Issue 1: "A War of Brothers"

Max Lord was bored.

He sat in the Oval Office, perusing the latest budget reports from the Department of the Interior, suppressing a yawn and daydreaming about his golf game later with the Prime Minister of the UK--- which made him want to yawn again (His Excellency was narcoleptic and horribly myopic).

He longed for the days when he could jet off to Paris for lunch, Tokyo for sushi, and Sweden for entertaining companionship; maybe buzzing the LexCorp Towers on the way back to New York... Those were exciting times, no responsibilities… Before he decided upon a career in politics, and the pursuit of power.

Boring, absolute power…

Maxwell Lord IV, President of the United States of America, leader of the Free World, had no idea just how exciting his day was about to get…

“…once again, this is Jack Ryder, reporting from downtown Metropolis where Superman is engaged in battle with a human combatant at least as strong as he is, and determined to put down the Man of Steel! This titanic conflict began when the super-powered maniac smashed the monorail above Centennial Park…”

Max turned up the volume, and gaped at the scene of devastation on the screen before him. The street behind the correspondent looked like a war zone, with overturned vehicles, flaming debris and gaping impact craters. The camera panned up into the sky and zoomed in tight on two figures, barely visible in the clouds, one all in black, the other distinguishable by a flowing red cape. Even from that distance, the camera picked up their struggle, and the thunderous sounds of the blows they dealt each other.

“… one eyewitness reports that the newcomer destroyed the monorail simply to distract Superman, and that Superman is the attacker’s sole target, taunting him with threats…”

Max felt his jaw clench, and swore under his breath.

The door to the Oval Office opened and his Chief of Staff poked his head in.

“Mr. President, we have a situation.”

“I know,” Max pointed to the TV with the remote. “I’m watching it now---.”

“No, sir.” The Chief of Staff looked serious. “There’s something else…”

“Liar!” Roared Superman, stunned and appalled at the same time. He bore down hard on his foe, their locked hands pulverizing each other’s grip. He knew he had to get to Lois within seconds, but he could not turn his back on this dangerous madman!

Kru-El laughed, his bearded face red from the incredible strain Superman applied.

“I have no reason to lie, runt! I take no pride in bearing his name; Jor-El disowned me at birth!” He sneered, then bashed his head into Superman’s face.

He cried out, blood gushing from his nose, and Kru-El took immediate advantage of this momentary weakness. He launched a kick at Superman which sent him spiraling away. He was instantly caught up in a crushing bear hug by Kru-El, his arms tightly pinned. Their faces were inches from each others’, the spittle from the maniac’s lips spraying Superman’s face.

“I only rejoice that it will be I who stamps out the last vestiges of our father’s House, his precious Kal-El!”

Struggling for breath, Superman turned his head earthward, focusing his super-vision to the last spot he’d seen Lois. She was gone! The parking garage where that non-descript car had been was empty; nor was there any sign of that would-be assassin. A cold and hollow dread filled him, to be quickly replaced by anger.

He turned his gaze on Kru-El. “I don’t care who you are, if anything’s happened to her, you’ll regret it ‘til the end of your days!”

Twin blasts of heat erupted from Superman’s eyes, burning into Kru-El’s forehead! The Kryptonian madman screamed, releasing Superman, and covered his face as he wailed.

Superman took a breath, then, clenching his fists together, swung them with all his might down atop Kru-El’s head like a jackhammer! The madman plummeted back to earth, Superman speeding after him.

“Incoming!” Yelled a policeman as he ran out of the street, gesturing wildly for people to make way.

Kru-El’s body hit the pavement like a flaming comet, crashing through to the sewer below, causing the whole street to shake. Steam sizzled from the hole the impact caused, like a hot iron doused in water.

Superman came in for a landing by the crater, looking more roughed up then the people of Metropolis had ever seen him. A crowd had gathered, despite the best efforts of the police, but Superman waved them back.

“Hey, Supes, what hit ya?” A burly hot-dog vendor called out.

Just then, Kru-El erupted from the ground, sending concrete flying everywhere. But Superman was ready for him now. He flew straight at him, fist first, and connected with a powerful blow that drove his half-brother into the side of an abandoned bus. Groaning amidst the twisted metal, Kru-El barely had time to look up before Superman was upon him. He thrashed out wildly, a kick sending Superman spinning backward.

