The team behind the fabulous, albeit distrubing, Ice Cream Man have teamed up to write a mini-series about Superman. W. Maxwell Prince (writer), Martin Morazzo (artist), and Chris O’Halloran (colourist) are behind Superman: the Krytonite Spectrum, with issue number 1 recently released under DC’s Black Label. If the rest of series continues like the first one, it will be one hell of a ride.
Spoilers for issue 1 ahead!
Superman: the Kryptonite Spectrum starts with one of Superman’s robots making contact with a meteoroid in space, while the Man of Steel reminisces over his own history. Years ago he had done a very similar journey to this meteroid; hurtling through space towards Earth. The similarities do not stop there as the celestial object brings kryptonite; Superman’s weakness and a seemingly constant threat from his destroyed home world.
Disturbingly to Superman, it is not green kyptonite it brings, nor even the red, black, or gold variants this Superman is familiar with. Instead, it brings entirely new versions: purple, cobalt, speckled, and a rainbow type. The reason for Superman’s unease is he does not know how they will affect him, but is sure Lex Luthor would be very interested.
To help him investigate further, Superman invites Batman to help test these new variants. To Batman’s discomfort, Superman insists that kryptonite is tested directly on him. Despite the protests, Bruce relents and helps his friend.
The effects of the purple kryptonite, named Purple K by the robots, were not obvious immediately, however Superman does begin to act strangely. Or at least he perceives strange things. Odd bits of dialogue in purple speech bubbles start to appear, with phrases that make no sense in that moment. Superman describes it affecting his hearing and cognition, “tiny bursts of thought and sound… without any connective tissue“.
“We experience time as it’s meant to be: sequentially”
Batman
A scan of Superman’s brain and Batman discovers that it is overloading his hippocampus and making him no longer experience time sequentially. Instead, his experience is everything happening out of order. This comes to ahead as Luthor, aware of the new kryptonites and plotting to get them, unleashed Solomon Grundy on Metropolis. Despite his condition, Superman has to help.
Ice Cream Man is one of the greatest ongoing series at the moment, full of issues that try to stretch the limits of the comic book medium. This includes writing an issue as a visual palindrome, or another that is so decompressed, time barely moves at all. The fight with Solomon Grundy brings this creativity, with panels completely out of order, giving a disorienting feeling.
In a moment of focus, Superman is able to bring these different panels together and order them. The presentation of these moments is, of course, depicted like a comic book, with Clark Kent arranging the final pieces and punching Grundy into space.
The issue ends with Superman about to try the next kryptonite, cobalt, despite still feeling the effects of Purple K. What mind-bending consequences will this one give? What horror is the Yeats quoting Lex Luthor planning to unleash on Superman? And will Batman have a use for that pocketed Purple K?
Buy Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #1, second printing – Forbidden Planet UK (I earn a commission)
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