Kandor Is Back.... Kinda (Batman Superman #8 Spoilers)

[BBally]

As you're all aware, when Bendis took over the Superman line, among his first actions was killing off Kandor, needless to say that decision was controversial.

Recently in Batman/Superman #7, General Zod had taken the corpses of the Kandor citizens and dumped them into the Lazarus pit to resurrect them.





Of course, the pit's had this side effect that it would cause the resurrected to go insane.

[BBally]

Eventually, the threat was averted in Batman/Superman #8 but as for the citizens of Kandor, Superman put them into stasis within the rebuilt Kandor city putting them in as Superman refers it a cosmic coma.



We later discover that was only half the Kandor population as Zod as the other half in coma stasis in his own model of Kandor.

[Vordan]

I was pretty happy with how Willamson handled that, and I wouldn’t mind him exploring this thread later on down the line.

[Frontier]

Seems like Williamson is doing a good job on the book.

[Tzigone]

Seeing pages makes me miss Chris. And, while happy to have Kandor, I don't much care for how they seem likely to be used.

[The World]

Yeah I've really got to hand it to Williamson because he's really turned this ship around. The first six issues or so was pretty much a greatest hits of why the Post-Crisis World's Finest doesn't work. The cliche opposites NIGHT/DAY, DARK/LIGHT, in your face screaming writing, the lame antagonist, the juvenile and grating relationship between the main characters. It was bad.

But the last two issues have been fire and I think it's part and parcel because it's a far more Silver Agey take on the World Finest compared to the first 6 issues. There's actual nuance on the differences between the two MC something most modern writers can't get into but is key to nailing the World Finest feel. No juvenile tantrum throwing from Bruce and no Gomer Pile village idiot behavior from Clark, they actually feel like two of the best in the world who actually respect each other.

And yeah I really liked the new set up with Zod and Kal both having half of Kandor. Personally I really like that Zod has a family.

[Lvenger]

The first arc did channel the Loeb approach to Superman and Batman's relationship down to the thought boxes and contrasting inner thoughts of Superman and Batman. Whilst I like Loeb's run on Superman/Batman, the first arc's antagonist being The Batman who is Really Overrated was an instant turn-off for me. Williamson did a much better job with Zod's more nuanced truce with Superman than Bendis has so far and laying the groundwork for Kandor to be brought back in the future was a nice way to end the story.

[Lvenger]

Seeing pages makes me miss Chris. And, while happy to have Kandor, I don't much care for how they seem likely to be used.

I was about to ask why this made you miss Chris then I remembered that Lor-Zod was Chris' name in Post Crisis DC. I started reading comics on a monthly basis when Chris was in the Superman books so I have a soft spot for him too. It would have been nice to see how Jon and Chris would have interacted.

[Superlad93]

Knowing now that there's going to be a New Krypton in the pages of Legion of Super-Heroes, I have to imagine that Kandor was removed from the table to make it far less of a viable option as a means to populate Zod's New Krypton (shown in Superman 17).

In a past continuity it was regrown to full size by the 31st century, right? But they were even worse isolationist than before or something, I think.

But the story in Batman/Superman issue #8 basically returns at least half of them to their New 52 version where they were in stasis, and leave the other half to be memorialized by House Zod. All-in-all, solid way to keep the iconography of the bottle city aesthetic, and also create a reflection in House Zod all without disrupting the point of their destruction.

A bit regressive, but still a solid idea that I dug.

[Ascended]

Yeah, I gotta say that arc was far better than I expected and I'm thankful there's less heavy handed Loeb style "OMG THESE GUYS ARE SO TOTALLY OPPOSITES, GUYS! THEY'RE LIKE DAY-NIGHT AND EVERYTHING!!!!!!" going on.

I only grabbed this series because of Marquez's art, but I'm glad I stuck around for these issues.