As powerful as Superman is, he remains as vulnerable to magic as any ordinary mortal. This has given him a slight disadvantage against foes like Mister Mxyzptlk, an imp from the 5th Dimension who routinely pops into the Man of Steel’s third-dimensional world to cause mischief. Thanks to his 5th Dimensional origins, Mxyzptlk’s abilities are indistinguishable from magic, allowing him to warp reality at his pleasure. While Mxyzptlk is usually a nuisance or a full-blown super villain, that’s not the case with all of his descendants – as Superman discovered when he met Klyzyzk Klzntplkz, the Superman of the 5th Dimension!
The oddball event happened in All-Star Superman #6 when a college-aged Clark Kent learned that his father Jonathan Kent had hired some new farm hands to bring in the harvest on the Kent Farm. These unusual men included a war veteran with a bandaged face, a short balding man, and a tall man named Calvin Elder. Clark found the newcomers strange and quickly learned they were in town for a very specific reason.
It turned out that all three men were from the future, and members of the “Superman Squad.” Charged with protecting space-time itself, the three claimed they were all descendants of Superman. Calvin revealed himself to Clark and stated his really name was “Kal Kent.” The bandaged Superman, meanwhile, was “The Unknown Superman” while the short man… was Klyzyzk Klzntplkz, the Superman of the 5th Dimension!
Stating he was the descendant of a “Superman Purple” who had fathered children with Quinto-Queen Gzntplzk of Zrrrf, the 5th Dimensional Superman revealed he was a very different breed of superhero. Sporting a variation of Superman’s classic costume, along with Mister Mxyzptlk’s trademark hat, Klyzyzk Klzntplkz took the lead in the Superman Squad’s mission to stop the Chronovore, a creature that could literally eat entire lifetimes. Klyzyzk Klzntplkz and the other Supermen succeeded in stopping the Chronovore, but it was later revealed that the whole reason they’d traveled back in time was to take care of the emergency so the young Superman could spend some time with Jonathan Kent before he suffered a fatal heart attack. Instead, the young Superman joined the other heroes in battle, ruining his chances of saying goodbye to his father.
In the end, however, readers saw that the Unknown Superman was actually an older Clark Kent who had traveled back in time with the squad to say goodbye to his father (who, it appeared, knew exactly who the bandaged man was). Thanking the other Supermen for their help, Clark returned to his own time to leave his younger self to grieve. While his ancestors may have included mischief makers like Mister Mxyzptlk, Klyzyzk Klzntplkz appeared to be a friendly, even noble, imp. He also possessed “5-D Vision” which he claimed was the result of intermingling Kryptonian blood with 5th Dimensional genes. Although he has yet to reappear, it’s heartening to know that in the future, Superman’s nobility has actually inspired the 5th Dimension.
