As an epilogue to LSH #38, let’s answer the question: whatever happened to the Pocket Universe?
Superman vol.2 #21 (1987)
by John Byrne
Guess who’s (almost) back!
We begin on a desolate planet being bombarded from outer space, protected only by a shield.
Only it’s not just any planet: it’s the Earth from the pocket universe, ten years after the death of Superboy. And the shield is the creation of the local version of Lex Luthor, who is still a good guy because he hasn’t lost his hair.
In the regular Earth, Superman comes across Supergirl… who is actually Lana Lang.
This is the beginning of the surprisingly long-lasting so-called “Matrix” version of Supergirl.
She will stay around for a long time, but I don’t think the connection with Lana will ever be given much thought.
When Superman doesn’t recognize her, Supergirl ends up fighting him. Eventually he finds out that Supergirl has kidnapped the real Lana Lang, as well as the Kents.
After a few attempts to get around her various powers (she’s a shapeshifter and a telekinetic, which she uses to mimic most Kryptonian powers), he eventually convinces her this is not her Earth by introducing her to the post-Crisis Lex Luthor.
Superman has figured out that this Supergirl is from the Pocket Universe, so he gives her a summary of what happened there.
Neither Supergirl or Superman know what happened to Superboy, because he died in the 30th century. But Superman is enough of a match, so she takes him back to the Pocket Universe.
Looks like there’s a job for Superman there.
Adventures of Superman #444 (1987)
by John Byrne & Jerry Ordway
cover by Jerry Ordway
Things are about to get DARK.
The main reason why I’m covering this storyline, despite the fact that the Legion show up, is that this is probably the most we’ve ever learned about the Time Trapper.
Which, this being the Time Trapper, means we have to take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt.
For example, apparently he’s literally as old as the universe itself.
(how would Superman know???)
Also, while the previous stories made it look like the Pocket Universe was literally an entire universe, and that the Time Trapper only manipulated the history of that Earth… turns out that the Pocket Universe only contains TWO worlds: Earth and Krypton.
Let us take a moment to appreciate how far the Time Trapper has come.
Byrne is continuing the idea that the Smallville of the Pocket Universe is a more innocent world.
For example, Luthor is convinced that the Time Trapper is the reason why Earth sucks…
…but Superman has to admit that’s on us.
Since we’re making retcons, Byrne adds the fact that the Time Trapper made sure Superboy was the ONLY hero on this Earth.
So while the previous retcon COULD have allowed some other aspects from the 20th century Silver Age to still be applicable to the Legion, this cements the idea that ONLY Superboy and Smallville crossed over into the Legion’s new past.
For example: on this Earth, Lex Luthor never became a bad guy!
So stuff like Urthlo from Adventure Comics #300 could not have happened.
You’re starting to see the limits of the Pocket Universe retcon, and the reason why Byrne went too far with some of this stuff: this storyline throws away every single connection the Legion has with the 20th century except a VERY strict number of aspects of Superboy’s life.
As a Superman fan, I reeeeally like this storyline.
But as a Legion fan, it’s problematic to say the least.
We learn that Ma Kent died shortly after Superboy, and Pa Kent less than a week after her.
As far as I know, this is the only reality where she dies first.
We skip the fact that Krypto is most likely dead too, considering he lost his powers and assuming Kryptonian dogs have the same lifespan as Earth dogs.
Granted we’re not SHOWN, because this comic is already dark enough as it is.
As Lex mentioned he only arrived in Smallville after Superboy’s death; he meets Pete and Lana at Pa Kent’s funeral, where he reveals that he discovered a cure for Kryptonite.
Post-Crisis Luthor is ALMOST as smart as the pre-Crisis version, but it’ll be years before he really shows off. So it’s a nice opportunity for this version of Lex to brag.
Although Lex might not be as smart as he things: when he finds the Phantom Zone Projector™, he’s EASILY duped by General Zod into freeing him and his minions.
