Retro Comics are Awesome

[Sparky Prime]

My main gripe with issue 0 (apart from Marz taking a shot at Hal fans with Kyle's internal monologue at the end) was the way Kyle blew up Oa without ever checking to see if anyone was living on the planet. He'd never been there before, and only saw a few square miles of the place, if he even saw that much. It still seems like a very reckless decision on Kyle's part.

I wouldn't say it was reckless on Kyle's part. Kyle clearly knew what Hal had done by then, and with the Corps destroyed it was a pretty safe bet Oa had been abandoned by then. And then there is the immediate threat to consider. Hal was literally about to start up the events of Zero Hour all over again once he got the power for Oa's core. What else could Kyle do but destroy the planet to prevent Hal from getting that power?

[andersonh1]

My main gripe with issue 0 (apart from Marz taking a shot at Hal fans with Kyle's internal monologue at the end) was the way Kyle blew up Oa without ever checking to see if anyone was living on the planet. He'd never been there before, and only saw a few square miles of the place, if he even saw that much. It still seems like a very reckless decision on Kyle's part.

I wouldn't say it was reckless on Kyle's part. Kyle clearly knew what Hal had done by then, and with the Corps destroyed it was a pretty safe bet Oa had been abandoned by then. And then there is the immediate threat to consider. Hal was literally about to start up the events of Zero Hour all over again once he got the power for Oa's core. What else could Kyle do but destroy the planet to prevent Hal from getting that power?

I'm sure that's what was going on in his mind, and that's understandable given what he'd just been through. But planets are pretty big, and he literally could have no idea if any living thing might be somewhere on the 99.999999999999% of Oa that he knew nothing about. At the very least, assuming the rest of the planet was deserted is a massive assumption on his part.

Anyway, Oa's been rebuilt and destroyed again since that point, and it probably will be again, so it doesn't really matter.

Back to the Golden Age Superman...

Action Comics #9
“$5000 dollar reward for Superman”

Whoever says there’s no continuity in these old books is wrong. It may be minimal, but sometimes one story does have consequences down the line. Superman’s rampage last issue has understandably stirred things up, so the police call in a detective Captain Reilly from another police force to arrest Superman for destroying the slums. Reilly is famous for always getting his man, though the city reporters laugh at the suggestion that Reilly will be able to find and capture Superman.

There’s a lot of plot in this issue, more than is perhaps normal for many of these old stories, so I won’t summarize it all. Suffice it to say that Reilly is looking to cash in on the reward for capturing Superman, and so is another city detective. The second detective actually witnesses Clark going into action as Superman, so he becomes the first person to be aware that Superman uses a disguise. This has no real long term ramifications to the series that I’m aware of, but it does play a part in the resolution of this story as both detectives figure out that Superman is someone at a ball that Clark Kent is attending, and they almost catch him. He’s saved by the greed of the detectives, and in the end, Reilly is forced to leave town having not caught his man. Not that catching him would do any good, since no jail is going to hold him anyway.

Overall: Superman is still an outlaw, which is always an interesting. And at this point in his history, there’s no one who can even challenge him, so he gets away with whatever he wants to do. It would be interesting to see how he would fare without the Clark Kent identity if that was taken away from him, and as this story makes clear, it’s not something he wants to give up.

Action Comics #10
“Superman Goes to Prison”

It’s another social justice storyline, and a good one despite some fairly cruel actions on the part of Superman. Clark Kent is sent to interview a man named Walter Crane, who it turns out is an escaped convict. He shows Clark some awful scars on his back as proof that he was tortured while in prison. Clark publishes the allegations, attracting the ire of Wyman, the superintendent of the prison, who travels to the Daily Star to demand that the charges be retracted, or else he’ll sue. He demands to know who Clark’s source is, and still playing the coward, Clark gives him up, earning him the scorn of everyone else in the newsroom. Clark manages to convince the editor that he did it to make Wyman overconfident, and that he proposes to head to Coreytown and expose the cruelty on the chain gang.

So, yeah, send poor Crane back to be tortured some more. Real nice of ya, Superman.

