To what extent was the crash of baby Kal-El's rocket noticed worldwide?

[Buried Alien]

The crash of that meteor in Russia the other day, said to be about the size of a bus, has led me to wonder: to what extent was the crash of baby Kal-El's rocket in Kansas noticed worldwide on various incarnations of DC Earth? Be it residents of the region or astronomers worldwide, it's doubtful that only the Kents were aware of the crash.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Kensei]

The meteor made world headlines because it blew up over a city and injured a thousand people. Astronomers were all monitoring the larger asteroid that was passing by Earth at the same time, but no one saw the Russian meteor coming. It was a complete surprise despite its 50+ foot size. Kal-El's rocket- which didn't really "crash" but "crash landed" as it was designed to do- came down in a rural area where only the Kents happened to see it. Perhaps it didn't pass directly over nearby Smallville so only scattered farmers were going to be potential witnesses. If it was picked up by radar by either NASA or the military, it depends on which telling of the story we're talking about and which time period. If it happened within the era of UFOs it would have been recorded as one of those, and the military stays tight-lipped about those. A story could have easily been written with soldiers combing the Smallville area asking everyone about it and the Kents just saying, "Nope, didn't see a thing." Then filed away as an unsolved radar contact case. Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

[Self-DCeit]

Sounds about right. And they did touch on it in Action Comics.

[The Frozen Reptile]

It's a time period thing, right? In the original, it landed before WWI, no detection technology would have existed or placed in the Kansas area. In later eras, this is an area where people would doubt and mock any eyewitnesses. And the military would not have shown up in force, as people would have talked about it. However, there might have been a fighter intercept, which might have only detected as a meteor.

We are also discounting Kryptonian technology. They could easily have a way to disrupt our primitive (to them) detection technology so that there is no readings at all.

[Auguste Dupin]

The crash of that meteor in Russia the other day, said to be about the size of a bus, has led me to wonder: to what extent was the crash of baby Kal-El's rocket in Kansas noticed worldwide on various incarnations of DC Earth? Be it residents of the region or astronomers worldwide, it's doubtful that only the Kents were aware of the crash.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Well, in the new 52, the US miltary arrived about 5 minutes after the Kents and take the rocket, so it has at least been noticed by the US government.

[adkal]

In another version (a 'what if', as it were), it was tracked and landed in the ocean - and the Americans and Russians raced to retrieve it.

The JMS 'Earth One' version was a bit hard to miss, even if it had tech which cloaked it from radar, etc - that ship is huge.

Usually, the rocket's barely the size of a compact car.


Oh, and over in Lois & Clark no one knew the rocket had landed and it was actually Superman that Jonathan and Martha saw and mistook for a 'meteor' - and, it seems, that was what the military spotted, too...

[Mat001]

Post Crisis, the Manhunters had followed Kal-El's ship to Earth and had used their technology to kick up a major blizzard in the midwest, which made it difficult for the government to find it. Not to mention, it allowed the Kents the time to take Clark in and raise him as their own. J'onn J'onzz did spot the ship coming in over Colorado, which lead to his following it to Smallville as he was curious as to what it was.

As noted, Grant Morrison had his take whereby he had the Kents take Clark, but leave the ship and put in a deformed calf, to fool the government as they had tracked the ship.

[adkal]

Post Crisis, the Manhunters had followed Kal-El's ship to Earth and had used their technology to kick up a major blizzard in the midwest, which made it difficult for the government to find it. Not to mention, it allowed the Kents the time to take Clark in and raise him as their own. J'onn J'onzz did spot the ship coming in over Colorado, which lead to his following it to Smallville as he was curious as to what it was.

Then he found them, realised what the baby was, and thought 'oh fudge...hmm...maybe it'll work out, though, so I'll let them have him for now but keep an eye on him'

As noted, Grant Morrison had his take whereby he had the Kents take Clark, but leave the ship and put in a deformed calf, to fool the government as they had tracked the ship.

They didn't put the calf in there, Jon went back with the calf and told them he'd found their spaceman.