#future state: Superman: House of el

[strunmah-mah]

Okay so I read Future State: House of El and Holy Hell there are so many new characters in that book. SO MANY. But the one I think I have the most questions about is this guy:

Pyrros the Red King, son of Kal-El and Circe

Circe? I want to know how that happened. Were her and Supes genuinely a couple? Did Clark get is DNA stolen again? What possible series of events could lead to Clark having a future kid with Circe?

[dilfs-comics]

Future State: Superman: House of El (2021)

[ID: 3 comic edits of Superman flying in his Future State outfit, his red cape tied around his shoulders with a gold rope. He has short white hair and a beard. End ID]

[somewherefornow]

ROWAN KENT as BLUE LANTERN in FUTURE STATE: HOUSE OF EL

[thevindicativevordan]

I'm not sure if you've ever talked about this but what are your opinions on the House of El concept and characters that PKJ came up with in his Superman stories ?

They are among the coolest new characters created for the Superverse in recent years, a fantastic variant of the Superman Squad concept.

Some people got mad at the idea that Clark would have sex with/marry other women after Lois passes away which is insane. Neither Lois nor Clark are virgins by the time they get together, why on Earth would people expect Clark to give up sex forever after his wife passed? Maybe I just have a different perspective since members of my family have outlived their spouses and remarried, but I see no reason to deny Clark that choice. If he's going to be living for another couple millennium, still having the body of 30 year old Olympian no less, you better believe he's going to be having sex. Besides the Moses parallels PKJ has been acknowledging, this gives Superman some Abraham in that his descendants "outnumber the stars in the sky", and they become a nation unto themselves. I love that concept and enthusiastically endorse it. Plus they're just awesome, you've got Viking inspired members, Els who are royals, Els who are Lanterns, Els who are simple farmers/civilians, you've got Kara as this grand matriarch of the entire family, Warworld as their "Fortress of Solitude" base, all that is exciting! PKJ keeps teasing/saying that he wants to do more with them and that he think he will get to, I'm praying he's right because they're simply too intriguing a concept to leave on the shelf.

Only thing I'd add is establishing members of other races/ethnicities beyond just the black and white descendants we've seen. How about some Asian Els who descend from offspring of Kal and Kenan that married and added to the line? Or "brown"-coded members, whether that be Latin or Indian or Native American? We don't need them all to be stars but I would like to establish that other groups are represented within the El family, and the House of El is great way to add representation in a way that doesn't add more members than the current day Superfamily can support. More alien hybrids would be cool too, the Tamarian/Kryptonian/human hybrid Theand'r is neat, I'd love to see more in the same vein.

[starkcapaccinos63]

A space DILF

Future State: House of El

[filthy-vigilante]

Top Future State Week 8 Cover

Future State House of El #1

week 8 round up

[momachan]

Future State (2021): Superman.

[chainsawcorazon]

house of el definitely felt a lil dry and all over the place. maybe if clark was actually and truly dead, and his descendants a mixture of blood relations and descendants of those he adopted, i’d be more inclined to enjoy the family vs family beef, but once we got to the pyrrhos-is-a-product-of-magic-rape-and-not-consensual-creation-between-two-parties and also he judges his family members who are generations apart from clark…. let’s just say not the best future state take. and here i thought jon’s lil mustache from future state LOSH was bad 😂

[midnightechoes]

I'm not caught up on My Adventures With Superman, but I've seen enough promos posts on social media to know that they seem to be doing something with Kara and Jimmie, which, sigh. I'm sure it's done well, this show is great and it's probably handled fantastically. I can't lie though, a part of me was desperately hoping that this would be the mainstream thing that they let Kara be queer in.

A part of me knew that there wasn't any chance in hell of that happening. At this point, I don't expect anything popular and mainstream to have any queer content beyond minor stuff in the margins. (Like how MAWS let a he/him gorilla and a he/him brain in a jar be a couple in one episode)

I wanted so badly to be proven wrong. Partially because it's Kara and I've been longing so badly for the day they let her actually be queer in one of the mainstream canons and not just in AU stuff like Dark Knights of Steel and Bombshells. As a Kara and Barb shipper in my youth and a supercorp shipper now, I've always read Kara as a queer character, and I've always hoped that would be confirmed someday.

And partially because I fear we are starting to slide backwards.

(Please keep in mind that this is entirely about western animation. I'm not talking about anime or live-action stuff here)

For a moment, it felt like we were building a space for major mainstream LGBTQ+ rep, specifically sapphic rep. You know, not just some minor characters here and there, but main characters, protagonists even.

Steven Universe, Legend of Korra, and Adventure Time led into She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which immediately led into the Owl House, Harley Quinn, and Dead End: Paranormal Park.

There is Arcane, but with the way Netflix has been recently, I wouldn't be shocked if s2 completely shied away from caitvi being a thing and just never addressed it. Again, I hope I'm wrong. And there's a pretty good chance we still have RWBY's Bumbleby for a little longer. Arcane is ending this fall, and RWBY has maybe 1 - 3 volumes left at most and is having to fight for every one.

Honestly the best thing we have going right now that seems to have a future is Hazbin Hotel, and I understand that's not for everyone.

