WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "Pilot," the series premiere of Superman & Lois.
Being the parent of a superhero has a tendency to go terribly wrong in the end, particularly on the part of the parents. The CW's new Superman and Lois show is no exception, with Ma Kent dying of a stroke midway through episode one, and Pa Kent not even surviving past the intro.
With that in mind, we're taking a somewhat morbid look back at all the ways that the lovely Kent couple have died in the mainstream comic book DC Universe throughout the years.
The first time Superman's adopted parents died was way back in 1948, in Superman #53 with "The Origin of Superman" by Bill Finger, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye. The death of Martha is slightly overlooked, with the caption simply saying "His mother died", but Pa Kent manages to get a few words in before his passing. He tells his son that he must fight the evil in the world, work alongside the law, and hide his identity because he is a "Superman," with that being his dying word. Clark swears by the graves of his parents to become what they always wanted him to be.
One of the strangest deaths of the Kents occurred in 1963's Superman #161, by Leo Dorfman and Al Plastino. While Ma and Pa are on vacation in the Caribbean, they discover a buried chest containing a cutlass and a page from a diary dating back centuries. They then ask Superboy/Clark to take them back in time to see what happened, and because it's the Silver Age, he can do that.
The Kents discover the chest is from a man marooned by Blackbeard, and Clark proceeds to mess around with them to entertain his parents. While there, he gets his parents some fruit from a nearby tree, and they then return back to their time. Clark is horrified to discover that the fruits actually contain something called the Fever Plague, a fatal disease with no known cure. He searches the globe to find one, even enlisting the help of Lex Luthor, but it is all in vain. Once again, Martha passes without much of a send-off, but Pa manages to tell Clark to uphold law and order before he too dies.
After the "Death of Superman," Jonathan Kent that died, but it wasn't permanent. In 1993's Superman #77 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, Pa Kent is rushed into hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.
In past issues, Superman has already been killed by the creature Doomsday, and Ma tells the doctors that her husband has been getting worse and worse ever since his death. They try to revive him, but the issue ends with him flat-lining. After talking to his son in Purgatory and convincing him to come back to the land of the living, Pa Kent springs back to life too.
In 2008's Action Comics #870, by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and Jon Sibal saw Jonathan Kent die yet again due to heart failure. In the final issue of the "Brainiac" storyline, Superman brings the Collector of Worlds to Earth to give him a proper beat down. The Man of Steel flies off to restore the two bottled cities of Kandor and Metropolis, while Brainiac reveals he now knows the location of Ma and Pa Kent, and remotely activates his ship to fire a rocket at the farm.
Both parents manage to avoid the explosion, but in the end the excitement of it all is too much for Jonathan, and he keels over and dies from a heart attack. Superman hears his mother's cries far too late and can only mourn alongside her.
The most recent deaths of the Kents were doled out across various issues in the New 52 reboot of Action Comics and Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Doomsday Clock. After dropping off Clark at his prom with Lana Lang, the Kents are involved in a collision with a drunk driver. Ma Kent, once again, dies unceremoniously off-page, but Pa manages to hold on.
Not wanting to die in hospital, Clark takes him back to the farm, where Jonathan insists Clark become a champion of the downtrodden and to make the world a better place, before he too passes away. It is later revealed the accident was caused by Dr. Manhattan experimenting on Superman's timeline, and after the events of Doomsday Clock, he changes the past so that Superman saved them, and the two are alive in current continuity.
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