Next up for the month is a villain who is in the D-list: the Kryptonite Man Even though the Kryptonite Man is a mostly unused
villain, he still has something that can knock Superman down to his knees. To
give you a hint, it’s all in his name. The name has been passed around to
different folk, but the effect is still the same: they are embowed with green
kryptonite radiation. The Kryptonite Man
first appeared in Superboy #83 (1960) and has sparsely appeared since then. I
think there were 3 versions in the Post-Crisis era and one of them was a weird
clone of Superman. Since I’ll be spending some time in that era this month, I
think it’s time for something more recent.
The Kryptonite Man made a return during Grant Morrison’s run
on Action Comics. This time, he was Clay Ramsey, the infamous wifebeater that
Superman threw around in his early days. Ramsey was a part of Vyndtyvx’s (Lord
Vinnie) for Morrison’s run. Today’s issue is the annual from that run
that featured the villain. Sholly Fisch, the backup writer on Action Comics, wrote
the whole issue. Cully Hamner handled the artwork. There is a backup “written”
by Max Landis with artwork by Ryan Sook at the back about the Atomic Skull. I’m
not talking about the backup here but I can say is that it was alright if a bit
brief.
Action Comics Annual #1
Writer: Sholly Fisch
Artist: Cully Hamner
Colors: Val Staples
Letters: Steve Wands
Editors: Wil Moss and Matt Idelson
“Vulnerable”
The issue starts out two weeks ago after the events of
Action Comics #8. Ramsey is getting interviewed by a scientist for Project
K-Man. His reason for wanting to be here are simple: he hates Superman and
wants him to pay for taking his wife. The scientist warns
him that the procedure could give him power or kill him. Ramsey doesn’t care
what happens. A few days later, Superman visits John Henry Irons at his lab. He
wonders if he has to worry about John doing anything about their previous
encounters. John just laughs and offers him some coffee.
Superman: Well, you were hanging out with the guys who tortured me, so I kinda have to ask, ya know?
The next day, Genreral Sam Lane is letting Lex Luthor go
from his consulting contract because of his actions during the first Action
story arc. Luthor protests but General Lane has Luthor thrown out. The next
day, the scientist puts Ramsey under the procedure and exposes him to
Kryptonite. The procedure starts out as expected but things go wrong. Too much
energy gets used and the lab blows up. Sometime later, Superman is making
another rescue when Ramsey, now infused with Kryptonite, attacks him. Superman
recognizes Ramsey as the abuser and starts to get weak around him.
Ramsey almost takes Superman down but John joins the battle
in his Steel armor. Steel takes on Kryptonite Man while Superman swings by
John’s lab to pick up a radiation suit. It protects him long enough for them
both to take down Kryptonite Man. Afterwards, John tells Superman that he’s not
going to go into the superhero business. Instead, he’s going to try to help in
another way with his new tech company, Steelworks. We even see what he gets up
to with the company which tries to give impoverished people cheap technology.
Later, we find out that it was Lex Luthor who funded Project K-Man by stealing
shards of Kryptonite from the military. The issue ends with General Lane going
to Ramsey in jail and asking if he could be used as a deterrent for Superman.
……………………………………………………..
I thought this was a nice story. The writing was good
all-around. It looked at things that were introduced in Morrison’s run on the
book and expanded on them. I thought it was an interesting move to make the new
Kryptonite Man the domestic abuser from Action Comics #1 (1938). It’s not the
first time that incident has popped in modern comics but I think it’s the first
time where that moment’s been tied to a villain. It was also nice to see John
Henry Irons play a role here. While his backstory has changed, it still works
here since he sees Superman as an inspiration. Luthor even gets to play a small
role as well.
The artwork is pretty good. I’ve seen Hamner on a few things
and what he churns out is of quality. His Superman looked pretty cool even
though he’s in that armor. His rendition of Steel and the Kryptonite Man were
nice too. The action was big and the smaller moments were nice. There really
isn’t anything about this story I don’t like. The only thing that I could
nitpick is Ramsey himself. He’s just a complete a-hole. At least he gets what’s
coming to him towards the end. Also, did this really need to cost about 5 bucks?
Overall, this is a nice story and a nice annual overall. You
know, I just noticed that the villains in the annual (Kryptonite Man and Atomic
Skull) are apparently d-bags to women. It’s probably a coincidence but you
never know. The Krtptonite Man is alright but he’s not one of my favorites.
There is a reason the character’s barely popped up in comics and TV. It’s all
in the name. Next time, it’ll be another character that is definitely better
than this dude. Until then, Peace, God bless, and be careful out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment