Action Comics # 859 - Superman And The Legion Of Super-Heroes, Chapter 2 - Illegal Aliens

Imagine if your greatest hero's history was twisted by people with an agenda so far off that hero's ideals that his image became a symbol of a dictatorship capable of devastating galaxies. Friends, this is exactly what is happening in the storyline of Action Comics featuring the Legion of Superheroes.

Colossal Boy (Gim Allon), Wildfire (Drake Burroughs), and Dawnstar are guarding a powerless Superman who was transported by Brainiac 5 to a different time where Earth's sun is red due to a scientific catastrophe. Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy meanwhile are facing off against some scary super beings that have formed a new Justice League with a more "lutheresque" feel about them. Surprisingly "Spider-Girl" is the name of one member of this new DC supergroup but she has web-powered hair and looks gothic enough to fit in with villains as opposed to Marvel's red, black and blue Amazing Spider-Girl despite the identical spelling.

New villains aren't scary for the LoSH or for a depowered Superman; the scary part is the non-super aspect of the plot. History was rewritten and to pull a chunk of text from the issue, it is explained that Superman's origin is "... born Clark Kent in Smallville, Kansas... the only son to Jonathan and Martha Kent. When Clark Kent was a teenager, he was chosen by Mother Earth and given great powers. And he became humanity's protector against extraterrestrial threats like Darkseid and Mongul and... Brainiac."

By removing the element that Clark Kent was really an alien being from Krypton (and Darkseid from Apokolips, etc.), the leaders of Earth have taken former aliens and created histories to suit their needs, making them humans with great power. The goal is to get rid of all aliens, therefore many members of the LoSH have faced great danger, some possibly never to return.

While we may never see people with superpowers like Superman in our lifetimes, this arc of Action Comics shows that it is possible to rewrite history. There have been debates of such altering in every aspect of the written word from religion to literature. I've personally heard critics and fans who claim they know what an author was "thinking" or "his intended message" in great works of fiction even though these authors are long dead or have been interviewed denying those agenda. Similarly I've heard people claim to know what exactly political figures thought about certain issues but unless there's journaled proof, I'm afraid to believe everything scholars spout.

Once Superman is dead, the Daily Planet archives could be torched/hidden/whatever and history books could be rewritten so that Superman's true history and his goals for life are skewed. And thus, conspiracy theories are born.

Absorbancy Boy (now known as Earth-Man), the new leader of the Justice League of Earth, seems to be the source of this reconstructionism. He supposedly discovered a crystal tablet during an archaeological dig. This causes the festering bitterness he had against the LoSH, for being rejected during tryouts, to germinate and motivate him to recruit members for the Justice League of Earth. His mission to rid the Earth of all alien races.

The artwork is great especially when capturing faces. The costumes are also really well detailed. So far, the script is easy to understand and compelling enough for me to want to get the next issue.