But on the whole, it feels like the momentum we've been building over the last decade has completely stalled and crashed. Yes, this is very much a byproduct of the entire United States backsliding on the progress its made, but I'm not equipped to have that conversation.

And this has been mostly focused on sapphic representation. Even when the momentum was building, we never even got far enough with having queer men characters and trans characters.

Hopefully someday Kara Zor-El can be a main character in a mainstream thing and actually get to kiss a girl. Hopefully Lena Luthor.

I hope I'm wrong and by this time next year there's a new animated series that's the hottest thing on Max or Netflix and the protagonist is a cocky lesbian that makes out with women everywhere she goes.

I'm hoping.

[devine-fem]

WHY JON KENT IS AGED UP.

I realized that people don’t actually know why Jon Kent was aged up so for the people that don’t know I’m going to explain why he was aged up; the real life reason and the story reason.

The real life reason is DC was trying to get ready with 5G Future State and Infinite Frontier and they were trying to do something new. So their idea was to try and take Superman (Clark) off the table. They also wanted a fresh Superboy/Superman to be apart of new teams they could form and fight in new stories in the potential future. (I forget what team and etc because this is from my memory, sorry) Brian Micheal Bendis than had come from Marvel to DC, I know he’s done the same thing in Marvel where he’s written for characters that are more on the side and made them more interesting which worked out but when he came to DC they made the mistake of letting him touch their most well known Superhero: Superman.

Brian Micheal Bendis had decided to make a story completely focused on Clark Kent and Jon was a casualty to this.

To remove him from the story they made it so Mr. Oz (a DC villain) was revealed to be Jor-El (Jon’s grandfather) who had survived the explosion on Krypton by being taken out of Krypton the very moment it blew up by an omnipotent. being called Dr. Manhattan then he appeared suddenly in his house and asked to take Jon and Lois on a space mission to learn the inner workings of the universe. You may be wondering: “Why would Clark and Lois allow this to happen?!” they wouldn’t. it’s very mischaracterized, Clark Kent loses himself in only being Superman and Lois Lane becomes a mother who doesn’t care about her family but only cares about headlines.

Jon in all this time got stuck in a wormhole where he was warped into Earth-3 (a universe where the Justice League is evil) and he gets imprisoned in a Volcano where he’s tortured and abused by Ultraman (that worlds Superman) along with that world’s Lois Lane who is like that worlds Superman.

Then they decide on keeping this in continuity, Tom Taylor/Bendis allow Jon to keep his tortured past and they let Jon explore his sexuality but it is not authentic… its just for headlines and sales but it doesn’t matter since the comic “Superman: Son of Kal-El” flopped.

Jon now doesn’t even act like Jon and he doesn’t have any chemistry with the characters he once did like Damian etc, his personality seems flat… This also takes away Super Sons and removes the option of us being able to watch Jon find his way as a hero and take up after his father. They wanted Jon to become the new Superman which won’t last because there's no way Clark Kent is not coming back.

I'm sure his age-up will not last long though and people will rightfully be mad because “Jay Nakamura” his boyfriend will cease to exist if he becomes young again which would be extremely problematic.

He will most likely be aged down because there's no one who likes this change so Im not too worried.

Over all its just a simple case of a writer writing for a character he doesn’t understand at all.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Part IV)

Chapter Four: Nature and Nurture

Look, we all know the origin of Superman. It's Moses, but in space. James Gunn's got the right idea for his movie; the origin's been done. No reason to beat a dead Krypton, y'know? But even then, that doesn't mean Krypton should be ignored in this theoretical Superman film. And if we're going to talk Krypton and its residents, as well as the El family as a whole, then...well, we have some work to do.

Here's the summary on Krypton, far as I'm concerned: Krypton is a planet orbiting a red sun, Rao, and is the home of the Kryptonians, a scientifically-advanced species in various states of conflict throughout the centuries, usually with the military complex warring against the scientocracy that rules the planet. It is destroyed either by Kryptonians themselves, or by their negligence, depending on who you ask.

Everybody has a different idea of what Krypton looked like, usually fueled by changing ideas of future technology. In the '40s and '50s, it was basically just the Jetsons. After the '80s reboot, it turned into a cold alien society really reminiscent of something like Vulcan, mostly devoid of emotional (and sometimes physical) contact, and with a dark history full of clones, genocides, wars, conquest, and a LOT of other shit. You can thank John Byrne for the complex Kryptonian mythology that came out after Crisis. It is pretty neat.

That form of mythology definitely affected future depictions of Krypton, with Superman: The Animated Series being inspired by the aesthetics, and Smallville and Man of Steel being inspired by the attitudes and history established by Byrne. Even then, of course, these interpretations of Krypton still had their eccentricities and differences, with a lot of other influences brought in. No idea why, for example, Snyder seems to have turned his Krypton into a canyon-filled fantasyscape with rideable four-winged steeds and shit, but...eh, it kinda worked. A little.

There was also a TV prequel series, called Krypton, that came out in 2017. It was pretty decent, honestly, taking place 200 years before Kal-El is born, and centered around the ancestors of the El family, and of the Zods. More on them later. As I said, though, it was a pretty good show, for what it was, and did flesh out an interesting version of Krypton. But before we move on to what my version of Krypton is, it's important talk about its people: the Kryptonians.

