A Little Bit Of Kandor: Superman #371

Well, after that whole Candor nonsense, I thought we all could use a little palate cleanser. So let's head away from modern comics and head to the Bronze Age and the then 'new' Kandor.

Superman #371 came out in 1982, just about 3 years after  Superman #338 , the classic story when the 'real' Kandor was enlarged and those Kryptonian citizens were relocated to Rokyn. (Funny to think that that issue was one of the earlier books I reviewed here.)

But just as any good IP gets reinvented, DC and the super-offices must have thought that the Bottle City of Kandor was too good an idea to stay away forever. So why not bring it back.

Even more interesting, at least to me, is that Len Wein wrote this issue bringing back Kandor, just as he was the writer on #338 which took it away! Did Wein regret the decision? Want to bring it back? Was this just editorial dictating it and Wein happened to be on the book?

For Superman fans, it certainly is an eye-catching cover. What is this bottled city in the Fortress? And what is the crazy alien doing trying to destroy it? For continuity nuts like me (even at that tender age), I had to buy this. My original copy was lost in the 'parental purge' so I was only able to get it again recently.

On to the book!

Back Issue Review: Adventure Comics #418

Last week on Supergirl Episode 406, 'Call to Arms', we saw Supergirl fight a dragon.

It was one of the best sequences I have seen on the show in a long time. I flat out loved it.

As a result, and thanks to a nudge from someone who left a comment here, I decided that I should take a look back at other times Supergirl fought a dragon.

These are all in the fluxing time period of the early 70s. Comics were starting to get more serious. But there was still a bit of Silver Age lunacy that could mix in. As a result, the two dragon stories that I am going to review are pretty wonky. So settle in.

Believe it or not, the earlier of the two stories is the less insane one.

Adventure Comics #418 came out in 1972 and the Supergirl run as the headliner in the title was just a few issues away. This was a time when the Supergirl stories were trying to be a bit more mature. Mike Sekowsky started the 'new adventures' way back in Adventure Comics #400. But Sekowsky had left leaving a handful of other creators to pinch hit.

And so we have 'The Face of the Dragon', a story which might be trying to cash in on the Kung Fu craze happening in America at the time. It also is trying to mesh the odd mix of film noir with the four color escapades of a super-powered Maid of Might. Basically, your mileage may vary.

All that said, please pick this book up if you see it in the cheap bins. The Black Canary back-up has a story with ridiculously gorgeous Alex Toth art. That alone is worth the price.

But onto the Supergirl story!

Rest In Peace Len Wein

It was with great sadness that I read that comic legend Len Wein passed away this week. Wein was truly a prolific creator with a career that spanned decades. He created Wolverine. He started the All-New X-Men team which reinvigorated that franchise. He created Swamp Thing and had a brilliant run on that initial book with Bernie Wrightson. And he had a run on Spider-Man that is lauded. And that is just scratching the surface.

Because he also was a tremendous editor. He edited Camelot 3000. He edited the early Moore Swamp Thing issues. His touch is literally on 100s of books in my collection. Just a force within the comics industry. Legendary. Prolific. Esteemed. Missed.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that he wrote Superman and Supergirl every so often. In fact, two of my favorite stories where the cousins team-up were written by Wein. I have covered them both here in the past but many years ago.

Review: DC Comics Presents #28

Welcome to a blog crossover between the Martian Manhunter blog Idol Head of Diabolu (run by Diabolu Frank), Supergirl Comic Box Commentary, and the DC Bloodlines blog (primarily run by Frank but someplace I occasionally post) !

I am pretty pumped to review a three part story that ran in DC Comics Presents back in 1980. It is a wild ride of a story with Superman interacting with guest stars The Martian Manhunter, Supergirl, and ultimately the Spectre. Moreover, it introduces some lasting concepts for the DCU. The character Mongul and the idea of a Warworld are both first seen here. There is a crazy turn of events in the last chapter. And the creative team for the whole story is legendary writer Len Wein and cosmic artist Jim Starlin. Not bad for an arc in a team-up book!

Here at the Comic Box, I'll cover DC Comics Presents #28, the middle chapter, in which Superman and Supergirl try to stop the unstoppable. It has been a while since I read this arc.  I first read it in my youth when it was first released and I remembered a few key moments which I will showcase here.

Last issue (reviewed at the Idol Head here), Superman defied and battled J'onn and obtained the crystal key necessary to activate Warworld. The Man of Steel was almost irritatingly overconfident in that chapter. He unfortunately and accidentally turned the key over to Mongul, allowing the despot access to the moving battle planet. Realizing his mistake, Superman turned to a capable colleague to bring Mongul and Warworld down. That partner is none other than Supergirl.

