Review: World of Krypton Back-Up Feature In Superman Annual #2

After being in the back pages of Action Comics for a few months, The World of Krypton back-up feature suddenly appeared in the back of Superman Annual #2. I wasn't expecting to see it here. It isn't even mentioned on the cover. I hope that people following this story know enough to look here if they want. This didn't seem to make sense to me, unless DC wants this story to be done prior to Greg Pak taking over Action. Maybe they needed to sneak in a chapter somewhere.

The sad thing here is that I had high hopes for this story when it first started. The wide eyed young Jor-El and the stern military cadet Lara was a sort of new take on the characters and seemed to capture some of the re-invigoration that the New 52 was supposed to do. In those early chapters, writer Frank Hannah seemed to capture the exuberance that these two young people brought to their very different lives.

Unfortunately, the story has taken something of a left hand turn and veered more towards the 'over the top' theatrics I have come to expect in the New 52. Instead of letting the characters carry the story, this has become a story driven by action. Worse, the young Jor-El has become a scientist engaging in mind control. And the young Lara has become an angry woman with a cavalier attitude towards killing. Suddenly we went to far afield with these character. Re-imagination is one thing. Re-writing characters completely is something else.

It also doesn't help that Philip Tan's slick art isn't on this story either.

Having escaped the Eradicator's troops, Lara and Jor-El head back to the science council to see if they can help.

I find it interesting that the head of the council says the Eradicator doesn't have many followers. This guy took over the capitol building. He has held it without much interference. He sent a troop ship to find Jor-El. This sounds like someone with a lot of followers.

I can feel that Hannah wants to bring some sort of 'opposites attract' feeling to Jor-El and Lara. But it doesn't work when I have to hear Jor-El defending the machine he built to 'persuade' people to thing creatively. I don't care what he thinks. That's mind control.

Now the Colonel wants to up the ante from persuasion to total control. Only Jor-El knows the machine that well.

Hmmm ... maybe coming here wasn't a bright idea.

I will say, the most sympathetic character here is Jax-Ur. He seems like a follower who got caught up with the wrong people. I don't get the sense he necessarily has bought into the Eradicator's ideas as much as got carried along with what he thought would be the winning side.

But he definitely has feelings for Lara and is willing to lie to save her. I do like that Lara won't give up her principles even if it means her death.

Captured, Jor-El is strapped to the 'harmonic resonator' and told to activate the Colonel's protocols.

I would like to think that Jor-El would rather die than enslave the planet. I suppose he could always use the machine to control the minds of the Colonel's men.

Anyways. It just feels like this story started out rather wondrous but the bloom is off the rose. Let's hope Hannah is able to pull off a miracle and have the ending recapture some of that earlier spirit.

Overall grade: C

Map Of Krypton

We have been seeing a bit more of Krypton this month what with Supergirl #0 and Superman #0 being primarily set on the planet. We also witnessed the clone uprising in Superboy #0 as well.

With that in mind I thought I would post a Silver Age map of Krypton.

I think it is pretty interesting to see how many of these Kryptonian landmarks and ideas have survived over time, having been utilized in the pre-Crisis world, the Modern Age of comics, and now the New 52.

My favorite landmark on Krypton has to be the Fire Falls. I covered some of the more memorable and recent Fire Fall stories over time on the blog. You can get to those posts here. The Falls have survived all the ages and were just seen in June in Supergirl #10.

Argo City also has had a pretty storied comic history. The concept of Zor-El encasing the city in a shield to survive Krypton's destruction has also survived the various reboots the DCU has gone through.

And even the shrunken city of Kandor in the end has been seen in the Silver Age, Modern Age, and DCnU.

Fort Rozz was seen last in the New Krypton story arc as being a citadel/jail that was flung into the Phantom Zone in its entirety. And the concept of 'weather control towers' was seen just a couple of weeks ago in Superboy #0.