Clark arrives in Coreytown, switches to normal clothes and gets himself arrested. He’s sentenced to time on the chain gang, and he witnesses men being starved, or fed slop instead of decent food, or whipped to death, or put in the hot box. Crane escapes again and Clark returns him to prison for some reason, only to finally put a stop to the whole thing by forcing Wyman to confess everything to the governor, who promises to clean up the system in Coreytown.

Overall: Okay, letting Crane go through more torture just so he can get the goods on Wyman is more than a little cruel. And I’m not sure it was even necessary. But it’s hard not to cheer Superman on as he shuts down Wyman, who really is a loathesome character.

Action Comics #11
“The Black Gold Swindle”

Otherwise known as “Superman gets into the oil business”. A couple of swindlers named Meek and Bronson are selling worthless stock in an oil well and getting rich doing so. Superman decides to put a stop to that, so he empties his savings(!) and goes around buying up all the stock from the investors. Way to put your own money on the line, Superman. Good for you. He then heads out to the dry well and starts drilling for oil. Eventually he does strike oil, making the well valuable after all. When the two swindlers hear about that, they want to buy back the stock, only to find that Clark has it all, and he refuses to sell. They try to have him killed, but of course that doesn’t work.

Clark pretends that the attack has scared him, and he wants to get rid of the stock after all, so he sells it back to them. When Meek and Bronson go to inspect their oil well, Superman turns up and smashes the whole thing, making it worthless once more and ruining both men as retribution for how they tried to swindle so many other people.

Overall: I like the idea of Clark putting his own money on the line, though I wonder how much he would really have when his day job is being a newspaper reporter. Still, it’s amusing to see him take great delight in ruining two con-men.

Action Comics #12
“Superman Declares War on Reckless Drivers”

Oh my… psycho Superman is back, big time. Charlie Martin, a friend of Clark Kent, is killed by a “hit-skip” driver, or in modern terms, a hit and run driver. Superman decides that there is far too much reckless driving in the city and that the mayor isn’t doing anything to stop it, so he will. And by “stop it”, I mean that he spends the whole story terrorizing people and destroying property.
- He breaks into the local radio station, manhandles the on-air announcer and threatens serious harm to the producer if he’s cut off. He then warns everyone in the city that reckless driving is out of hand and he’s going to put a stop to it.
- He then busts out through the wall rather than using the door, leaving a massive hole in the radio studio.
- First stop: the impound lot where Superman proceeds to smash up all the impounded cars
- Next stop: the used car lot, where he accuses the dealer of selling inferior products, so naturally he destroys those cars as well
- Next stop: scaring a drunk driver to death so he won’t drink and drive again. Okay, that’s reasonable.
- Next stop: the Bates Motor Company, an auto manufacturer who made those inferior products. Guess what Superman does here? Hint: more wanton destruction is involved. That’s two people Superman has put out of business, unless they have good insurance. Not to mention all their employees. Way to look out for the little guy, Superman.
- Next stop: a road out of town has blind curves that are too dangerous. Superman levels the hills and straightens out the road. Okay, whatever floats his boat.
- He stops a policeman from taking a bribe not to write a parking ticket. Okay, that’s also reasonable
- And finally, he catches the mayor speeding, and forces him to visit the morgue to see the people killed by all the reckless driving so that mayor will feel compelled to do something about it.
- And it’s back to the radio station where Superman busts through the newly repaired studio wall to threaten the city again. Drive safe or else.
The story ends with Clark Kent getting a ticket for improper parking, which he is secretly pleased about.

Overall: This story is hilarious. Understand that I like this version of the character, so when I poke fun at him, I’m doing it affectionately. But I just crack up every time his solution to a problem is to go on a rampage of destruction. A few issues ago it was the slums, but now he’s terrorizing an entire city to make his point. Just when you think Superman can’t top one act of destruction, he goes and does something even more egregious. It’s just awesome.

Ads for other contemporary characters: the last panel of the story is an ad for the new character starting that month in Detective Comics: the Batman.

New York World’s Fair Comics #1
“Superman at the World’s Fair”

Okay, this story just didn’t grab me. The comic is obviously, as the title would indicate, little more than an advertisement for the 1939 World’s Fair. I guess the most significant thing about this book is that after a second issue of World’s Fair comics and an issue of being World’s Best Comics, DC finally settled on World’s Finest as the title of the series. It would become the Batman/Superman team-up book years later, but here it’s a glorified ad anthology.

