Superman's Life, as of Action Comics #500
Jan. 6th, 2013 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyI'm starting college again Monday, so will likely have less time to spend on Scans Daily. Therefore, now is the time to make an extra-large post.Given my own proclivities, I'm sure you're not surprised it's a Superman comic. To be precise, Action Comics #500.
We'll have a glorious 21 pages of a 64 page story, a time capsule of what Superman was like in 1979.
We begin with the famous scene of people chanting "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" The man himself appears, flying down towards the Superman pavilion at the Metropolis World's Fair.
Note the large ring on Arngrim's hand. The man in white is off-stage while Superman cuts the six-inch steel "ribbon" to open the exhibit, but reappears as the tour group enters the Krypton Room. A child asks what Krypton was like, citing Superman's "total recall". Superman admits that repeated exposure to Kryptonite over the years has caused gaps in his memory, especially the earliest events of his life.
Arngrim points out that the exhibit includes Superman's Mind-Prober Ray, a device for allowing one to retrieve long-buried memories.
I think most of you already know our mystery guest, especially if you read the tags. But that person's identity will be revealed soon enough.
Meanwhile, Superman is flashing back to his infancy on Krypton, barely two years old and being comforted by his mother Lara. Kal-El's father Jor-El is at a meeting. There's a groundquake, which quickly passes, and Lara condemns the Science Council for not listening to her husband's warnings before. Soon, Jor-El appears and admits that he once again failed, for the last time.
Krypton's Doomsday Clock is waaay more optimistic than ours.
The Council admits that Jor-El is Krypton's greatest scientist, citing his invention of the Phantom Zone ray, and pioneering achievements in space travel, before it was banned. But he has clearly now become paranoid (perhaps because of the ban on space travel) and is having delusional fantasies. Not even Zor-El, Jor-El's brother, believes him. choosing to instead to groundquake-proof Argo City. Jor-El pursues his rocket research in secret.
Because of the secrecy, Jor-El is forced to use the family pet, Krypto, as a test subject for a prototype spaceship. It functions just fine until a stray meteor knocks it out of orbit into deep space. The navigation circuits are damaged so Jor-El can't bring the rocket back, but the suspended animation activates just fine.
Another time skip to the end, as Krypton starts tearing itself apart. Jor-El has improved his last test ship, but there's only room for one adult and a very small child, and it's possible the weight of an adult will exhaust the fuel before the ship can reach its destination. Lara makes the hardest decision of her life, staying with Jor-El on doomed Krypton to give young Kal-El his best chance for survival.
Lois comforts the Man of Tomorrow, who quickly recovers his composure.
The tour moves into the Superboy Room. Arngrim mentions it's a smaller room with fewer exhibits. (One of which is statues of several of the Legion of Super-Heroes (including Tyroc!) Superman admits that this is because there might otherwise be too many clues to his secret identity. He gives a heavily eidited version of his arrival on Earth, not noticing that Arngrim has manuevered him to stand on a metal plate. And Superman again flashes back...
Jonathan and Martha Kent find the uninjured Kal-El, and realize that he must have come from space. They decide to raise the infant themselves, but need to have plausible deniability.
The Kents learn even more amazing things young Clark can do, and some he can't, like keep his clothes from burning off if he moves at super-speed. Good thing they still have his baby blankets, which can be unraveled and rewoven into indestructible outfits. When Clark was old enough to start school, the Kents moved into Smallville proper and opened a general store. Thanks to his parents' love and wisdom, young Clark grew up wanting to use his amazing powers to help people. He designed a new outfit, complete with a special chest insignia.
Superman continues to reminisce about learning to control his flight, and beginning his Superboy career. He soon realizes he needs to improve his secret identity so that criminals won't strike at the Kents to hurt him, and invents the mild-mannered Clark Kent persona and glasses we all know so well. He also builds a secret tunnel to conceal where he lives, and Superboy robots to confuse people and stand in for him in emergencies.
Superan is broken out of his reverie by a question about Kryptonite. It's kept behind leaded glass in this exhibit for safety reasons. He remembers how his foster parents learned of his weakness to the green rocks. Superman explains that apparently the warp drive on his rocket was imperfect and left a space-time rift that allowed mass quantities of Kryptonite and Kryptonian artifacts to follow him to Earth.
He describes the Phantom Zone Ray and what it was used for, which allowed him to learn enough about Kryptonian technology to build the before-mentioned Mind-Probe Ray. Superman also explains the "lower gravity and yellow sunlight" version of how his powers worked. And then Krypto arrived. Superman admits to feeling lonely before then.
Lois brings up that surely he had his adoptive parents, and Lana brings up Superboy's friends, meaning herself.
