Clark Kent

Few characters in the history of the medium carry the weight of Clark Kent — a figure who stepped off the Platinum Age page in 1938, conjured by the imaginations of Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, and has never once stopped mattering in the nearly nine decades since. Across almost 2,900 catalogued appearances spanning Action Comics, Superman, and the beloved reprint pages of The Menomonee Falls Gazette, Clark has shared ink with the absolute royalty of comics — Batman, Bruce Wayne, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Lois Lane — a guest list that tells you everything about the circles this character moves in. With 110 key issues to his name, collectors have recognized again and again that a Clark Kent appearance is rarely a throwaway moment. If you're tracing the spine of American comic book history, this is as close to the source as it gets.