Next up for the month is a return to the world of Superman. Maybe
I should say Superman’s world? He does have more than one, you know. There’s
Earth, Lois, “MARTHA!!!”, and a little planet called Krypton. Usually, when we
see Krypton show up in the comics, it’s there to get “blowed up real good!” Not
many stories center on what Krypton was before its destruction, though. They’re
few and far between. You did have some stories in the 70’s about Krypton’s
past. You’ve had a couple of modern stories. Then, there’s today’s subject.
Today’s pick is the 1987 miniseries, The World of
Krypton. When DC rebooted Superman’s timeline, all of that history was thrown
out. This left John Byrne, the head writer on the Superman books at that time,
to rebuild everything from scratch. Instead of a utopian-like planet in space,
Byrne made Krypton into a cold, dying, emotionless planet. If you’ve recently
visited comic stores, DC reprinted the first issue when Krypton, a new Syfy
show, premiered. By the way, I still haven’t watched that show yet.
I found all four issues in the cheap bin years ago. It’s one
that I’ve held off of reading for a while. I guess I was waiting for a time
like this. John Byrne handled all the writing for the 4-issue mini. Handling the
pencils was Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. Rick Bryant was the inker for
the first three issues while Carlos Garzon handled the last issue. So, how did
a lively, utopian-like planet become such a stale, soulless place?
Superman: The World of Krypton
Writer: John Byrne
Pencils: Mike Mignola
Inks: Rick Bryant and Carlos Garzon
Colors: Petra Scotese
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Mike Carlin
SYNOPSIS
The miniseries basically goes into how a world full of life
and wonder became a dreary, cold place. It focuses on Superman’s line of the
family specifically Van-L, one of his ancestors. The mini begins over 100,000
years ago during Krypton’s Golden Age. Van-L is living the young life with his
girlfriend, Vara. While things seem to be perfect, not all is well on the
planet. Krypton’s technology is so advanced that they have gotten to the
cloning stage. Each person has three clones that they can use for spare parts.
Some feel like this is wrong, believing that clones have rights too. Because of
this, riots have erupted in the city of Kandor.
Looks like Van-L got his warbrobe from the Greek gods or something. "Hermes, lend me your best swimwear!"
The controversy over cloning hits a big turning point when Kan-Z,
an acquaintance of Van-L’s, kills his mother and fiancée. It’s later revealed
that his mother used one of her clones and designed her to be a mate for her
son. Kan-Z released this news all over Krypton. As you can guess, most
Kryptonians didn’t take that news well. Van-L even loses Vara because the whole
conflict. Then, Kandor gets destroyed by an anti-clone terrorist group called
Black Zero. Because of this, the world was engulfed in a civil war and it
lasted for years.
That armor looks awesome.
A century passes and we find Van-L in a Kryptonian battlesuit.
Krypton is in ruins and we find out that Black Zero has a weapon that could
destroy Krypton. Van-L finds an ally in a scarred woman with cybernetic
implants. He and the woman, who we later find out is Vara, search for Black
Zero’s base and find it. They try to keep the leader (who’s revealed to be
Kan-Z) from detonating the device but are unable to do so. Van-L instead blows
up the device and more or less saves the planet. Van-L is the only one to
survive thanks to his battle armor. He is eventually found by his son, Jan-L.
1,000 centuries pass and we find a young Jor-El learning
about all of what his ancestor went through. We also find out that Kryptonian
society has completely changed. Everyone is in suits that’ll help them live
longer, things are pretty clean, and folk are pretty emotionless. Kryptonians
rarely engage in physical contact. Jor-El is kind of the exception, though, and
he shows this when he is shown his bride-to-be, Lara.
So, this is what the Superbowl looks like on Krypton!
We then cut to Present day Earth and find Superman doing his
thing. He later meets with Lois and pretty much tells her about Krypton’s last
days. He tells her about how Krypton began to experience weird earthquakes and
how many Kryptonians started to die out. Jor-El ultimately figured out that the
device that Black Zero unleashed had a deadly, lingering effect on Krypton. Realizing
that the planet doesn’t have long, he devised a plan to send Kal-El, his son
who’s still in a gestation chamber, to Earth. We then pretty much get the last
moments of Jor-El and Lara taken right from the Man of Steel mini. The story
ends with Superman ending the story of Krypton with Lois.
We even get this rendition from the Post-Crisis reboot where Lara wigs out at shirtless men.
OPINION
I thought that this was an interesting read. While it’s not
great, it does some good things. It was nice to see what this version of
Krypton was before it died. I don’t know what Pre-Crisis Krypton was like, but
I know it wasn’t this grim (not including Krypton’s end, of course). It’s a
story that fell right in line with what Byrne was trying to do with the Superman
books at the time. I also liked how he tried to tie in the El family by
concentrating on Van-L and Jor-El. Kal-El (Superman) just finishes off on
things we have some knowledge of.
I thought the story of Krypton going to war over cloning was
an interesting idea. In the real world, we always see conflict over certain
ideals. This side believes one thing while the other side believes something
else. Things don’t really go bad until something major happens and we got that
with Kan-Z’s actions. By the way, that was nuts. You don’t think you’d find
incest in a Superman book but here it is. It was also interesting to see what
happened to Krypton after the big war. The idea that their society may had gone
too far with technology was definitely present.
The artwork was pretty good for the most part. I thought Old
Krypton had a nice look to it. It was like Mignola threw Flash Gordon and
Ancient Greece's fashion into a blender. I thought the character designs and
costumes looked pretty good. That Kryptonian battlesuit looks awesome. I can
see why it’s stuck around for so long in Superman’s history. Mignola even
handles the more modern Krypton pretty well. It’s not hard to mess up folk who
pretty much dress the same way. Even though we see little of modern day Earth,
I thought he handled those scenes well for the most part.
I wish we got to see more of what happened between these eras.
Even though I thought the mini was good, it does have some
problems. There’s a part of me that wishes that we got to see more of Krypton’s
past. All we really get is Van-L’s era and Jor’El’s era. It would have been
nice to see what happened between those two eras. It would have been nice to
see what led their society to become so insular and stale. It also would have
been better if we didn’t get so much of Superman here. While it was nice to see
him and Lois, most of that time could have been saved for more stuff on
Krypton. I guess Byrne had to get some of modern day Earth in since it is a
Superman book, after all.
It also has kind of an abrupt ending. I even thought it was a
little weird that Byrne literally copies Jor-El’s last moments from the Man of
Steel mini. While I do like the artwork, it has moments where it’s not as great.
I feel that as it moves along, the artwork starts to get less refined. The one
with my least favorite art is actually the last issue. Also, some of the faces
can sometimes look a little weird. There is this one look Superman makes in his
issue and I think it just looks funny. Other than that, Byrne’s weird dialogue
choices, and his version of Lois Lane, this was a nice read.
Wow, Superman's face looks weird in that last panel. "Hey kids, it's me! Superman! Hurhurhurhurhur!!!"
In the end, it was nice to finally read this. Krypton’s history
is actually kind of cool when it gets mentioned. Heck, one of the things I like
about 2013’s Man of Steel is how much backstory you actually get about Krypton.
Hopefully, the new show on Syfy is somewhat interesting. I also hope it gets
another season since Superman’s world is cool even when he’s not a part of it.
Well, I think it’s time to move over to Marvel’s side of things. Until then,
Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there. Also, find out what the Silver Age
writers were smoking. I guess this isn’t the only Superman story to find weird family relations… ugh.
Oh man... I think Action Comics #593 is less squeamish.
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