Action Comics
Issue #39: “Kon-El” Pt. 3
Story by: Roy Flinchum & Brian Burchette
Written by: Brian Burchette
Pencils & Inks by: Steven Howard
Colors by: Jonathan Biermann
Edited by: Mark Bowers
Metropolis may be considered the city of the future, a stark contrast to its neighbor to the north, Gotham City, but it didn’t mean that even in the most tasteful and hippest of neighborhoods, there wasn’t darkness to be found. Case in point:
The Zirron Gallery of Modern Art; Sub-Basement“Superman’s... son...?” Dr. Ivo whispered in awe.
Dr. Xadu allowed a self-satisfied smirk to cross his face. It was exactly the reaction he was expecting from all of them. “Yes, it seems the House of El has just become a little larger.”
“Oh, the things I’m going to do with him,” Dr. Sivana said, rubbing his hands together in delight.
“Wipe the drool from your mouth,” Lex Luthor sneered. “This is as close as you’re ever going to get to it. This creature is mine.”
“Gentlemen,” Xadu interrupted while believing that he used the term very loosely. “This piece of perfect science will go to the highest bidder only.”
Sivana gave a wicked grin as he looked up at Lex. “Well, I suppose that leaves you out since you seem to have lost everything in that inept attempt to take over the world with a giant space starfish. And they call me a mad genius.” His taunting laugh came across as more of a high-pitched giggle.
“You bring that up one more time, you little troll, and I will dropkick you like the deformed little football that you are.”
Xadu cleared his throat loudly. “Gentlemen, no wonder the two of you have never achieved your goals – you’re both so... human.”
Lex swung around to face him, his anger now intensified and turned towards a new target. “You got that right, you alien freak! Your kind make me sick. The fact that more and more of you keep popping up on my planet is enough to make me... make me...”
“Rip your hair out?” Sivana asked innocently.
Lex turned his head slowly, giving him a cold glare. “Isn’t it about time for someone to change your diaper, old man?’
“ENOUGH!!!” Xadu roared. “You have taxed my patience. Of the three of you, it is Dr. Ivo alone who has not insulted me or my gesture of friendship. Perhaps it would be best if I just give him the boy and let...”
“NO!” the other two shouted in unison.
“Then. Shut. Up,” Xadu whispered with a smirk.
High Above Metropolis
Kara had not heard from Kal-El in a while, not since he had received the call back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Her search had proven futile and she was just about to head towards the research facility herself when the explosion downtown caught her attention. Without hesitation she headed towards the source.
Arriving in seconds, she was shocked to see the devastation that had torn up the city block. What surprised her even more was the source of the destruction. Right in the middle of the street, was a twenty foot tall dinosaur; its tail causing structural damage to the buildings on either side of the street as it went along.
“That doesn’t seem right at all,” she said to herself as she arched downward, heading straight for the creature’s body.
Although it only took her a second to reach it, it also took but a second for her to be distracted as she heard a young woman scream.. She pulled up short, swinging around to see falling debris plunging from the side of a building towards the young woman who was gripping an infant.
She had barely made a move to swing into action when she was again taken aback by the sudden appearance of a young woman in a red costume with a lightning bolt symbol, a white and gold cape flapping behind her, as she grabbed both woman and child just as the debris struck the pavement.
“Nice job, Mary,” a voice shouted. She turned to see a similarly-outfitted man smiling down at her. He hovered in the air, his arms crossed, his gold and white cloak hanging off his right shoulder. “Hello there, you must be Supergirl. I’ve read a lot about you.”
Kara nodded, recognizing this person. “And you’re Captain Marvel! Ka-... uh... Superman has told me a great deal about you as well. What are you doing in Metropolis?”
“The usual, hunting down a mad scientist.”
There was another scream and they both saw the dinosaur heading towards a bus load of children.
“Can you grab the bus?” Captain Marvel shouted, taking off before he even got an answer from her.
“Sure,” she said, a bit irritably. Moving nearly as fast as her cousin, she was at the bus just seconds before the large foot was about to come down on it. Picking it up from underneath, she flew it and all its passengers a safe distance; noting that the creature staggered when it was struck by Marvel.