Krypto may have been "only" a dog, but he was Superboy's best friend He's still alive, presumably in space somewhere. Lana's still a bit miffed that her friendship wasn't enough for Superboy, but Lois points out that all these Smallville exhibits remind Superman of a happy time that he can never go back to. She knows something terrible happened, but Superman won't tell her about it. Superman calls her "darling" in his thoughts.
Superman remembers how the Kents were temporarily rejuvenated by an alien serum, but it wore off the summer after his graduation from high school. Only a month later, after the family returned from a Carribean vacation, the Kents fell ill. Medical science was unable to cure them, and nothing Superboy could find worked either.
Clark mourns his beloved foster parents, and worries that he will inevitably doom anyone he becomes close to. Despite this, he vows to continue doing good for humanity. Superboy left Smallville with much fanfare, but Clark Kent boarded a bus to Metropolis alone, with no one to see him off.
Superman is snapped out of it again, and the tour moves to the Superman Room. Here, he explains that big city life and becoming an adult meant new and tougher challenges. In his mind, he reflects that this included refining his Clark Kent persona to include clumsiness. Which worked great to hide his superness, but made for difficulties in applying for a job. Daily Planet Perry White doesn't think "mild-mannered" will cut it for a reporter, at which point Clark shows some backbone.
Clark's apartment is a little trickier to hide entrances and exits than the Kent house, and he can only store so much stuff in the hidden closet. Which is why he built the Fortress of Solitude. Superman shows a slightly censored view of the interior, once again protecting his secret identity.. And then he explains he had to build a new wing, because of a new Kryptonian in town.
Superman explains Kandor's history, and that he recently managed to enlarge the Kandorians permanently, at the cost of Kandor itself. Further, the planet the Kandorians settled on is a Brigadoon world, only in the physical universe on an irregular schedule. So who knows when they'll be back?
He then points out the many weird variations of Kryptonite, including Gold Kryptonite,, capable of stealing a Kryptonian's powers permanently. It's kept behind an especially secure lead glass shield. For a while, all Kryptonite on Earth was turned to harmless iron, but more has fallen since.
Also, Superman mentions that higher evels of air pollution has made his Superman robots inoperable (as Superman robots, that is; as Clark Kent robots, like the one that just showed up to allay suspicion, they work fine.)
While everyone is looking the other way from Superman, Arngrim touches a "lightswitch" that activates a Kryptonite ray in the ceiling. Before Superman can react, a trapdoor rotates beneith him, dropping him into an underground lab, and causing a duplicate of Superman to rise up. And we learn who's behind the scenes--
\
Being an old-school supervillain, Lex can't help monologuing as he's beating up Superman. The first step of his plan was using a red sun lamp to get a shard of metal from one of the Kryptonian artifacts. This was used by Arngrim to scrape off a bit of Superman's skin when they shook hands.
Superman realizes that Luthor used the skin smaple to create a clone. Using rapid-growth techniques, and mind-probe technology, the clone was grown to adulthood in minutes, with all of Superman's memories.
Oh, and the Arngrim we've seen all along is a brainwashed clone. The real Arngrim is still alive for now as Luthor's prisoner. Superman has also come to realize that even weakened by Kryptonite, he shouldn't be this easy for Lex to beat. Turns out there's also artificial red sun radiation.
Good on you, Lana!
Superman establishes that yep, his powers are gone. But since Luthor still doesn't know he's secretly Clark Kent, he didn't search Superman's cape packet, which conceals Clark Kent's clothing, including a tie. Attach tie to belt, and you have a long, flexible object.
Lois uses her ruthless journalism skills to probe the false Superman's statements. Lex uses ableist insults towards the clone (remember, Luthor is a villain. Scans Daily asks that you do not follow his example) while shouting instructions into a telepathic intercom. Distracted, Lex fails to notice Superman's low-tech method of hooking the keys with his belt buckle, getting out of the cell and turning off the power drain.
With his powers restored, it takes only a flick of Superman's finger to knock Luthor out. The Man of Steel then tunnels up just in time to stop Lois from triggering the bomb, then disarm said explosive. Superman then puches the clone out of the building. Lois is now able to see the difference between the two Supermen; the real one uses his powers for good and vanquishing evil.
The real Superman tricks the clone into exposing itself to Gold K, then blows the Kryptonite away so that he can grab the duplicate without endangering himself.
So far as I know, this clone was never referred to again. My guess is that Superman removed most of his memories and got him a new civilian life somewhere far away.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
http://www.skjam.com
We'll have a glorious 21 pages of a 64 page story, a time capsule of what Superman was like in 1979.
We begin with the famous scene of people chanting "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" The man himself appears, flying down towards the Superman pavilion at the Metropolis World's Fair.
