The Super-Men (and -Women) of All-Planets

[Jon Clark]

Sand Superman, the Post-Reboot Man of Steel Redux

In SUPERMAN SPECIAL (1992), "The Sandman" rehashes the Sand Superman plot in a condensed version of the story from writer-artist Walt Simonson (there's a dedication at the end to Julie, Denny, Curt and Murphy). This time it's a secret facility owned by Lex Luthor that is experimenting on Kryptonite which causes the explosion that leads to the Sand Superman coming into being. But no explanation is delivered to where the Creature came from.

The experiment gone wrong converts the Kryptonite to lead rather than iron (which makes sense given radioactive decay); however, it's never explained if it was just the one sample or all the K on the Earth, like in the original story.

Luthor manipulates the Sandman into going after the Man of Steel. And the story comes to a big climax as the two Supermen square off at the Fortress of Solitude. The Sand Superman, now an identical twin of Superman, wants to become the Red and Blue Blur himself, having the same thoughts and desires as his doppelgänger. There's an explosion, but we never see the outcome. The story cuts to a Superman confronting Luthor in his office. Is this the true Superman or is this the Sand Superman?

The ending is ambiguous and we don't know for sure if the Sand Superman has now replaced the previous Superman or if Sandy gave up his life so Superman could continue with his own.

Sidebar: This story was originally supposed to come out earlier and it refers to events from around 1990. Like the old fan theory that Proty I took the place of the dead Lightning Lad (living out Garth's life from then on), there's a theory that the Sand Superman really did replace the John Byrne Superman and that's why Superman in the 1990s is different from the previous rebooted Man of Steel.

In this issue, Simonson also uses the Project and the New Newsboy Legion from Jack Kirby's run of SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN. So the new yarn about the Sand Superman dips its toe in reviving select elements of 1971 continuity, but it doesn't bring back a lot of what made that era so good for this reader.

On the sidebar, there is also the fact that this story came out shortly before Superman died battling Doomsday. This made some readers believe that the Sand-Superman was somehow part of the solution to bringing Superman back. Either the one killed in the Doomsday battle was really the Sand-Superman or that creature was one of the four replacements. Instead it was just a bad coincidence of timing.

[Jim Kelly]

Karb-Brak '76, Part 3

ACTION COMICS 462 (August 1976), "Super-War of Independence," Bates/Swan/Blaisdell.

Karb-Brak is in the final stages of his illness. He radiates a wave of distortions that warp everyone and everything in the city. The Action Ace must fight blindly to overcome the effects of the distortion and their battle ends in a stalemate.

The next day, on the verge of death, the Man from Andromeda is transformed into a swarm of crimson blotches. In this form he can fly well beyond the speed of light and he leads the Man of Tomorrow on a merry chase above the skies of Metropolis. But it's all a trick on Karb-Brak's part to get the Metropolis Marvel to fly so fast he breaks the time barrier and travels all the way back to July 4th, 1776--in time for a special bi-centennial issue of ACTION COMICS.

Karb-Brak '76, Part 4

ACTION COMICS 463 (September 1976), "Die Now, Live Later," Bates/Swan/Blaisdell.



Clark Kent is in Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1776, with no memory of having been Superman or having lived in the 20th century. He is working as a reporter for Benjamin Franklin at the Pennsylvania Gazette. As he makes preparation for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Kent starts to have flashes of memory and sees in his reflection the Superman costume.




(continued in next post)

[Jim Kelly]

Karb-Brak '76, Part 4 (conclusion)

Once it dawns on him his true identity, the Man of Tomorrow leaves the signers in the hall and travels back to his present day--July 4th, 1976.


Karb-Brak feels the presence of Superman, because he begins to die again. The Action Ace fights Karb-Brak and takes him to the Fortress of Solitude, where he lets the Man from Andromeda die, so that he can bring him back to life again. However, with the use of the Psi-machine, Karb-Brak's memory of his home planet has been erased. We see him as Andrew Meda riding the same bus again as when this whole story began, now believing himself to be just an ordinary person like everyone else in Metropolis--only Clark Kent, seated next to him, knows the real truth.

[Jon Clark]

Just how did Karb-brak not realize the potential problem between Superboy's debut and this story? Or did his people send him here later after Superboy/man became famous across space as an Earth-based hero? Either way it seems like someone should have seen this coming.

