Superman is the stereotype of a superhero: he wears a bizarre costume, uses a nickname, and fights evil with the help of extraordinary abilities. Although there were earlier characters who might fit this definition, it was Superman who popularized the superhero genre and established its conventions. He was the best-selling superhero in American comics until the 1980s. Superman was born on the fictional planet Krypton and was named Kal-El. As a child, his parents brought him to Earth in a small spacecraft just minutes before Krypton was destroyed in a natural disaster. His ship lands in the American countryside, near the fictional town of Smallville.