In almost every incarnation of Krypton, the people of Krypton are split up into major families, or houses, with Clark being the last living member of the House of El. Each house tends to fall within specific lanes or roles throughout Kryptonian history, with the Els usually serving a major function. Each house also has a specific symbol, with the "S"-like symbol that Superman wears being the symbol for the House of El.

This House, full of scientists and leaders throughout Kryptonian history, tends to find itself in conflict with the House of Zod, which is a military house, best known for its last living member, General Dru-Zod. He'll be a huge focus of a future post, but not right now. And as much as I want to continue talking about Krypton and Kryptonians (especially Tyroc; if you know, you know), I really should move on to the main event. For now, let's put in what I think are the core aspects of Krypton.

Krypton is a scientocracy. As a scientifically advanced society, far beyond Earth's technology, Krypton has put a large focus upon the sciences as a part of their society. Because of this, scientists represent some of Krypton's most preeminent citizens, with most iterations of Krypton outright having a ruling science council. This is also why Kryptonian technology is all over the place, and keeps appearing throughout the Superman mythos. These include the Phantom Zone and Phantom Zone projector, the Eradicator, Kal-El's ship, and the crystal-based tech introduced by the 1978 film, and maintained in the lore since that point.

Kryptonians have a long and complex sociopolitical history. From creating Doomsday to destroying a moon, a lot of crazy-ass shit has happened in Krypton's history, all the way up to its destruction. Obviously having a history is something to expect of every planetary civilization, but...well, actually, that's a point. Krypton essentially has one-world government, which has cuased a myriad of political, military, and...well, even racial issues. Yeah, uh, they shoved all the black people onto an island once. We don't ask questions here. Or, y'know, we do and heavily criticize, but maybe later on that front. But speaking of that...

Krypton wasn't great, not gonna lie. In more recent years, it's become more and more apparent that Krypton had a fuckton of problems. I mean, there was an island with only black people, so that already hints at racial segregation. But outside of that, you have wars, conquests, indignance and corruption, cults, and somehow a complete lack of emotional connection amidst all of these things. Like, one of their scientists literally blew up a fucking MOON. And then there's the whole cloning thing, the predetermination of roles in some adaptations...look, Krypton may have looked like a paradise to some, but it's really not a great place when you look at it.

Krypton blew up, and its destruction may have been preventable. A common refrain when it comes to Krypton is the idea that only one man knew Krypton was going to be destroyed, and nobody listened to him except his wife and brother. More on that guy later. Still, the reasons for Krypton's destruction are myriad. It's been sucked into the sun Rao, blown up by an ancient nuclear weapon at the planet's core, overharvested to the point of geological instability, destroyed indirectly and directly by Brainiac, conspired against by the space Illuminati (yes, actually), and just collapsed due to a natural instability. There's never been a real concrete reason, and to be honest, it doesn't really matter too much. Krypton dies. And for most, 'nuff said.

So, with that put into place, let's talk about the two most important people in the story: Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van.

Lara Lor-Van: The Forgotten Parent

I feel like Lara has gotten the short end of the stick, especially as compared to her husband, Jor-El. So, to give her some much-needed attention, here's a short history of Lara Lor-Van-El. An astronaut/librarian/laborer/martial artist/military officer/scientist, depending on whom you ask, Lara's been a character that's worn a lot of different hats. And by "worn a lot of different hats", I mean that she's such a non-character that writers keep reinventing her, which only makes that problem worse. After all, Jor-El is basically always a scientist, and people remember him. So show some goddamn consistency, writers!

Anyway, Lara loved her son deeply, and didn't want to give him up to a primitive world, but agreed to do so for his sake. And...that's it. That's basically everything about her. So, uh...she's a caring mother. Yikes. That's basically nothing, but to be fair, she is gonna DIE pretty fast, so that makes some sense. However, she should get the same amount of focus as Jor-El, since they're BOTH the parents.

She's gotten it only a little better in adaptations, but not much. My personal favorite version of the character is in Superman: The Animated Series, where she's voiced by Finola Hughes, but...well, she's in it for maybe about 7 minutes altogether. So, y'know, not much there. In live-action, though, she's been a bit luckier.

In fact, in Superman II and IV, she actually replaces Jor-El as the mentor to Clark, which is great! I mean, it's only because Marlon Brando fucked off because...well, to be frank, he's Marlon Brando and kinda weird in general, but it's still a victory in my book. Played by Susannah York, she still seems like the secondary parent compared to Jor-El, but again, there's never been enough to the character to change that.

Smallville did something neat and cast Helen Slater, who played Supergirl in the eponymous and forgotten 1984 film, to play Lara. Here, we meet her in flashbacks, and also see her as a...holographic copy of herself or something? It's been a really long time since I've seen Smallville, forgive me. But this version of Lara is...Superman's mom. Yeah. Moving on.

Superman and Lois actually gives Lara a LOT more depth and detail as a character. Not only is she a scientist who created the Eradicator (more on that...eventually), and not only do we get to see her meet Clark via holographic copy of herself (played by Mariana Klaveno), but we also find out that she had a family prior to Clark, having been arranged to do so by the restrictive governmental systems that ruled Krypton, and having a son (Tal-Rho) from an engineered birth, while choosing to have Clark with Jor-El via natural birth. Nice! We actually turned her into a character here! And what exactly prompted this...

