by Kevin J. Anderson
Harper-Collins Hardback $25.95
Most everyone knows the basic story of how Superman came to Earth. His father Jor-El sent him away from the doomed planet Krypton to make him the Last Son of Krypton and thus the hero known as Superman. In this new novel, Kevin J. Anderson strives to tell the reader the full story behind superman's parents, Jor-El and Lara, as well as Kara Zor-El's parents, and General Zod and the Phantom Zone. With the various incarnations of the DC multiverse through the years, Anderson has expanded on the basic facts and given us an epic story of two brothers fighting to save their world and creating a special destiny.
We meet Jor-El before he has even met his future wife, Lara. He's an inventor and scientist on a Krypton that discourages such activities and pretty much anything he creates is deemed a possible weapon and is confiscated and destroyed by Dru-Zod, the head of the Commission of Technology Advancement in the capital city of Kandor. When he creates the Phantom Zone and is accidentally trapped in it, he is rescued by Lara, an artist working on his estate, and a relationship starts to bloom. Jor-El's brother, Zor-El, is the leader of Argo City and has been watching seismic readings and discovers a problem with the planet's core. Jor-El has been keeping an eye on Krypton's sun, Rao, and believes it may be close to going supernova. Of course, the ruling council of Krypton doesn't listen to either of them. Meanwhile, Dru-Zod has been stockpiling Jor-El's inventions planning to make use of them to take control of the government and when an alien turns up planning to share technology and help Jor-El with his investigations, Dru-Zod has his mute ward, Na-Kem, sabotage Jor-El's experiment leading to the alien's death. When Braniac shows up and uproots and shrinks Kandor, Dru-Zod takes command and starts a civil war that may doom Krypton before natural forces do the job.
Through the course of the story, the reader well versed in the Superman legacy will enjoy the nods to other parts of the DC Universe and explanations of how things came to be. The means by which Jor-El learns about Earth is much more believable in the context of this book than the 60's stories showing Jor-El using a long range telescope to spy on Earth. There're also some surprises as several possible causes for Krypton's destruction are brought to the forefront before the final fatal piece of the puzzle plays out. You do get a good sense of the turmoil Jor-El and Kara go through leading up to their launching of their son to an unknown fate as their world is crumbling. The events that leads Zor-El to shield Argo City so that it survives the destruction of Krypton are also well presented. Even if you aren't well versed in Superman and Kryptonian lore, you'll find a good story with tragedy and hope. - Lee Whiteside