Clark and Lois are sent to the World’s Fair to write up a story on it. That’s the plot, and anything else that happens is just incidental. Superman prevents two trains from crashing together. He finishes construction on an exhibit meant to help solicit funds to fight infantile paralysis, so there’s some charity solicitation going on as well. He rescues Lois from jewel thieves. And that’s about it. Nothing that happens is really related to the world’s fair. That’s just the setting. And that’s fine. The book does the job it’s meant to do.

Overall: Fluff to make the kids want to see the World’s Fair. Inoffensive.

The first year of Superman’s existence has been very different from what I’m used to. There are no supervillains, and Superman is not a cosmic or overpowered character at all. He’s a character who goes to bat for the little guy. This is also a Superman who has certainly caused more than one death, and who has no qualms about acting outside the law and scaring people half to death or threatening them within an inch of their life.
Situations in which he has intervened:
- stopping the execution of a person falsely accused of murder
- stopping a case of domestic violence
- kidnapping a munitions manufacturer and scaring him into ending his business
- forcing a mine owner to improve safety conditions at his mine
- helping the college career of a backbencher while stopping a betting ring
- assisting with the disaster of a burst dam and floods that result
- dealing with a scammer using Superman’s name and image for merchandising
- helping juvenile delinquents by dealing with their fence and demolishing the slums that they live in so the government will build new housing
- avoiding arrest by an out of town detective
- exposing prison cruelty and torture
- stopping the sale of worthless stocks
- dealing (harshly) with unsafe driving in the city
- going to the world’s fair and dealing with crashing trains, charity and jewel thieves

A lot of those storylines sound like they’d be better suited to other characters these days. Many of them are plots which would suit a more down to earth character like Batman. But early Superman seems to have been a character that Siegel and Shuster used as a sort of wish fulfillment character. The beautiful girl at the office rejecting the nerdy guy? The joke’s on her, he’s secretly a superhero. The rich getting away with whatever they like? No problem, Superman can put the fear of God into them and no one can stop him or do anything about it. Unsafe working conditions and an uncaring boss? Superman could handle that, easy. The whole premise behind the character seems to be something like “what would you do if you were too strong to be captured, too fast to be caught, and too tough to shoot?”

I can see the appeal. The character works well with this approach. It’s a lot of fun.


Action Comics #13
“Superman Vs. The Cab Protection League”

This is a story of two completely different halves. The story opens with what appears to be another social justice storyline, with Superman learning of a cab protection racket ruining the living of other cabbies. He goes in to bust it up and forces the men running the protection racket to destroy their own cabs. “You’re not hitting that cab hard enough. More violence!”

But then the story takes a weird twist, and we have the first super-villain for Superman to contend with in the form of the Ultra-Humanite. Reynolds, the guy running the protection racket, secretly works for him. This isn’t a terribly ambitious plan for a would-be world conqueror. First the cab companies, tomorrow the world, right? The Ultra-Humanite looks a lot like later depictions of Lex Luthor, which is to say he’s a bald mad scientist. Though when we actually get to Luthor, he’s a red-haired man in his first few appearances, so how he becomes the bald guy, I don’t know. The Ultra Humanite is also confined to a wheelchair, so we have the crippled brainy guy versus Superman’s brawn. Brawn wins out.

Ultra-Humanite knocks out Superman with sleeping gas, then tries to kill him by running him into a huge saw. The sawblade breaks on Superman’s head and a piece of the blade hits Reynolds in the throat, killing him. The Humanite tries to escape in a plane with his flunkies after setting the building on fire, but Superman revives and escapes (while worrying that the fire might kill him). He then leaps after the plane and smashes it, supposedly killing everyone on board. But there is no sign of the Humanite’s body…

Overall: I think the writers were going for a twist ending or something, but this is a story that just takes a weird left turn out of nowhere. If nothing else, we get our first attempt at an enemy who is more competition for Superman than the garden-variety thugs he’s been up against so far.