I guess if I am a proud enough geek to have a favorite Kryptonian landmark then I should be proud enough to admit I have a second favorite too. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for the Scarlet Jungle, only because of the great Alan Moore story in DC Comics Presents #85.

I found this map in reprinted Superman Annual #1. The reprint was released in 1998. The original was published in 1960.

Will other parts of historical Krypton be seen in the DCnU?

Does anyone else have a favorite spot on Krypton?

Review: Superman Annual #14

Superman Annual #14 continues the origin theme running through all the super-annuals. Action Comics had the origin of Nightwing and Flamebird. Supergirl will have the origin of Superwoman and Linda Lang.

The annual not only recapped Mon-El's origin but also shed light in the origin of Daxam as a whole.

Written by James Robinson and drawn by Javier Pina, it certainly provides significant back story for Lar Gand.

The annual starts with a bit of a deus ex machina as Mon-El discovers 2 small red crystals which, when touched, seems to download historical data into Mon-El's mind. After some small interactions with the crystals and some glimpses of his past, Mon-El finally gives in and opens up his mind to them.

These are the crystals that Sodam Yat gave Tellus a few issues back. But how does Yat have them? And why does he feel that Mon-El needs this information now. And does this mean that Tellus was responsible for the curative potion?

Hopefully all these questions surrounding Mon-El will be answered.

Daxam's past actually begins on Krypton!

Back when Krypton was an expansionist society, it visited and invaded many worlds. Some of these invasions failed - like these images from (I assume) Tamaran, Imsk, and Durla.

But others succeeded. Kryptonian explorer Dax-Am led the expedition to Mon-El's homeworld. Not only was Daxam conquered but the Kryptonian conquerors accepted the Daxamite natives, even co-mingling with them. After a few generations, the people on the planet no longer considered themselves Kryptonians. They were Daxamites.

Hmmm ... so Kryptonians and Daxamites are cousins with the same ancestors. Interesting.

While we might be used to reading Daxam as an isolationist planet, in its infancy it also was led by explorers.

But rather than conquest, the Daxamites hoped to share with and learn from other cultures. We see the Daxamites landing on a number of worlds peacefully - planets whose names I don't know but which look like the home worlds of Tigorr, Blok, Tomar-Re, and Despero.

It looks as though they even journeyed to Earth. It looks as though they were the reason why the Incans were so advanced.

And those interspecies relationships and co-mingling continued here as well. We see a female Daxamite explorer talking with an Incan about their love for one another. Realizing a Terran/Daxamite child would have powers under Earth's yellow suns and this child might upset the balance on the planet, she returns home.

Fearing she and her child might be shunned because of this racial status, the space traveller stashes her ship when she returns home to Daxam. She realizes she might need to beat a quick escape back to Earth.

The child is born and lives on the planet (I presume) without any major incident. But the Terran genes spreads over the planet and all descendants of that Daxamite seem to crave the stars and have a need to return to their ancestral home world of Earth.

However, those with more pure Kryptonian heritage wish to stay on Daxam and become more and more isolationist.

The two groups cannot reconcile and as a result a civil war ... The Science Wars ... breaks out.

I don't know if I like how there is a genetic disposition to want to explore or stay isolated.

The Isolationists win and form a ruling body called the Sorrow Cult. This cult comes to power centuries after the war and rewrite the history books instilling a fear of expanding into the minds of Daxam's citizens. They literally shut down the skies of the planet.

At some point in time The Eradicator also comes to the world to help purge the sin of Kryptonian expansion. It makes sense that he would target Daxam. Moreover, it is hinted at that it was the Eradicator who tinkered with the Daxamite genome, giving the natives their vulnerability to lead. It is simply another way to keep the Daxamites on their home planet.

The inclusion of the Eradicator is interesting. I liked the Eradicator concept back in the Byrne/Jurgens Superman era so it was nice to see it still kicking around in current continuity.

