Originally Posted by
Ascended
If you want an idea for a Golden Age Superman who kept going......
Okay, so typical Golden Age stuff, right? Champion of the people, smasher of corruption and greed, WWII hero, husband, adopted father (Power Girl), etc.
Clark and Lois live a good life. Lois never stops being a reporter but Clark becomes publisher after Perry (or whoever his boss was in the GA, I forget his name) retires.
At some point, Clark stops and look around and realizes that he's basically stopped aging somewhere in his mid-late 40's. Lois and most of Clark's friends have all died, Jimmy's in a nursing home (or a mansion with live-in nurses, depending on how successful he's become) and the new generations of heroes have things well in hand. Power Girl has been Power Woman for years and is a influential member of the heroic community, and the other new(er) heroes all benefit from the experience and lessons Clark and his generation learned.
So Clark buys the Planet, becoming owner as well as publisher. He reveals his secret identity to the world, and Superman goes into retirement, pulling out the cape only when things have become so nuts that the universe itself needs Superman. But you know Clark Kent can't give up the never ending battle. He's retired Superman but not the fight. What Clark does is, he takes the Planet and expands it, recruiting the best, bravest, and most honest people he can find. He expands circulation, invests in new media formats (like streaming and social media and what not, but whatever the earth-2 equivalents would be) and creates a networking app that allows every subscriber to combine their research, uncovering secrets and connections so deeply hidden no single reporter would ever manage to stumble upon them.
Clark turns the Planet into the world's biggest, most effective, loudest news outlet. And he wields this company the same way Superman used to use his fists. The Planet is a blunt instrument of pure, unvarnished Truth. It destroys corrupt politicians, pulls down tyrants, decimates organized crime rings. Evil people live in fear of the Planet and its endless army of journalists turning its attention on them. Imagine what a "superhero as a company" would look like....and you've got Clark Kent's Daily Planet. It is just as effective as any hero, as Clark himself used to be, and it forces changes in policy and world events with just as much power as any super-strong man.
And.....eventually, Clark decides that the Planet is in great hands. Power Woman's kids have kids and Clark.....he just doesn't feel like he has a place in the world anymore. He's basically won the battle. Earth is on the right path that'll eventually lead humanity to the bright, wonderful world of the Legion's 31st century and Clark just....doesnt need to be there anymore. So Clark says his goodbyes to the few people he has left, and takes off for the stars. He travels time and space, visiting planets who need him. He helps out, stays as long as he has to, and moves on. And this journey across space-time creates the universal myth of the Super-Man. That shared folktale is one of the things that helps lead to the formation of the United Planets, as all those races realize that if they have the same shared myth, there's other things they share as well.
At some point.....Clark dies. But that's no reason to stop adventuring. And Clark, now existing as raw, pure energy, continues to do what he does (think All-Star and DC 1 Million). And.....billions of years later, Clark watches the universe die.
He's there, his essence anyway, for the birth of the next universe; no longer a strange visitor or the Last Son of Krypton or even Clark Kent (not really, not after all this), but the Fifth World's Archetype of Hope and Tomorrow; essentially a science-god who helps shape the new reality.