Superman #1
The first issue of Superman was largely reprints from Action Comics, with the only new material being a slightly expanded origin story, and an expansion of the story from Action Comics #1. That story opened with Superman carrying a tied-up woman to the governor’s mansion in an attempt to stop an execution. The expanded story goes back and tells us how Clark Kent first got his job at the Daily Star, and how he learned by chance that the woman was a murderer who had pinned the murder on someone else entirely. It’s not a retcon, but it does go back and fill in some missing details. The omnibus just prints the new material and then moves on to the next issue of Action without duplicating the reprinted material, which makes sense to me.

[Sparky Prime]

At the very least, assuming the rest of the planet was deserted is a massive assumption on his part.

I just don't see it was such a big assumption. The planet seemed to be pretty much deserted by the time Hal got there to take the power from the Central Battery, with only Kilowog, Sinestro and the Guardians there to oppose him. Given Kyle saw the Guardians and Kilowog's bodies there, it's not a stretch to assume they would have sent GL's and ultimately did everything they could themselves to try and stop Hal (even though the Guardians didn't actually do anything). Not hard to imagine no one would have been left at that point if the Guardians themselves failed to stop him. But even if there had been anyone on Oa, since this was sometime later why would there still be anyone hanging around with the Corps destroyed?

Anyway, Oa's been rebuilt and destroyed again since that point, and it probably will be again, so it doesn't really matter.

True enough.

[andersonh1]

I just don't see it was such a big assumption. The planet seemed to be pretty much deserted by the time Hal got there to take the power from the Central Battery, with only Kilowog, Sinestro and the Guardians there to oppose him. Given Kyle saw the Guardians and Kilowog's bodies there, it's not a stretch to assume they would have sent GL's and ultimately did everything they could themselves to try and stop Hal (even though the Guardians didn't actually do anything). Not hard to imagine no one would have been left at that point if the Guardians themselves failed to stop him. But even if there had been anyone on Oa, since this was sometime later why would there still be anyone hanging around with the Corps destroyed?

My question about that would be how much of that would Kyle actually know at that point? I think his decision was based solely on stopping Hal from tapping the planet's power without any other consideration, which is why I say he was being reckless. I'm not sure he took anything else into account. To be fair, the story certainly depicts Oa as a dead planet. Hal picks up Kilowog's bones, and the dead bodies of the Guardians are seen, while later both Hal and Kyle end up in the crypt with dead Lanterns. I think Ron Marz had in mind that Oa was completely deserted, and painted the planet as such, but I don't think there's any way Kyle as a character could have known one way or the other. It would be like someone unfamiliar with Earth landing in the Sahara desert, seeing a few miles, and from that few miles deciding that the planet must be deserted. It's a rookie mistake, and Kyle was certainly a rookie at that point.

As for nothing else living on Oa, the Mosaic cities were there, and had not up until that point been shown to have been removed. I think someone later noticed that and had the Darkstars evacuate them all to avoid that very problem of Kyle being an unwitting mass murderer. I think Ron Marz would have done something to account for the Mosaic storyline if he'd written it himself, so I suspect he just didn't know about it and so didn't take it into account when writing the issue.

[Sparky Prime]

My question about that would be how much of that would Kyle actually know at that point? I think his decision was based solely on stopping Hal from tapping the planet's power without any other consideration, which is why I say he was being reckless. I'm not sure he took anything else into account.

I think Kyle knew most of that by then. He had already encountered some other heroes who'd told him about Hal. In fact, I believe it's issue 55 where he meets Alan Scott who fills him in all about the Corps and Hal Jordan leading into Zero Hour. Although I do think preventing Hal from recharging was the first thing on his mind, I don't think he was being so reckless as you do, having already determined Oa to be abandoned.

It would be like someone unfamiliar with Earth landing in the Sahara desert, seeing a few miles, and from that few miles deciding that the planet must be deserted. It's a rookie mistake, and Kyle was certainly a rookie at that point.

The time warp dropped Hal and Kyle off right where the Central Battery had been, which was right in the middle of the Guardians city. That'd be like landing in the middle of a capital city for the entire planet. A completely empty capital city. That's pretty telling as to the state of the planet's population when there is no one in the city, even a rookie could figure out.

As for nothing else living on Oa, the Mosaic cities were there, and had not up until that point been shown to have been removed. I think someone later noticed that and had the Darkstars evacuate them all to avoid that very problem of Kyle being an unwitting mass murderer. I think Ron Marz would have done something to account for the Mosaic storyline if he'd written it himself, so I suspect he just didn't know about it and so didn't take it into account when writing the issue.

