Superman: Birthright – A Hero Reborn

The story begins with a retelling of Superman’s origin, where his parents Jor-El and Lara send baby Kal-El away from the planet Krypton before its destruction. The planet’s explosion is already under way when they send off the craft into the sky. On a nearby monitor programmed by Jor-El, the screen shows flickering and broken images from the habitable planet for which he has targeted the craft through a time-disrupting wormhole. The images break up as they wonder if their son will survive or if anybody anywhere will ever know anything about the heritage of Krypton.

The scene cuts to the present day, where mid-20s freelance journalist Clark Kent visits Africa to interview political leader and activist Kobe Asuru, and strikes up a friendship. Kent is particularly impressed with Asuru’s emphasis on family and cultural traditions. During a political rally, Asuru is killed by an unidentified assassin. During the attack, Kent saves scores of potential victims. He also avoids being detected by everyone present as a superpowered being, with the exception of Asuru’s younger sister Abena, who survives the incident and becomes a key figure in the political revolution started by her brother.

Afterwards, Clark returns to Smallville, unearths the ship that brought him to Earth, and uses it to learn Krypton’s history and his own cultural heritage. His mother Martha Kent helps to adapt the Kryptonian clothing and a dramatic flag banner contained in the ship into an indestructible costume for Clark.

Jonathan and Martha agree that if Clark is going to begin performing super powered rescues, he should develop a separate “human identity” to avoid public harassment and possible attempts at criminal retaliation. They suggest that Clark develops an unassuming and nondescript everyday persona, wearing unremarkable clothes and assuming informal posture, that in itself would be a dramatic contrast to his essentially unavoidable appearance as a powerful and physically imposing figure during his superpowered rescues. Thus Clark leaves Smallville ready to embark on a public career.

Clark, wearing informal clothes, travels to Metropolis and joins the Daily Planet newspaper, impressing resident star journalist Lois Lane with his reputation and reports from the African battle zones; she is conversely surprised by Kent’s midwestern shyness and general social awkwardness.

Shortly after Kent’s arrival at the Planet, operating openly as Superman, he battles apparent terrorist helicopters, which cause considerable damage in the city. After discovering that the helicopters originate from LexCorp, Superman travels there and confronts Lex Luthor, who pretends to endorse Superman while attempting to destroy his reputation. Flashbacks reveal that Luthor is a former Smallville friend of Clark who lost his father Lionel and his hair after a wormhole he built malfunctioned and exploded. After leaving Smallville, Luthor has become a billionaire businessman and technological genius, with a high emphasis on extraterrestrial life. Arrogantly wishing to erase his farmland origins, Luthor denies ever having been in Smallville.

Planning to panic the citizenry, Luthor engineers a fake Kryptonian invasion, but Superman stops him and Luthor’s schemes are revealed to the world after much of his LexCorp headquarters are destroyed. In the final seconds of the battle, Superman discovers the video monitor invented by Luthor which had managed to make contact with pre-destruction Krypton. He stands before the screen, silhouetted against smoke and flashing lights in the background, and sees the shadowy figures of his parents. They are similarly obscured with smoke as the planet goes through its final destruction. Jor-El and Lara see the imposing figure of Superman on their monitor, looking at them while clothed in the El Family “S-symbol”. Superman looks at the monitor and says: “Mother, Father, I made it”. His parents realize Kal-El has survived as they hoped, so they smile and embrace as Krypton finally explodes.

Feel free to discuss the merits of Chris’s recommendation with Chris himself: chris@haltonhonda.com