Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent are fictional characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. They are the adoptive parents of Superman, and live in the rural town of Smallville, Kansas. In most versions of Superman's origin story, Jonathan and Martha find Kal-El as an infant after he crash-lands on Earth following the destruction of his home planet, Krypton. They adopt him shortly thereafter, renaming him Clark Kent, "Clark" being Martha's maiden name.
Martha and Jonathan Kent, as they appear in comics from the 1970s and 1980s. From New Adventures of Superboy #1 (January 1980). Art by Kurt Schaffenberger.
Jonathan and Martha Kent with Clark Kent on the cover of Superman: Secret Origin #1 (Nov. 2009) art by Gary Frank.
Glenn Ford as Jonathan Kent with Phyllis Thaxter as Martha in Superman (1978).
DC Comics, Inc. is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book series first published in 1937.
Cover art of the first comic book by National Comics Publications, New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (cover dated February 1935). Unlike comic book magazines series up to that point, characters in this book, such as the Western character Jack Wood, were original creations, and did not originate in comic strips.
Action Comics No. 1, the iconic issue that introduced Superman and helped birth the superhero genre
Image: Maj. Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson LCCN2014713912
Image: Jerry Siegel in Uniform ca 1943 cropped