Turns out this was an UNIMAGINABLY DUMB IDEA.
The humans put up a fight for years, with Lex creating Supergirl to help.
Until Zod demonstrates just how UTTERLY TERRIFYING Kryptonian powers can be: they WIPE OUT THE ENTIRE PLANET with the only exception of Smallville!!!
And so we end with Superman vowing to defeat the Kryptonians, with the help of Supergirl and with the counterparts of the Pocket Universe versions of Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen.
If you think they stand a chance… I did mention this storyline gets dark, right?
Superman vol.2 #22 (1987)
by John Byrne
This is without a question one of the most controversial Superman stories ever made.
With all due respect to Jerry Ordway, who deserves far more credit he gets for his importance to Superman’s career, he didn’t do a great job at selling the devastation the Kryptonians unleashed.
Byrne instead shows us that Earth is just GONE.
Say goodbye to the human soldiers recruited by Lex, because they don’t last a minute.
Neither does Supergirl.
Superman reluctantly follows Lex’s plan, sneaking back into Superboy’s laboratory.
The Kryptonians from the Pocket Universe are FAR stronger than Superman, but the plan was to recover the Golden Kryptonite.
Superman then easily uses the same trick to de-power both General Zod and his other minion.
Lex only has seconds before he dies. Before he does so, he drops a couple of bombshells.
The first one is going to be the most influential one: Supergirl was not Lana Lang, but an artificial lifeform he created after Lana’s death.
But then there’s the infuriating one: the idea that Luthor had Golden Kryptonite available THE WHOLE TIME but didn’t use until the last moment because of his pride!!!
OH COME ON!!! I’m supposed to believe that Lex Luthor went through 10 years of THIS without ever using his only trump card!?!?
This is a level of stubbornness so ridiculous I don’t even think Doctor Doom would do this, and his stubbornness literally breaks the rules of his narrative universe!!!
This means that Superman and the Kryptonians are currently the ONLY survivors in the entire Pocket Universe.
This brings us to the controversial part, and the reason why this storyline is crucial for Superman.
Because it means that the three Kryptonians, after killing FIVE BILLION PEOPLE, can’t even be imprisoned anymore.
Yeah it’s hard to put this kind of massacre into perspective, isn’t it?
As punishment for their crimes, and as the last Kryptonian, Superman sentences them to death.
It should be noted that, if this was the actual Silver Age, this wouldn’t work: back then, Green Kryptonite would have no effect if you were already de-powered thanks to Gold Kryptonite.
As if being genocidal mass murderers wasn’t bad enough, the three Kryptonians are just the absolute scum of the universe.
General Zod tries to sell out Quex-Ul, who dies while strangling him in revenge, and Zaora offers herself as a sex slave.
Superman then uses Lex’s tech to return to his universe, bringing himself the now regenerating Supergirl: turns out that she’s still alive. So technically she’s now the only survivor of the Pocket Universe, and she’s going to live with the Kents for a while before starting her Supergirl career.
Superman is, however, extremely shaken by the whole adventure.
I will talk later about the MANY in-universe repercussions from this.
As you can imagine, a story where Superman kills ended up being VERY controversial with readers.
There’s the whole “Superman shouldn’t kill, period” argument, although the one that made a little more sense was Superman justification that he HAD to execute the Kryptonians because they threatened they would SOMEHOW get their powers back.
I’m not entirely sure even Superman believed that.
It’s also the end of the John Byrne run. While it has been rumored that this storyline was a factor, according to a 2012 interview with Comic Book Resources it had nothing to do with it.
DC hired me to revamp Superman, and then immediately chickened out. They backed off at the first whiff of fan disapproval, which came months before anyone had actually seen the work. During the whole two years I was on the project, although nothing happened that was not approved by DC editorial, there was no conscious support. They even continued to license the “previous” Superman.
At one point, Dick Giordano said “You have to realize there are now two Supermen – the one you do and the one we license.” Seemed counter-productive, to say the least, since far more people saw the licensed material. After two years of this nonsense, I was just worn down. The fun was gone.