The opening page is a nice splash of the two super cousins cruising through space trying to catch up to Mongul and Warworld. There is some Marvel-esque bombast in these early captions, talking about space as the Kryptonians natural element, how they are the galaxy's greatest defenders, how Warworld is the most devastating weapon conceived. It think Wein used this sort of over-the-top language to help build up a running theme in the story. One, Superman is great but maybe is a bit overconfident. Two, Warworld is a major threat that can even hurt or kill the Super family. With big power comes big words!

While the Matrix version of the Supergirl costume is my favorite, I have to say I am pretty fond of the hot pants version.

Heading to where Warworld should be, Superman and Supergirl only discover empty space. I have always wondered why J'Onn didn't accompany them on this mission as it was clear from last issue that he and Mongul had some history and that Warworld was a Martian responsibility.

In one small bit of odd characterization, especially for this story, Superman initially gives up thinking there is no way to find Warworld. Luckily, Supergirl uses her brains and realizes that their Kryptonian super-senses can follow the engine's trails. I always like seeing a smart and capable Supergirl. And I love her 'can-do' attitude where she says they need to go and smash Warworld. It shows her youth, her exuberance, and her desire to do what's right.

Again, part of the running theme in this whole story is Superman over-estimating just what he can do, becoming overconfident to the point of being cocky. So having him tell Supergirl to not be overconfident seemed off for the overall story.

This is one of those moments that stuck with me from my youth. Catching up to Warworld, Superman and Supergirl initially keep their distance and scan it from afar with their super-vision. In fact Superman is able to hone all the way down to seeing Mongul walking around on the surface. It is only when Supergirl tells him to reel back his focus that he sees just how immense the weapons of Warworld are. That is one big missile, dwarfing a city!

In classic Silver Age manner, Superman tries to send Supergirl away, fearing she may get hurt. It shows his overconfidence again thinking he can handle Mongul on his own. But it also smacks of the paternalism that plagued the earliest Supergirl stories. But this is a different Supergirl, approaching the truly independent hero in Daring Adventures. She isn't going anywhere; heck, she wants to attack!

One thing I had forgotten was that Mongul's origin is reviewed in this issue. I always thought that he had an 'unknown past'. Turns out he was a despot on his home planet until he was overthrown by a mob led into a frenzy by a religious leader. In an interesting twist, it is revealed that the 'holy man' ends up being a worse tyrant than Mongul. Knowing what we know of Mongul, that guy must have been completely evil. I wonder if that speaks to either Wein or Starlin's thoughts about organized religion.

With his monologue out of the way and his sensors detecting the Superfamily, Mongul dons Warworld's control helmet, linking his nervous system with the battle planet.

Remember, part of what Wein is trying to show here is that Warworld is immensely powerful and a true threat to Superman and Supergirl. This was back when Superman was basically unstoppable. So to read a story where something as mundane as a missile (albeit one huge missile) could kill Superman was novel. And Wein keeps hammering that point home to make sure as a reader I got it. Missiles, planet destroying laser cannons, all on a mobile planet bigger than a star - Warworld had it all.

This scene where the size of the missile becomes more and more apparent to Superman who initially was just going to stand there and take it worked to convey that as well. And finally Superman's recognizes he might be overconfident.

And that scene is followed up with this perfect moment. Superman having barely survived the nearby explosion of that missile says that two missiles could kill them ... only to look up and see two missiles heading their way.

The staggered 'Oh ...my ... god' is perfect.

Luckily super-speed has its uses and they are able to scramble out of the way.

But that does give Superman the key to defeating Mongul and Warworld. He and Kara play cat and mouse with the weapons of Warworld, forcing Mongul to stress his mind into activating more and more of the planet's offensive capabilities. Finally, the strain is too much. Mongul suffers a 'massive cerebral hemorrhage' and collapses. Interesting ploy by Superman to basically induce a stroke in Mongul, a potentially lethal stroke. Superman deduced that the Warzoon, the long-dead race which created Warworld, died one by one trying to control the planet.

It is always interesting to read these older stories in the context of what we know happens. When Superman tells Supergirl that his plan is to have Mongul fire all his weapons at them ... a potentially lethal attack ... Supergirl says 'who wants to live forever?' Six years hence, she died at the hands of the Anti-Monitor, saving the universe.

Despite Mongul being incapacitated, Warworld continues to work on auto-pilot, firing its weapons and plodding along. Even if the villainous mastermind has been beaten, the planet itself needs to be defeated.

