Clark Kent / Kal-L

Few names in comics carry more weight than Clark Kent / Kal-L, a Golden Age figure whose roots stretch all the way back to 1943 and a debut in The American Legion #4 under the hand of Wally Wallgren. With a publishing history spanning an extraordinary eight decades, this is a character whose presence in the DC universe has proven genuinely enduring, turning up across landmark titles like Justice League of America, All-Star Squadron, and Infinite Crisis — three series that represent some of the most consequential storytelling in superhero comics. Three of their appearances carry key-issue status, a mark of real collector significance, and the roster of characters sharing those pages — Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkman — reads like a roll call of DC's greatest icons. For fans who love tracing the deep connective tissue of the DC universe from its Golden Age foundations through to the modern era, this is a name well worth seeking out.