...shift? Oh...oh, shit, is this something Snyder actually did right? I mean, kind of, yeah. Ayelet Zurer plays Lara in Man of Steel, and while she's absurdly shafted in place of Jor-El (only made the holographic intelligence for yourself, huh, buddy? Didn't even think to ask Lara, did you, you dick?), she's still given a semblance of character. Like the later Superman and Lois version, she chose to illegally conceive Clark via natural means with Jor-El, rather than using engineered external birthing systems. And while this version is far more restrained than any other version of the character...she honestly works pretty goddamn well. In fact, she's the one who launches Kal-El into space, while Jor-El is busy getting stabbed by Zod. So, yeah, I guess Snyder of all people tried to give her a bit more detail. Credit where credit's due.

I'll get into what I think Lara should be later. I'll be handling her alongside her husband, since we'll get to know equal amounts of the two in this theoretical film of mine. Speaking of her husband...

Jor-El: Krypton's Cassandra

So, fun fact. I wrote this section on the Text Editor, and literally ALL of it got spontaneously deleted. And instead of going back, I wrote the next section, which made this post...SO fucking long, goddamn. So, A SUMMARY OF JOR-EL!

Jor-El is one of Krypton's top scientific minds and inventors. He invented the Phantom Zone projector, amongst other things, and comes from a family of Science Council members and prominent citizens. Because of this skill and prowess, he's also the first person, usually, to realize that Krypton is fucked. He's the doomed oracle, the scientific Cassandra, the perennial pariah of Krypton. He keeps fucking TRYING to tell the Science Council, Zod, anybody that'll listen that Krypton is gonna blow up. And nobody ever listens. So, he takes matters into his own hands, builds a ship for his kid, shove some crystals in there and sends him off, bingo bongo bango.

Now, Jor-El mostly sticks to that description throughout his incarnation. Although, recently, it was revealed that he actually survived, thanks to Doctor Manhattan (don't ask), and was responsible for one of DC's WORST FUCKING MOVES when it comes to Superman, which involved taking Jonathan Kent away from Clark and aging him up, largely removing Clark's role as a father. Pisses me the fuck off, DO NOT GET ME STARTED

The most famous incarnation of Jor-El is, of course, Marlon Brando in Superman: The Movie. He takes the role of holographic mentor from beyond for a young Clark, and his essence remains as a guardian of the Fortress of Solitude. Basically, he's the prototypical Jor-El for most incarnations. Terence Stamp basically did this in Smallville, but took a MUCH mor antagonistic role through much of the series, trying to push Clark to his perceived "destiny". However, his actions also technically killed Jonathan Kent, caused Martha Kent to miscarry (please don't ask), took away or otherwise fucked with Clark's powers on multiple occasions, and did various other shitty things "for the good of his son." I guess it correctly predicted how much of a dick Jor-El would eventually become in the comics, though.

And then, of course, there's Russell Crowe in Man of Steel. Not too much different here, save for the fact that he and Zod were once good friends, that he has an actual action sequence in this movie, and that...well, yeah, that's about it. He also does the whole "recorded consciousness" thing for Clark, and AGAIN doesn't consider letting Lara do the same, like an asshole. Oh, actually, there is one difference: he dies way before Krypton explodes, stabbed by Zod as his son is sent to Earth. But other than that...yeah, he's basically Jor-El once again.

Yeah, honestly, there isn't a whole lot to say about Jor-El, either. And in truth, maybe there doesn't need to be. After all, both he and Lara are super dead by the time the true story begins, and that'll be the case for the movie too. We really don't need to talk about Krypton, and what happens to Krypton, or who Jor-El and Lara are, or the sociopolitical conflicts that lead to my version of Krypton's destruction, or-

My Krypton

By the time the movie begins, Clark really shouldn't know anything about Krypton. He knows he's an alien, he knows that his true parents haven't come for him (and so assumes that they couldn't), but he doesn't know much else. This question should somewhat haunt Clark, but shouldn't take over his everyday life by any means. So, when his parents come to visit him in Metropolis, they bring with them a crystal that they had found with the crashed ship. As Clark is injured from the attack of the villains of the piece, the crystal will measure his physiological signs, and send a distress beacon to his ship. That will cause the Zeta drives in the ship to activate, bringing the ship to Clark almost instantaneously. Because of its Caretaker programs, the ship will actually surround Clark in order to create a healing environment, bathing him in ultraviolet radiation to help him heal his wounds.

As this is happening, we go back to the crystal. Now surrounded by the ship, the damaged crystal transmits a somewhat broken message into the unconscious Clark's mind. It's alien technology, we can play around a bit here. With this broken message, we see glimpses of Krypton exploding, as well as a look at Jor-El and Lara, who give a message of love and hope to their cast-off child. Nothing big, nothing too long, but something heartfelt. And more importantly, it supplies Clark with a few answers about his past and parents, including their names and the fate of Krypton.

Which brings up the question...what happened? The short answer is a lot, and the even shorter answer is that it doesn't matter, because that mystery won't be solved in this film. But the long answer is...complicated.

