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Authors: Kevin J. Anderson

The Last Days of Krypton

BOOK: The Last Days of Krypton
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The Last Days of Krypton
Kevin J. Anderson

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Contents

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…

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!

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

BOOK: The Last Days of Krypton
10.62Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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