Normally when a superhero from Marvel or DC Comics is celebrating a birthday it refers to the anniversary of when that character was created. Most comic book characters’ actual birthday is never mentioned in comic books because the writers don’t want to figure out what age each character should be. There is one exception though. Superman actually does have a birthday that has been made known in the comics.
It’s difficult to nail down when Superman’s birthday on the Earth calendar would be because the Kryptons have a different calendar. Every 18 Kryptonian years is equivalent to 25 Earth years. When Superman’s birthday was first revealed in Action Comics it was decided that Superman would celebrate his birthday in October, even though by Kryptonian time Superman wouldn’t technically even have a birthday every Earth year.
Of course, just like every other comic book character, Superman writers are often retconning many facts about his past. Superman’s Earth birthday is now on February 29th. Sounds to me like the writers were trying to be cute by making Superman have an odd birthday that only occurs once every four years but really it doesn’t make sense at all. If Superman gets to choose an Earth day to celebrate his birthday then why would he choose a day that only occurs once every four years? It also should be noted that Superman does also celebrate his Kryptonian birthday any time that it comes around.
This is when it starts to get a little confusing though. Everyone knows that Superman has a secret identity as a newspaper reporter named Clark Kent. Superman crashed on Earth when his home planet of Krypton was destroyed. The Kents found Superman, adopted him and raised him as Clark. Naturally Clark needed a birthday so the Kents chose the day that Superman crashed on Earth, June 18th.
So Superman is pretty much invulnerable, he can fly and run at the speed of light, he has both x-ray vision and heat vision, he is a good looking guy and he gets to celebrate three birthdays? Some guys just get all the luck.
