Lets start from the top: In 1938 the character of superman was introduced to the world in Action Comics #1. At this time he was not all he is now. Then he could not fly,he didn't have laser vision,ice breath or the whole solar battery thing he has now. All he could had was super strength, leap tall buildings in a single bound, faster then a speeding bullet, and because of the super strength he had some invulnerability. He moved to Metropolis and orphan twice over, due to the death of his earth parents and the death of his Kryptonian parents as everyone knows because that is Superman's thing. Still the mild mannered reporter Clark Kent that we all know and love.
He continued as such, fighting Nazis, Communists and all the good things super heroes were doing at the time. In the 1950s, I'm not sure exactly when, the character developed more of those other abilities. Those being, flying, x-ray vision, heat vision, ice breath, being a solar battery AND his parents came back from the dead and just back into stories.
Cool.