Well, the whole thing starts with Brainiac, AKA Vril Dox. An alien conqueror and synthetic being from the far-off planet Colu, Brainiac is a collector of worlds and information, using shrinking technology to miniaturize and transport cities in a misguided attempt to store their culture. About 450 years prior to the events of the film, Krypton was fairly close to a utopian society, with war and conquest largely in the civilization's history. However, the planet's life would likely die off within the next several millennia, due to the instability of the sun Rao. And so, Brainiac made a decision: take the city of Kandor.

Brainiac takes Kandor and its people, with the goal of protecting its knowledge. In reality, all he does is doom Krypton. Without its jewel city, Krypton is forced to restructure itself, both economically and politically. Doing so causes a lot of strife amongst its citizens, and challenges the long-ruling scientocracy of the planet with alternate systems. A cult of Rao develops, prophesying the end-times when the Collector of Worlds returns. Meanwhile, some houses, especially the House of Zod, attempt to reroute the planet's future into a military powerhouse. This is opposed by the House of El, leaders of the Science Council in Kryptonopolis, the new capital of the planet. And over the centuries, this strife and conflict builds to a boiling point.

War. The House of Zod gathers more allies, chief amongst them being the houses of Hu-Ul, Ek, Ur, Ul-Ar, and Kor-Onn. This group of houses, calling themselves the Sword of Rao, conspire together over the years to overthrow and oppose the scientocracy. Establishing a capital in the city of Xan, the Hand outstretched to encompass nearly half of the planet. However, a tentative peace was reached between the two factions of Krypton, but only after the safety of a planet as a whole was threatened by the building arms race.

See, at this point, the Science Council had developed a revolutionary technology: transdimensional teleportation. Two of their head scientists, astrophysicist Jor-El and engineer Lara Lor-Van, accidentally discovered an alternate dimension when experimenting with a mysterious form of electromagnetic radiation that they believed could be used to communicate over seemingly impossible distances. However, too much of this energy opened up a window into a desolate and empty realm directly overlapping our own. They called this place the Phantom Zone.

Simultaneously, the Sword's scientist Jax-Ur developed a powerful weapon called the Destroyer. During an accident of his own, he discharged the weapon into the moon Wegthor, destroying it and endangering the planet. This event prompted a deal between the Sword and the Council, where Jax-Ur was turned over to the Council and imprisoned in the Phantom Zone (against Jor-El's will) in exchange for peace. But peace doesn't last forever.

A decade passed. Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van fell in love and married, and formed an alliance of their own with the leader of the Sword, General Dru-Zod. Zod and his wife, Ursa, became famed leaders of their people, and of the military. But while they played the game of peace with the Science Council, they secretly plotted to take over the planet as a whole, as well as the nearby colonies of the planet Daxam. This was with the help of Jax-Ur, whose clone had been turned over to the Science Council all those years ago. Jax-Ur began to work on his own form of the Phantom Zone technology, turning it into a dangerous weapon that could displace atoms of any object or person to unknown distances. The energies utilized by this technology will one day be harnessed as a method of teleportation known as the Zeta beam.

But once Jax-Ur is discovered, war is back on. The Science Council has Zor-El, Jor-El's brother, weaponize their own Phantom Zone technology to continue the Cold War between the two halves. This is because Jor-El refuses, as the Phantom technology is unpredictable and untested. Jor and Lara resign from the Science Council, and leave to study the true effects of the technology. When Jor-El realizes that too much of this energy could actively destroy the planet, he pleads with the Science Council to stop its development. When this fails, he pleads the same to Zod. Realizing that Jor-El has sided against him, Zod disowns his former friends and turns them away. Doesn't declare vengeance on them or anything like that, just calls them Science Council flunkies and weaklings and turns them away.

Dejected, Jor-El and Lara continue their work, building a small exploration vessel so that they could take measurements from above the planet's atmosphere. But as they were readying to begin their observations, disaster struck. Unbeknownst to them, their visit prompted Zod to order Jax-Ur to speed up development, without proper testing, which is something Jax-Ur was more than happy to do. But again: this is unstable technology. And on a related note: Jax-Ur is a mite unstable himself.

Things come to a head on the battlefront. The Science Council resorts to destroying the island of Vathlo as a warning shot, using Zor-El's weaponization of the dimensional engines to disintegrate it. This prompts a similar destruction of cities by the Sword in retaliation, using Jax-Ur's weapon as a powerful beam of energy for destruction. But both sides make a fatal error, which Jor-El has realized.

See, considering that this is a science-based civilization, it comes to reason that they'd use certain forms of energy. Specifically, in this case, geothermal energy is used to fuel much of Krypton. So, when the teleportation technology is used as a weapon, a large amount of power is drawn out of Krypton itself. What Jor-El discovers is that there's a massive feedback effect that occurs as a result of using so much power. Radiation from the technology is fed back into the ground of Krypton itself, irradiating it and making it brittle. And as the war has waged on, this has only gotten worse.

