You've almost certainly heard by now, or at least heard the theories, about the identity of the mysterious "
Mr. Oz," who has been manipulating events in the
nu52/Rebirth DC Universe.
Well, surprise, surprise: I have some things to say about that revelation.
So, if you don't want to be spoiled, well, come back later.
SPOILERS begin of the 5 pictures of
Oz...
Still there?
Well, there is no sense beating around the bush, is there? This week's
Action Comics #987 reveals that Mr. Oz is:
OK, then.
Now, I'll grant any caveats you like: this is just the beginning of a 4-part story; it could easily turn out not to
really be
Jor-El; it could be a dude from an alternate universe or such; he could be a
Dr. Manhattan experiment gone awry;
yada yada.
Still, this seems likely to be one more example of
DC's growing hatred of
Krypton.
Look, I know there have always been Kryptonian bad guys. That's what the
Phantom Zone is for. Every society has it's bad apples.
And Krypton was certainly not perfect--the stupid science council ignored Jor-El's warnings, for one thing.
But still, Krypton was always presented as, if not necessarily a utopia, at least a decent place. They were pretty much like us, just more advanced. Humans could travel to Krypton (via time travel) or to Kandor, and fit right in, and be accepted. It was a good place, that had a tragic ending.
But let's look at what DC has told us in the last few years:
**The
first Rebirth arc of
Justice League had the Kryptonian god
Rao--yup, the
actual Rao--as a villain. It's turns out Rao was a parasite, a demon who tried to turn everyone on Earth into a Kryptonian so he could absorb their energy.
**The
Cyborg Superman--OK, look, there are
two separate Cyborg Supermen running around the Rebirth universe right now, because DC is bereft of ideas. Anyway, the Cyborg Superman
I'm talking about, who wants to destroy Earth (and pretty much anything not Kryptonian) is
Zor-El,
Supergirl's father (and
Kal-El's uncle).
**The villains of
DKIII? The
Master Race?
Kandorians. When their enlarged, they turn out to be
evil dickweeds who want to take over Earth, or, failing that, blow it up.
**Prior to the nu52, of course,
Kandor was also enlarged, and, surprise, they were
dickweeds. Not evil
per se, but arrogant pricks who pretty much hate humans and allow themselves to goaded into the "
War Of The Supermen."
**
H'el, a Kryptonian (of some sort), who was going to destroy the Earth in order to make a time warp that would allow him to keep Krypton from exploding in the first place.
**The
Eradicator is back, and is a nationalist/racist asshole, wanting to destroy everything non-Kryptonian and recreate Krypton on Earth.
**The asteroid that made
Vandal Savage immortal?
It was from Krypton.
There are more examples, but I'm too lazy to look them up right now.
And so things have reached the point where it's plausible that Jor-El--
JOR-EL!!--is a genocidal madman, essentially Eradicator 2.0, willing to bend time and space and destroy millions because...well, because humans suck:
We've seen him straight-up murder people, and imprison others who might interfere with his plans. And here's the half of the issues lenticular cover that represents him:
The
House Of El symbol
made up of corpses. How. Nice.
This is the state of Krypton in today's DC Universe--that, without too much cognitive dissonance, we can believe that Superman's dad is
Darkseid Jr.
We are apparently supposed to seriously believe that Kal-El and Kara are the
only good people from Krypton. That everyone else--including their parents!!--was xenophobic, genocidal maniacs who held any other life-form in contempt. That Krypton was a
hellhole filled with
assholes who would as soon wipe us out as look at us.
The question, of course, is
why in the world DC has chosen this direction.
Why make Krypton nothing but a source of evil, constantly bedeviling Earth?
Why make half of Superman's heritage Kryptonian supremacists whose only function is to torment Kal-El and company? Why moot the tragedy of Krypton's destruction by positing that, well,
they kind of deserved it?
What dramatic purpose is served by treating krypton this way? Is it just another manifestation of the misguided "
heroes must suffer" mantra--just Superman's version of
Flash's mother having to die for him to be a hero? Are the current creators so insecure that Kal-El would choose to defend Earth that they have to make his other home look indefensible in contrast?!?
I just don't get it.
