Martha Kent
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Martha Kent, née Martha Clark, also known as Ma Kent, is a fictional character published by DC Comics. She is the foster mother of Superman, and the wife of Jonathan Kent (also known as "Pa Kent"). Martha lives with her husband in the small town of Smallville, USA. Martha is usually portrayed agewise as either late middle age or elderly.
In all versions of Superman's origin story, Jonathan and Martha Kent were the first to come across the rocket that brought the infant Kal-El to Earth, with their adopting him shortly thereafter, deciding to rename him Clark Kent---"Clark" having been Martha's maiden name.
Martha Kent is usually portrayed as a kind and caring parent, who helped to instill within Clark a strong sense of morals. She is also the one who originally created Clark's superhero costume.
Martha's most frequently associated catchphrase is "land's sakes!"
Before the 1985-1986 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, Martha Kent (and her husband) died after Clark graduated from high school; in the current comics continuity, Martha is still alive when Clark is an adult.
History
Golden and Silver Age versions
While a "passing motorist" was described as having found the infant Kal-El (or "Kal-L" as the earliest comics stated his Kryptonian name) in Superman's first appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938, Superman #1 in 1939 is the first story to introduce Superman's adoptive parents to the mythos, with "Mary Kent" being the only parent given a name. Ma Kent's first name remained in an uncertain state during the 1940s; a 1942 Superman novel named Ma "Sarah Kent" (this name was also used in the Adventures of Superman television series) while the first extensive retelling of Superman's origins in Superman #53 in 1948 named Ma "Mary Kent." In the early 1950s, however, Ma's name was definitively given as being "Martha Kent," and has been as such ever since.Later stories, after the early 1960s introduction of DC's multiverse system, declared that the earliest versions of Ma was named "Mary Kent" and lived on the world of "Earth-Two" (home of the Golden Age DC superheroes), while the more familiar Martha Kent lived on the mainstream world of "Earth-One" (home of the Silver Age DC superheroes).
Ma made few appearances in Superman stories until the introduction of the Superboy comic in 1949. In this series, Ma Kent made a lasting mark, being a regular supporting character of the teenaged superhero.
The Superboy stories established Martha's backstory, stating she married Jonathan years ago, and became a farmer on a farm just outside of Smallville. After Martha and Jonathan found the toddler Kal-El in his rocket, they took him to the Smallville Orphanage and, several days later, formally adopted him. Renaming him "Clark," Martha and Jonathan took him back to their farm to raise him; there, they soon discovered that Clark possessed a fantastic array of superpowers (gained, as Martha learned years later, from exposure to Earth's yellow sun and its lower gravity).
Around the time Clark started school, Ma and Pa sold their farm, and the family moved into Smallville where the Kents opened a general store.
At the age of eight, Clark began a superhero career as Superboy, with Martha creating Superboy's costume (out of the blankets inside the rocket that brought him to Earth---which she had originally used to create a playsuit when Clark was a preschooler). Martha continued to assist her adopted son on his various adventures as Superboy over the years.
In Superboy (volume 1) #145 (March 1968), Martha and Jonathan Kent were rejuvenated physically into appearing younger, due to the influence of an alien serum. Martha and Jonathan continued to be drawn as late middle-aged, versus elderly, in appearance until Superman's 1986 origin reboot.
After Clark graduated from high school, Jonathan and Martha took a vacation to the Caribbean Islands, where they contracted a fatal and rare tropical disease after handling materials from a pirate's treasure chest they had exhumed; despite Superboy's best efforts, they both died. After his parents' passing, Clark mourned his parents' loss, before eventually moving to Metropolis to attend college.
Modern Age versions
The Man of Steel
After comics writer John Byrne rewrote Superman's origin in his 1986 six-issue Man of Steel limited series, one of the key changes he made was in keeping Jonathan and Martha Kent alive into Clark's adulthood. Martha still had a similar role as in the earlier stories, however, of instilling within Clark the morals needed to become a strong figure.
In this version of events, after Kal-El's "birthing matrix" landed on Earth, Jonathan and Martha found a newborn-aged infant inside. Taking the infant in just before a major snowstorm struck (that buried Smallville in snow for some number of months and cut off outsiders' access to the Kent family farm), the couple decided to pass the infant off as their own natural child, naming him "Clark."
Clark's powers slowly developed over time in this version, with all of his powers fully emerging once he reached his late teen years. After Clark's high school graduation, Martha and Jonathan told Clark about his extraterrestrial origins, after which Clark soon left Smallville to explore the outside world. When Clark eventually settled in Metropolis, Martha had a hand in helping Clark create a superhero identity as Superman.
Another change in this version was that Martha remained a farmer through Clark's adult years, though an early 2000's comic storyline featured the Kents having opened a general store in Smallville.
Martha's post-Crisis history was more fully fleshed out in the late 1980s miniseries The World of Smallville.
Birthright
Martha's character was slightly altered in 2003 when Mark Waid penned the limited series which revised Superman's origins yet again and represents the current official canon, despite not being widely advertised at the time as a definitively canonical reboot.[link] In this latest version, Martha is portrayed as having largely the same personality but is shown to be much younger at the time of Clark adopting his Superman Identity, appearing barely middle-aged.
Her appearance is also tailored to more closely resemble a slightly older version of actress Annette O'Toole who portrays Martha in the Smallville television series (many of the continuity changes in Birthright were designed to bring the comics' Superman origin closer to that depicted in Smallville.). Although now shown wearing glasses, her red bangs are still present (as is Jonathan's blonde hair) in current depictions set an undefined number of years after the events of Birthright, suggesting that this version of the couple are still far from elderly in the present day (or that they both colour their hair). This "Post-Birthright" Martha Kent is additionally somewhat sassier and more at odds with her husband over how Clark should live than previous comic incarnations. Indeed, in this version Jonathan has little to do with the creation of Clark's superman identity, and thus Martha plays a more prominent role in this regard. She is also far more technologically savvy than ever before, communicating with Clark via encrypted email as he travels around the world.
Whether the reality-shattering events of Infinite Crisis will alter this version of Martha Kent any further is as yet unknown.
In other media
- Virginia Carroll was the first actress to portray Martha Kent. She appeared in the 1948 Superman serial starring Kirk Alyn.
- Frances Morris played Ma Kent in the pilot for the 1950s The Adventures of Superman television series (as Sarah Kent).
- Phyllis Thaxter played Martha in 1978's .
- Salome Jens played Martha on the 1980s television series Superboy.
- K Callan played Martha on the 1990s television series . The series portrayed Martha as a lively sixtysomething, interested in all sorts of creative and self-improving pursuits. Among the activities this version of Martha pursued included taking classes at the local university extension, trying yoga, and once posing for a nude study by an artist friend, leading Jonathan to think she was having an affair.
- Ma Kent made occasional appearances in the 1990s cartoon . Shelley Fabares provided Martha's voice on the series.
- On the 2000s television series Smallville, Martha is played by Annette O'Toole, who played Lana Lang in Superman III.
- In the 2006 movie Superman Returns, Martha Kent is portrayed by Eva Marie Saint.
External links
- [A pre-Crisis biography on Ma and Pa Kent]
- [Supermanica: Jonathan & Martha Kent] Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Jonathan & Martha Kent
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