Scans: Action Comics #3
Action Comics: written by GRANT MORRISON, art by GENE HA and RAGS MORALES
Action Comics #3 starts off with a flashback to Krypton, featuring a pretty darn adorable baby-Kal and finding a way to link Brainiac to Krypton without going the animated-series route of having him be the planetary AI. Oh yeah, and an interesting hint:
It all kicks off with a big party in Kandor where the very first thing we see are the stars reflected in baby Kal-El's eyes:
I just realized while posting these that he's wearing what will be his cape someday.
Also, in a Silver Age shout-out, Lyla Lerrol is an actress that Superman falls in love with when he finds himself time-traveled back to Krypton just before it was destroyed. It's a sweet and sad (okay, for the Silver Age) story that you can read in its entirety here.
It's Krypto! Who I note with relief does not look much like the six-legged horned goat-thing whose body Luthor had, so maybe there's no connection after all...
A minor note: I really like the way Lara is drawn and written here, how immediately she assumes Jor-El is correct and how fiercely she tries to warn everyone. Brainiac attacks (well, he's not called Brainiac, but come on, that's who it is) and Lara manages to flee with Kal-El, but the city is captured and a lot of the people at the party die.
Clark wakes up at a pounding on his door--the flashback was a nightmare he's been having. The pounding is the police and his landlady. Clark shoves his costume into his gym bag in a panic and opens the door in his boxers (answering, I suppose, the burning "boxers or briefs" question).
Aw, he's reading The Man Who Fell to Earth. That's a very, very sad story about an alien who tries to fit into human society and fails...
But I have to say, I don't like Morales' work with Clark here, his face looks lumpy and dirty most of the time.
The police grab his gym bag and open it, but to Clark's surprise his costume isn't in it (the reason why is hinted in the panels above).
His landlady hid the costume and let him off the hook, becoming the only living person that we know of that knows Clark is Superman. Sorry, landlady, this doesn't bode too well for your chances of surviving this arc.
A rough time follows for Clark, as the news has leaked that Superman is an alien and people inevitably respond with being kind of crazy. *sigh* Though I have to say the footage of the "protest" below seems to me to have some hints that Glenmorgan, the powerful guy Clark has set himself against, is funding the whole thing and rigging the media to set Superman in a bad light.
Come on, no one who isn't a plant says "Glenmorgan offered us real hope for the future and fresh accommodations!"
Though I can't help but grin at another Silver Age shout-out, the ant-headed Superman.
By the way, who is "Icarus"? It isn't answered in this issue. My money's on Lex, playing both sides against the middle, but it could also be Lois (or my dark horse favorite of Bruce Wayne, but I'm betting Morrison isn't going to bring Batman into an origin story, alas).
Clark has the requisite crisis of confidence which I will pretty much grant him only in an origin story (which is, I think, one reason why his origin story gets re-told so many times). It's in this section that he gets told about the white dog watching over him. I am hoping against hope that Krypto was put into the Phantom Zone by Jor-El when he realized there was no time left. It's a fairly simple and elegant way to get Krypto to earth...
Superman saves a girl and her kitten from being hit by a truck, but the girl freaks out and a mob starts throwing stuff at him:
Hey, wait, I just realized the dude in the cap throwing stuff at Superman is the same dude that was at the protest! He is so a plant.
So clearly at this point Clark has given up on the whole superhero-thing, he's packed his bag, tossed his costume, and is thinking about leaving town altogether. But he decides to follow up the lead "Icarus" gave him. When he arrives at the factory, Lois and Jimmy are already there as well...at which point, the robot parts start assembling themselves into monsters, speaking with Brainiac's voice.
Cut to John Corbin agreeing to be part of the "Soldier of Steel" program, but when he gets put into it he starts screaming that something's wrong, that his mind is being invaded.
Oh Lex. Oh smarmy, smarmy Lex.
