Superboy gets shrunk! Lex Luthor goes exploring! And Brainiac 5 and Supergirl hang out! We look at Adventure Comics #10 & Supergirl #52

 

 

Adventure Comics #10 or 513

Let's recap, as we always do. Brainiac has bottled Kandor again. The Kryptonians within were bathed in red sun energy and have lost their powers. General Zod, the leader of the Kryptonian defences, is happy that happened and seems to think they're ready to defeat Brainiac.

Superman, after futilely attacking Brainiac's ship, was blasted with red sun energy and is falling through space towards New Krypton.

Mon-El was also defeated and teleported somewhere. 

Brainiac 5 has travelled back in time to save Superman's life to protect the future.

The Legion, Superboy, and Supergirl spend a lot of time standing around and explaining things when they're trying to save all the bottled cities on Brainiac's ship to make sure they get to their correct planets to ensure the United Planets develops the way it should. Oh, and to save New Krypton.

Tellus wants to use his telepathic powers, combined with the telepathic powers of all the Lanothians (who are in one of those bottled cities), to force every Kryptonian to ignore their racism towards their different guilds and work together to protect themselves.

I think that covers the important stuff.

Welcome to part six of the Last Stand of New Krypton, brought to you by writers Sterling Gates & James Robinson, pencillers Travis Moore and Eduardo Pansica, and inkers Julio Ferreira & Eber Ferreira.

Superman is falling, dropping from 10,000 feet above New Krypton. Suddenly, a Brainiac drone flies in and grabs him. Superman is just a little surprised, as are we all. The robot places Kal-El down on the planet's surface and displays the Legion Flight Ring on its right finger.

It's Quislet! Who is suddenly talking through the flight ring... something I don't think ever happened before. Actually, I don't recall him ever having a ring before because he doesn't have hands. Also, wouldn't the ring also be destroyed once Quislet left it? Anyway, the drone blows up (instead of disintegrating) and Superman's safe. Another positive - they've kinda got Quislet's voice right, so that's a plus.

We get a nice recap of what happened to Kandor and how Brainiac will destroy the planet next. They red sun blast has worn off (that was quick) so Superman flies back into action to save the day.

Back onboard the ship, Superboy and the Legionnaires are fighting their way through the countless number of drones. The wall is also fighting them and ends up separating Superboy from the Legion. He's unable to smash through it at all.

Which is when Lex Luthor suddenly shows up, explaining that the walls of the ship are so strong, Superboy will just end up hurting himself if he keeps punching it. Luthor blasts Superboy with green Kryptonite radiation and then teleports him... into the bottled city of Kandor.

Mon-El is flying through space, free, happy, exploring the universe.

(On a quick aside, I really don't like this new costume design. I wanted to give a few issues to see if it'd grow on me. But it hasn't. I think it's the trunks...)

His fun is immediately interrupted by a bunch of cloaked people who tell him he's got to go back to Daxam. It's revealed that he's back in the Phantom Zone and has to fight against all the Kryptonians imprisoned there.

But this isn't really happening. Mon-El is actually unconscious, strapped to some machine, and the drones lead him away from a bottled city. The bottled city of Kandor actually, where Superboy watches him get led away.

Superboy also realizes that he's lost his powers - I guess the red sun energy affected him. Luckily, he still has his Legion Flight Ring, so he can use it to go and talk to Zod.

To no one's surprise, Zod won't let Conner join the fight and, instead, orders his soldiers to arrest him. But he forgets that Superboy does still have powers - tactile telekinesis. Zod goes flying but gets back to his feet quickly, angry and ready to fight.

With one kick, Zod puts Conner down and reminds him that he's a soldier and this is how soldiers fight. Then he reveals the big surprise - Kryptonian scientists have figured out a way to get a small fighting force out of the bottle. This group, lead by Zod, will re-enlarge and have their powers back.

What are they called? The Brainiac Revenge Squad. Ugh...

The group walks through some sort of sparkly wall and are suddenly full-sized and ready to attack Brainiac.

So... many... questions...

1. Are you telling me that Zod's strategy was to let Brainiac kill 10% of New Krypton's population just so they could get shrunk and get onto the ship?

2. If Brainiac's ship has walls so strong that they can't be destroyed by Kryptonian strength, then why didn't he build all his drones from the same material? And why would the ship need force fields?

3. Should I be this entertained that Zod keeps calling Conner "clone"?

4. Why does Lex Luthor have free reign to wander throughout the ship? Wouldn't Brainiac want to keep him close?

5. Why keep Mon-El on ice, so to speak? Why not shrink him down and place him in Kandor as well?

6. Is there a worse planetary leader than Alura, Supergirl's mom?

7. Could it be possible to make the Legion look even more ineffectual?

 

We get another backup feature starring Kryptonian warrior Romundi, who's infiltrated General Lane's trust and is ready to betray the American Army as soon as necessary.