JOHN BYRNE
I guess it was only a matter of time before the famously litigious Byrne left. He did so with a bang, though!
Historical significance: 10/10
While this has no impact on the Legion, it’s IMMENSELY important to Superman’s history for several reasons.
First of all, as mentioned this is the origin of the post-Crisis Supergirl: she would have her own adventures until 2002.
But Superman would go though one heck of a journey: quite literally, because this is what will eventually lead to him self-exiling in space as a way to find himself.
In fact, the “Superman Exile” storyline is probably my favorite Superman saga of all time!
That story introduced, or re-introduced after Crisis, A TON of Superman lore.
Including (but not limited to) the Eradicator, Mongul and Warworld… which in turn had CONSIDERABLE impact on storylines as varied as “The death of Superman”, “Reign of the Supermen”, “Our worlds at war”, and I’m probably forgetting at least a couple.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
If anything it goes out of its way to do the opposite!
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Like the previous encounter with Superboy written by Byrne, there’s a lot of respect and love for a bygone era that shows, even while we’re laying waste to the Pocket Universe.
I’ve always really liked this storyline, and it holds up very well… however, upon re-examining it, a few problems arise.
The first is pacing: the first part is very slow with little happening, the second is one gigantic infodump, and the third one really feels like it’s in a rush to get to the end.
Which IS still extremely powerful, because if there’s one thing that still holds up is selling just how irredeemable the three Kryptonians are, to the point that it’s not out of the question to agree with Superman’s decision to execute them.
But a couple of Byrne’s decisions are really shoehorned there. The decision to completely remove Lex from the history of Superboy is a wasted opportunity: this would’ve been a very good chance to show that even Lex Luthor can be redeemed, and it would’ve been a great contrast with the Kryptonians! Was showing that this Lex has hair really worth it?
But the really inexcusable part is the final revelation that Luthor had Gold Kryptonite FOR TEN YEARS without even trying to use it! That’s just dumb and lazy writing.
Ask me another day and I may bump this to a 9/10, though.
There will be some impact on the Legion. The post-Crisis Supergirl, after some twists and turns, will interact with the reboot Legion for a new version of the Brainy/Supergirl romance.
This DOES actually have a small impact on Legion: During the End of an Era crossover at the end of preboot continuity, New Earth is losing its structural integrity and they bring the Pocket Universe Earth, desolate as it is, through a dimensional rift. It’s a ticking time bonb and continuity ends right before it explodes.
So, if you’re keeping track, Superboy got kicked out of his own comic twice by the Legion, was erased from ever having existed, got brought back soley so he could be killed, had his entire pocket Earth genocided, and then it becomes a bomb certain to wipe out the remnants of Earth’s population.
The Legion has NOT been kind to their inspiration.
Minor note: All of these were published jn 1988, not 1987.
I never realized it till just now, but Quex-Ul was an interesting choice for the third Kryptonian criminal. In the Silver Age, he was in the story that introduced Gold K into Superman’s world, and existed solely to show the audience what Gold K does. That being total, permanent power loss and a side order of amnesia thrown in at no extra charge.
And then Byrne makes sure Quex-Ul is the first to get hit by Gold K in this story.
Neat.
The “good Pocket Universe Lex” doesn’t necessarily kill the Urthlo story (it could have been created by real-world Lex) but does kill the story in Adventure Comics # 325 where it’s very clearly Superboy’s young Lex fighting the Legion directly. I suppose Byrne could have been more careful about a minor old Legion story and used some other scientist, but it worked out well down the line that Matrix-Supergirl fell for Lex Luthor “Jr” later on, given that he was so similar to her creator.
It’s hard for me to see these versions of the Phantom Zone villains without thinking of Zod, Ursa, and Non from the Superman films. Zod especially looks quaint in his old military-style uniform.
I appreciate this recap as I totally missed out on these stories. Now I understand the Matrix Supergirl and the controversy over Superman killing, things I’d only heard of.