From the information I can find about it, immediately following Emerald Twilight, a Controller recruited John (who'd lost his powers with the destruction of the Central Battery) to be a member of the Darkstars. Unable to be the Mosaic's Guardian anymore, John had the Darkstars help evacuate the Mosaic cities back to their homeworlds. I can't find any sources that actually cites what issue this happens or is said in, but either way, Oa was completely deserted long before Kyle destroyed it.

[andersonh1]

From the information I can find about it, immediately following Emerald Twilight, a Controller recruited John (who'd lost his powers with the destruction of the Central Battery) to be a member of the Darkstars. Unable to be the Mosaic's Guardian anymore, John had the Darkstars help evacuate the Mosaic cities back to their homeworlds. I can't find any sources that actually cites what issue this happens or is said in, but either way, Oa was completely deserted long before Kyle destroyed it.

That's what I seem to remember as well.

[andersonh1]

Sparky, I was browsing the local Mr. K's used bookstore today and ran across a couple of Kyle-era GL trades. Almost bought them, but didn't quite commit. One is a crossover story with the Connor Hawke Green Arrow, and the other is "Passing the Torch" and looks like it comes from near the end of Kyle's run. He's got the uniform that he was wearing in GL Rebirth in that one. I'm a bit curious about Kyle's GL tenure since I skipped so much of it, so I may go back and get those at some point.

Anyway, the book I did buy today:

Superman #23
Roger Stern and MIke MIgnola

Cover price 75c. Those were the days...

The story opens when Clark Kent returns to his apartment to find Batman waiting for him. Batman has found a book in Gotham that appears ancient, yet has images depicting current events, including the meeting between Batman and Kent that is taking place. These "old" pages keep appearing in the book, and Superman knows that it's linked to the Silver Banshee, who he apparently just recently fought. The book shows Lois and Jimmy heading for Banshee's family home in Ireland, so Superman takes off to intervene. He is attacked in the mid-Atlantic by lightning (which actually hurts him) and the Banshee tries to drown him in a whirlpool, but is unable to stop him. He reaches the castle in Ireland to rescue Lois and Jimmy, and is attacked by the Banshee's family, one of whom wounds him with a pickaxe, causing him to bleed heavily from the wound. It's not enough to stop him, but in the end he doesn't defeat the Silver Banshee, the old crone who gave her the power in the first place does that. Banshee's family are all killed, and she's dragged back to the underworld or whatever.

Overall: This is the first Superman comic I ever bought, along with the Adventures of Superman issue published the same month. I hated Mignola's art at the time, though now I like it more than I did then. Superman isn't terribly effective in this story. He rescues Lois and Jimmy (what else is new?) and holds his own against Silver Banshee, but he doesn't defeat her. Except in the sense that returning the book to the castle attracts the attention of the creature who gave Banshee her powers, which leads to the creature revoking them. So Superman plays a part in the story, he just doesn't win the fight on his own. And it's odd to see him sweating and holding his wounded, bloody arm. I'm not a big fan of magic, since it's so arbitrary, but if nothing else it makes Superman more vulnerable than usual and increases the threat to him, so it's not without merit.

[Sparky Prime]

Sparky, I was browsing the local Mr. K's used bookstore today and ran across a couple of Kyle-era GL trades. Almost bought them, but didn't quite commit. One is a crossover story with the Connor Hawke Green Arrow, and the other is "Passing the Torch" and looks like it comes from near the end of Kyle's run. He's got the uniform that he was wearing in GL Rebirth in that one. I'm a bit curious about Kyle's GL tenure since I skipped so much of it, so I may go back and get those at some point.

Sounds like some interesting finds. I've found a few more issues myself, although I haven't seen any TPB's from that period. "Passing the Torch" was the end of Judd Winick's run on the book, but Kyle still had about another year or so until Rebirth began I believe. That book also features John's return as Earth's Green Lantern because Kyle and Jade decide to go into space after Kyle's friend, Terry Berg, had been beaten up.