Superman has a plan. One which has peril for both of the heroes. Superman will stay close to the planet, drawing all of its fire, as he tries to dodge and remain alive.

In the meantime, Supergirl will fly off and then literally hurl herself at the planet at incalculable speed ... hopefully piercing its invulnerable surface, allowing the cousins to destroy it from within. This isn't without risk but we all know that Supergirl is trying to do what's right no matter the cost.

And like a bullet, she succeeds! This reminds me of those still shots of air rifles fired into apples with a bigger splash coming out the back end. Her speed is so great however that she cannot stop herself, flying off into deep space.

But she has opened up a path for Superman to get into to guts of the place.

Once inside, Warworld automatic defenses still register Superman as a threat. It turns its weapons on itself trying to get the Man of Steel, ultimately destroying itself.

But this isn't a clean victory. For one thing, when Superman landed on Warworld, he noticed that Mongul was gone. As we know, it isn't the last time those two have tangled.

More importantly, Supergirl has gone missing. You would think that she'd simply circle back after bashing through Warworld. What in blazes has happened to Supergirl?

You'll need to go the DC Bloodlines blog to find out. Trust me, chapter three is the trippiest of this arc and well worth checking out. And the review will be a sort of round table between Frank and me.

As for this issue, I think Wein did a great job with Supergirl, showing her to be smart, strong, and a bit strong-willed. You can tell she has youthful enthusiasm, eager to jump right into the fray. The art is credited to both Starlin and Romeo Tanghal. There are definitely pages which have a greater Starlin feel to them. So I wonder if Tanghal pitched on pencils as well as inks. The art is very good, especially the action sequences. As for a Supergirl collection, I would rank this of medium importance more for the bigger DCU-ness of it (Mongul and Warworld's first arc) than specifically for Supergirl. That said, her characterization and seeing her seamlessly team up with Superman is a joy. Well worth the $4-6 bucks someone would need to spend at a comic store or convention.

Overall grade: A

DCU Legacies #5 ... Whoa!

As a long time DC reader, I am really enjoying DC Universe Legacies and its stroll down the history of the DC Universe. Unlike the History books produced by Wolfman/Perez back in the day, Legacies isn't just a rattling off of the major events of the DCU, instead anchoring it to a perspective of an 'everyman' police officer Paul Lincoln.

That narration by Lincoln also means that we aren't going to see Anthro or Oa or (I assume) the Legion. This is the Earth-based history of the DCU running basically from WWII to the present.

Now as a comic reader for over 3 decades and an amateur comic historian, one of the best things about this issue is seeing stories that I have read before again, albeit in a new light or a new focus. So to see the original Hawkman telling Congress that he won't have the JSA unmask themselves, I can nod knowingly. I can't remember where I first read this scene, but I can remembering reading it and see it in my head with Joe Staton's art. And when I see a one page homage recapping the Fleisher/Aparo Spectre stories from Adventure Comics, it makes me want to pull those issues out of the long boxes and reread them. I love this sort of stuff.

DC Universe Legacies #5 came out last week and began to show how the DCU was becoming thematically darker. It also reviewed one of the seminal events in comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths. I was in my early teens when Crisis came out and can remember waiting for the next issue to come out as DC was rewriting history. Heck, back then I walked to the local drug store to spin the rack and find the issues.

We all know what happened in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 and how after the 'one universe' was created in Crisis on Infinite Earths #11 that Supergirl was basically erased from history and the minds of the characters in the DCU.

So it was a twinge of both nostalgia and melancholy and a smidge of happiness that I saw this panel in Legacies #5.

Yep, that's the headband wearing 'Earth One' Supergirl, saving people with help of the Metal Men!

It's hard to know what this exactly means ... if anything. If  Lincoln recalls this Supergirl, does everyone? Or is Perez a big fan of that Supergirl and wanted to shoehorn her in (remember we saw several incarnation of Supergirl in Final Crisis:Legion of Three Worlds #3)? Or is Perez not as big a continuity nut as me and remembered Supergirl was a big part of the Crisis and didn't think people would make a big deal of this cameo?

The bottom line is I have always thought that that Supergirl was sort of erased from continuity rudely, DC's version of throwing the baby out with the bath water. So it was nice to see her again, acting heroically and saving people ... even if it was in one tiny panel.

Now don't get me wrong. While I couldn't say it early on, I have come to love the current Supergirl, looking at the current Kara as the Supergirl, putting the past behind me and realizing the current Supergirl is a worthy reboot of my favorite character and well ... the heir of the Supergirl legacy.

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