BHOC: WORLD OF KRYPTON #3

Another benefit to my new comic-buying locale, the Stationery Store in the new supermarket mall, was that it also carried all of the limited series that started to appear at this time. Inspired by the television success of projects such as ROOTS, which aired for a limited span of time and was promoted as a big event, first DC and then Marvel began issuing short-run series of three or four issues, self-contained stories that were intended to end at a predetermined time rather than go on indefinitely as all comic book releases at this point were pretty much intended to. The first of DC’s limited series was WORLD OF KRYPTON, dedicated to the backstory of the Man of Steel, and created in response to the hugely-popular SUPERMAN THE MOVIE. I never saw copies of the first two issues, but #3 was there waiting for me at the new outlet, so I bought it.

WORLD OF KRYPTON was edited by E. Nelson Bridwell, and while I don’t know this with any certainty, it certainly feels like a project he would have initiated. Nelson had an encyclopedic memory for old comic book stories and had become the defacto keeper of Superman’s lore. So while the book was produced by Paul Kupperberg and Howard Chaykin, I have to expect that much of the research and even the outlining itself (of what specific events from older stories he wanted covered) came from Nelson. Initially, the three issues of WORLD OF KRYPTON were intended to run in SHOWCASE, DC’s stories try-out series. But after SHOWCASE was binned in the DC Implosion, the choice was made to release these books anyway as a limited series.

As a story, this issue of WORLD OF KRYPTON plays a lot more like an entry in the OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE. While it attempts to couch everything with some degree of dramatics, it’s more concerned with imparting (fictitious) factual information than it is in delivering an exciting adventure. As such, I found the book pretty dull. Howard Chaykin may have felt similarly, as his storytelling for this issue is relatively wooden and lifeless, a far cry from what he was capable of. Of course, his pages were being finished by Julie Schwartz-office stalwart inker Frank Chiaramonte, which had the effect of trying to make the art look as though Curt Swan had drawn it. It doesn’t really work, to be honest. And story-wise, the issue lurches from one bit of nonsense business to the next, as the creators attempt to reconcile a number of individual flashbacks that had been shown to Krypton before its demise all of which were presented in a vacuum as far as the others were concerned. All lined up in this fashion, the narrative is a bit of a mess.

This final issue of the limited series focuses on the activities of Superman’s father, the scientist Jor-El, in the weeks and months leading up to Krypton’s destruction. The Man of Steel is reviewing his father’s recently-recovered personal journal in the present, which provides a rationale for revisiting these events. The book opens with the sentencing of Jax-Ur, a Kryptonian criminal who would later return to plague Superman, to the ethereal Phantom Zone for the crime of destroying one of Krypton’s moons. Jor-El had discovered the Phantom Zone and invented the technology that made it possible for the State to deposit its criminal element into it, where they’d exist as insubstantial phantoms unable to interact with the tangible world. With Jax-Ur’s sentence carried out, the Science Council moves on to its next item of business: a resolution to ban all space travel on Krypton.

Jor-El, of course, argues against this resolution–it’s his belief that Krypton is growing ever more unstable and may soon explode, dooming them all. But the Science Council doesn’t pay heed to Jor-El’s “crackpot” theories and the resolution is passed with only Jor-El himself abstaining from making the vote unanimous. With the Science Council’s ruling in place, Jor-El cannot continue his experiments in creating a warp drive outwardly. So he’s forced to be secretive as he journeys into Krypton’s Scarlet Jungle in the hopes of retrieving a fallen Krull spacecraft whose engine design might help the scientist to perfect his own theories. Jor-El manages to retrieve the engine, despite having to dodge the watchful eyes of Par-Es, who has been tasked with surveilling him. But while there, he’s also caught a debilitating case of Scarlet Fever, a disease originating in that region.

But Jor-El knows that time is short, so even while sick, he continues to work. In rapid succession, we see him test his engine design, with his son’s dog Krypto as the passenger. He’s also called upon to help out Lar Gand, a space traveler who has found his way to Krypton and whom Superboy in later years will dub Mon-El. As Jor-El grows sicker, the Phantom Zone criminals take advantage of his debilitated mental state. Combining their telepathic abilities–because that’s the manner in which the Zone’s inhabitants communicate with one another–they attempt to force Jor-El to use his Phantom Zone projector to liberate them from captivity. Fortunately, Lara is able to waylay her husband before he can activate the device and rematerialize the criminals.

But finally, the story reaches the moment of truth. Jor-El loads up his son Kal-El into his prototype rocket ship (in which the monkey Beppo stows away, insuring that he’ll be around to become a Super-Monkey in later stories) and launches him through space towards far-off Earth. The ship’s warp drive enables it to make the journey in two days, but also punches a wormhole in space through which much of the debris from the exploded planet pass, thus explaining why there’s so much kryptonite on Earth. We see Ma and Pa Kent find the boy in an abbreviated sequence, and then we segue back to Superman for a quick three-panel summation. I don’t really think any of the preceding puts this story in contention for being the most tragic story ever told, as the cover blurb promoted it. But as a primer, it’s all right, if a bit lifeless.