Note the large ring on Arngrim's hand. The man in white is off-stage while Superman cuts the six-inch steel "ribbon" to open the exhibit, but reappears as the tour group enters the Krypton Room. A child asks what Krypton was like, citing Superman's "total recall". Superman admits that repeated exposure to Kryptonite over the years has caused gaps in his memory, especially the earliest events of his life.
Arngrim points out that the exhibit includes Superman's Mind-Prober Ray, a device for allowing one to retrieve long-buried memories.
I think most of you already know our mystery guest, especially if you read the tags. But that person's identity will be revealed soon enough.
Meanwhile, Superman is flashing back to his infancy on Krypton, barely two years old and being comforted by his mother Lara. Kal-El's father Jor-El is at a meeting. There's a groundquake, which quickly passes, and Lara condemns the Science Council for not listening to her husband's warnings before. Soon, Jor-El appears and admits that he once again failed, for the last time.
Krypton's Doomsday Clock is waaay more optimistic than ours.
The Council admits that Jor-El is Krypton's greatest scientist, citing his invention of the Phantom Zone ray, and pioneering achievements in space travel, before it was banned. But he has clearly now become paranoid (perhaps because of the ban on space travel) and is having delusional fantasies. Not even Zor-El, Jor-El's brother, believes him. choosing to instead to groundquake-proof Argo City. Jor-El pursues his rocket research in secret.
Because of the secrecy, Jor-El is forced to use the family pet, Krypto, as a test subject for a prototype spaceship. It functions just fine until a stray meteor knocks it out of orbit into deep space. The navigation circuits are damaged so Jor-El can't bring the rocket back, but the suspended animation activates just fine.
Another time skip to the end, as Krypton starts tearing itself apart. Jor-El has improved his last test ship, but there's only room for one adult and a very small child, and it's possible the weight of an adult will exhaust the fuel before the ship can reach its destination. Lara makes the hardest decision of her life, staying with Jor-El on doomed Krypton to give young Kal-El his best chance for survival.
Lois comforts the Man of Tomorrow, who quickly recovers his composure.
The tour moves into the Superboy Room. Arngrim mentions it's a smaller room with fewer exhibits. (One of which is statues of several of the Legion of Super-Heroes (including Tyroc!) Superman admits that this is because there might otherwise be too many clues to his secret identity. He gives a heavily eidited version of his arrival on Earth, not noticing that Arngrim has manuevered him to stand on a metal plate. And Superman again flashes back...
Jonathan and Martha Kent find the uninjured Kal-El, and realize that he must have come from space. They decide to raise the infant themselves, but need to have plausible deniability.
The Kents learn even more amazing things young Clark can do, and some he can't, like keep his clothes from burning off if he moves at super-speed. Good thing they still have his baby blankets, which can be unraveled and rewoven into indestructible outfits. When Clark was old enough to start school, the Kents moved into Smallville proper and opened a general store. Thanks to his parents' love and wisdom, young Clark grew up wanting to use his amazing powers to help people. He designed a new outfit, complete with a special chest insignia.
Superman continues to reminisce about learning to control his flight, and beginning his Superboy career. He soon realizes he needs to improve his secret identity so that criminals won't strike at the Kents to hurt him, and invents the mild-mannered Clark Kent persona and glasses we all know so well. He also builds a secret tunnel to conceal where he lives, and Superboy robots to confuse people and stand in for him in emergencies.
Superan is broken out of his reverie by a question about Kryptonite. It's kept behind leaded glass in this exhibit for safety reasons. He remembers how his foster parents learned of his weakness to the green rocks. Superman explains that apparently the warp drive on his rocket was imperfect and left a space-time rift that allowed mass quantities of Kryptonite and Kryptonian artifacts to follow him to Earth.
He describes the Phantom Zone Ray and what it was used for, which allowed him to learn enough about Kryptonian technology to build the before-mentioned Mind-Probe Ray. Superman also explains the "lower gravity and yellow sunlight" version of how his powers worked. And then Krypto arrived. Superman admits to feeling lonely before then.
Lois brings up that surely he had his adoptive parents, and Lana brings up Superboy's friends, meaning herself.
Krypto may have been "only" a dog, but he was Superboy's best friend He's still alive, presumably in space somewhere. Lana's still a bit miffed that her friendship wasn't enough for Superboy, but Lois points out that all these Smallville exhibits remind Superman of a happy time that he can never go back to. She knows something terrible happened, but Superman won't tell her about it. Superman calls her "darling" in his thoughts.
Superman remembers how the Kents were temporarily rejuvenated by an alien serum, but it wore off the summer after his graduation from high school. Only a month later, after the family returned from a Carribean vacation, the Kents fell ill. Medical science was unable to cure them, and nothing Superboy could find worked either.