As a final gambit, the Sword and the Council unleash their full might on each other. Jax-Ur's weapon destroys Kryptonopolis, and weakens the ground beneath it as a result. This creates the final catalyst of Krypton's destruction. Realizing the end, a desperate Jor-El and Lara see no option for escape, except for their exploratory craft. But as it was never meant for anyone to fit inside, the two realize it's too small for everyone EXCEPT their infant son. And so, as Krypton is nearing its destruction, the two mournfully plan send Kal-El out. However, they don't know where to send him, and have no way to know if he'd make it out. So, Lara retrofits a Zeta-drive to the ship to allow it to move through dimensional transportation somewhere, while Jor-El does his best to direct the ship's coordinates to a safe location. Again, they have no idea where it's going at this point. They just hope Kal-El will land somewhere safe, where another people can raise him and care for him.

In a last ditch effort, Zor-El does something similar for himself and his family. In three separate ships, he attempts to plot a course through the Phantom Zone to get to an inhabited planet somewhere. Unfortunately, only his daughter Kara Zora-El manages to escape, flung into the Phantom Zone while in stasis, while her parents are both killed as Kryptonopolis falls.

This is only the beginning of the end, however. Zod and company finally sees the end, as the ground beneath them and all of Krypton begins to shake. See, here's the fun thing about planets: they can't just spontaneously explode. Scientifically, that makes no sense. So instead, this is a disaster caused by the war between factions. And also realizing no escape, Zod and the highest ranking members of the Sword of Rao (Ursa, Faora Hu-Ul, Non Kor-Onn, and Jax-Ur) also escape into the Phantom Zone, where they'll be imprisoned until they find a way out. And at that point, with everybody off world...well, you know what happens next.

Now, will ALL OF THAT make it into the movie? FUCK no. This is just backstory. But that's the Krypton that we're working with, setting the stage for conflicts and characters to come, and for Clark to discover over the course of several movies. Because we're plotting for a series here, and this is a story that can be unfurled over time, especially if and when Zod or Supergirl show up.

But there's one more unsolved question here: how did Clark get so injured in this theoretical film? He's fucking Superman. Well...what do you think happened? It's a McGuffin, but an important one. So, just for a second...let's talk about Kryptonite in this universe.

Remember how I said the weaponized Zeta-beam technology irradiated the ground of Krypton itself. Well, that radiation actually makes Krypton pretty toxic, ESPECIALLY when the planet collapses in on itself due to the same energies. So, Kryptonite is the irradiated remains of the planet Krypton. But it doesn't actually go anywhere. I mean, let's be honest, it makes NO SENSE for Kryptonite to travel that fair to get to Earth, so where did it come from?

Well, theoretically, maybe an alien civilization or individual discovered Kryptonite, and decided to use it as a radioactive power source, or even as a crystalline nuclear weapon. So, if Superman, who reads as Kryptonian, shows up in a city on Earth and disrupts your plans for the city/planet, you'd want a way to get rid of him. And maybe you have a way to travel to Krypton and discover it's destruction, as well as the crystals themselves. And maybe you have some human patsies that will use technology that utilizes Kryptonite to take out Superman. So you grab the radioactive crystal, give it to these guys, and they work to take out Superman. And who are these guys? Let's not jump the gun. For now, we have some more people to talk about first, before we talk villains.

Index: Superman

Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

[jlaclassified]

 I used to be a line-wide DC reader from like 1996-2003 but I don’t have the foggiest notion of what’s supposed to pass for DC continuity these days. I think that’s by design; the powers that be seem to think that DC fans only pay attention to Crises and Reboots and Multiverses, rather than trivialities like “characterization” and “plot.”  All this is to say that I only really keep up via random trades in the public library anymore, and I don’t really care how anything fits together or whether or not it “counts.” 

Superman: Future State was a decent enough random read. Grant Morrison stans like us will find a lot to like here. For example, the Midnighter and Mister Miracle chapters overlapped without directly crossing over, a la Seven Soldiers, while several of the characters and ideas in the House of El and Imperious Lex sections are reminiscent of DC 1,000,000 and All-Star Superman.  It all looks nice, especially the Heavy Metal-esque Warworld and the manga style Legion of Superheroes.  The Official JLA Classified Review: Inessential but fun.

[earth489]

Earth 489: Supergirl Legacy Redux

Supergirl I - Kara Zor-El/Karen Starr: Kal-El's older paternal cousin, Kara was intended to arrive on Earth at the same time as Kal, but she was stranded in the Phantom Zone after Krypton's explosion knocked her rocket off course. Masquerading as Kal's cousin who was orphaned in a house fire - not entirely far from the truth, if one thinks about it - Kara would soon become the first Supergirl, and would later form the Titans alongside Dick Grayson, Wally West, Garth of Atlantis, Donna Troy, and Roy Harper. However, it didn't take long for Kara to want to distance herself from her now incredibly famous cousin. Altering her costume, removing her house symbol from the chest, and changing her name to Power Girl, Kara reinvented herself entirely. This extended towards her civilian identity, as "Karen Starr" would later found StarrWare Industries, a technological firm dedicated to saving the environment. Karen's attempts to reinvent herself have taken her to many strange places, including the 30th century, where she was a member of the Legion of Superheroes, and the not too distant past, where she and fellow time lost adventurer Huntress - not the same as the current, although Karen has stated that her name is also Helena - were members of the Justice Society.

