DC Reveals Absolute Superman’s Major Changes to the Death of Krypton

Absolute Superman has made a host of big changes to Superman’s origin story, and a number of them have been in relation to Kal-El’s time on Krypton. Absolute Superman #5 brings that time to a close as the destruction of Krypton finally arrives, and there are a number of important changes from the original story that definitely leave a major impact. Spoilers are incoming for Absolute Superman #5, so if you haven’t read the issue yet you’ve been warned.

In the last issue, the El family revealed to the world that Krypton would soon be destroyed after learning the Science League had already known about the planet’s impending end. Not only that, but they were already preparing to get as many of the elite class off the planet, leaving everyone else to die. In issue #5, we see how the populace reacts to the revelation, and as you might surmise, it’s absolute chaos.

The Science League has sentenced the El family to death due to their revealing of the news and has sent shock troops to their home. They have to fight their way to their ship, and that’s when it’s revealed that they have gathered a host of fellow Kryptonians into the ship to leave the planet, which is a big change from the original story.

In the original version, Jor-El and Lara-El are only able to launch Kal-El in a ship, though we do see a version of that later. This version has a much larger ship starting to depart the planet, but a piece of the rapidly decaying planet crashes into it and separates it into a host of smaller pods that can fly on their own, and this includes Jor-El and Lara-El, who are in their own smaller ships trying to get past all the debris.

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This is also a bigger departure from the original story in that no one believed Jor-El’s warnings in that initial version, but in this version, the Science League was already working on a plan to vacate as many of their own as possible. They were creating an armada of ships to get their own off the planet, but after the truth about the planet’s destruction is revealed, the populace of Kandor revolts, and between their rebellion and the planet’s implosion, none of their ships make it out off the planet.

As we eventually see towards the end, only Kal-El’s ship seems to make it to space, but there’s still a high chance that another ship made it or was recovered at some point, even though it’s now shown. As of now though, Kal-El is the last son of Krypton, but it all happened in a very different way, and his time on the planet and his older age when he leaves will also mean it has a very different impact on Kal-El moving forward.

What did you think of the issue and how it handled the destruction of the Krypton? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things comics with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!