA met a woman named Willow, who was implied to be Mantis from Avengers.  Well, the ICG Official Index to the Justice League#5 admitted that she was Mantis!  So Mantis skipped around the multiverse.  Recylcing Bin article

The Marvels series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, besides the appearance in#4, did another Clark Kent homage in Marvels#0 (originally published in Marvel Ag e#131-133), as well as Marvels#1.  These appearances took place in the 1940's, so the Clark Kent and Lois Lane analogs from those stories cannot be the same as the Clark Kent we have seen in modern era stories.

Loki comments: (from the Spider-Man Appendix) Clarke, Ken  UK Spider-Man Annual (1982)  Daily Planet reporter covering the arrival of "Starngore" in Central Park.  He stopped Peter Parker from being electrocuted by the "force field" protecting the "spaceship."

Someone who was quite clearly Clark Kent (along with Lois Lane and a photographer who looked like Jimmy Olsen, but was also wearing a Miracleman t-shirt) appeared in the recent Marvel Knights Spider-Man (issue#4, page 15). I doubt that Mark Millar is continuity-obsessed enough for this to be the same Clark Kent as the one detailed on this page, but you never know...

Note that with Ken Clarke, we may now have the full name of the non-powered Superman analog [or a possible alias for him -- Kyle] assuming you want to allow the appearance in the Annual - and he is specifically named as a reporter for the Daily Planet!  Since he doesn't lend Spidey a hand battling "Starngore," a would-be "alien conqueror," I think that's a fair indication he doesn't have powers (or his x-ray vision saw through Electro's disguise, and he knew Spidey wouldn't need assistance).

by Will U and Per Degaton, with help and bold, italicized editorial from Snood.
Thanks to Ixnay0002 for supplying the Ghost Rider info, Loki  for the UK Spider-Man Annual info, and Ron Byrd for the Marvel Vision summary.

Profile updated/edited by Kyle Sims

CLARIFICATIONS:
Clark should not be confused with:


images:


Other appearances:
X-Men I#98 (April, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer), Dave Cockrum (pencils), Sam Grainger (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Marvel Team-Up I#79 (March, 1979) - John Byrne & Chris Claremont (writers), John Byrne (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Captain America I#260 (August, 1981) - Al Milgrom (writer), Alan Kupperberg (pencils), Quickdraw Studios & Al Milgrom (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Avengers I#228 (February, 1983) - Roger Stern (writer), Al Milgrom (pencils), Brett Breeding (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Thor I#341 (March, 1984) - Walt Simonson (writer/artist), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Secret Wars II#7 (January, 1986) - Jim Shooter (writer), Al Milgrom (pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks)
Uncanny X-Men Annual#10 (1986) - Chris Claremont (writer), Art Adams (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Avengers I#296 (October, 1988) - Walt Simonson (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Excalibur I#8 (May, 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Uncanny X-Men#245 (June, 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), Rob Liefeld (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man Annual#23 (1989) - Gerry Conway & David Michelinie (writers), Rob Liefeld (pencils), Tim Dzon, James Brock, Curtis, Vince Mielcarek & Keith Williams (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Avengers I#325 (October, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Rik Levins (pencils), Fred Fredricks & Diverse Hands (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Avengers I#327 (December, 1990) - Larry Hama (writer), Pual Ryan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Web of Spider-Man#75 (April, 1991) - Tony Isabella (writer), Alex Saviuk (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Ghost Rider III#26 (June, 1992) - Howard Mackie (writer), Ron Wagner (pencils), Mike Witherby (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Marvels#4 (April, 1994) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Alex Ross (artist), Marcus McLaurin (editor)
Thor I#476 (July, 1994) - Roy Thomas (writer), M.C. Wyman (pencils), Mike DeCarlo (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Marvel Vision#1 (January, 1996)


Last updated: 12/30/04

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