Supergirl II - Cir-El/Mia Kent: The woman who would become Mia Kent was an unfortunate victim of a disease which rendered her brain dead. Noting her resemblance to Clark Kent and Lois Lane, the Brainiac of this time period kidnapped her and altered her DNA to include both their samples and to gift her Kryptonian abilities. Sending her back in time with false memories of being the daughter of Superman and his wife, Mia was intended to usher in a new era where Brainiac ruled supreme. But it didn't take long for Mia discovered the truth. The artificial Kryptonian sacrificed herself to prevent this terrible future from coming to be, taking Brainiac with her. This would be the last anyone would see of her, or this time period, until the time travelling Rip Hunter would discover her stranded in the time stream and return her to this timeline, where she is once again Supergirl.

Supergirl III - Kara In-Ze/Linda Lee Danvers: The half Daxamite cousin of Kara Zor-El via her mother - unrelated to Kal-El, mind you - Kara In-Ze was living on Daxam with her parents when Krypton exploded, knocking its neighboring planet out of orbit. In order to give her daughter a chance to live, Kara's mother used what remaining resources she could to build a rocket to send Kara out into space, at the cost of her life. This attempt ultimately paid off, and soon Kara found herself on Earth, where she would reunite with her now older cousin (funny how history seems to repeat). Operating as the next Supergirl, Kara would be adopted by the Danvers family, scientists Jeremiah and Eliza as her parents, DEO agent Alex as her older sister, and a baby brother named Wally. However, Kara's anger with what happened to her home planet and her biological parents flared, and she often clashed with her new family, as well as her teammates on the Titans and the second iteration of the Young Justice group. She soon found purpose, however, when she took on the mantle of Flamebird - one she shares with Bette Kane and Thara Ak-Var - and became partner to Stephanie Brown, when she took the name of Nightwing, and later Jason Tood when he did the same.

Supergirl IV - Keira Zor-El/Claire Starr: As mentioned earlier, history has a habit of repeating, and Claire's story in no exception. A clone created from the combined DNA of Kara Zor-El and Lena Luthor, "Claire Clarkson" was created by Ultraman to bolster the ranks of the Crime Syndicate, a villainous counterpart to the Justice League. Adopting the name of Ultragirl, it didn't take long for Claire to discover her true origins, or realize that what she and her "friends" were doing was wrong. Claire turned against the Crime Syndicate and, after confronting her creator and adoptive father, discovered her genetic origins. She in turn revealed this to Power Girl, who would take her in as an adoptive daughter, feeling responsible for her. Claire later joined the world of heroes as the fourth Supergirl, but never felt worthy of the name, and once Cir-El was refound, it didn't take long for her to abandon the name and assume the alternative of "Snowbird".

[farsight-the-char]

SUPERMAN: THE WARWORLD SAGA

Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON and SI SPURRIER

Art by RICCARDO FEDERICI, DANIEL SAMPERE, WILL CONRAD, SCOTT GODLEWSKI, MIKEL JANIN, and others

Cover by RICCARDO FEDERICI

$59.99 US | 712 pages | Softcover | 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″ | ISBN: 978-1-77952-388-4

ON SALE 11/14/23

After learning of an enslaved race with mysterious ties to Krypton, Superman and the Authority leave Earth and travel across the galaxy to liberate Warworld. Think it’s that simple? Think again.

With Superman captured on Warworld, he’ll need to team up with other enslaved gladiators to turn the hordes of Warworld against their captors. As the Warworld Saga reaches a breaking point, battle lines are drawn between the two towering forces at odds: Mongul and Superman. Which heroes will survive the conflict, and what will be the fate of the citizens of Warworld?

This volume collects the full Warworld Saga: Action Comics #1030-1046, Action Comics 2021 Annual, Action Comics 2022 Annual, Batman/Superman: Authority Special #1, Future State: Superman: House of El #1, Future State: Superman: Worlds of War #1-2, and Superman: Warworld Apocalypse #1!

[thevindicativevordan]

So, it seems like I Am Batman is officially ending in February, and with that all of Future State characters lost their ongoings. Of course there's a chance that they still have something for this characters, but so far everything indicates that DC gave up on FS characters at all. How do you think, what's the reason of this outcome? Was there a chance for these characters? Do you think DC didn't try harder to push them? Or it's because fanbase still hates everything new?

Love to pretend I saw it coming, but just the other day I predicted Ridley would get to keep writing the book until issue 25 given how DC seemed to value him, so much for my prediction skills. Well that's a wrap for the Future State crew unless some kind of Justice League book starring them is in the works, and given that the solicits for Nightwing are setting up the Titans as the premiere team for a bit, complete with teasing Jon joining them instead of the Justice League, I don't think that Legacy League book is happening (or at the very least it won't be what I expected/hoped it to be). Only part of Future State that may still be relevant is PKJ's House of El cast, everything else is clearly not going to play a major role in what's to come.

Why is DC backing away from them? 5G got scrapped because the higher-ups at WB no longer supported the shakeup apparently, their attempt to position the classics and the Future State crew as equals during Infinite Frontier flopped, and the film DCU seems poised to refocus on the classics again, meaning that the comics are doing likewise. Sales and synergy are conspiring to reestablish the status quo once more.