“You’ll pay for this, Kal-El!” Seethed his brother. His face was black and scorched, and still steaming. He advanced on Superman, flexing his fists. “You will join Jor-El and the rest of Krypton in extinction!”

Superman met his brother head on. “You are so wrong about that.”

Again the two collided, and their blows were like thunder heard as far away as Gotham City.

The brawl continued in the streets of Metropolis.

Kru-El was maddened, fighting like a berserker, unwilling to believe the puny son of Jor-El could get the best of him. And that was his weakness. Though aware enough to avoid Kal-El’s heat vision, he nonetheless relied upon brute strength, utilizing none of the special powers and abilities that Earth’s sun and gravity bestowed upon him. The powers and abilities that Superman had spent many years honing to great effect.

Superman was a red and blue streak around Kru-El, keeping him whirling and off-balance, his deadly fists lashing out, but failing to connect. It only served to enrage the brute even more.

“Face me, son of Jor-El!” He howled impotently. “At least die like a man!” He thrashed recklessly about, stomping so hard he burst an underground water main. A geyser of water jetted into the air, sending asphalt flying. Superman saw that a big chunk of it was sailing right towards the foolish young man taking pictures at the edge of the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight. Rolling his eyes, he arrowed himself straight towards the carrot-topped photographer, sweeping him out of harm’s way.

“Thanks, Superman!” Jimmy Olsen breathed as Superman set him down.
“Stay back, Jimmy. This maniac is out of control.” Was all the admonishment he had time for before throwing himself back into the fray.

A berserker he may have been, but Kru-El was not stupid. He noted how Superman had saved the human, and grinned at the advantage he’d just discovered. He wrenched a smashed car off the ground, and lifting it effortlessly over his head, he hurled it at the crowd of onlookers!

“No!” Superman cried, speeding for the flying hunk of metal. He caught it just as it was about to crash down on the heads of innocent people--- but Kru-El had wasted no time. He slammed into Superman as he caught the car, sending both of them tumbling to the ground under three tons of twisted metal.

The car settled atop them, only for a moment, the crowd watching warily, wondering if the fight had at last ended--- and then exploded as Superman was sent flying from a monstrous blow, skidding and bouncing down the street.

Kru-El crowed in triumph and chased after him at a blinding speed. Prone on the ground and shaking his head to clear his vision from that last wallop, Superman saw his mad brother charging straight at him, splashing through the geyser of the busted water main flooding the street.

Which was all he needed.

With one quick and prodigious inhalation, Superman blew a blast of frigid breath at the sloshy ground, blast freezing the water into ice! The running Kru-El lost his footing instantly, pinwheeled and slipped, falling to the ground. But his momentum carried him forward still--- right to a Superman waiting with his arm cocked back for a massive punch!

The expression on Kru-El’s face was one of supreme surprise and frustration as Superman’s fist smashed into it. He spun and dropped, only to be yanked up by his collar and shaken roughly.

“This is over, Kru-El!” Superman gritted, his fist hovering for another mighty blow. “You’re beaten! Now tell me, is Zod here? Is Zod on Earth?”

His world spinning, Kru-El could only laugh through his broken teeth.

“The Destroyer has come for you, son of Jor-El…” He wheezed. “He will have his revenge…”

Mustering his last ounce of strength, Kru-El attempted a final blow, but all he saw was Superman’s fist heading for his face before his world went dark.

When Superman walked into the Situation Room below the White House, there came a round of gasps and sharply indrawn breaths at his appearance; even Max half stood out of his chair, his expression one of stunned surprise.

“You--- You look like you’ve been in a barroom brawl, Superman! What happened?”

The Man of Steel nodded a greeting to the gathered cabinet officials and military men, including Lois’ father, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Sam Lane.

“His name is Kru-El. He’s a Kryptonian outlaw. I’ve managed to subdue him, but we have bigger problems now, Mr. President.”