[Sparky Prime]

Green Lantern #144
A green spot has appeared on the Sun, causing a great deal of concern for the people of Earth. Meanwhile, Kyle has become super charged with energy and Jade is having a hard time getting through to him. He seems to be stuck in a world of his own. Jade asks him if she should get John Stewart or Alan Scott as two more experienced Green Lanterns to figure out what's happening to him. Kyle barely manages to tell her to get John and the two are teleported to John's apartment. Jade also brings her father, who tries to use his powers to reach Kyle, but finds his energies aren't compatible with the energy surrounding Kyle. Meanwhile, Kyle has a vision of Oblivion and then Parallax appears behind him. Alan and Jade try to reach Kyle again, this time with Jade taking the lead and together finally get Kyle's attention.

Kyle explains he's now in control of what's happening to him and tells them that when he defeated Oblivion (a construct his subconscious created of his own fears) that energy sought out the nearest power of a Green Lantern, which happened to the remaining Central Battery energy Parallax had, which is now in the Sun after Hal had sacrificed himself to reignite it. When those two powers met, the power grew to unimaginable levels. And Kyle has slowly been tapping into that power ever since. He realizes it's his destiny to claim that power, but as says this, he realizes someone else senses this power as well. Alexander Nero, an insane man who possesses Sinestro's yellow power ring. Kyle quickly leaves and the two face off in space to see who will claim this ultimate power.

--Mostly this is just a set up story, showing Kyle starting to undergo his transformation into Ion. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find issue 145 and 146 but needless to say, Kyle defeats Nero and claims powers in the sun which transforms him into Ion. The nature of this power has somewhat been retconned with the revelation of the Emotional Entities but at this point in time, Kyle is tapping into the same energy that Hal took from the Central Battery.

Green Lantern #147
John tells Kyle he doesn't want any help from Kyle to fix his spinal injury, but Kyle assures him he has no intentions of it. Turns out Parallax had already done that before he sacrificed himself, Kyle can see the energy signature where the injury had been which is healed, but Kyle thinks the remaining energy might be what is disrupting the nerve impulses. John gives him the go-ahead to remove that energy, but Kyle says he already did, 2 days ago. John asks for some time alone which Kyle agrees to. But John finds he still cannot use his legs.

John decides to visit his psychologist and undergoes hypnosis to get to the root of why he can't use his legs, which seems to be all in his head at this point. Starting with the event John says is the reason he's a control freak, they recount John was involved in a car accident as a kid. He'd taken his aunts car with his brother and a puppy for a joy ride when a drunk driver ran a light. Fast forward through his career as a Green Lantern and as the leader of the Darkstars, ultimately through the event that left John paralyzed. Dr. Nephew knows John's adventures in space isn't the root of the problem, that he has guilt about something else. Back at the car accident John realizes he's masked the memory, and eventually remembers the puppy was actually his little sister, who was killed. Finally having to face that guilt, John is able to walk again.

--I'd always wondered what happened to John after Hal destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. I knew Guy discovered he had an alien heritage which turned him into "Warrior". But I had no idea John had been paralyzed. I really liked this issue. It had some great incites into the character explaining why John is who he is as well as giving a nice recap of his history for readers, which works as a nice way to reintroduce the character before he becomes a Green Lantern again in an upcoming issue.

Green Lantern #148
Jade is in battle with a villain called Sonar while Kyle watches. He knows she wouldn't like him keeping tabs on her, but with his new Ion powers, he finds it hard not to since he can be in multiple places at the same time. He's tempted to intervene but she eventually defeats him on her own. Meanwhile in Metropolis, Superman oddly is at home watching a news report about Ion. Not only has he been stopping crime but he's also been doing stuff like making soil better for farmers. Later, John visits Kyle and Jade surprising them with the news he's walking again (which Kyle already knew having secretly checked up on him already). Jade suggests they go dancing to celebrate.

Much later, Kyle brings up the fight Jade had earlier in the day again, and she admits she was on the ropes for a moment which Kyle realizes is when Sonar almost took her ring. Kyle considers something for a few moments and asks if she would want her original powers back. Jade tells him the Green Lantern ring is practically like having her old powers, but that she does miss her original powers before she realizes Kyle means he could actually restore her powers. After Kyle explains a few things, Jade admits she desperately wants her old powers back and Kyle restores them to her. They both change into costume and take a flight together.