[Jim Kelly]

On the sidebar, there is also the fact that this story came out shortly before Superman died battling Doomsday. This made some readers believe that the Sand-Superman was somehow part of the solution to bringing Superman back. Either the one killed in the Doomsday battle was really the Sand-Superman or that creature was one of the four replacements. Instead it was just a bad coincidence of timing.

It could be that the editor was in a hurry to get Simonson's story out there before Superman died, just so they'd have that option and that was the reason for this odd duck SUPERMAN SPECIAL. I know there are several fan theories--like maybe D.C. was keeping the Sand Superman option in their back pocket if they ever wanted to use it. If, for example, they wanted to nullify the wedding of Lois and Clark--the real Superman could return, like in the Return of Martin Guerre.

It's all a bit of a rabbithole.

[Jim Kelly]

Just how did Karb-brak not realize the potential problem between Superboy's debut and this story? Or did his people send him here later after Superboy/man became famous across space as an Earth-based hero? Either way it seems like someone should have seen this coming.

It seems that Karb-Brak hasn't been on Earth for very long before his allergies play up on him.

[Jim Kelly]

The Return of Vartox and Karb-Brak

In "The Super-Hero Who Refused to Hang Up His Boots," ACTION COMICS 475 (September 1977), Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger and Frank Chiaramonte take us to a galaxy far far away, where Vartox continues to be the champion of his planet (still not yet identified as Valeron). However, the years battling for justice have taken a toll on the mature man of action. He's desperate to find a cure for his aches and pains.



Meanwhile, on Earth, Andrew Meda continues to work in construction with no memory of his former world. Then mysteriously, inside a phonebooth, he transforms back into Karb-Brak. Now in a fever state, the Man from Andromeda has a dust-up with the Man of Steel and then attacks him in his Clark Kent alias, as the anchorman reads the news.



Kurt Schaffenberger provided the cover for ACTION COMICS 476 (October 1976).



Bates and Schaffenberger--with Vince Colletta tracing--continue "The Attack of the Anti-Super-Hero" as Clark and Karb-Brak take their battle outside. It comes to a sudden end when the alien's affliction catches up with him and he falls out of the sky. Superman takes the tragic figure back to the Fortress of Solitude, but this time he has no remedy for the death sentence. The last spark of life goes out of him, but then the patient comes back to life having fully recovered.

The fever attack was brought on by Vartox. He had come to Earth to find a cure for his waning powers. It turned out that the element that caused Karb-Brak's affliction was the thing that cured Vartox. However, Vartox misremembers how it happened and confuses himself with Superman. It takes the shock of seeing his dead bride to bring him out of his delirium. It's actually Lois Lane dressed up to look like his late wife.

Now cured of his allergy, Karb-Brak hitches a ride with Vartox back to his own galaxy.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox, the Last Son of Valeron, Part 1



Finally, in ACTION COMICS 498 (August 1979), the Hyper-Powered Hero's home planet is at last named Valeron, in the Sombrero Galaxy*--only for the planet to be destroyed in the opening panels of "The Catastrophic Man," by Bates, Swan and Chiaramonte.

*[Note: So Vartox went out of his way to drop Karb-Brak off in the Andromeda galaxy on his way back to the Sombrero galaxy. Now that's a stand-up guy!]



His world having been mysteriously destroyed, Vartox comes to Earth to recover from the trauma. Superman sets Vartox up at the Fortress of Solitude's lab, during the night, where the champion can investigate the catastrophe; while, during the day, Clark Kent gets his friend a job in the Galaxy Building security squad, under the name Vernon O'Valeron, badge number P5684.



When O'Valeron teaches Steve Lombard some manners, he strikes Lana Lang's fancy and a new romance begins.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox, the Last Son of Valeron, Part 2

The story picks up in ACTION COMICS 499 (September 1979), "As the World Turns--For the Last Time" by Bates/Swan/Colletta. His investigations of Valeron's demise have convinced Vartox that he was the cause and that he will trigger the Earth's destruction, as well.

Not one for keeping secrets (like Clark Kent), at the first chance he gets, Vern O'Valeron tells Lana that he's actually Vartox from the doomed planet of Valeron.



Meanwhile, his hyper-powers being psychic by nature, Vartox has unwittingly sparked a mass hysteria that spreads over the Earth as groups of people fear the end of the world is upon them.

