Reign of the Supermen #166: Superman of Oa

Source: Superman vol.2 #147 (1999)
Type: Computer simulationAction Comics #314 had this story in which Jor-El used a computer simulation to find out what would happen if he sent baby Kal-El to planets other than Earth, and on each, he basically became a different member of the Justice League of America. The story was attempted again post-Crisis, with parties unknown running Jor-El's old simulations through Superman's brain to learn what made him who he is. But instead of sending Kal-El to random, previously unknown places, Jor-El chooses planets with rich histories in the DC Universe. And you know what? It still Amalgamates Superman with members of the Justice League.

This week: Becoming Green Lantern
Landing site: Oa, the planet of the Guardians of the Universe at the center of it all, and headquarters to the Green Lantern Corps.
Adoptive parents: Kal-El was raised by a Guardian giving him a cold, logical, humorless approach to life.
A new life: Not surprisingly, Kal became a Green Lantern, but one able to overcome the yellow impurity with his other powers. Today, we've got Daxamites in the GL Corps, but it seems like overkill here.
Final score: B+

Jor-El ultimately discards this possibility because he wants to spare his son the withdrawn existence and atrophied passions that have become staples of his Krypton. I have to agree that despite all the powers, this Superman is pretty dull. Unlike Jor-El, I had simply blamed it on Ron Marz' writing (ouch, cheap shot!).

Comments

Anonymous said…
Marz was never real good at pulling on my heart strings either. I can't put my finger on it, his writing often feels like a collection of sequential events but not a story that evokes emotion.

As of 1972, the Guardians had plans to make Kal-El their bestest Green Lantern ever, one so good that it would allow the Guardians to retire early:

http://superman.nu/tales2/greatestGL/?page=1
Siskoid said…
True, I still have to address that one.
Anonymous said…
I am perpetually amused that Lara is described as an "astronaut", since Krypton notoriously lacked a space program. Was that the Guardians' polite way of saying she has no marketable skills? Well, SOMEbody mis-programmed the navigational computer such that the Guardians had to steer the rocket towards earth, and I doubt the brilliant super-scientist is to blame.
Robert said…
Didn't Krypton's space program end because of General Zod blowing up a moon, or something like that?
Siskoid said…
I'm confused. Which strand of continuity are we talking about now?
Anonymous said…
The Tomar-Re thing was Bronze Age standard Earth-1 continuity. But in that story, near the end, the Guardians say "... as we guided the tiny spaceship carrying the infant to earth". That strongly implies that, if not for those meddlesome Oans, Kal-El never would have reached earth, and Krypto would have arrived on earth some years later and gone apeshit without his master there to keep him on a leash.
Siskoid said…
I am suddenly desperate to read that untold Krypto story!
But then there's the Jack Knight Starman story where he meets a young Jor-El and encourages him to keep monitoring Earth without telling him why.
Anonymous said…
INDESTRUCTIBLE MYSTERY DOG CREEPS OUT SMALLVILLE WITH FLYING, ERECTION

TOUSLE-HAIRED BOY SCIENTIST LEX LUTHOR ATTEMPTS TO ANALYZE HELL-HOUND LEAVINGS

KENT FARM REMAINS UNPLOWED
Siskoid said…
Desperation mounts.