The Stranger

 

We return to Superman Family #182 (March-April 1977) with a trip to the distant past as Clark Kent tells Pete Ross's son (who knows Clark is Superman) a story about Krypton.

4000 years ago, a famine left people hungry and a despotic ruler was making things worse. A rebellion led by a guy named Bel-Der was growing in strength.

Upon this scene comes Jo-Mon, a messianic figure who is mediating disputes and healing people And, though the Messiah parallel is obviously there, it should be mentioned that Jo-Mon gives no credit to God or gods, but to "the strength of will to fight what you fear." There is obviously no disrespect meant at all aimed at religious beliefs, but the messianic parallel (and the message of the story) is reduced in power by this. 

Otherwise, Paul Krupperberg's script is well-constructed and Marshall Roger's art is magnificent. 

The tyrant tries to have Bel-Der assassinated, which ignites the situation into open warfare. Jo-Mon tries to talk the tryant down, but that doesn't end well.

The battle begins and Bel-Der's untrained rebels begin to get slaughtered. But Jo-Mon tries talking again, this time lecturing both armies about peace and brotherhood. 

This works, convincing both sides to stop fighting. But this, in turn, drives the tyrant insane and he guns down Jo-Mon. The last panel before we flash back to Clark telling this story to Jon doesn't make the subsequent situation completely clear, but apparently the tyrant's hold on the people is broken and world peace comes to Krypton.

It is a good story, but really does have it's flaws. Jo-Mon's perpetual serenity means he lacks any real personality and his "let's all just be nice to each other" message lacks any real power.

On a more trivial note: We see that ancient Krypton had both horses and sheep. Since we know the planet had humans, dogs and monkeys, I guess this isn't that much of a surprise, but a more alien design for the horses, for instance, might have helped give us a more concrete sense that it was taking place on another planet.

Next week, we'll jump back to the Marvel Universe to finish up the Captain America story we began last week.