--This issue would become significant for Kyle during Final Crisis. After Jade is killed, the power he'd used to rekindle her powers returns to him which transforms him into Ion again. Which itself is a bit of a retcon, since Kyle explains here that Jade's powers are just dormant within her and he can activate them again for her. Nice to see while Kyle has all this power, he does hold back and let Jade handle things herself. Yet the scene with Clark watching the news also gives the impression Kyle is doing more than his fair share.

Green Lantern #149
On the JLA moon base, Kyle can tell Superman is annoyed with him about something. During the meeting, an alien armada suddenly de-cloaks but before the League can react, Kyle tells them he's already taken care of it. The group is astounded as Kyle fills them in, and Superman asks to talk to Kyle in private. Kyle is surprised when Superman tells him he thinks Kyle has over stepped his bounds with how much he's used his powers to help people. Superman tells him their purpose is to protect people, not to do all the work for everyone. Kyle argues he's made peoples lives better, that he's done more good than ever before. Superman then shows Kyle how after only 2 days of having his Ion powers, churches and cults have already begun forming based on him which gets Kyle second guessing his actions.

Later, Kyle talks to Alan Scott about the conversation he had with Superman. Which both say that they agree with, but Kyle isn't sure how to deal with it. Kyle asks about before Alan's powers were a part of him, when he still had a ring. He admits it was easier with the ring, because when he took it off, he was just an ordinary man. But with his powers inside him now, he can't separate the man from the weapon. Thanking him for the advice, Kyle decides to meet with his father for the first time.

--Obviously this issue sets up for Kyle ultimately deciding to give up the Ion powers in the next issue, with Superman reasoning that Kyle isn't letting people live by doing all the hard work for them. It makes sense Superman would be concerned, considering what Hal tried to do when he had this kind of power. We have seen how Kyle has a hard time standing by letting others do their thing, such as with the fight Jade had in the previous issue and this issue shows a similar situation with a fire fighter team evacuating a building. I really liked the conversation Kyle has with Alan Scott at the end of the issue as well, both of them having their powers become a part of them. It's interesting to think with the ring, all they have to do is take it off to be normal, but as they are now, they're always super powered.

[andersonh1]

Superman: Exile trade paperback

This book collects the series of issues that had Superman go into voluntary exile into space after a series of events that stemmed from his killing of the three Kryptonians in John Byrne's last issue. If you've seen the Justice League cartoon's story where Superman is fighting the gladiator Draaga on Warworld and Mongul is presiding, it's a partial adaptation of this storyline. One of the things I appreciate the most about this story, which sets it apart from so much modern comics characterization, is how Superman is portrayed as being devastated by his actions in taking three lives. The three Kryptonians in the pocket universe had killed the five billion people on that Earth, and had threatened to do the same to "our" Earth. In response, Superman felt the only thing he could do was end the threat, and he used that universe's Kryptonite to execute them. But unlike modern comics where taking a life is often a fairly trivial thing, Superman is haunted by his decision. He has nightmares about it, and even (unknown to him at first) develops a split personality where he's Superman by day, Gangbuster by night. Gangbuster was a vigilante named Jose Delgado, who had been injured and was unable to walk, leading to a mystery about who the new Gangbuster was.

So all of that leads to Superman fearing that he's dangerous, so he takes an oxygen mask and a teleportation device from the Omega Men, and heads out into space, going from planet to planet, trying to find a place he can get away from everyone and not be a danger. His mask is eventually damaged, and he is picked up and taken to Warworld and Mongul, where he is put into the arena. He eventually encounters an old cleric who has a Kryptonian artifact that looks like Superman's birthing matrix, only a minature version. It's the Eradicator, which we'll see again in the Reign of the Superman storyline. After a series of events, Superman finally returns to Earth, having dealt with his guilt and resolving never to kill again.

This story just works on so many levels for me. It's a fun adventure, it has great characterization and genuine consequences for Superman's decision to take three lives. Events continue to move forward on Earth in Superman's absence, and to the credit of the writers, there is a great supporting cast to keep things interesting. And there's some great art by Jerry Ordway, among others. Ordway is one of my favorite Superman artists, and he gets to pencil and ink some of the issues. Dan Jurgens and George Perez contribute, and even Curt Swan gets an issue to draw.