DC Direct: New Krypton Commander Kal El

DC Direct Commander Kal El

So I might be down to my last review before Man of Steel hits theaters everywhere. I actually still have a couple more Superman action figures to review but unfortunately time constraints won't allow me to finish them on time before the Man of Steel hits the screens. I'll eventually do them in the coming days however. As for this entry, Superman takes a leave of absence on his Superheroing on Earth to settle down in New Krypton. Read on for more about this story.

New Krypton Commander Kal El

When Geoff Johns took over the Superman titles, Superman fans were in for a wild ride. Beginning with the storyline Brainiac, Johns establishes Superman's Kryptonian roots and brought into the DC Universe the existence of a Kryptonian civilization trapped in a bottle. For his next act, Johns brings this civilization on Earth as one hundred thousands of Supermen (now restored to their original life size) emerged from the shrunken bottle. An all out action ensues as Superman had to deal with the growing uneasiness and restlessness of the human civilization who sees these Krytponians as a threat to their security. Caught in the middle, Superman leaves Earth to join and police the Kryptonians. By the end of the story arc, James Robinson, Greg Rucka, and Sterling Gates took over the titles from Geoff Johns and gave us a Superman story that has more political intrigue and mystery compared to the traditional Superman stories that were released in the previous years. All of these tense build ups however would lead to an epic battle between Superman and the Kryptonian race, as they were now being led by General Zod. A lot of changes happened in these multiple story arcs, we even see a depowered Superman living amongst the Kryptonian race. This self exile however, along with a new unrecognizable military type costume that Superman donned as a member of the Kryptonian army, would only fuel the excitement of the fans the moment Superman returned to Earth (after a year of absence) in his traditional costume via the War of the Supermen story arc.

Kal El as illustrated by Gary Frank

These multiple story arcs were aptly supported by the art of Gary Frank, Pete Woods, Renato Guedes, and others. Frank's Superman artistic style blew away Superman fans as he brought Christopher Reeve's Superman likeness in the comic books. Reeve, revered for his portrayal of Superman on the big screen in 1978 (spawning 4 movies in total), became Frank's model as he drew his Superman's facila features. I was slightly disappointed though that Frank never had the chance to work with 1978 Superman director Richard Donner for the Last Son storyline. This was rectified however by DC when they pulled out Johns and Frank from the regular Superman titles (thus James Robinson and crew took over) and gave them a new limited series epic called Superman Secret Origins. In this story, Johns and Frank recreates the Superman origin story (including some of the scenes from the 1978 Superman movie) for the new generation as it complimented with all of the Superman stories written by Johns. I highly recommend casual Superman fans to grab a copy of the Superman Secret Origins graphic novel. It's all that you'll ever need in a Superman story. And what more can I say when you have a Superman that looks exactly like Christopher Reeve as he appeared in all of those Superman movies in the 70's and 80's.  

Superman/Kal El

The Action Figure: This was a game changer for DC Direct. For years, DC Direct had been know to feature awesome sculpts but limited in articulation. The New Krypton toy line offered changes in their articulation department (though I think this is not the first time they offered more articulation as that privilege belonged to the History of the DC Universe toy line). The Commander Kal El action figure from the upper waist up sports similar articulations with that of the Mattel DCUC toy line minus the ab crunch. This figure features a ball jointed neck, ball hinged shoulders, swivel biceps, wrists, waist, and boots, hinged elbows and knees, and pivot hips. So play value of the figure is so much better compared to previous DC Direct action figures. The costume looks fairly normal, but it remained faithful to the source material. Awesome detail was given, especially the small S insignia on the figure's left chest as well as the belts and chains sculpted on the figure. But the best part of the figure is the head sculpt, as it features Christopher Reeve's likeness since this figure was based from the art of Gary Frank. A lot of collectors (me included) however were disappointed that DC Direct skipped on releasing a Superman figure in his classic costume based on the art of Gary Frank. It would have been an awesome figure to have as it would certainly become the action figure representation of Christopher Reeve's Superman. That missed opportunity however encourage Superman fans to get creative and create their own Christopher Reeve Superman by using the head sculpt of the figure and creating/customizing a Superman body in his classic costume. My simple creation can be see below and here. I will be devoting a separate entry for my Custom Christopher Reeve Superman in my future entries.

