History is written by the victors, retcons are written by John Byrne.

I've joked about this before, but I think I've read more Kryptonian history than I have American history. Ah, I remember my textbooks, this is probably about as accurate. From 1987-88, the World of Krypton #1, "Pieces" Written by John Byrne, pencils by Mike Mignola, inks by Rick Bryant and Carlos Garzón.

Set thousands of years before Jor-El's time--and he would be watching the historical records in later issues--the story opens with young Van-L, about to undertake the "Day of Passage" and become a man. He's already started to notice his pretty friend Vara, but their playful flier race is marred by Vara coming in too low and getting seriously injured. Luckily, Kryptonian society had long had a program in place for that: cells were taken from all citizens early on to create three clones, from which parts could be harvested. Clone rights activists protested this, but as far as Van-L knew the "clonies" were harmless, annoying cranks. At the medical facility, Van-L encounters arrogant momma's boy Kan-Z, who is visibly distraught by bad news from an automated doctor...

With Vara fixed up, Van-L's thoughts return to his celebratory party, even as serious fighting breaks out in Kandor. The party is marred by first some acrimonious discussion about clone rights: are the people of Krypton "murderers and cannibals" for using the clones? Next, Van-L is upstaged a bit, as Kan-Z's mother Nyra announces her son's engagement. Which is itself upstaged by the sudden arrival of a drunken, furious Kan-Z, who kills Nyra but is stopped from killing himself by Van-L. With her head blown off, there was no chance for repairs for Nyra, which is troubling enough to the Kryptonians, but Kan-Z had also murdered his fiancé. The automated doctor from before is seemingly also a detective, and had put together most of the rest, which Van-L and his father discover at the clone banks: Nyra had withdrawn one of her own clones, and intended it to be her son's bride; perhaps the only one she felt worthy of him. This would be bad enough, but the notion that clone might've developed a personality of its own could bring down Kryptonian society; so of course Kan-Z had mentioned it in his suicide note, which had just been broadcast...

I had found this whole series in the quarter bins a few months ago--along with the 1979 World of Krypton series--but had set it aside and didn't finish it until now! I always like Mignola's art, but this seems radically different from Hellboy, the first issue of which, also featuring Byrne on scripts, was still six or so years away. It reminded me of P.Craig Russell, maybe? Not quite as much black ink as he would later use, but the story would become darker from here.