It Came From The Back Issue Box: Superman #338

With a new Kandor suddenly re-grown on Earth, I thought it might be interesting to review the Silver Age issue equivalent. Released in 1979, Superman #338 was titled ‘Let My People Grow’, written by Len Wein and drawn by Superman legend Curt Swan. It had a pretty big impact on both the Superman and Supergirl mythos at the time, removing a fairly crucial piece of lore, the bottle city of Kandor.

It also, thankfully, removed an easy ‘deus ex machina’ from Superman stories. Much like Kryptonite seemed to be a near ubiquitous substance in this time period of stories, the ‘let’s go to Kandor for a super-science answer to our problems’ was also an over-used plot device. Heck, Supergirl even used a Kandorian super-exo-skeleton for a time in Adventure Comics.

This story starts out with Superman in deep space trying to harness the exploding energies from a super-nova at close range.

While he is successful, it turns out that even a Silver Age Kryptonian cannot withstand a super-nova explosion to the face. As he enters Earth’s atmosphere, he passes out from radiation exposure and exhaustion.

Luckily Supergirl is part of the plan here and was scanning the skies for Superman to return. She flies up and catches him, thus saving the collected energy gun from any damage.

Superman awakens without too much of a solar hangover and gleefully tells the Kandorian Science Council that the stored solar energies combined with precious Illium 349 will reverse Brainiac’s shrink ray. The Kandorians are a bit cautious, not willing to chance it. But Superman assuages them by saying that he will test the ray on a living being first.

And rather than risk the life of a single Kandorian citizen, he will test the ray out on himself. While it sounds pretty noble, doesn’t this seem like sort of a bad idea? First Superman has to get shrunk by Brainiac. Then, he has to risk his life with the enlarging ray. Isn’t there any other way? Heck, Van-Zee even volunteers.

Regardless, Superman decides to move forward with his plan, which involves luring Brainiac to Earth and goading him into using his shrink ray. Superman does this by rigging up an electronic beacon tuned to Brainiac’s brain giving Brainiac an incessant migraine. It works too!

In fact Brainiac gets so ticked off, he bathes Metropolis in a tractor beam, shaking the city as if a massive earthquake has hit. I again have to note that this was the down side to Superman’s plan. Let’s say Metropolis got leveled here … would Superman be happy with his plan?

Somehow ... luckily ... the plan works, Superman tricks Brainiac into shooting him with the ray, shrinking him down to bug-size. At this point, Superman’s ‘emergency weapon’ comes into view. Supergirl has been hiding the entire time, awaiting the moment to use the enlarging ray on a shrunken Kal-El.

Brainiac in turn decides to try to shrink Kara. She is able to deflect the shrink ray with a blast from the enlarging ray gun. Brainiac, struck by the full force of his own ray, begins to rapidly shrink.

Here is my favorite scene from the book. As Brainiac realizes he will shrink down to nothingness, effectively killing himself with his own weapon, he begs Kara to save him. But look at the steely look on Supergirl’s face. She calmly tells him that there isn’t enough energy for Superman, Kandor, and Brainiac. In essence, he is out of luck.

She is as cool as the other side of the pillow here.

Even Superman begs her to use the ray to save Brainiac, but she firmly reiterates that she won’t. She almost chastises Superman for thinking it. “Cousin … NO!” That's some intestinal fortitude right there!

Brainiac simply disappears.

I don’t know about you, but I think Supergirl made the right decision here. A tough one … but the right one.

Heading back to the Fortress, Supergirl finally uses the ray on Superman and he grows to normal size with no apparent side effects.

They contact Kandor again with good news and are told that the citizens have chosen a large primitive world orbiting a red sun, much like Krypton.

I wonder if there was an election or if it was a science council mandate. Can you imagine that town meeting ? “Well, we can pick a yellow sun world where we will be near omnipotent and invulnerable or we can choose a back-water red sun world and toil as usual. Can I see a show of hands for yellow-sun?”

The super-cousins fly a rocket to the planet (remember it is in a red sun galaxy) and then Superman uses the gun with dramatic effect. Sorry about the double page spread, this was the most I could fit on my scanner.

Once enlarged, a different sort of Kara reunion with her parents takes place, one less creepy than the more recent one seen in the New Krypton Special. While she would love to stay and live with her parents, she has made a life on Earth and so will stay there. Alura tells Kara that she has grown into a woman.

But the good times don’t last too long. For some reason, the structures of Kandor cannot withstand the expansion and suddenly collapse into dust.

I hope everyone was out of the buildings and on the ground. Anyone higher than 2 stories is probably hurting right now.

Of course Superman feels pretty lousy about what he perceives to be an error on his part. But Van-Zee takes it all in stride telling Kal that while he destroyed their city he gave them a world. Indeed, another scientist tells Superman that if they cannot tame this world they did not deserve to be enlarged at all.

I don’t know about this. Can you imagine taking a society based on super-science and putting them into a wilderness where they will need to build even the most rudimentary tools? Sounds like a good setting for anarchy.

What about medicine … structures … anything?

Don’t you think there is a subset of people now wishing they were on that yellow-sun planet?

Superman says he will stay to help, but that idea is emphatically shot down by Van-Zee. Look at the glass jaw on Superman, knocked out with one punch. Turns out the Kandorians have felt a bit like pets for some time and wish to get out from under Superman’s watchful eye. They even chose this planet because it lies on a cosmic axis, thus phasing in and out of this dimension.

Man, they really wanted Superman out of their business. But couldn’t they just explain that to him rather than rough him up? Don’t you think Supergirl might have wanted to know this earlier so she could talk to her parents more before being shuffled off the planet?

Superman awakens just in time to see the planet wink out of this dimension. Supergirl puts a optimistic or ominous spin on this finale depending on your viewpoint. “They’ve begun a great adventure – a journey of cosmic discovery. I only pray they some day find whatever it is they are looking for.”

Well, it turns out they did just fine. We saw ‘Rokyn’, planet’s name, a couple of other times as it annually would enter this dimension. Superman even delivered Kara’s body to her parents after her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I have to say this is a somewhat important issue for the Silver Age Superman history and is readily available for under $5. For Supergirl fans, the scene with Brainiac alone makes it worth the price, but as this did involve her family, it impacted her greatly as well. It is a worthy part of a Supergirl collection.

If you can overlook some of the bigger problems with the story (luring Brainiac to attack Earth, shrinking yourself without knowing if you can return, Kandorians picking a wild world to live on, and slugging Superman who has kept them safe all this time), it might even merit an ‘A’ grade.

Overall grade: B