Did Johnathan Kent ever die in the comics?

[DerekPowers]

I was watching the first superman movie yesterday, and jonhathan kent dies in it. plus i remember a superman cover from a while ago of johnathan collapsed in a corn field and martha screeming "Johnathan", and running after him. i know hes alive and well currently, but did he ever die and was later brought back or something, perhaps pre crisis? can someone explain? thanks.

[James Harvey]

Before CRISIS, Superman's father did die, leaving him only Martha. But BEFORE that in the 1940's & 1950's, both of them died.

[kid_flash]

And in the Death of Superman story, Pa Kent was officially dead for a bit. At least, the book had it that way, never read the comics.

[DerekPowers]

yeah, i was thinking about the death of superman issue where pa is dead on the farm on the cover, ala the superman movie. so that was post crisis, so howd he come back after that?

[The Guard]

Kal-El, who was also dead, and Pa Kent were magically in the same area. And Pa Kent saw that these weird wraith-dealies were taking his son away, and then Superman flew Pa out of the realm of death, and Jonathan awoke, saying he'd brought Clark back...

[Domino]

Originally posted by Dick Grayson
Before CRISIS, Superman's father did die, leaving him only Martha. But BEFORE that in the 1940's & 1950's, both of them died.

Before the Crisis, Martha actually preceded Jonathan in death, leading up to Jonathan's dramatic deathbed scene where he tells his son to go out into the world. Clark thought of himself at that point as an oprhan for the second time.

There were other versions of the story, like in the Superboy series, where they both were made young again, and subsequently died from an alien disease. But in no pre-Crisis comic book did Martha outlive Jonathan.

Unless of course, I'm wrong, and then I would stand corrected! ;)

[Anthonynotes]

Originally posted by Domino


Before the Crisis, Martha actually preceded Jonathan in death, leading up to Jonathan's dramatic deathbed scene where he tells his son to go out into the world. Clark thought of himself at that point as an oprhan for the second time.

There were other versions of the story, like in the Superboy series, where they both were made young again, and subsequently died from an alien disease. But in no pre-Crisis comic book did Martha outlive Jonathan.

Unless of course, I'm wrong, and then I would stand corrected! ;)

The official pre-Crisis story of the Kents' death features their contracting a fatal "fever plague" from a Caribbean cruise that the Kents had gone on after Superboy graduated from high school (they'd contracted it from opening/handling an old pirate's chest). Superboy tried desperately various stunts to cure their disease (no one having caught it in the past 100 years), including a failed attempt to send them into the Phantom Zone, but they all failed. Thus, Ma died, and Pa died shortly thereafter... Clark swore to uphold Pa's command to be a "superman", closed up the house (and IIRC sold the general store they owned at the time), and went off to Metropolis for college. The story was recently reprinted in the "Superman in the Sixties" trade paperback.

As for the Kents being younger, toward the tail end of the sixties, a Superboy story had Ma and Pa Kent exposed to (by some goofy alien) a chemical that de-aged them back to looking middle-aged. There, they stayed until close to their deaths, when the chemical had worn off. Done to give Ma and Pa Kent a younger appearance in the comics (presumably to appeal to the readers of the time)...

-B.