Superman, the near-god.
Clark Kent / Kal-El of Earth-1
Born: floating date between c.1930 and c.1955.
Started career: floating date between c.1940 and c.1965
First comic book not clearly determined.
The transition from Golden Age to Siver Age (later designated Earth-2 and Earth-1) versions was unintentional, and had no clear breaking point. In some cases, character traits and continuity events that would later be ascribed specifically to different versions of Superman had actually been associated with a single Superman in a past story. Once the Earth 2 & 1 concept had been developed, the Earth-2 Superman was linked with the original appearance date while the Earth-1 Superman was kept static by floating his past history. So, whenever the Earth-1 continuity comic book was published, Superman was born about 30 years before, and commenced his career (as Superboy) at around age 10.
Kal-El was born on the highly advanced world of Krypton. He was the only son of the planet's greatest scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara. Jor-El had discovered that Krypton was doomed, but was unable to convince the High Council to evacuate the planet. Desperate to keep something of his world and himself alive, Jor-El loaded the toddler Kal-El into an small prototype starship and lauched it towards Earth moments before Krypton exploded. Little Kal-El was already old enough to retain memories of his birth parents, his home world, and his native language.
The little startship crash-landed on Earth, near the rural community of Smallville, where it was discovered by John and Martha Kent. (Both a bit over 50 at the time.) They took the little boy from the spacecraft to an orphanage, where they arraged to adopt him. (The orphanage was glad to be rid of the kid, who was too powerful for them to manage.)
The Kents named the boy Clark. Clark's Kryptonian physiology was far advanced compared to ordinary humans, and exposure to Earth's environment with it's yellow sun and lesser gravity enhanced his powers extraordinarily. While still a toddler he was stronger than any ten men, immune to physical harm, and able to defy gravity. As a boy he discovered that he could see through walls, burn things with his heat vision, freeze lakes with his breath, move faster than light, travel through time, and do many other amazing things. Taking the heroic ideals of both his birth and foster parents to heart, Clark resolved to use his abilities to help people.
Using indestructable Kryptonian materials from the space ship, Martha made Clark a uniform to wear when he was acting as Superboy. Meanwhile, young Clark got into the habit of wearing glasses and acting like a wussy nerd to prevent anybody from recognizing that he was Superboy. This didn't win him a lot of points with his high-school love-interest, Lana Lang.
After the death of his foster parents, Clark moved to Metropolis, got a job at the Daily Planet with a Superman scoop, and met Lois Lane. Like Lana, Lois wasn't much attracted to clumsy Clark, but certainly was interested in Superman.
For years Superman defended Metropolis and the Earth from all manner of dangers. His powers developed beyond all measure to the point that almost anything that could be imagined was possible for him. He could move planets out of their orbits, put out stars, fly through the core of the Sun, and survive nuclear explosions while hardly getting his hair mussed.
But kryptonite could hurt him. The starship engine Jor-El had used was experamental, and it had left a sort of wormhole in space open between the Solar System and what had been Kryptoninan space. Lots of kryptonite (as well as other artifacts from Krypton) came through the wormhole and wound up on Earth. Most kryptonite was green, and could make Superman weak and sick. With long enough exposure, green kryptonite could even kill Superman. Some kryptonite was red. It caused wild, temporary mutations in Superman. Gold kryptonite would eliminate his superpowers permanently. There were also other kinds of kryptonite which didn't affect Superman. Eventually it seemed like every two-bit hood in Metropolis had a chunk of kryptonite handy.
Then scientists decided to try and harness the energy of kryptonite in a sort of reactor. This created an unexpected chain-reaction that transmuted all the kryptonite on Earth into iron. It also set into motion a series of events that would reduce Superman's power a notch or two.
About this time Clark Kent found his life getting a little more complicated as he was drafted into TV reporting in addition to his work for the Daily Planet. Although Lois never really let on, she knew Clark and Superman were the same person by the 1980s... At least on some barely subconscious level.
Superman was a main participant in the Crisis. He had his heart broken by the death of his cousin Supergirl. (Kara Zor-El, who had been born in Argo City, which had been blown away from Krypton intact. She'd been sent to Earth some years before the Crisis to escape the kryptonite poisoning that was killing the population of Argo City.) Ready to sacrifice himself to defeat the Anti-Monitor once and for all, Superman was sent back to Earth by the Earth-2 Superman, who exterminated the Anti-Monitor himself.
The Earth-1 continuity ended with the Crisis in 1985. In the hypothetical future of Earth-1, a sort of anti-superhero mania would spread across the Earth in the late 1980s. By 1990, almost all costumed heroes had been driven into retirement, or away from the Earth entirely.
Superman was allowed to stay in action, but only in a covert fashion, cooperating with the Federal Government. The Feds censored any reference to Superman or his actions in the media. Used as a weapon in police actions and military confrontations in the Third World, Superman managed to convince himself that he was saving lives by preventing open wars... In reality, he'd become the President's best pawn.
Around 2000, an aging Batman came out of retirement. Eventually, Superman was sent to put an end to his old friend's overt super-heroing. The events of the past fifteen years had caused Superman to think of humans as small in spirit and weak, and he made the foolish mistake of extending that perception to include Batman. Much to Superman's surprise, he was no match for the indominatable Batman. He only survived the battle because Batman chose not to kill him.
It is not known whether Superman continued to be a government lackey after this... But we did learn that he discovered Bruce Wayne's plot to fake his own death, and we know that he decided not to report it.