Random Happenstance

Over at Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep, with the recent reveal of Mr. Oz, Snell wonders "of DC's growing hatred of Krypton." It's been going on for a while and is somewhat troubling: Superman, raised by humans, turned out all right; Supergirl did the same with her cousin as an example. And just about every Kryptonian you meet besides them, ranges from inept and corrupt to genocidal madman, and that's not even counting the Phantom Zone villains. It's even more pronounced in movies and TV but certainly wasn't always the case: Kandor, while tiny, used to be cool; and even had it's own superheroes Nightwing and Flamebird. Then again, I'm not going to paint a rosy picture of a society that gave us this douchebag: from 1964, Adventure Comics #320, "Revenge of the Knave from Krypton!" Written by Jerry Siegel and Otto Binder, pencils by John Forte and George Papp, inks by Sheldon Moldoff, George Papp, and Al Plastino. (Reprinted in digest form in Best of DC #44, and that might even be a reprint of a reprint.) The story also reprints some material from Adventure Comics #287, "War of the Superboys" Written by Jerry Siegel, art by George Papp.

"Knave" is a rather outdated word, even for comics; I'm surprised they didn't go with "rogue" or even "scofflaw." Except alliteration, duh. "The Juvenile Delinquent from Krypton!" wouldn't exactly sing on the page either, but that's Dev-Em in a nutshell. Living next-door to the El's before Krypton exploded, Dev-Em was a troublemaking, thieving vandal who had his parents snowed into thinking he was a genius, by stealing inventions and passing them off as his own for a laugh. (I guess your parents might go easier on you if they think you're a genius, maybe.) Dev even babysat a young Kal-El, who we see playing with Krypto, and they catch the knave later breaking into Jor-El's lab. Jor-El gives him the boot, but doesn't report him to the Science Police or his parents out of respect for said parents: Kryptonian privilege. Still, Dev-Em had seen that Krypton was going to explode, and decides to save himself and his family, which puts him two up on Jor-El.

Years later, Dev-Em's makeshift spaceship lands in Smallville--like 90% of everything from Krypton. Waking up with super-powers (and leaving his folks sleeping in suspended animation) he wastes no time utterly destroying Superboy's life; banishing him to the Phantom Zone, then disguising himself as S-B and going on a rampage. (Dev-Em seems to stop just shy of murdering anyone, probably because this isn't a modern DC story...) Afterwards, when humanity hates Superboy, Dev-Em releases him from the Zone, knowing that would be unbearable torment to the Teen of Steel; then promptly pisses off to the future, sleeping parents in tow. There really isn't any reason given why he should go to the future, except then he could show up in a Legion of Super-Heroes story. Superboy is up a creek, until supporting character MVP Chief Parker tells the public it was red Kryptonite that made Superboy temporarily bad; knowing the real truth would be too hard to swallow.

Recapping Dev-Em's first appearance takes up about five pages in this one; but Superboy is surprised to catch Dev-Em in the future, breaking into the Legion's headquarters! A serious crime, which would normally get the perp turned over to the Inter-Stellar Counter-Intelligence Corps; except the ISCIC ICC gave Dev-Em that assignment! Now reformed since "wrong-doers always lose out!" Dev-Em had been working undercover, to break Molock the Merciless's Cosmic Spy Legion, all of which is fleshed out about as much as this paragraph. Yeah. Verifying Dev-Em's assignment, the ICC head asks Superboy to take over, as he was more experienced in counter-espionage. I was going to question that, but he had passed himself off as Clark Kent all those years, so I guess so. Supes takes the mission, wondering if he's undercutting his old enemy.

Disguising himself as Dev-Em, Superboy takes some Legion trinkets, to pass off as "security measures" to Molock. Molock double-crosses "Dev-Em" almost immediately, removing his powers with gold Kryptonite, which permanently removes a Kryptonian's powers! (Which I always thought was too much; not just because if it did, Lex Luthor would've gotten himself a grill of the stuff...) Except Super-Pet Proty, having read a warning in Dev-Em's mind, tagged along and subbed himself in for the gold-K, and Superboy wipes the floor with the Cosmic Spy Legion, which might just be four guys. Dev-Em is offered Legion membership (even though in theory, duplicate powers aren't allowed) but he declines. He would appear occasionally in Legion comics over the years, but only sparingly; of course there are post-Crisis, post Infinite Crisis versions that are more criminal or depraved than the original, but Dev-Em hasn't appeared post-New 52 yet. Considering how evil the average Kryptonian has been getting, that might be for the best. Worse, I'd be afraid they'd bring him back as "the Millennial from Krypton!" I don't know if he ever woke up his parents, either...