I'm fairly sure the idea of Superman's aura was invented by John Byrne in the late 80s (circa 1987) when he revamped the comic book version of Superman. This revamp is what brought Jonathan and Martha Kent into their adult son's life, by the way. Earlier, in the comics, the Kents died when Clark was a teenager. In the Christopher Reeve movies, Jonathan died when Clark was a teenager, although Martha survived. As you may know, Jonathan recently died on the Smallville show, where Clark is in his late teens. The idea that both Jonathan and Martha are alive and a part of their adult son's life was brought to the comics by John Byrne in the late 80s, and it was transferred to the LNC ABC TV show in the 90s.
John Byrne also invented Superman's aura, as I said. Actually, the aura was used to explain Superman's invulnerability. The aura was created as Clark absorbed and metabolized yellow sunlight - as opposed to the red light from Krypton's sun - and it worked like a more or less impenetrable, invisible shield extending a few millimeters all around Clark's body. The aura also explained why his supersuit never got torn. However, Superman's cape wasn't protected by his aura, so for several years in the comics in the 80s and 90s, Superman was forever flying around with a tattered cape fluttering from his shoulders. Eventually, the comic book artists got tired of the extremely untidy look that the torn cape imparted to Superman. His cape is rarely torn any more, and there is generally no talk about his aura in the comics these days. I'd say that his aura has pretty much gone out of fashion. But the idea of the aura has been, as it were, preserved and fossilized in the ABC TV show, because that show is forever set in the heyday of the idea of Superman's aura.
Well, as a long-time comic book reader, I just think it's interesting to point out that many of the things that seem fresh and different about the LNC TV show were actually lifted straight from the Superman comics of that time. The reason why the Superman comics of today seem very different from the LNC TV show is that the comics have moved on since the mid-nineties, not necessarily in a better direction.
Ann