Captain Marvel pummeled the time-displaced creature with several strong blows, knocking it away, but not knocking it out. “Something is not right here,” he said in amazement as it let out a roar and tried to bite at him.
“Let me try,” Mary Marvel called out as she, too, slammed into it. Again, it staggered, but did not drop. “You’re right; even when I struck it, the thing felt...”
She was not able to finish the sentence as a pair of yellow beams shot from the dinosaur’s eyes, striking her full in the chest and sending her flying into the side of a building, where she lay embedded in the brick.
“Mary!” Captain Marvel cried out as he headed towards her.
Supergirl had seen the entire encounter as she came flying back to help. Her brow creased momentarily as she used her x-ray vision to scan the beast. What she found surprised her; it was not a creature of blood and muscle, but one of steel. It was mechanical, which changed the playing field immensely.
While flying towards the Captain and the girl that she now believed to be Mary Marvel, she scanned the surrounding buildings from top to bottom, her x-ray vision picking up the inside of another building only a block away. Inside, far below the surface, for just the briefest of seconds, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure, chained to a wall: Lois Lane!
She was torn. This mechanical creature had to be dealt with... but it was Lois; she knew how much the reporter meant to Kal. Of course, she thought to herself as she watched Captain Marvel helping his friend out of the groove she had been flung into, it wasn’t like those two couldn’t handle the big bad robot.
“Guys, that thing is not alive, it’s mechanical. Take it down; I’ve got somewhere I have to be,” she said apologetically. Then took off towards the gallery.
“Well that was rude,” Mary Marvel said.
“She knows what she’s doing, Mary,” Billy gently chastised. “She is related to
him after all.”
Her eyebrow arched, indicating that she wasn’t totally sold on his explanation. However, there were more pressing matters to attend to. “Let’s take this thing down so we can get back to finding Sivana.”
The Secret Lab of Dr. Xadu
Slam Bradley’s wrists were killing him, which meant that his partner, Lois Lane, who was chained up on the wall next to him, must have been hurting just as much. The fact that she never showed it, that she was silently watching the situation in front of them, was a testament to not only her tenacity, but her endurance as well.
“How you holding up, sweetheart?”
The reporter’s eyebrow arched as she looked at the detective. “I’m chained to a wall with four mad scientists, a beat-up old cop, and the son of Superman in a human-sized test tube; I smell another Pulitzer.” She broke out into a grin.
The absurdity of the situation and her response caused Slam to do something very uncharacteristic; he broke into laughter. Not just a chuckle, but a belly laugh that caused everyone in the room to stop and look at him. It must have been contagious, because Lois joined in with him.
“What are you two laughing about?” Xadu demanded. “Are you both too stupid to realize just how much danger you are in?”
Slam grinned at him. “I didn’t realize until this moment just how safe I am, actually. I’ve got me this city’s largest good luck charm.” He gave Lois a wink and his grin widened as she winked right back.
Eyes narrowing in contempt, Dr. Xadu approached him. “Oh, is that right? And what
lucky charm would that be?”
“Her,” Luthor said pointing to Lois Lane. “She’s got some kind of personal connection to Superman. I’m surprised he isn’t here already.”
This time it was Xadu’s turn to smile. “Oh, I don’t think he will be coming anytime in the near future. And as for you,” he said focusing his attention back to the detective, “your luck has run out.” His fist flew up as fast as Superman’s, striking Slam across the jaw.
Everyone cringed as they heard the shattering of bone, as teeth flew across the room. For Slam Bradley, the pain was instantaneous, but brief, as he slipped into unconsciousness; but not before he saw the far wall explode inward. If his jaw hadn’t been shattered, he would have gone down smiling.
Lois screamed Slam’s name just a nanosecond before the wall came tumbling down. Ivo let out his own cry of surprise as the smoke cleared and Supergirl stepped forward.
“Looks like a full house,” she said.
Xadu sneered. “So, the daughter of Zor-El has come to stop me. How pathetic. For you see...”
