Action Comics #27: More Kid Clark Backstory.

[superfangirl1]

After the last issue where a young Clark enjoying his new bike and suddenly his heat vision emerge for the first time. Which destroy his bike and a couple of corn crops. Also scaring the heck out of Clark and Jonathan kent.

A couple of days later Clark tries to see if he can fly.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

okay, that is cute. i hm i like this title...

"...and the parents who saved it for me."

[hyperanthropos]

What I personally like about this story, is that it gives the Kents the credit they deserve. Seriously, Jonathan and Martha must be the greatest (or most foolish)parents ever. Just put yourself in their shoes. A couple of ordinary farmers living a mundane life in a quiet midwestern town find a boy in a spaceship and raise him as their own son, not knowing where he came from, why he is here or what he actually is for that matter. In time the child shows abilities that are both awesome and terrifying, abilities that mark him as not being human. Remember, we, the readers, have the comfort of knowing that everything will turn out alright and Clark will become Superman. How often must the Kents have wondered, if they were not raising one of those Inhuman children from the novel "The Midwich Cockoos" by John Wyndham. How often must they have feared that the goverment would take Clark away, that their own neighbours would form a lynch mob and burn their house down.

Re: "...and the parents who saved it for me."

[cricharddavies]

There's a very good chapter in Elliot S. Maggin's second Superman novel, Miracle Monday, where Pa Kent has a nightmare about everything that might go wrong if Clark got it in to his head to take over ... and what he does as a consequence.

[cypherfdp]

Meanwhile in Man of Steel:

"What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?"
"I dunno, maybe, lol"

[hyperanthropos]

It's good that you bring up that movie. Personally, I feel that Kevin Costner's portrayal of Jonathan Kent has been very unappreciated. We got to see a man torn between the love for his adoptive son and the knowlegde of his extraordinary significance. This quote from the movie sums up Jonathan Kent's motivation nicely:

"You're not just anyone. One day, you're going to have to make a choice. You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be. Whoever that man is, good character or bad, it's going to change the world."

[cypherfdp]

I'm sorry, but that whole exchange with the "maybe" kills it for me. I suppose you could argue that he was under a lot of stress trying to keep Clark's secret, or that he had some serious inner conflict over what the right thing to do, but I cannot imagine any incarnation of Jonathan Kent suggesting that "maybe" Clark should have let a schoolbus full of children sink.

[hyperanthropos]

Yeah, I agree with you there. The rest of the dialogue was excellent, but it is a pity that the scriptwriters had Jonathan Kent say that word "maybe", when Clark asks him, if he should have let his classmates drown. They should have just let him go silent, 'cause, really, there is no way, how you can have someone argue against saving a schoolbus full of children without letting that person look bad. You're right, it ruins, what could have otherwise been a great scene

[shadur]

I like this a lot. Especially the part where he acknowledges that both sets of parents loved him, even if he only remembes one pair of them.