The Last Days of Krypton
Kevin J. Anderson
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Contents
TO JULIUS SCHWARTZ
FOREWORD
CAST OF CHARACTERS
CHAPTER 1
The red sun of Krypton loomed in the sky, an…
CHAPTER 2
Working with her fellow apprentice artists around the wonderfully exotic…
CHAPTER 3
Rao’s turbulent storm created a silent light show of auroras…
CHAPTER 4
Kandor’s grand stadium was a perfect ellipse with high walls,…
CHAPTER 5
Even in Zor-El’s beloved Argo City, most Kryptonians were too…
CHAPTER 6
Even though he viewed the world in terms of mathematics…
CHAPTER 7
Two blocks from the majestic governmental ziggurat, the Commission for…
CHAPTER 8
After Jor-El departed in frustration, Zod could barely control his…
CHAPTER 9
The arena stables were Nam-Ek’s own place, and he enjoyed…
CHAPTER 10
When his battered silver flyer finally arrived back in Argo…
CHAPTER 11
Angry, but not surprised that Commissioner Zod had confiscated the…
CHAPTER 12
As soon as Jor-El had departed for Kandor, Lara began…
CHAPTER 13
From atop the Council temple the holographic image of Rao…
CHAPTER 14
Jor-El arrived back at the estate long after the artists…
CHAPTER 15
Without sending a message ahead through the communication plates, Zor-El…
CHAPTER 16
The pulsing red heat of early afternoon drove most Kandorians…
CHAPTER 17
When Jor-El came back to the estate, Lara could tell…
CHAPTER 18
On her own in the wilderness, surviving by her instincts…
CHAPTER 19
During their time together, Lara had seen more of the…
CHAPTER 20
Once his brother had listened to his story and interpreted…
CHAPTER 21
The arrival of the alien visitor threw all of Kandor…
CHAPTER 22
Though uneventful, the trip from Kandor aboard Donodon’s vessel was…
CHAPTER 23
He had already made up his mind that the alien…
CHAPTER 24
Returning home, Zor-El drew a deep, exhilarating breath of Argo…
CHAPTER 25
In the fresh early morning light, Jor-El finished adjusting the…
CHAPTER 26
The Kryptonian Council reacted to Donodon’s death with horror, disbelief,…
CHAPTER 27
Disgraced, Jor-El saw no alternative but to place himself in…
CHAPTER 28
Xan City was a metropolis of ghosts and ruins and…
CHAPTER 29
Lara contacted her parents in Kandor to announce that she…
CHAPTER 30
Only seven days remained before the scheduled inquisition. Jor-El had…
CHAPTER 31
Zod and Nam-Ek flew back to Kandor at night in…
CHAPTER 32
The palace of solitude in the arctic snowfields was breathtaking.
CHAPTER 33
Zod stood by himself on the edge of the vast…
CHAPTER 34
All of Krypton reeled from the sudden loss of the…
CHAPTER 35
Jor-El and Lara’s brief bit of solitude and joy in…
CHAPTER 36
Even as the people of Argo City pulled together to…
CHAPTER 37
While he waited for Aethyr to arrive for their special…
CHAPTER 38
Now unexpectedly exonerated, Jor-El began to assist Commissioner Zod in…
CHAPTER 39
Hoping to secure his power base, Commissioner Zod had already…
CHAPTER 40
After the setback from the severe quake, Jor-El revised his…
CHAPTER 41
By the time Zod returned from Xan City, satisfied and…
CHAPTER 42
When the distant early-warning outpost was completed on the empty…
CHAPTER 43
The next day, Jor-El went to his father’s enigmatic translucent…
CHAPTER 44
The next day Nam-Ek arrived at the estate, brusquely handing…
CHAPTER 45
Commissioner Zod’s announcement that he would reestablish his capital at…
CHAPTER 46
The city grew with remarkable speed. With so many political…
CHAPTER 47
Lara loved watching the wheels turn in Jor-El’s mind as…
CHAPTER 48
On the night before Jor-El was to return, Commissioner Zod…
CHAPTER 49
After a rushed two days, Jor-El returned from the arctic…
CHAPTER 50
The visitor came to Argo City in secret. After crossing…
CHAPTER 51
From memory, Jor-El redrew his plans for the Rao beam,…
CHAPTER 52
While Jor-El was gone for weeks setting up the huge…
CHAPTER 53
The intense red beams continued to pound into the crater…
CHAPTER 54
The next day, the scarlet beams shot downward again, and…
CHAPTER 55
As he left the mountain installation long before the Commissioner’s…
CHAPTER 56
Since being asked to write the official history according to…
CHAPTER 57
After discovering that Tyr-Us was truly gone, Zor-El did not…
CHAPTER 58
No matter how carefully she applied her brushstrokes to the…
CHAPTER 59
Though he had grave concerns about the Commissioner, Zor-El wasn’t…
CHAPTER 60
As night fell after a long day, Jor-El and Lara…
CHAPTER 61