Max nodded. He and Superman had some history; before his run for office, Max had attempted many times to put Superman on his payroll as a bodyguard, mostly just to irritate his own arch rival Lex Luthor, and had traded on his “relationship” with the Man of Steel as an American icon to increase his own somewhat lackluster reputation--- indeed, it may just have gotten him elected! Max Lord took every opportunity to have his picture taken smiling next to his old buddy Superman, who would defend the nation, and the world, to his dying breath!

In a matter of moments, they brought Superman up to speed regarding the occurrences in the Antarctic, showing him the satellite photos of the flying figures and the beached Admiral Byrd.

“Then it is true.” Superman said grimly. “Kru-El said, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. But it is Zod.”

“Zod? What does that mean?” Max demanded.

Superman explained. “As you know, Mr. President, I’m not from Earth. My birth planet was called Krypton, a massive, super-dense world that orbited an ancient red giant star. My father was that world’s greatest scientist and statesmen,” It occurred to Superman that was what Lex Luthor aspired to be, and he winced at the irony. “He sent me to Earth when I was a baby, to escape the destruction of the planet. The destruction which was ultimately triggered by a hideous device called an ‘echo-bomb’, a self-perpetuating nuclear device that continues to explode until it exhausts all combustible fuel around it. The echo bomb was used by a terrorist and would-be world conqueror known only as General Zod in his last ditch gambit of the Civil War he was waging for control of Krypton. It destroyed a city many times the size of Metropolis, and then burrowed beneath the surface of the planet, lodging finally in the center of the planet, where it fed off the core, and ten years later caused the chain reaction that tore Krypton apart.”

“But wouldn’t Zod have been destroyed, too? Weren’t you the only survivor of Krypton?” Asked Max.

“Zod, and his two henchmen, ‘til now known only to history as his Hound and Tigress, were captured and prosecuted by my father Jor-El, and sentenced to exile in a tesseract, a cosmic anomaly of time and space, called the Phantom Zone, which my father had discovered how to harness. Somehow, they must have escaped the Phantom Zone and found their way to Earth…”

“Good God,” One of the cabinet secretaries muttered. “That detonation in the Antarctic--- the echo-bomb!”

“No, Secretary, I don’t think so.” Superman told him. “Judging from the satellite photos, it appears that the explosion was caused by the rupturing of the tesseract which held my Kryptonian retreat; I recognize the ruins of it all across the landscape. But now that Zod has the payload of the Admiral Byrd, he very well may be able to cull together the rest of the raw materials from what was in the fortress to construct an echo-bomb.”

They all exchanged looks of profound concern.

“Who is this General Zod?” Max growled. “What will he want?”

Superman looked grave. “Of course, what I know of Kryptonian history, I know only from the records my father sent with me. But it appears that Zod is an almost mythological figure in Kryptonian history. My people are especially long-lived, and Zod plagued them for centuries, choosing a new Hound and Tigress from each generation. He’s the closest equivalent my people had to an antichrist. He was never stopped or captured, until the very end.” He suddenly looked even more uncomfortable. “And if he’s on Earth, he and his minions, as we’ve already seen, will have all of the powers and abilities that I do.”

“My god, we’re doomed….” Someone muttered.

“No!” Superman said sharply, “Fear and intimidation are his greatest weapons. Zod can be stopped. My father proved that. We just can’t waste any time. We have to get to him before he can convert those nukes.”

“Right!” Max nodded sharply, decisively. “Sam, ready the Sixth and Seventh Fleets immediately. All ships to converge on Antarctica. I want aircraft carriers, subs, the Marines, a full assault force! Anything we can bring to bear in 24 hours to dislodge this maniac and kick him the hell off Earth!”

“Sir, yes sir!” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs stood and saluted smartly, pivoting and marching from the room.

“With all due respect, Mr. President,” Superman warned. “That will have as much effect on Zod and his Tigress as it would, well, on me. In fact, you’d only be giving him more ammunition.”

“The combined military might of the United States of America is no mean thing! Do you have a better idea, Superman?” Snapped the Secretary of Defense.

“Let me go in first. See if I can take down Zod and the Tigress before you open up Armageddon at the South Pole.”

The Secretary snorted dubiously. “By yourself? There’s two of them, son! And you were very nearly taken down by just one of them not an hour ago…”

“I know,” Superman rubbed his jaw ruefully. “But I think I know where I can get some help…”

To be continued...