His soliloquy was cut short as both Sivana and Luthor pulled guns at the same moment, firing at Supergirl at the exact same time. Both bullets hit their mark and, for a second, Kara looked at them as if they had gone insane, then suddenly she staggered back, looked down to see both bullets had penetrated her Kryptonian body.
Both Luthor and Sivana looked at each other in shock.
“What did you do?” they asked each other in unison.
“I had no green kryptonite available when I was summoned here, so I took the red that I had stored away and created a bullet with it,” Lex explained. “You?”
“Same thing, only all I could get my hands on was a little black kryptonite.”
“Black kryptonite!” Lex exclaimed. “Where did you get that?”
Sivana shrugged. “eBay.”
“What have two done?” Xadu demanded as he headed over to the fallen Supergirl.
“Oh, please,” Lex began as the other two scientists made their way to join him, “you asked us to come to Metropolis. Did you really think we weren’t coming here without protection? We’re geniuses after all.”
“Why, Lex, that’s very kind of you to admit,” Sivana said, actually touched by his statement.
“Well, you are,” Luthor replied briskly. “Nowhere near my level, mind you, but, in a pinch, you’d do.”
The smaller man gave him a withered look. “You really know how to toss out a compliment.”
“The wounds are already beginning to heal,” Xadu mused.
Luthor leaned down to examine the body. “So she has both red and black kryptonite in her. What exactly will that do?”
As if on cue, Kara’s eyes flew open. She looked at the three men around her, but her gaze landed on Lex. She batted her eyelashes as she gazed at him. “Why, hello there.”
“Hello?” Lex replied cautiously, noting that Sivana had taken a couple of steps back behind Xadu. “How are you feeling, child?”
Supergirl began to stand up, and would have nearly fallen if it hadn’t been for Lex grabbing her; with his help, she rose to her feet. “I’m feeling great! But last time I checked, I wasn’t a child. I’m all woman, and all yours, you handsome little stud muffin.” The back of her hand stroked Lex’s cheek.
Back in Downtown Metropolis
Captain and Mary Marvel were tearing apart the last of the creature; its electronic parts exploding as they ripped off its front two legs. It was no longer letting out any kind of a roar at all. In fact, its eyes had grown dull.
“That made it a lot easier,” Mary conceded.
Her partner nodded. “But why is there a large dinosaur in the middle of Metropolis?”
“I think I can answer that,” the voice of Superman said as he softly landed on the ground next to them. “I’ve seen this kind of work before. His name is the Toyman. An old nemesis.”
Mary Marvel stood staring. “You... It’s really... you.”
Superman gave her a curt nod and small smile. “Yes, miss, it’s really me. And may I ask who you are?’
“Allow me to introduce you since Mary seems to be a bit tongue-tied at the moment. Superman, this is Mary Marvel. Mary, this is Superman.”
“It’s such a privilege,” she gushed as she grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously. You’re one of my all-time favorite heroes. I used to have your doll and I’d pretend you were saving me from burning buildings and flying me across the skyline of Fawcett City.” She stopped short after that outburst, blushing furiously.
Superman squeezed her shoulder. “It’s alright, Mary. That’s very nice of you.” He turned to Captain Marvel. “Well, it looks like your family keeps expanding.”
“As does yours, sir.”
“I told you to please not call me sir. You can call me Kal.”
“No... no I can’t,” Captain Marvel replied. “Anyway, we just met your cousin, Supergirl.”
At the name, Superman’s face seemed to darken again as he began to scan the skies. “You did? Where is she? Do you know which way she went? I need to talk to her as soon as possible.”
“She headed over in that direction, I think.”
They watched as the Man of Steel’s brow furrowed, his eyes focused in that general direction. Then suddenly they widened. “Lois! Kara!” he exclaimed and shot towards the gallery.
“Do we follow?” Mary asked.
“I guess so.”
“Shouldn’t we be trying to find Sivana? Or that Toyman fellow for that matter?”
“Well, since we don’t know where the one is and we’ve lost track of the other, I guess we should just follow Superman.”