Despite the ban on space exploration, some Daxamites (especially those with the Earth genes) still wish to reach for the stars.

At last we see a young Lar Gand, who along with a friend named Van, have discovered the abandoned space ship from the female Daxamite explorer from millenia past. Gand thinks it should be used.

When a Sorrow Cultist learns of their plans, the Cultist breaks into the duo's lab with the plan to arrest the two for treason. Van tells Lar to run off and use the ship while he deals with the authorities. Hmmm .. this might explain why Sodam Yat was so interested in Mon-El. He could still be wanted as a criminal on Daxam!

The ship takes its preprogrammed flight back to Earth but crashes in Smallville rather than Peru for some reason. There a confused Mon-El meets a young Clark.

I think we know the rest of Mon-El's history from this point.

Well ... almost all of it.

It turns out that the woman Daxamite who introduced the Terran gene on Daxam is named Bal Gand and is a direct ancestor of Mon-El.

One thing I'll say about James Robinson, he is doing his best to make me want to care about Mon-El. By weaving Kryptonian and Earth into Gand's heritage, Robinson has put forth a new spin on the character. But I don't know if I care about Mon-El enough to want to read about centuries of Daxam's history.

I guess I have to wonder if all these changes are an improvement on the past origins. Is the Bal Gand revelation a way to give some sense of destiny for Mon-El's activities on Earth? Why would Tellus/Sodam Yat think Mon needs to know all this now. Why do I as a reader need to know all this now? And doesn't it all fit together almost too neatly?

I did enjoy how so much of the DC universe was seen here, how much reach Krypton and Daxam have had.

I admit Robinson's Superman has left me somewhat wanting. This annual left me feeling the same way. I feel like I have enough back-story for everyone we have seen in the book. Now I want story. Now I want to see how it all fits together and moves forward.

Overall grade: B-

Kryptonian Fire Falls

One of the more interesting panels from last week's Supergirl #43 was this one (cropped) where Kara, on her crest day, is seen giggling with Thara.

Kara then states that this was before the two of them went to the Fire Falls, before Thara saved her life. Certainly that sounds like an important event in the two friends' relationship. I have to assume we will see that story somewhere in the near future, maybe in the Secret Files issue?

Anyways, it got me to be thinking about the Fire Falls and Krypton and what I remember of them.

Here on this old (and most likely outdated) map of the 'New World' hemisphere of Krypton, we see the Fire Falls were located in the Scarlet Jungle in the middle of the continent of Lurvan.

This map was in 1981's Krypton Chronicles #2, written by E. Nelson Bridwell and drawn by Durt Swan. Chronicles was a 3 part miniseries in which Superman researched his family tree. The following story comes from the second issue as well and involves the Fire Falls.

One of Superman's ancestors was Hatu-El. He lived during the times when an alien race called the Vrangs had conquered Krypton.

A fellow slave aptly named Val-Lor stood up to the Vrangs and got executed for his insubordination. Inspired by Val-Lor, Hatu-El led a small rebellion. They killed their captors with stolen laser rifles from the Vrangs. Unfortunately, their weapons soon ran out of energy and it seemed that the rebellion was going to be squelched.

Hatu had the great idea to hide in the scarlet jungle near the Fire Falls, a place the Vrangs had not yet explored.

Jerry-rigging a small turbine, Hatu was able to use the energy of the Fire Falls to recharge the rebels weapons cache. If not for the Fire Falls, the rebellion would have failed.

Outnumbered and now outgunned by the Kryptonian rebels, the Vrangs where forced to flee the planet. Hatu-El had successfully freed all of Krypton! He deferred all congratulations saying that it was Val-Lor who was the real hero.

I will save my favorite Silver Age 'Fire Falls story' for a full review when we get the Thara/Kara story. But here is the cover for a tease.

Have there been any more recent depictions of the Fire Falls?
I have to say that I did not collect Superman titles for much of the early 2000's so I may have missed some.