WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Action Comics #1000, which is available now.


Tom King and Clay Mann's Superman story in Action Comics #1000 offers a beautiful and touching farewell to Ma and Pa Kent, and that honestly... kind of stinks. The adoptive parents of the Man of Steel proved to be an important part of Clark Kent's formative years, but now they're dead, and despite Rebirth rewriting so many aspects of DC's comic book continuity, it doesn't look like they're coming back. Especially not after a send off this good.

The Death and Life and Death of Ma and Pa Kent

The Kents have proven to be such an essential part of Superman, it's impossible to tell his story without including their's. An alien baby is rocketed to Earth just as his home planet is destroyed, and a doting couple from the heartlands of America, with no children of their own, take him in. Jonathan and Martha Kent instill a young Clark with the strong moral compass he needs to become Superman, and be the most famous superhero of them all.

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They play a role in just about every major adaption of the Man of Steel to date. We see them take him in during Richard Donner's Superman, raise him in TV's Superboy, mold him in Man of Steel. They even played prominent roles in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Smallville. Even Superman: The Animated Series features Ma and Pa Kent playing a part in Superman's life.

The sad truth of the matter is, for most of the character's 80 years of history, the Kents have actually been dead. As elderly parents, they passed away before they could see their son grow up to become the man -- and hero -- he would be. It wasn't until the DC Universe was rebooted following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, during John Byrne's run on Man of Steel, that the Kents were brought back to the land of the living.

Subsequent adaptations looked to this version of Superman to craft compelling versions of Clark Kent's home life. They were the loving parents back home in Kansas, the dispensers of wisdom for a younger Man of Steel, and the only family he had to hold onto. It's a shame that the New 52 wiped them from the land of the living and deposited them back into the graves they inhabited for so long. There's no potential in that, especially now that Jon Kent is around.

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DC Comics Rebirth came and went, and still, there was no sign of Ma and Pa Kent. The new story is that they died in a car accident on the day of Clark Kent's prom; before that, Jonathan had died of a heart attack well into his son's costumed career, and before that they both passed away due to old age. Recent issues of Doomsday Clock have implied that Doctor Manhattan may have been responsible for the accident that took their lives, offering fans some level of hope that perhaps they'll be retconned back into existence once the Watchmen-based event wraps.

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As nice as it would be to have Jonathan and Martha Kent back, Action Comics #1000 put it all in a perspective that seems to shut the door on the idea forever. Wanting to thank the two who raised Superman to be the man he came to be, or perhaps intrigued by the lost potential these two could bring to modern comics, Tom King and Clay Mann say goodbye to the Kents in the story "Of Tomorrow."

In the far, far future, the Earth is about to be consumed by the sun, but Superman wants to pay his respects to his parents one final time. He may look as good as ever, Lois Lane and Jon Kent may still be alive four billion years later, but this is very much a story about letting go of the past. The Earth has been uninhabited for a long time, yet Superman still comes back to visit. Now, the planet is about to be destroyed once and for all, so he knows this is the end.

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Some fans have hated the idea of the Kents not being around in recent Superman stories, but King and Mann's story teaches us that you can love the past without letting it hold you back, and that when one story ends, there's always another waiting to be told. How long can the Kents really live on in their old age before we learn to move on? In Spider-Man, Peter Parker has done the unthinkable just to hold onto Aunt May and his past. Not Superman, though. But no matter how long it has been, Superman can never forget the people who raised him, who taught him right from wrong, and showed him how to embrace hope.

It would be fascinating to see the Kents return to the modern day DC Universe. In a way, they were all that was missing from Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's run on Superman to make it a truly perfect Superman Family story. The man himself even says as much to his son. As we head into the Brian Michael Bendis era of Superman, it's certainly possible that continuity could change again. Doomsday Clock isn't even halfway through its 12-issue story, after all, so there is some hope of a return by the end of it.

However, as "Of Tomorrow" informs us, there comes a time for every story to end. All you can do is press forward and remember the past for everything it gave you. It's bittersweet, and it certainly sucks, but there's no way around it