Superman doubts that the Earth could possibly go the way of Krypton and Valeron, but Vartox explains there is an element causing a chain reaction in all the planet's oxygen which will ultimately cause it to explode. He takes on the form of Jor-El to convince Superman of his claim. However, they discover that the debris from Valeron's destruction has unique properties which counter-act this chain reaction--and set about transporting this spacedust from the one world (across galaxies) to the other.

At the end, Vartox says good-bye to Lana (for now), flying off to find a new world that needs a champion.

[Jim Kelly]

The Further Adventures of Vartox

Vartox next appears in "Battle of the Super-Hyper Powers," by Bates/Swan/Chiaramonte, SUPERMAN 356 (February 1981).

While Galaxy Broadcasting co-workers, Lana Lang, Steve Lombard and Clark Kent, are on a ski vacation at Mammoth Mountain, Vartox swoops in for an impromptu visit with the beautiful red-head.

He fills her in on his latest adventures. After leaving Lana and Earth, Vartox found a planet that needed a champion, Tynola. There he was kept busy fighting one menace after another. He only had enough time for this brief respite before returning to the Tynolans that so need him.



What Lana doesn't know, but which Vartox signals to Clark, using the mathematical code they share, is that the Tynolans are not what they seem. Vartox has discovered that all these challenges he encounters are manifested by the Tynolans themselves through their chanting.

Superman follows after Vartox to this new world and challenges Vartox in battle. Defeated, the Man of Tomorow is taken prisoner by the Tynolans.

SUPERMAN 357 (March 1981), cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.



"Food for a God," by Cary, Curt and Frank picks up the story with Superman now imprisoned--as was the plan all along. From his spherical cell, the Caped Kryptonian can observe the Tynolans with his sensory abilities. He discovers that they worship a space god named Moxumbra. Whenever Vartox is preoccupied by the latest menace they've conjured, the Tynolans bombard him with Mosmic additives, these fatten him up with the necessary energies for Moxumbra to feed on when he arrives. In return for their offerings, the space god gives them powers they thrive on.

Superman would not make a suitable sacrifice because the nature of his powers is different and Moxumbra couldn't digest him.

When the great energy beast Moxumbra arrives, the Tynolans send their prisoner to him, knowing that the Last Son of Valeron will try to save the Action Ace.



But Superman tells Vartox to use his hyper-powers to channel the Mosmic energies into him, so Moxumbra will feed on the Man of Steel rather than the Hyper-Powered Hero. The foul taste of Superman displeases Moxumbra and the god speeds away.

With their god gone, the people of Tynola have lost all their power. Vartox takes pity on them and stays on this world, because now they really do need a champion.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox in Love, Part 1

When Vartox pays another visit to Earth, the events result in "Lana Lang's Farewell to Earth," by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Dave Hunt, in SUPERMAN 373 (July 1982).



It's a romantic dilemma for Var and Lana, they love each other, but they are worlds apart. And even if Lana wished to abandon her career on Earth, she would not survive Tynola's toxic atmosphere.

However a misty presence solves that problem by imbuing the newswoman with a special aura that allows her to breathe the lethal gases with no effect. The malevolent presence is up to no good, but Lana has no memory of how her strange transformation occurred.

She prepares to leave her old life behind and go back to Tynola with Vartox; however, when using his hyper-vision to check up on her, he sees Lana kissing her childhood friend, Clark Kent, one last good-bye. Erupting in a jealous rage he swears he will kill the Son of Krypton.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox in Love, Part 2

Dan Adkins inks Curt's pencils in the second part of this three-parter, "Love is Deadlier...the Second Time Around," written by Cary Bates, in SUPERMAN 374 (August 1982).



Just as quickly as it came upon him the jealous fury fades and Vartox is his old, good self. The two super-friends go on patrol together, performing amazing feats around the world. And as they do, Var recounts to Superman the story of his first love, Syreena, back when he had first become a super-hero. He was hopelessly in love with her and believe she felt the same.



Meanwhile a cold-blooded villain was terrorizing Valeron; however, when Vartox captured the evildoer, he found this was Syreena. She had gotten close to Vartox and given him a love token to siphon off his power for her own use in her dastardly deeds.