“This is one busy city,” Mary marveled.
“You think this is bad, you should visit Gotham or Central,” Captain Marvel replied and then they both took to the sky to follow their hero.
Back in the underground layer of Dr. Xandu
Kara was grinning wickedly at Lex as she draped her arms over his left shoulder. Lex couldn’t help but smile back at her. His mind was turning in all kinds of directions. This had been an added bonus that he was going to use to his full advantage.
“It figures,” Sivana grunted in disgust.
“Where did it go?!” Xadu suddenly screamed.
They all turned around to find that both Dr. Ivo and the tube carrying the son of Superman were gone.
“Looks like you took your eye off the prize, Doctor,” Lois taunted.
“Where did he go, woman?” Xadu demanded menacingly as he approached her.
“Like I’m going to tell you.”
“I think you will. You saw what I did to your friend.”
“This is not fair!” Sivana interrupted as he jumped up and down. “Luthor gets Supergirl, Ivo gets the new super boy and what do I get?”
“You have any more bullets in that gun of yours?” Lex asked him.
Sivana stopped jumping. “No, that was my only one. Why?”
“Because we’re about to have company.”
That was when Sivana could feel the shaking of the room, just as a hole blew open in the ceiling and a blue and red human drill appeared in front of them.
“Game’s over, Xadu.” Superman said. “Get away from the lady.” He turned to the others. “Luthor, what have you done to Supergirl?” he demanded, clenching his fists.
“Is that my name?” Kara asked her new beau with surprise in her voice.
Lex smiled sweetly. “It used to be my precious. Would you like a different name?”
She thought about it for a second. “Actually, I’ve always liked the name Linda.”
“Mundane, but anything for you. Linda Luthor. I do like the sound of it,” Lex replied as he gave Superman a wink.
“Get away from her,” Kal-El shouted as he leapt towards his archenemy.
He never got to him, though, as a sudden flash of a fist appeared, hitting Superman right in the chest. Supergirl’s punch sent him flying back through the wall of the basement, and several hundred feet into the earth.
Everyone’s eyes widened. Lex looked at his new toy. “I never knew you could punch like that!”
Even Xadu was eyeing her suspiciously. “I believe I heard two of his ribs break. You were not that strong the first time we met.”
Kara shrugged. “I am what I am.”
Sivana tugged on Lex’s sleeve. “Do you think the mixture of the black and red Kryptonite could have given her a power boost?”
“I think that’s a fair assessment.”
Another red and white blur suddenly appeared, catching Supergirl off guard. She was struck in the face, her head snapping back, but other than that, she did not move.
“I saw what you did to him, and that wasn’t very nice!” Mary Marvel shouted at her. Then suddenly she looked down at her hand. “Owww, that
really hurt!”
Captain Marvel then appeared as well, eyeing Sivana. “I should have known wherever trouble was, you’d be right in the middle of it. Mary, what are you doing with Supergirl?”
“She was about to get her butt kicked,” Lex said, giving a nod to Kara.
Mary tried to dodge the blow, but Supergirl’s speed had suddenly increased. She struck Mary Marvel under the chin, this punch sending the heroine back up through the ceiling and out of everyone’s sight.
Captain Marvel cried out her name and then took off after her.
Xadu stood fascinated. “I heard more bones crack. Rao, this child has become something new. I must have her.”
“Really?” Lex asked, flashing an evil grin. “Linda, darling, do you want to go with that man, or would you like to come with me?”
“With you, Lexie,” she stated.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Mary Marvel cried out as she came flying through the hole once again; ignoring the warnings of Captain Marvel as he chased after her. This time she tackled Supergirl around the waist, knocking her off balance and causing both of them to hit the ground.
Mary threw several punches; each time she struck her opponent, she cried out in pain as her fists became bloodied. Supergirl lay there for a second, allowing it. Captain Marvel quickly grabbed his friend, trying to drag her off of the Kryptonian. Supergirl helped in the matter by bringing her arms up and shoving the girl. She flew back, striking the Captain and sending them both across the room, where they lay stunned.
