Friday, July 31, 2009

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Here on this old (and most likely outdated) map of the 'New World' hemisphere of Krypton, we see the Fire Falls were located in the Scarlet Jungle in the middle of the continent of Lurvan.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

4 comments:

Nikki said...

I doubt there were any in the 90s/00's because of the focus on the 'last son of krypton' crap. I can't remember though, I didn't make any connection to these stories when I heard the place name but I did think about Rucka's suggestion of a tragedy befalling nighwing and flamebird and how that could be the resolution to Kara and Thara's relationship.

Yota said...

I'm sure that the Fire Falls and this mentioned life-saving are going to tie into the origin of Thara's Flamebird origin. It's probably where Thara first encountered the Flamebird persona....

Anj said...

I'm sure that the Fire Falls and this mentioned life-saving are going to tie into the origin of Thara's Flamebird origin. It's probably where Thara first encountered the Flamebird persona....

Thanks for the post.

Makes sense that the Fire Falls might have a Flamebird connection.

Interesting ...

TalOs said...

Nikki said...

I doubt there were any in the 90s/00's because of the focus on the 'last son of krypton' crap.

Actually it was 'Superman: Krypton's sole survivor' rule of thumb they went with and not 'last son of Krypton' which he is labeled as being ever since Kara returned to continuity proper. ;-)

Yota said...

I'm sure that the Fire Falls and this mentioned life-saving are going to tie into the origin of Thara's Flamebird origin. It's probably where Thara first encountered the Flamebird persona....

I agree with Anj that your idea/theory is a truly smart one indeed. :D