DC pushed them all hard, I don't see what more could have been done without actually carrying through on 5G, short of maybe giving Jace Detective Comics the way Jon took over Superman for a bit, and making Yara Wonder Woman. Jon, Jace, Yara, Jo, and Jackson all got lead roles in major books, either as solos or as part of a duo. It is surprising that they completely abandoned Jess Quick, that tease about Jess travelling to Earth 0 has been dropped for certain (along with a whole bunch of other plot threads like "Earth-Alpha"). All Jess got was that Teen Justice book and since I don't see anyone talking about that I can only assume it's a sales flop, which means they're never going to matter again. Majority of the fanbase and the people working at DC do not care about the non-Earth 0 characters, they're event fodder or cameos at best, Jess being left on Earth 11 is the end for their relevance.

The already established fanbase was never going to embrace these characters "cutting in line" to take over the major roles instead of the previous generation who had been built up. Hope was that all the people demanding diversity wasn't just a tiny crowd on Twitter amplified by an echo chamber, but people who were actually eager to buy books featuring said diversity. Those people were supposed to show up and support the books but they didn't. Biggest breakout books of Infinite Frontier were Nightwing, Action Comics, and Wally West's return to headlining The Flash, all three books starring straight white men. Of the FS crew the biggest success was Jon, the most traditional of the legacies bisexuality aside, whose book last I checked was the only one of the group still in the Top 100 chart. Jace did the second best with his book outlasting Jon, despite his sales being worse. Jackson was a total failure, his books completely flopped, with Aquamen debuting outside the Top 100. Aquafans had no interest in him taking on the mantle. Jo was paired with John and that Green Lantern book didn't sell great but it was comparable to Morrison's run with Hal from what I understand. Yara debuted strong but the mess behind the scenes ended up killing her book. Alas none of them succeeded the way DC was hoping.

What's the future for this group?

Jon will be fine. He's the blood son and natural successor to Clark, he's already getting adapted outside of comics, hell if they're really pivoting back to Cavill for the DCU, I expect Jon will be the one who replaces him in the films. He's the only one thus far who will be getting a solo book in Dawn of DCU, albeit a mini, he's in the Lazarus Planet event, two of the stories in Action will star him, and I'm hoping Taylor is just wrapping up his era on the character before handing him over to someone else while he goes and does Titans. DC won't be taking away the Superman mantle from their bisexual Superman, although if they did I confess at this point I wouldn't even care unless they're planning on taking him away from Taylor. There's still a chance to salvage Jon with a new creative team.

Jace might be ok due to DC fearing backlash over killing off/stripping the mantle from their black Batman, but I don't know if most people would even care. How aware are people that Jace even exists at this point? What hurt Jace, besides the fact that there are at least 3 other people "in front of him" in terms of succession, is that there already is a "black Batman": Black Panther. He's the same kind of archetype, but T'Challa was in a billion dollar movie that doubled as a cultural phenomena and unlike Jace he was the lead of his franchise. Jace will never be that, wouldn't have been that even if 5G had happened. Ridley's writing probably did turn some people away as well, but I view Ridley's time on the character the same as the Golden Age Batman: the bricks are laid but the house isn't done being built yet. I hope Jace will get that chance to be "finished", the way Bruce ultimately was with Moore and Miller. With no real chance of him being adapted outside of comics any time soon, I fully expect he will slip into Limbo, unless he's getting a follow-up mini or appearing in a team book like Jon.

Yara is Wonder Girl so that's what she'll stay. She'll be Diana's sidekick and play support. If DC doesn't think she can work on her own, might I suggest relaunching Superman/Wonder Woman as a Jon/Yara book yet again? I liked her and Jon's dynamic in Future State, and I love the idea that Jon is closer to his Wonder counterpart in the Trinity than his dad was to Diana. Please don't abandon Yara because I really do love her as a character.

Jackson/Kaldur should be fine, he's the most prominent member of the Aquafamily aside from Arthur and Mera thanks to Young Justice, but he is definitely not lead material. Least not at the moment, Arthur is the only Aquaman who can support a solo book, leave Jackson as a supporting character to Arthur for now and keep building him up. Maybe one day he can support holding the mantle of Aquaman.

Jess as I said is done. Didn't even get a book, not on Earth 0, and the Flash Family is already huge. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to show up again. Wally and Wallace are the only ones who will ever be the main Flash other than Barry.

Jo will join Simon and Kyle in the "cameos every now and then to remind you they exist but never gets another solo" category unless the trade sales of Far Sector are bigger than I am aware of. Hal and John remain the main Lanterns and that's not changing in the wake of the GL show getting reworked to star John, John being the Tomorrowverse Lantern, and John being in the Suicide Squad game while Hal gets to keep being the Lantern for the Injustice series.

Sucks that this crew is probably going to go the way of the Bloodlines heroes where there's one standout that everyone remembers (Jon/Hitman) and everyone else gets unceremoniously dropped and forgotten. My prediction skills have already been proven wrong once when it comes to these characters futures, maybe I'll get lucky and be wrong again like I want to be this time.

[le-flou-rouge]

Future State: Superman: House of El (2021-) #1