World of Krypton #4 (March 1988)
World of Krypton #4 (March 1988)
Last part of the World of Krypton miniseries, so you probably know how this ends. This issue starts in present-day Metropolis, where Superman tells Lois Lane the history of Krypton that was dumped in his brain back in Man of Steel #6. Cue flashback: we see Superman’s dad Jor-El investigating the cause of a mysterious plague affecting all Kryptonians. He spends half the time doing that and the other half obessing over Lara, the woman whose egg he’s been selected to fertilize, even though he’s never met her (Krypton is weird).
Jor-El eventually discovers that the plague is caused by the actions of an extremist group called Black Zero 100,000 years earlier: as we saw last issue, the Zeroes dumped a weird substance into the planet’s core. This has been slowly making Krypton radioactive (like, you know, kryptonite) and will soon cause the planet to go boom. What follows is a retelling of the first scene of MoS #1, in which Jor-El takes out the gestating matrix of his unborn son, launches him into space and tells Lara he loves her right before the planet explodes.
Superman finishes telling the story to Lois as a single tear emerges from his eye, much like a spaceship being expelled from a dying planet. Or something. THE END.
Character-Watch:
Before Superman goes to talk to Lois, he has to dispose of a missile launched by an unseen villain called Professor Thaddeus Killgrave, who is said to be already in jail. This confused the hell out of me as a kid, because the next (first) time we see Professor Killgrave he’ll reference an earlier fight but I could never find the issue where it happened, even though the name rang a bell. I just know that John Byrne intentionally did this to mess with me, personally.
Plotline-Watch:
Superman Loves Wonder Woman: I have to wonder if the parallel between Jor-El getting obsessed with a woman he’s never talked to in this series and Superman doing the same thing with Wonder Woman in the latest issue of Action is intentional. Stalking is in their blood.
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/65274558718/world-of-krypton-4-march-1988-last-part-of-the#disqus_thread
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