Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Superman Encyclopedia: Lar-On


Amazingly, we are one week away from  Supergirl Rebirth #1.

I have been eagerly awaiting this book as everything writer Steve Orlando has said has sounded perfect. He seems to have an great understanding of Kara. And Emanuela Lupacchino is on art and we know how perfect she is for Supergirl.

But I also have been looking forward to this because Orlando plans to dust off a 'one and done' character from my youth, the Kryptonian werewolf Lar-On. I have reviewed his brief comic history here -

http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2016/07/review-worlds-finest-256.html

and here -

http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2016/08/back-issue-box-world-finest-258.html

But there was one more piece of his history I thought I would share for completeness sake, his entry in the Superman Encyclopedia.

While the facts seem a little loose about the actual encounter, one thing stood out. Here it says Lar-On was a scientist fascinated with physical transformation who experimented on himself. That is new information not presented in the stories at all. Suddenly this isn't a curse or a disease, this is a self-inflicted condition.

I don't think an encyclopedia should be providing novel information. And I don't know where that information comes from unless there is another Lar-On appearance I'm not aware of. But it makes his feelings of guilt (as seen in the comics) more painful and palpable.



Hard to believe that this version of the encyclopedia is already 10 years old and therefore already archaic.

That said, it is a great resource for older information and I refer to it often when researching topics for this site. Here was my description from 6 years ago:
http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2010/11/essential-superman-encyclopedia.html 

When I self-link like this, it reminds me just how long I have been doing this!

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