But they've figured her out and the soldiers are ready to kill her. The battle begins and they use a special bacteria (seen last issue) that saps her powers every time she uses them.

She fights to get somewhere (honestly no idea where or why), killing as many soldiers as she can, before she bursts into a room and discovers two other Kryptonians strapped to machines and being tortured for information. That's why they knew what she was planning to do.

As she keeps getting battered with red sun energy, General Lane gets to give a big speech and gloat. Then he puts a bullet in her head.

What... was... the... point?

Which, the more I think about it, is a great question to describe this entire story.

There are many moments when I'm reading these big crossover epics where I figure that both the writing and art team have just run out of energy and are focused on just getting to the end, not on making the pathway there have any logical sense. We've reached this point.

 

Supergirl #52

It's part seven of this whole saga, or chapter 39 of the Superman tales. This one's brought to you by writer Sterling Gates, penciller Ivan Rodriguez, and inkers Nei Ruffino & Zaratus.

We begin where we left off, with Zod and his soldiers, now fully-sized and powered again, destroying Brainiac drones within the ship. We also get an explanation of how they got out of the bottled city (or I just completely missed it last issue and don't care to go back and see if that's true) - they're wearing sunstone devices on their chests. And since they're hard to make, they only had enough for this small attacking force.

Zod orders them to be careful and try to make sure Brainiac doesn't know they've escaped. No idea how Brainiac wouldn't notice a bunch of fighting within his ship, or numerous drones being destroyed, but I guess he's busy focusing on... something?

We also get a creepy moment where Ursa says that she finds all the frightened people in all the different bottles... motivating. At least I think it's supposed to be creepy, or remind you that she's a villain, but it just falls kinda flat. They fly off to attack and search for something.

Meanwhile, back in the bottle, Superboy is punching at the walls. Yep, I guess he's not the sharpest tool, is he?

Elsewhere on the ship, Brainiac 5 and Supergirl are wandering through a chamber and he's, of course, being a jerk. As they walk, Kara keeps asking questions and Brainy keeps giving her short, direct answers. She wonders why he doesn't like her.

We all know and Gates is nice enough to share Brainy's inner thoughts - every time Brainy hears her speak, he's reminded of how painful it was for him when she died. I'm confused, which is par for the course, but let's hope they clarify this by the end of the issue.

Speaking of confusing, we go back inside Kandor, where Reactron (who??) is being tortured by a Kryptonian who wants to know what General Lane's plans are. The torturer's name is Commander Gor and he was apparently given the freedom to do this from a order by Alura.

Reactron, or Major Krull, is saved by Lex Luthor. He kills Gor and then tells Krull that he's not there to rescue him, but for something else.

I know my memory is bad, usually because I'm trying to forget these stories the moment I finish reading them, but I'm fairly certain I haven't seen either of these characters before.

Let's get back to Supergirl and Brainy. She feels like she knows him and he's not sure if they have actually met before and Saturn Girl wiped Kara's memories. Brainy tries to convince her that they've never met before and inadvertently reveals that he knows more than he should. And since his heart is beating faster, she knows he's lying.

But before anything can be revealed, Brainiac spots them and sends Visper Phages, big dangerous machines, after them. So Brainiac 5's new plan is to get Supergirl to fly through a wall and destroy the ship's core. I don't think we've ever seen these Phages before, but that's just how this story is going, isn't it?

Instead of leaving Brainy behind, she grabs him (and his force field) and flies them to the core together. Kara destroys it, setting off a gigantic fireball. This fireball also, conveniently, destroys the Phages as well. I guess they're not as dangerous as we thought.

As the fires burn around them, Supergirl pushes Brainy for the truth. He asks her if she loves Lana Lang and, when she says she doesn't trust her friends anymore, Brainy says that she should. And this gets her to trust him.

How does he know this will work? Because she will tell him that in the future. We get a lot of future head-scratching moments and the hint of a romance and then, more explosions.

Superman has arrived.

Lex Luthor returns to normal height, having retrieved whatever he got from Krull. As he walks by all the bottled cities, begging for help, Lex grabs one and decides it's time to help himself.

This issue got so close to something memorable. We could've had such a great moment of Brainiac 5 dealing with the person he was going to fall in love with, before that person knew, and all the implications. This could've been a great comic that really delved into what might happen if you change the future. You could've had pathos and emotion and the smartest person in the DC Universe acting like an idiot.

We almost got that. I think Gates tried. But it just fell short.

I'm honestly trying to stay positive with this but every issue I just end scratching my head, wondering if anything is going to make any sense. And collecting more evidence to prove that this isn't the OG Legion.

Four issues to go to get to the end of this story. What a way to end 2025...