“Oh Rao, not my origin story AGAIN!”
Superman: The Man Of Steel #0
DC Comics (October, 1994)
Peer Pressure part 1: “A Whole New World”
No credits given, just a bunch of last names. So I’m grabbing this list from the DC Database fanwiki:
WRITER: Louise Simonson
PENCILER: Jon Bogdanove
INKER: Dennis Janke
COLORIST: Glenn Whitmore
LETTERER: Ken Lopez
EDITORS: Mike Carlin, Frank Pittarese, & Chris Duffy
With Zero Hour over and Metropolis rebuilt, Clark and Lois have a happy reunion, which is cut short when an assassin targets not Superman but Clark Kent. His “calling card” are pictures of Clark when he was a kid with Clark’s face removed. The only tie to those events is a kid named Kenny Braverman.
What they got right: The origin is only shown to make a connection between Clark and Kenny, as their lives are somehow connected. I do like the idea of a story where Clark, and not his superhero alter ego, is the target of the villain.
What they got wrong: But could they foreshadow “Kenny Bravermen has a team and he’s trying to kill Clark” any harder to the reader? It’s not too hard to figure out, and I haven’t read this story since it first came out.
Recommendation: Pointing arrows at the bad guy aside, it’s a good start to the storyline. Worth checking out if it turns out to be a good storyline by the end.
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