How strange fate works! If Krypton had never exploded, I would have ended up as there as - Superman! 
- — Superman
Superman #132 is an issue of the series Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1959.
Synopsis for "Superman's Other Life"
Visiting Superman and his Fortress of Solitude, Batman and Robin have come presenting a gift to Superman for a previous rescue. Batman and Robin gift the Man of Steel with an impressive idea: Feed all known information info about Krypton into Superman's Univac Computer and see if it can predict what would have happened if Krypton was not destroyed.
The computer presents a possible history where Jor-El was wrong about Krypton's imminent destruction and stops young Kal-El from being launched into space. The young Kal-El is raised by his parents and enjoys time playing with his dog Krypto and his new robot companion: Robo, whom he built himself. Attending school, Kal-El takes an interest in the planet Earth, and while viewing the Kent family, saves them from a car accident. Superman also sees that they go on an adopt a girl from the Smallville Orphanage instead of their fated destiny to adopt Kal-El as a child. Later Jor-El and Lara give birth to a second son Zal-El.
Kal-El finishes school and begins his career as dispatcher for the Space Patrol with dreams of going on missions into space. He is mentored by the teacher who administered his test of the skill machine, Xan-Du. One day when Xan-Du is testing out a new Static-Ray device (Which has different effects on different creatures) Xan-Du and Krypto are accidentally bombarded with the devices rays, causing both to be given super-powers similar to that of Superman on Earth. Having to go to a costume party, Xan-Du takes on a costume similar to that of Superman's and calls himself Futuro.
At the costume party, (where Kal-El has dressed up as an Earth man and ironically dressed up as his real-life alter ego), the hovering building where the festivities are taking place begins to plummet to Krypton's surface, prompting Xan-Du to rescue everyone, and continue his Futuro guise and act as a super-hero on Krypton. When Kal-El discovers Krypto's super-powers, he has the dog pull him to Futuro's secret hide out and learns his true identity. Kal-El then becomes Futuro's sidekick promising to keep the hero's identity secret. During a mission in space, Kal-El's parents and brother are killed when their rocket ship crashes on a magnetic asteroid causing their ship to explode. Futuro builds a monument to the family on an chunk of the exploded asteroid in their memory.
Later a ship from Earth is caught in space, and Futuro saves the occupants and brings them back to Krypton. To everyone's surprise, Lois Lane is aboard the rocket having stowed away to get the scoop of the first moon walk. Lois is shown around Krypton by Kal-El, but similar to her real world counterpart she grows fond of Futuro because of his super powers. After a misadventure with a Kryptonian drilling device, leading to Futuro saving Lois and Kal-El, Futuro admits that he has fallen in love with Lois and asks her to marry him. Deciding to return with Lois to Earth, Futuro uses the Static Device on Kal-El, giving him super-powers as well and leaving him to defend Krypton, dubbing him Superman.
With this vision of a possible alternate course Superman's life could have been taken, the three heroes muse over how Kal-El was always fated to become Superman.
Appearing in "Superman's Other Life"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Jimmy Olsen (In a photograph only)
- Kryptonians
- House of El
- Krypto the Superdog (Mentioned only)
- Krypton Beast (In a photograph only)
- Kryptonians (Earth-132)
- Balloonie (Earth-132)
- Futuro (Xan-Du) (Single appearance)
- Health Cabinet (Earth-132)
- House of El (Earth-132) (Single appearance)
- Jor-El (Earth-132) (Single appearance; dies)
- Lara (Earth-132) (Single appearance; dies)
- Superman (Kal-El) (Single appearance)
- Zal-El (Earth-132) (Single appearance; dies)
- Krypto the Superdog (Earth-132) (Single appearance)
- Krypton Council (Earth-132) (Mentioned only)
- Living Wheel (Earth-132)
- Metal Eater (Earth-132)
- Singing Flower (Earth-132)
- Space Patrol (Earth-132)
- Space Patrol Chief (Earth-132)
- Zin-Da (Earth-132) (Voice)
- Lois Lane (Earth-132) (Single appearance)
- Ma Kent (Earth-132) (Single appearance)
- Pa Kent (Earth-132) (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Earth-One
- Earth
- Fortress of Solitude
- Smallville (Mentioned only)
- Krypton (In a photograph only)
- Kryptonopolis (In a photograph only)
- Earth
- Earth-132
- Earth
- Daily Planet (Mentioned only)
- Smallville
- Krypton
- Electric Cavern
- Kryptonopolis
- Krypton Zoo
- Sky Palace
- Earth
Items:
- Anti-Atomic Ray (Earth-132)
- Master Space Viewer (Earth-132)
- Microbe Ray (Earth-132)
- Power Ray (Earth-132)
- Heat Ray (Earth-132)
- Project Dummy (Earth-132)
- Robo (Earth-132)
- Signal-Watch (Earth-132)
- Skill Machine (Earth-132)
- Space Telescope (Earth-132)
- Suboscope (Earth-132)
- Super-Static Machine (Earth-132)
- Super-Static Ray (Earth-132)
- Super Univac
- Talent-Machine (Earth-132)
- Telepathy Helmets (Earth-132)
Vehicles:
- Jet Flyer (Earth-132)
- Kryptonian Rocket (Earth-132)
- Supersurfacer (Earth-132)
Notes
- Superman's Other Life is reprinted in The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told and Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told Vol. 2.
- "Superman's Other Life" is not an Imaginary Story, but the computer simulation in the story is very similar in function to an Imaginary Story, so this story is often considered an "honorary" Imaginary Story. Later the Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium would retcon these events happening in an alternate universe -- Earth-132.
See Also