The Hyper-Powered Hero believes that she died along with everyone else on Valeron when it exploded. Yet, as the Man of Steel flies off to Metropolis to attend Lana's going away party, leaving Vartox on his own, Syreena appears beside him. His conscious mind doesn't know she's there, but his subconscious is hearing her words, as she again encourages his feelings of jealousy.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox in Love, Part 3

Bates, Swan and Adkins conclude this three issue Vartox arc in SUPERMAN 375, "The Stoning of Lana Lang."



At the going away party, Vartox attacks Superman, but Lana gets caught in the crossfire and is turned to stone. The Man from Valeron is arrested for the attack on his fiancée, but in his prison cell Syreena reveals herself to him and Vartox escapes his prison to have it out with her.

It turns out that she never really died. She had escaped Valeron's destruction in a rocketship. And as Vartox had always kept the smashed remnants of her love token, she used the crystals to communicate with him.

Studying photographs that Jimmy had taken at the party, Superman discovers it was not Vartox but Syreena who fired the beam that turned Lana to stone. Vartox pleads with his former lover to bring Lana back to life and when she does, Syreena herself is turned to stone, while the cure for Lana's petrifaction has removed her immunity to Tynola's toxic atmosphere.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox Goes Toxic

Vartox appears riding on a comet, in a teaser ending for SUPERMAN 389, which leads into the next issue's story "Lost on a Comet" by Cary Bates (plot), Elliot S! Maggin (script), Curt Swan (pencils) and Dave Hunt (inks), in SUPERMAN 390 (December 1983), cover by Gil Kane.



The unconscious Son of Valeron is revived when the comet crashes through an alien ship. Not knowing how he got there, after the hero repairs the ship, he decides to visit his old friends on Earth. For some inexplicable reason, Vartox who always had his receding hairline now has a full widow's peak. Did he get a hair transplant, is he wearing a toupee, is he using his hyper-powers to give himself a full head of hair? Enquiring minds want to know.



By this time, Superman and Lois Lane have broken up, while Clark Kent is dating Lana Lang. Clark is also doing double duty at the Planet and WGBS. And Lana has a strange stalker who has been obsessed with her for years.

As fits the pattern with a Vartox plot by now, he's most civil toward Superman/Clark, except when he's not--erupting in fits of jealousy and acrimony. When the Man of Steel gently explains that his alter ego has begun a relationship with the beautiful WGBS anchorwoman, Var takes it in stride, blaming himself for not marrying Ms Lang when he had the chance. But then later he's enraged that the Kryptonian has stolen his sweetheart and goes after them both, when they are at a journalism awards dinner.

In "Who Stole the Newswoman of the Year?"--by Bates/Maggin/Swan/Hunt, SUPERMAN 391 (January 1984)--Lana receives her Newswoman of the Year award, Vartox bursts in and steals her away. Clark is unable to track where they have gone. And at the same time, Lana's stalker is also obsessed with finding her.

Goopel of the World of Lyra-Eight, a law-enforcement agent with the Sixth Western Cluster Precinct, arrives on Earth in his spaceship and speaks to the Action Ace. He's been tracking a lawbreaker named Srakka who is a Dybbuk, an entity capable of occupying someone's body. This entity had taken possession of Vartox. However, Goopel too late discovers that the Superman he thinks he's talking to is actually Vartox/Srakka using his hyper abilities to disguise himself as the Man of Tomorrow. Pour one out for Goopel, we hardly knew ye.

[Jim Kelly]

Vartox Goes Toxic (conclusion)

This yarn wraps up in "If a Body Meets a Body..." by Bates, Maggin, Swan and Hunt, SUPERMAN 392 (February 1984).



The Dybbuk is actually a virus. Normally when it infects a host, it kills them almost instantly, but Srakka discovers that when it infects a super-human it can live off the host for a long time before the infected person dies. However, to infect them, the super-human needs to be in a state of stress and anxiety.



So Srakka infects a series of unnamed interstellar super-humans, before finally infecting a super-human that destroys Tynola. In his fury over the death of his adopted world, Vartox killed the agent of its destruction and thus Srakka was able to invade his body.



Now by abducting Lana and holding her prisoner in an Inca temple, in Peru, the viral villain wants to lure Superman into the same trap, so Sraaka might takeover the Caped Kryptonian's form.

However, Lana's stalker, one Wallace Gurkheim, is working with the Man of Steel to save Lana. It turns out that Vartox has psychically taken possession of Wallace even as Srakka took possession of him. So while the fake Vartox is busy fending off Superman, the fake Wallace is busy saving Lana. All's well that ends well?