Gary Frank's Superman

Tom Welling, Christopher Reeve, and Brandon Routh

Reeve v.s. Welling

Routh v.s. Welling, Reeve referees

New Krypton Commander Kal El

Superman: New Krypton volume four

Defining Comic book in my collection featuring this figure: The entire New Krypton arc can be accessed thru the 9 part book/volumes (this includes the Brainiac story arc) that DC released as a graphic novel. Superman: Brainiac was the prelude to this epic story line as Brainiac was in possession of the bottled city of Kandor. Superman's Earth father, Jonathan Kent died in this story when he saved his wife, Martha Kent, from Brainiac's attacks. Just when a member of Superman's family dies, a huge number of his fellow Kryptonian race emerges from the bottle and Superman deals with 100,000 more fellow Kryptonians like him (including his Uncle and Supergirl's parents, Zor-El and Alura). 
Helping the Kryptonians' assimilation on Earth, Superman faces a daunting task as these Kryptonians went out of control as they tried to rid the Earth of Superman's enemies. One of these missions caused the accidental death of police officers. This accident enrages the officials of Earth and superhero groups like the Justice League and Justice Society. U.S. Army General Sam Lane (Lois Lane's dad) forms a covert group (which includes Lex Luthor) to battle the Kryptonian "invasion". In their secret mission, they managed to assassinate the recognized Kryptonian leader Zor-El. This caused a full-scale war between the forces of Earth (which includes the Justice League and Justice Society) and the Kryptonians, with Superman caught in the middle. The impending war was only halted when the Kryptonians managed to create a new planet they called New Krypton, which was located at the opposite end of the Earth, hidden by the yellow sun. With no exposure from the yellow sun, the Kryptonians loses their powers. The death of Zor-El would lead Alura to avail the services of General Zod, freeing him from the Phantom Zone (as seen in the events here) and installing him as the lead authority in New Krypton.

Superman joins General Zod and his forces in New Krypton

Commander El garners respect from General Zod

Despite the tensions between Earth and New Krypton, General Zod's involvement with New Krypton would cause Superman to depart Earth and enlist as part of the Kryptonian Military guild and reside in New Krypton in order for him to keep a close watch on Zod. This is where all the political intrigues of New Krypton emerges, with hidden agendas and the like playing out in the whole story arc. Superman, now known as Commander El faces the different challenges of Kryptonian traditions and it's political intrigues. And since Kryptonian criminals were also released from the Phantom Zone along with General Zod, criminal elements existed to wreak havoc on New Krypton. This was part of Commander El's job to apprehend. Political intrigues however causes Commander El to be jailed by General Zod because of treason. But was later freed because of a Kryptonian tradition. General Zod was assassinated during the celebration of that tradition, but a fast acting Commander El managed to apprehend the assassin. His quick actions led a recovering Zod to turn over the leadership of New Krypton to him, just as they discovered that the assassin used Earth made weapons. There was a traitor in their midst, and it was up to Commander El to unmask the traitor. When Zod became fully healed, he demoted Commander El back to commander and he became the General again. Commander El meanwhile successfully unmasks the traitor. And just as he reaps praise from General Zod, Brainiac robots appears all over New Krypton.

Superman's allies on Earth while he was away from Earth

General Zod and his forces captures Superman

Brainiac robots appears all over New Krypton and a full scale invasion is on. Zod rallies his Kryptonian troops to ward off the invasion. Meanwhile, Superman and his allies (Supergirl, Mon-El, Superboy, and the Legion of Superheroes) invades Brainiac's ship to rescue the other remaining bottled cities. Superman seemingly dies in his battle with Brainiac, while Zod and his forces continues to battle Brainiac. It was also revealed that all of these machinations were ran by Luthor under the orders of General Lane. He programs Brainiac to attack New Krypton to create chaos and disorder to give General Lane and the Earth forces an opening for their attack. Zod had Brainiac on his knees and was about to deliver the killing blows when suddenly Superman appears and stops him. Superman was revived by Legionnaire Brainiac 5 using blood transfusion from Superboy/Kon El and exposes him to synthesized yellow suns. Brainiac meanwhile snaps Luthor's neck when he found out that Luthor was sabotaging his ship. This Luthor though was actually a robot created by Toyman. This act by Luthor gave him a Presidential pardon and was eventually set free by the U.S. government. When Zod knew about the human's involvement in Brainiac's invasion, he declares war on Earth and rallies his troops against Earth's forces. Upon knowing this, Superman engages Zod in a battle but was outnumbered by Ursa and Non. The other Kryptonians heads toward Earth as they start their invasion. Meanwhile, a captured Reactron detonates on New Krypton, destroying the planet and killing Alura. Luthor, under the orders of General Lane fires a missile towards the Earth's sun, turning it to red and depowering the Kryptonians, suffocating most of them in space to death. Out of the 100,000 Kryptonians, 73,000 dies, leaving behind 7,000 Kryptonians who were able to reach Earth and wreak havoc by killing world leaders and the likes. Ursa heads towards the White House in search of the U.S. President with Supergirl hot on her trails. Superman on the other hand stands atop the Daily Planet as he waited for Zod's arrival. In the final battle, Supergirl narrowly defeats Ursa, Superboy uses the Phantom Zone projector against Non just when Non was about to beat the Justice League, and Superman defeats Zod with the help of Superboy by sending him back to the Phantom Zone. Meanwhile General Lane commits suicide as he realizes that he went overboard in protecting Earth from the Kryptonian invasion and his role of sparking this war by coaxing the Kryptonians who were living peacefully on New Krypton.    

Superman v.s. Zod, the Final Battle

The Art of Gary Frank

Although Frank had a good run illustrating Superman, I still find it not enough as I believe Frank could have illustrated more Superman stories. But then again, after the events of the New Krypton Saga, Superman would face an identity crisis as he literally walks all over America to find himself as he answers the question "Must there be a Superman?" The final story arc of the Modern Age Superman would pit him against Doomsday, the monster that had killed him before. But that threat is nothing compared to what would happen next. Superman would face the biggest challenge yet. A change of continuity, the end of the Modern Age Superman. A new Superman emerges, familiar yet strangely different. The age of New 52 thus began!