Under a clear, star-filled night sky, Alura and Charys went…
CHAPTER 62
With a tremendous sense of urgency, Jor-El went to see…
CHAPTER 63
Seeing Zod’s reactionary response to the growing defiance of other…
CHAPTER 64
Inside Zod’s newly designated war room, Aethyr and Koll-Em studied…
CHAPTER 65
After warning his brother about Loth-Ur’s Hammer, Jor-El ignored all…
CHAPTER 66
While the foolish dissidents in other population centers were shocked…
CHAPTER 67
After the annihilation of Borga City, all those who had…
CHAPTER 68
After humiliating General Zod in such a spectacular and public…
CHAPTER 69
The time for subtlety had passed. Now that he had…
CHAPTER 70
The female doctor pronounced Lara’s baby healthy and strong in…
CHAPTER 71
Looking down at the contoured gel model of Argo City…
CHAPTER 72
Zor-El knew that General Zod’s army would be coming with…
CHAPTER 73
After Zod took his army on the march, the only…
CHAPTER 74
Like a slap in the face, the force-field dome over…
CHAPTER 75
General Zod’s army swept back into Kryptonopolis like a swarm…
CHAPTER 76
Blinding shafts of yellow light and fire spat from exhaust…
CHAPTER 77
In the confusion and chaos after the missile launches, Jor-El…
CHAPTER 78
Zor-El’s allied rebels were converging on Kryptonopolis when they saw…
CHAPTER 79
Despite their exhaustion, Zor-El and his rebels spent many hours…
CHAPTER 80
General Zod seethed inside the transparent prison. Together, defeated, he…
CHAPTER 81
In the middle of the Square of Hope the broken…
CHAPTER 82
After so many nightmarish months, Jor-El wished he could just…
CHAPTER 83
The day after the new government was formed, Zor-El bid…
CHAPTER 84
Jor-El retreated from public view for a few days after…
CHAPTER 85
In the few weeks since defeating General Zod, Argo City…
CHAPTER 86
The huge telescope dishes stood as silent sentinels, still watching…
CHAPTER 87
The red sun of Rao dawned on the last day…
CHAPTER 88
To Zor-El, the impending loss of Argo City, of Krypton,…
CHAPTER 89
Kryptonopolis began to fall. The people in the glorious new…
CHAPTER 90
The lone crystal-studded ship sailed off into space, escaping Krypton’s…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
To Julius Schwartz
I’ve always considered Julius Schwartz, or “Julie,” as his friends called him, to be Superman’s “fairy godfather.” He worked for DC Comics for forty-two years and edited the line of Superman comics from 1971 through 1985, and after that he was a fixture at many conventions and gatherings. Years ago he gave me a gold Superman “S” pin at the San Diego Comic Con, and then when he saw me again months later he scolded me severely for not wearing it. I certainly learned my lesson, and I made a point of wearing that gold pin at every convention where our paths crossed (and he made a point of tracking me down to make sure I was). Julie died in 2004. Since I can’t give him a signed copy of The Last Days of Krypton, I can at least put his name here. Thanks for everything, Julie!
FOREWORD
Science fiction fandom began in the 1930s, and two such fans were Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the former a writer, the latter an artist. From their singular passion came the ultimate science fiction creation, Superman, that strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond… No reason to continue; you know the rest. Everyone knows the rest.
Superman was born out of a love for science fiction, so it should be no surprise that the story of Krypton, Superman’s doomed home planet, would be trusted to Kevin J. Anderson, one of the best science fiction writers working today.
Kevin was given a task as daunting as any of Superman’s legendary deeds. He had to put together a history of a world that over the past sixty-eight years has had countless conflicting stories created for it. Did Krypton die of an earthquake? Or did a comet hit it? Or maybe the sun went nova and destroyed it in its burning wake? What were Krypton’s people like? Were they benevolent, self-indulgent, emotionless, or loving? And what about Brainiac…what about Argo City…what about…what about…?
These are questions that have been asked and answered by millions of fans many, many times.
But now it is time for a new story that brings those diverse histories together, yet forges its own path. We all know Krypton’s outcome, but Kevin gives us a new, thrilling tale unlike any we’ve seen before. It is both familiar and surprising.
