Thanks to
Day of the Triffids, the BBC's
Day of the Triffids, and
Night of the Comet; I have an irrational aversion to watching any big astronomical events. Would I have made an exception for this one? Mmm, no. From 1978,
Action Comics #489, "Krypton Dies Again!" Written by Cary Bates, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Frank Chiaramonte.
I honestly thought if I searched that title in the GCD, I'd get twenty results--I'm pretty sure this was a plot point in the post-
Crisis Action #600--but the light of Krypton's explosion was about to reach earth. And Superman doesn't seem to be taking it well, as he's thrown himself into saving people and fighting disasters right and left. Seems like a lot of accidents all at once, though: a nuclear missile is launched from a sub as an oopsie, for one. After that, Supes gets grabbed by a yellow beam--miscolored? Since it's Green Lantern, as the JLA wanted to have a word with him. Superman answers in Kryptonese, which out of the heroes there, only Batman spoke fluently--I am not sure if that was seen before, probably in
World's Finest, or pulled out of nowhere; but Bats says Superman has another reason for pushing himself like that, and the Kryptonese was to honor the tragedy of Krypton.
Meanwhile, in Kandor, Supergirl has to defend her cousin, who is seen as maybe not mourning in the proscribed manner, but has a reason the Kandorians should know. It's Brainiac, who has challenged Superman to battle and "pre-set
cosmic bombs" to preclude interference from the JLA. Brainiac, somewhat snarkier than usual, also does a lot of talking since he knows Supes would only answer in Kryptonian; but he started the fight fourteen minutes before Krypton's light was set to reach earth, mocking that he will be "too occupied with me to pay your proper respects when the
big burst finally
arrives!" Thoughtfully, Brainiac makes sure Superman gets to see the explosion--by forcing him too, magnetizing him to his ship, since he has calculated the light will blind him! It's a cliffhanger ending, since the rest of the issue is an Atom story.
Get you a friend like Batman who's willing to go that extra mile & learn your native alien language that probably sounds like Klingon or any of those other godforsaken Star Trek/Star Wars made up languages just because he cares...or of course he probably has an ulterior motive that'll come into play later down the line & probably NOT in Clark's favor, unless it entails a Kryptonian invasion of Earth, which I'm probably pretty damn sure Bruce is ALWAYS on the lookout for, you know, just in case. And that's just Pre-Crisis Bruce. We ALL know how paranoid Post-Crisis Bruce was & still is.
ReplyDeletePretty damn evil and UBER dickish scheme by Brainiac as well. Good for him.
No, pre-Crisis Batman and Superman were friends until the 80's so it was just him taking Clark up on the offer to learn something new. Pre-Crisis Bruce was a bit of a nerd at times- he loved learning new things for the sake of learning. And yes, it was one of those 50's issues of World's Finest where they established Bruce had learned Kryptonese.
ReplyDeleteWhile it seems like they do a 'light from Krypton exploding reaching Earth' story every reboot, it's usually a last page reveal for heartstrings effect. There have been a bunch of 'here's how Krypton really died' stories too but most of them focus on who did it rather than the event itself.
I've actually read the rest of this storyline, in a Brainiac-focused trade paperback. I believe it was a three-parter and I don't think it's spoiling anything to tell you, Superman does get blinded by the light. The rest of the story is a bit standard and predictable, unfortunately. Cary Bates is a great Superman writer but not that great with endings for longer stories.
@H:
ReplyDeleteSo what you're telling me is Cary Bates listened to A LOT of Manfred Mann the day he wrote this. Nice.
@ Mr. Morbid:
ReplyDeleteTook me a minute to get the reference (I'm not a big music guy). Maybe I could have phrased that better but, whatever. I get the feeling it was just a joke anyway. I imagine Cary's musical tastes are a bit more eclectic than that. He's a pretty solid writer otherwise, especially in collaboration with Elliot S! Maggin. Definitely an underappreciated part of an underappreciated era for DC Comics.