Next month: Superman has to fight Brainiac's drones, while there are hints that John Henry Irons will be showing up in a prototype Steel outfit to fight the newly-born Metallo. Me, I'm just holding out for Krypto. :)
Action Comics #3 starts off with a flashback to Krypton, featuring a pretty darn adorable baby-Kal and finding a way to link Brainiac to Krypton without going the animated-series route of having him be the planetary AI. Oh yeah, and an interesting hint:
It all kicks off with a big party in Kandor where the very first thing we see are the stars reflected in baby Kal-El's eyes:
I just realized while posting these that he's wearing what will be his cape someday.
Also, in a Silver Age shout-out, Lyla Lerrol is an actress that Superman falls in love with when he finds himself time-traveled back to Krypton just before it was destroyed. It's a sweet and sad (okay, for the Silver Age) story that you can read in its entirety here.
It's Krypto! Who I note with relief does not look much like the six-legged horned goat-thing whose body Luthor had, so maybe there's no connection after all...
A minor note: I really like the way Lara is drawn and written here, how immediately she assumes Jor-El is correct and how fiercely she tries to warn everyone. Brainiac attacks (well, he's not called Brainiac, but come on, that's who it is) and Lara manages to flee with Kal-El, but the city is captured and a lot of the people at the party die.
Clark wakes up at a pounding on his door--the flashback was a nightmare he's been having. The pounding is the police and his landlady. Clark shoves his costume into his gym bag in a panic and opens the door in his boxers (answering, I suppose, the burning "boxers or briefs" question).
Aw, he's reading The Man Who Fell to Earth. That's a very, very sad story about an alien who tries to fit into human society and fails...
But I have to say, I don't like Morales' work with Clark here, his face looks lumpy and dirty most of the time.
The police grab his gym bag and open it, but to Clark's surprise his costume isn't in it (the reason why is hinted in the panels above).
His landlady hid the costume and let him off the hook, becoming the only living person that we know of that knows Clark is Superman. Sorry, landlady, this doesn't bode too well for your chances of surviving this arc.
A rough time follows for Clark, as the news has leaked that Superman is an alien and people inevitably respond with being kind of crazy. *sigh* Though I have to say the footage of the "protest" below seems to me to have some hints that Glenmorgan, the powerful guy Clark has set himself against, is funding the whole thing and rigging the media to set Superman in a bad light.
Come on, no one who isn't a plant says "Glenmorgan offered us real hope for the future and fresh accommodations!"
Though I can't help but grin at another Silver Age shout-out, the ant-headed Superman.
By the way, who is "Icarus"? It isn't answered in this issue. My money's on Lex, playing both sides against the middle, but it could also be Lois (or my dark horse favorite of Bruce Wayne, but I'm betting Morrison isn't going to bring Batman into an origin story, alas).
Clark has the requisite crisis of confidence which I will pretty much grant him only in an origin story (which is, I think, one reason why his origin story gets re-told so many times). It's in this section that he gets told about the white dog watching over him. I am hoping against hope that Krypto was put into the Phantom Zone by Jor-El when he realized there was no time left. It's a fairly simple and elegant way to get Krypto to earth...
Superman saves a girl and her kitten from being hit by a truck, but the girl freaks out and a mob starts throwing stuff at him:
Hey, wait, I just realized the dude in the cap throwing stuff at Superman is the same dude that was at the protest! He is so a plant.
So clearly at this point Clark has given up on the whole superhero-thing, he's packed his bag, tossed his costume, and is thinking about leaving town altogether. But he decides to follow up the lead "Icarus" gave him. When he arrives at the factory, Lois and Jimmy are already there as well...at which point, the robot parts start assembling themselves into monsters, speaking with Brainiac's voice.
Cut to John Corbin agreeing to be part of the "Soldier of Steel" program, but when he gets put into it he starts screaming that something's wrong, that his mind is being invaded.
Oh Lex. Oh smarmy, smarmy Lex.
Next month: Superman has to fight Brainiac's drones, while there are hints that John Henry Irons will be showing up in a prototype Steel outfit to fight the newly-born Metallo. Me, I'm just holding out for Krypto. :)