Byrne was a very good storyteller, though not perfect. Although I think it was a needless waste to destroy the Pocket Universe, I appreciate how he got there and the ramifications for Superman. This story challenged Superman and everything he believed in in ways that had never been done before.
It’s funny that my memory of this issue doesn’t include shock at Superman killing, mostly because of my overwhelming disappointment at Supergirl being reintroduced as a genetic matrix blob thingy.
I am a mild fan of Byrne’s take on Superman at best – there is no way I can welcome what he did to Krypton – but it was certainly tolerable at worst.
In retrospect, the biggest flaw of this era is probably not his fault (although he insists on it): the goal itself of rebooting Superman after fifty years as the best known superhero of all.
Hindsight is 20/20 vision and all, but in retrospect that was probably always a serious mistake, and one that DC managed to avoid until that point. That is perhaps more discernible in LSH stories than in Superman’s, but the nature of the problem is similar: once you declare a reboot, you invite fandom to choose sides and create conflicts of attachment. There is a permanent distraction of whether it would be a good idea to bring back previous continuities and decide which ones should count as truer than others. Considerable meta-discussion will arise, at the expense of genuine engagement with the stories. And there will never be definitive answers.
Up until 1986 Superman (and DC Universe) continuity changed a lot, but always gradually and in fairly ambiguous ways. There were few clear jump-in points, and therefore few jump-out points as well. But by design the post-Crisis Superman is denied that ability, creating conflicts that do not work for the good of DC nor of the readers.
While Byrne complains (according to that 2012 CBR interview; this is the first I hear of that), I think that he was very much mistaken on that point. If he thought that somehow the world would find his Superman so utterly superior to those of the previous 50 years that there would be no desire to keep any memories of what came before, he was just entirely wrong. His was an interesting alternative take on Superman, and that is what it was always predestined to be: an alternate reading. There were just too many interesting stories to be told and revisited about Krypton, Kandor, Superboy and other ideas that he refused to embrace (or was asked to avoid).
By 1985 Superman _had_ become quite unwieldly and some sort of realignment was indeed necessary. But it was naive to aim for something that would make what came before entirely obsolete and forgettable. There were lots of exciting and well-liked stories and ideas in those 50 years of Superman stories. Fans won’t let go of them entirely just to keep the ability to say that Byrne’s reboot was the best thing ever for Superman.
Coincidentally or otherwise, the current stance of DC seems to me to be the complete opposite. They won’t just refuse to grant new writers the power to decide which versions of the characters may be licensed; instead, they will license a wide variety of mutually exclusive versions with no obvious concern. As of 2024, to cite Superman specifically, they are licensing “My Adventures with Superman” just a few short years after the “Injustice: Gods Among Us” games. Looks like DC has accepted that it won’t ever have a definitive, ultimate continuity to last forever and has instead decided to keep a catalogue to be used or put into storage according to demand. I suppose that is workable now in ways that were not possible back in the 1980s, 1970s or 1940s.
Yeah the whole Pocket Universe angle does demonstrate the folly of DC not committing to fully restarting their universe.
Whether people agree with Crisis being followed by restarting or not, doing so fully at least means a clean slate all around. But then DC decides to keep some favorites or successes running as usual even though they are tied to properties now retconned.
So the Pocket Universe is made to keep the older Legion while not backing down on Superman’s side of continuity, until finally restarting the Legion.
The means of keeping the older Legion stories intact now ironically has to be kept for Superman’s continuity and that means that a completely different Legion existing can’t be brushed under the rug.
On a smaller scale you had Superman as a JLA founder being removed from continuity, but then you still have to establish him in past stories where his powers made the difference.
Oh and Legends which saw the various heroes meeting Wonder Woman for the first time? Had some tie ins with #258-261 of Justice League of America, which flashback to the League’s early history with Amazo. Flashbacks include as League members, Superman and Wonder Woman. Whoops.