Top 5 superheroes with the most tragic origin stories

2. Superman

Having your parents die when you’re a baby is one thing but to lose your whole home planet at the same time is another – and it’s safe to say that this makes Superman’s backstory one of the most tragic.

Granted, creators have played fast and loose over the moniker Last Son of Krypton over the years, considering the number of Kryptonians Superman and Supergirl have gone up against, but that doesn’t change the fact that the pair lost their whole families, communities and lives as they knew them.

Supergirl could be a 2b, but I think having a more stable foster family situation takes her out of the list. The two have struggled to control their powers under Earth’s yellow sun, and it was both their new foster families that helped them control their powers.

What sets Superman apart, however, is the death of his earthly father Jonathan Kent. In the original Superman, Pa Kent dies due to a heart attack (a moment recreated in Smallville). Man of Steel decided to take his death even further by having Pa Kent get sucked into a tornado.

We also see in Man of Steel that he makes a concerned effort to conceal his identity and abilities or else the U.S. government would swoop in.

Again, the biggest thing for Superman is the destruction of his home planet when he was an infant, for he never truly knew his birth parents (all he had were just holograms and projections), but some of his early years on Earth saw him suffer more heartbreak.