“So are you sure you want to try and take her, Doctor?” Lex asked.
There was a long pause as Xadu watched the young blonde girl brush herself off; the look she was giving him sent a chill down his spine. He was not a stupid man; he knew when to retreat for another day.
“Enjoy her while you have her, Mr. Luthor,” he said as he watched Supergirl wrap her arm around Lex’s waist, then she disappeared with him into the opening above them.
“What about me?” Sivana demanded in anger.
“What about you?” Xadu asked.
“What do I get out of this?” Then he suddenly found himself picked up from behind. He turned to see a now-conscious Captain Marvel giving him a stern look. He slumped, defeated.
“Please, we’ve got to find Superman,” Lois said as a badly-battered Mary Marvel tore the chains off of her and helped her down.
“I’m... I’m right here, Lois,” Superman said, crawling out of the hole in the side of the wall. His costume was torn and he was clutching his side where his ribs had been broken. He looked at everyone around him but his eyes settled on Xadu. “What did you do to her, you monster?”
“Nothing, actually,” he replied. “It was Lex Luthor and that little troll who did this. A combination of black and red kryptonite, in the form of bullets, that seem to have been lodged into her body; not causing enough damage to hurt her, but I hypothesize that the material is slowly poisoning her blood, causing an astounding change in both personality as well as physical abilities. In fact, from the looks of it, I’d say she’s at least ten times stronger than you are now, and who knows what else she has acquired.”
“I’ll find her,” Superman said as he went to check on Lois. “But first I’m taking you in.”
“I don’t think so, Kal-El,” Xadu said passively.
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because at this moment, Kara Zor-El is the most powerful being on this planet, and in the hands of Lex Luthor. You’re going to need all the help you can get to bring her down, and to save her. It’s going to take Kryptonian power to do that, and I’m offering my services.”
“Superman, I need to get Mary medical attention and take Sivana away, but I’m coming back to help you as well,” Captain Marvel chimed in.
Superman studied his enemy before speaking. “Alright, between the four of us, we may be able to stop her.”
“Four?” Marvel asked.
Xadu nodded in understanding. “Ah, yes. First, we locate your son. Fair enough.”
The room was quiet as they all considered the possibilities that lay ahead.
The silence was broken by Lois. “
Pulitzer, here I come?!”
Epilogue
Several hundred miles away, Dr. Ivo studied the glass tube, the body that floated motionless. Although his major was not biogenetics, he was no slouch in that department either. It had been needed to create his greatest achievement – Amazo.
“What is that?” the voice of his greatest creation asked as he entered the room.
“This is the newest member of our little family. I acquired him with a little help of a transporter beam that I had been working on. That Dr. Xadu thought himself to be clever; checking for weapons, but ignoring a simple belt buckle. I just needed a couple of seconds for everyone to be distracted so that I could get this beautiful creature out of there. Now, let’s wake him up, shall we.” He went to the machine that was connected to the tube; both having been transported to his secret location.
He flipped a couple of switches and the door opened, the liquid flushing out onto the floor of Ivo’s lab. “Don’t step in that, Amazo. I haven’t had time to analyze it yet.”
“Whatever,” Amazo replied as he leaned against the wall, folding his arms.
Suddenly the young man, looking very much like a young Kal-El, staggered out of the tube, naked. He looked around wildly, his eyes resting on Dr. Ivo. “Wh-where...” His voice was thick and he seemed to be having trouble forming the words.
“Please, don’t talk yet, son,” Ivo said as he approached. “If I am not mistaken, the words will come to you soon. You’ve been asleep for a very long time, but if the instruments on this brilliant machine are correct, you’ve been learning this whole time. Just give it a while.” He helped the young man to a chair, then grabbed one of his lab coats and wrapped it around the boy’s shoulders.
“So what are you calling this thing?”
Ivo gazed at the young man, then smiled. “I’ve always liked the name Conner. I shall call him Conner.”
The dark haired boy looked up at the man, nodding. “Con-ner.”
To Be Concluded in Action Comics #40 Double-Sized Anniversary Issue![/b]
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