Reading Format:
DC Universe App
Story […very briefly.]
Geoff Johns reimagines the story of the shrunken city of Kandor; that was stolen from Krypton by the alien Brainiac. Supergirl also features in this story.
Art [Just IMHO.]
Lovely art by Gary Frank.
Other Notes [???]
Geoff Johns is one of my favorite comic writers. I think that most of his work can be described as poignant, yet also hopeful; and always heroic. The ending of this story is one of the most memorable Superman stories I have ever read.
I’m pretty sure that I have these issues in my collection but I reread them on the DC Universe App. They can also be purchased in the trade collection titled Superman: Brainiac.
You Might Also Like [For Fun.]
This wikipedia article about Kandor.
Stabbing Stardust 
I remember this being quite the significant storyline at the time; but a lot of “context” is lost to my memory at the moment. A quick Googling on it indicates #866 is from August 2008–so it’s been a DECADE since this story was current!
So this was probably coming off of the mixture of Johns/Donner and lateness with Last Son and that whole ambiguous post-Infinite-Crisis period; Googled again and ‘Secret Origin’ #1 is November 2009, so this story even predated that by about a year!
You’ve got me curious now about my own thoughts “in the moment” on these issues–I’m almost certain I reviewed at least a couple of them–I’ll have to think about digging those out.
I remember “appreciating” Johns weaving the disparate versions of Brainiac back into a singular thing that made sense.
The end of the story bothered me then (poignant/moving as it was) and bothers me now… I just HATE this notion that Superman “needs that tragedy” or such. Having Martha AND Jonathan alive into Clark’s adult life was always such an important thing to me. The lack of their presence is a very definite “diminishing aspect” of the Superman comics, for me. (all the more with a recent family health scare).
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I wish they had more Superman on the App. Well, currently they do have up the whole of the Death of Superman storyline and the fallout from that, but I’m not in the mood for that story. I’d really like to read the New Krypton arc…
This story stands up pretty well by itself though. I vaguely remember it being quite the shock ending when it came out. I didn’t like the way they did away with both of the Kents in the New 52. Well, maybe the next time they reboot the universe we’ll get them back.
Are you getting Superman right now, and if so do you like it? I dumped the title when Bendis came on board so I have no idea what’s going on at the moment. [Oh, and sorry to hear about your family health scare.]
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Sounds like they’ve ADDED some Superman in the last week and a half or so. I found Man of Steel #18 with a tacked-on “prologue” of the 4 1-page bits with Doomsday’s fist…and then couldn’t find chapter 2 of the Death of Superman.
Yup–getting Superman and Action, both. I misplaced Superman #3 and haven’t read the latest Action issue (I binged almost 40 TMNT comics last week, though!)
I’ve got mixed feelings on these new issues. I’m probably more annoyed at the Superman renumbering than everything else (renumbering REALLY bugs me!). I’m iffy on some of the stuff and waiting things out a bit, figuring this week’s Superman #4 on Wednesday will only be starting the 2nd half of the first arc in the title.
I don’t like that the previous runs–especially Jurgens’–were ended as they were seemingly only TO put Bendis on both titles.
I guess the best way to put it for the moment is that I’m liking Bendis’ stuff better than the New 52 stuff. I’m pretty sure I’d like it all a LOT more IF it didn’t feel like the previous runs were arbitrarily ended, though.
——–
I pray that it’s a loooong time yet before I have any frame of reference to identify with Clark losing even one parent!
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Blink and you might miss the Superman issues. The DC Universe app needs a lot of improvements. Right now it’s really hard to keep track with what comics are being switched in and out. Some things have been on there since the app launch and others get swapped out after a few days. I’m hoping that the update this month will bring some improvements.
Yeah, renumbering can be annoying. Especially when it’s like here are issues #1-5 and THEN the next issue is #927 or someting like that. It would be much less annoying for me if they would print the Volume #, Month, and year clearly, along with the issue #.
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