Clark mourns his beloved foster parents, and worries that he will inevitably doom anyone he becomes close to. Despite this, he vows to continue doing good for humanity. Superboy left Smallville with much fanfare, but Clark Kent boarded a bus to Metropolis alone, with no one to see him off.
Superman is snapped out of it again, and the tour moves to the Superman Room. Here, he explains that big city life and becoming an adult meant new and tougher challenges. In his mind, he reflects that this included refining his Clark Kent persona to include clumsiness. Which worked great to hide his superness, but made for difficulties in applying for a job. Daily Planet Perry White doesn't think "mild-mannered" will cut it for a reporter, at which point Clark shows some backbone.
Clark's apartment is a little trickier to hide entrances and exits than the Kent house, and he can only store so much stuff in the hidden closet. Which is why he built the Fortress of Solitude. Superman shows a slightly censored view of the interior, once again protecting his secret identity.. And then he explains he had to build a new wing, because of a new Kryptonian in town.
Superman explains Kandor's history, and that he recently managed to enlarge the Kandorians permanently, at the cost of Kandor itself. Further, the planet the Kandorians settled on is a Brigadoon world, only in the physical universe on an irregular schedule. So who knows when they'll be back?
He then points out the many weird variations of Kryptonite, including Gold Kryptonite,, capable of stealing a Kryptonian's powers permanently. It's kept behind an especially secure lead glass shield. For a while, all Kryptonite on Earth was turned to harmless iron, but more has fallen since.
Also, Superman mentions that higher evels of air pollution has made his Superman robots inoperable (as Superman robots, that is; as Clark Kent robots, like the one that just showed up to allay suspicion, they work fine.)
While everyone is looking the other way from Superman, Arngrim touches a "lightswitch" that activates a Kryptonite ray in the ceiling. Before Superman can react, a trapdoor rotates beneith him, dropping him into an underground lab, and causing a duplicate of Superman to rise up. And we learn who's behind the scenes--
\
Being an old-school supervillain, Lex can't help monologuing as he's beating up Superman. The first step of his plan was using a red sun lamp to get a shard of metal from one of the Kryptonian artifacts. This was used by Arngrim to scrape off a bit of Superman's skin when they shook hands.
Superman realizes that Luthor used the skin smaple to create a clone. Using rapid-growth techniques, and mind-probe technology, the clone was grown to adulthood in minutes, with all of Superman's memories.
Oh, and the Arngrim we've seen all along is a brainwashed clone. The real Arngrim is still alive for now as Luthor's prisoner. Superman has also come to realize that even weakened by Kryptonite, he shouldn't be this easy for Lex to beat. Turns out there's also artificial red sun radiation.
Good on you, Lana!
Superman establishes that yep, his powers are gone. But since Luthor still doesn't know he's secretly Clark Kent, he didn't search Superman's cape packet, which conceals Clark Kent's clothing, including a tie. Attach tie to belt, and you have a long, flexible object.
Lois uses her ruthless journalism skills to probe the false Superman's statements. Lex uses ableist insults towards the clone (remember, Luthor is a villain. Scans Daily asks that you do not follow his example) while shouting instructions into a telepathic intercom. Distracted, Lex fails to notice Superman's low-tech method of hooking the keys with his belt buckle, getting out of the cell and turning off the power drain.
With his powers restored, it takes only a flick of Superman's finger to knock Luthor out. The Man of Steel then tunnels up just in time to stop Lois from triggering the bomb, then disarm said explosive. Superman then puches the clone out of the building. Lois is now able to see the difference between the two Supermen; the real one uses his powers for good and vanquishing evil.
The real Superman tricks the clone into exposing itself to Gold K, then blows the Kryptonite away so that he can grab the duplicate without endangering himself.
So far as I know, this clone was never referred to again. My guess is that Superman removed most of his memories and got him a new civilian life somewhere far away.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
http://www.skjam.com
Tags:
- char: brainiac,
- char: jimmy olsen,
- char: jonathan kent,
- char: jor-el,
- char: krypto the superdog,
- char: lana lang,
- char: lex luthor,
- char: lois lane,
- char: martha kent,
- char: parasite,
- char: perry white,
- char: supergirl/linda danvers,
- char: superman/clark kent,
- creator: curt swan,
- creator: dick giordano,
- creator: frank chiaramonte,
- creator: marty pasko,
- creator: ross andru,
- publisher: dc comics,
- title: action comics
no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 07:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 10:58 am (UTC)Also, the Kents were very neglectful parents. "What in tarnation!? Little Clark fell right into the wood-chipper and he's perfectly fine! No wonder that accident last Wednesday with the grizzly bear and the sulfuric acid vats turned out so well!"
no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-07 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-08 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-08 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-08 11:29 pm (UTC)