Fans who opted to show up early to Walmart this past Saturday to purchase their advanced screening tickets to Man of Steel may have got more than they hoped for. Each ticket purchase through Walmart included a redeemable code for a digital download of the first issue of the Man of Steel Prequel comic, which is a cool little bonus, but that same issue is apparently loaded with potential spoilers for Man of Steel.
According to a great rundown over at IGN, the debut issue of the Man of Steel Prequel series details events taking place before Man of Steel (obviously), but centered completely around the famed Kryptonian warrior Kara Zor-El. Minor footnote, she goes on to become Supergirl.
Yep, that Supergirl.
Some pretty intense stuff goes down in the comic, but in this case, it’s the end result that we’re mainly concerned with: Kara is sealed in a cryogenic pod and crash lands on Earth (Ellesmere Island, Canada, to be exact) thousands of years before the arrival of her cousin Kal-El. You know, that Superman guy.
This is a fairly big deal given that her distress signal from her crashed pod may actually be what prompts Clark’s journey that we’ve seen in trailers thus far. Another interesting idea to consider is that there are, according to the comic, a few thousand Kryptonians on colonization missions throughout the universe. Maybe these displaced Kryptonians will play a factor in Man of Steel or possibly future sequels? Heck, maybe Zod has killed them all off by this point, leaving Kal-El and cousin Kara the only Kryptonians alive in the universe?
While I think the idea of an eventual Superman and Supergirl team-up would be awesome, I think the right move is to save that for later down the line and let Superman have the spotlight for this movie. Since you asked for my opinion and all.
Speaking of my opinion, if I’m making this movie (which I’m not), the Kara situation goes down in one of two ways:
- Her distress signal sends Clark on a globe-trotting goose-chase at the beginning of the film. He finds her, hides her in the fortress of solitude until he figures out WTF to do with her (maybe get a Kryptonian version of Rosetta Stone so he can read the instructions for unfreezing), but before that can happen, Zod finds her and holds her hostage. “Save your last living relative/Kryptonian, or save your adopted planet!”
- In an after-credits bonus scene, it is revealed to us that Kara’s pod is chilling (ha!) in Canada. We see it buried deep in some snowy Canadian cave, under thousands of years of frost and ice. Then, just as we zoom in to see that it’s a ship with Kryptonian writing on it (probably an ad for Coca-Cola or the Kryptonian Taco Bell), the distress signal turns on, implying the forthcoming search in the sequel and the existence of a greater DC Universe at large.
The prequel comic certainly is cool, and is definitely a nice bonus for Superman fans who purchased early tickets. No matter how you look at it or what you think it means, one this is for certain: Man of Steel is going to be big.
What are your thoughts on the prequel comic? What about the potential for a Supergirl/Superman team-up? Let us know in the comments!