A Superboy and His Dog: Action Comics #13

Action Comics (Vol. 2) #13
“The Ghost in the Fortress of Solitude”
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Travel Foreman
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Steve Wands

“A Boy and His Dog”
Writer: Sholly Fisch
Penciler: Brad Walker
Inker: Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau

Cover: Bryan Hitch & David Baron
Associate Editor: Wil Moss
Editor: Matt Idelson
Released: Oct. 3, 2012

Super pets are a wacky concept. It's hard to take the idea of a canine sidekick or crimefighting monkey seriously, so most of the time, stories featuring them tend toward the humorous.

Most of the time.

For a good, cathartic cry, I probably should have featured the “Good Boy” story from issues 47-48 of the Vertigo volume of Kurt Busiek's “Astro City.” But I figured I should keep this somewhat DC Super-Pets adjacent, since the premiere of the movie prompted me to revisit this issue. Plus, this one will tug at your heartstrings without leaving you a blubbering mess. Probably.

Morrison can write weird with the best of them, and that's coming from someone who never strayed much further off the beaten superhero path with him than “Doom Patrol.” But he also has a deep knowledge of and respect for the history of these characters and concepts, including the Golden and Silver Age goofiness even some of the most ardent fans might prefer to see left behind. This is the guy who turned the Batman of Zur-Ehn-Arrh into a gritty modern day element of the Batman mythos. So what might he do with a super pet?

He might bring one, specifically Krypto the Super Dog, into his reimagining of Superman's origin for the 21^st century and the New 52 in a Halloween-themed tale dedicated to author Ray Bradbury.

It opens on Krypton with a scientist named Xa-Du becoming the first prisoner sentenced to the Phantom Zone, which you might remember as the incarceration location for Zod, Ursa and Non in “Superman II.” Or as the repository for all sorts of Warner Brothers-licensed villains in “The Lego Batman Movie.” Or, also, comics.

Seems the man who put him there for unethical experiments with suspended animation was none other than Jor-El, a major mover and shaker on Krypton before the planet moved and shook apart, prompting baby Kal-El's trip to Earth. Xa-Du swears revenge on Jor-El and his family, and even with DC's jumbled-up, re-re-rebooted timelines, I think we can safely say this predates Zod (who does get a dialogue cameo in this issue, along with the aforementioned Ursa and Non).

We fast forward to now-ish (I believe this was still in the flashback phase of Morrison's New 52 tale) where Superman is cataloging Kryptonian artifacts on Halloween and about to answer a distress call or three when his attention is drawn by a sound elsewhere in his Fortress of Solitude. Xa-Du has somehow escaped from the Phantom Zone and traps Superman there.

While Xa-Du makes plans to wreak havoc on Earth, Superman struggles to find his way in a realm devoid of sight and sound. He remembers when he was a baby and Krypto got sucked into the Phantom Zone while attacking a cybernetic hand reaching out of it (turns out that was Xa-Du).

Some of the other inhabitants of the Phantom Zone can see, or at least feel, but once Superman figures out his childhood dog is there, he whistles for him and Krypto arrives to even the odds. Also, stuck in the zone is a guy it took me a minute to recognize as the Phantom Stranger, who took time out of his busy schedule of actually being the Biblical Judas trying to attone for betraying Christ to investigate a reported haunting in Metropolis that led him to the Zone. Once he gets his hat and cloak, I recognize him and he can leave. But he informs Superman he'll have to get hold of the ecto-suit Xa-Du used to escape if he wants back out.

So Superman wrests the suit from Xa-Du by... believing he can. I think.

Superman gets back out and Krypto sits loyally in the Phantom Zone waiting for his master, who said he would get him out, even though the Phantom Stranger said he couldn't. It's a poignant picture of the loyalty of a dog but thankfully NOT the end of the issue.

Superman uses Xa-Du's left-behind cyborg hand to yoink Krypto back out of the Zone, then shower him with “good boys,” while Xa-Du is recruited by the imp who's not Mxyzptlk to be part of his plot to destroy or embarrass or get revenge on Superman. Clearly, I haven't read this run in a while.

I won't pretend I understood the pseudo-science of the main story, nor how Superman knew about Krypto, let alone how he wound up in the Phantom Zone. Fortunately, the backup tale by Fisch fills in some of those blanks.

It also reveals that Krypto was genetically engineered to be loyal to little Kal-El, which makes sense but also seems redundant since dogs, generally, are awesome. It sort of reminds me of how in Orson Scott Card's “Ultimate Iron Man” (you didn't think I'd go through a whole post without referencing Marvel, did you?) there was an explanation given for Tony Stark's alcoholism. It was like one of his powers.

Anyhoo, we see Phantom Zone Krypto loyally following Kal-El to Earth and staying by his side through all sorts of trouble, even if the boy who would be Superman wasn't fully aware he was there. Because he's a good boy. Heartstrings tugged.

Not all elements of this story added up, but sometimes I get that with Morrison. I am confident he knows what he's doing, even if I don't always follow. Even as Morrison brings a modern rationality to elements like Krypto, he manages to keep the wonder and joy of the concept intact.

Xa-Du is at once a forgettable foil and an interesting take on an old-school comic villain. He looks like a Kryptonian mummy and he's fascinated to the point of obsession with suspended animation. It's like one of Batman's themed villains, only with a theme that requires substantial post-graduate work.

Foreman's art isn't my cup of tea, but it fits the tone of the issue, making it a little creepier and less slick than you might expect from a Superman story.

All in all, it's a fun, warm issue that stands pretty well on its own, even if reading the full run probably gives you better context.