Re-creating a rich, real, complex history out of such convoluted lack of continuity is an undertaking I would never have wanted to do. But Kevin did and succeeded, and he has now given us a history of a world most of us grew up knowing and caring for. And somehow, with that same flash of inspiration Siegel and Shuster showed when they created Superman all those years ago, he has put it all together in an extremely fast-paced book that has something for every fan of Superman, no matter which era they love, which Krypton they grew up with, which Superman they idolize.
—Marv Wolfman, author of Crisis on Infinite Earths,
writer/creator of New Teen Titans and Blade the Vampire Hunter
CAST OF CHARACTERS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
JOR-EL—Krypton’s most revered scientist
ZOR-EL—Jor-El’s brother, an accomplished scientist in his own right and leader of Argo City
ALURA—Zor-El’s wife, an expert in botany
YAR-EL—father of Jor-El and Zor-El, a genius who now suffers from the Forgetting Disease
FRO-DA—Jor-El’s head chef at his estate
LOR-VAN—a well-respected artist and muralist
ORA—Lor-Van’s wife
LARA—Lor-Van’s daughter, also an accomplished artist as well as a historian and aspiring writer
KI-VAN—Lor-Van’s young son
DRU-ZOD—head of the Commission for Technology Acceptance in Kandor
COR-ZOD—Dru-Zod’s father, former head of the Kryptonian Council and legendary politician
NAM-EK—Dru-Zod’s ward, a burly mute
BEL-EK—Nam-Ek’s murderous father, killed by Kryptonian Sapphire Guards
AETHYR-KA—an independent woman cut off from her noble family, a former classmate of Lara’s
BUR-AL—fourth-level assistant in the Commission for Technology Acceptance
VOR-ON—young man from a minor noble family
HOPK-INS—minor worker in the Commission for Technology Acceptance
GUR-VA—an insane criminal known as the Butcher of Kandor
SHOR-EM—the leader of Borga City
DONODON—alien visitor to Krypton
KIRANA-TU—dry and humorless female doctor
THE KRYPTONIAN COUNCIL
JUL-US (Council Head)
AL-AN
MAURO-JI
BARY-ON
CERA-SI
SOR-AY
POL-EV
RUL-AR
KOR-TE
JUN-DO
SILBER-ZA
ANCIENT HISTORICAL FIGURES
JAX-UR—ancient warlord, generally considered Krypton’s most terrible tyrant
LOTH-UR—cruel father of Jax-Ur
SOR-EL—ancestor of Jor-El, one of the leaders of the Seven Armies
KOL-AR—one of the leaders of the Seven Armies
POL-US—one of the leaders of the Seven Armies
NOK—ancient chieftain
KAL-IK—adviser to Nok, who sacrificed his life to speak the truth
HUR-OM—legendary star-crossed lover depicted in a Kandor opera tapestry
FRA-JO—legendary star-crossed lover depicted in a Kandor opera tapestry
DISSIDENTS
GIL-EX—leader of Orvai in the lake district
TYR-US—leader of the metal city of Corril in the mountains
GAL-ETH—vice mayor of Orvai
OR-OM—industrialist in a mining town
KORTH-OR—refugee from Borga City
ZOD’S RING OF STRENGTH
KOLL-EM—younger brother of Shor-Em, head of the Ring of Strength
NO-TON—a nobleman and scientist
MON-RA
POEL-OR
RAN-AR
BAL-UN
DA-ES
WRI-VO
ZHON-ZA
MIR-XA
FRER-SI
NAER-ZED
CREN-TE
YRI-RI
OEL-AY
TRES-OK
CHAPTER 1
The red sun of Krypton loomed in the sky, an unquiet giant. In its gaseous layers, planet-sized convection cells churned like the bubbles in a hellis
h slow-motion cauldron. Wispy coronal streamers danced across the gulf of space, disrupting planetary communications.
Jor-El had been waiting a long time for a flare storm like this. In his isolated laboratory he had monitored his solar probes, eagerly making preparations. The moment was at hand.
The visionary scientist had set up his equipment in the large, open research building on his estate. Jor-El had no assistants because no one else on Krypton understood exactly what he was doing; in fact, few others seemed to care. The people of his planet were content. Too content. By contrast, Jor-El rarely let himself feel complacent or satisfied. How could he, when he could easily imagine so many ways to improve the world? He was a true anomaly in the “perfect society.”
Working alone, he calibrated beam paths through crystal concentrators, used laser-alignment tools to adjust the angles of intersecting reflector disks, checked and double-checked his gleaming prisms for any flaws. Because his work pushed the envelope of standard and uninspired Kryptonian science, he had been forced to develop much of the basic apparatus himself.