A Forgotten DC Menace Just Returned as the Ultimate Cosmic Weapon

Adventures of Superman: Book of El #1 brings back the writer who made Superman cool again in the early 2020s. Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote “Warworld Saga”, and his newest work on Superman is a sequel to that story. It opens up with Kryl-Ux, a Phaelorian (Phaelorians are Kryptonians brought up on the colony world of Phaelor), trying to find a source of power. This has led him to the ends of the universe, where he meets one of the most frightful sights in the DC Multiverse — the Promethean Giants. These massive beings have been seen many times over the history of the DC Multiverse, but Adventures of Superman: Book of El #1 reveals that they are much more powerful than they seem. The book ends by taking us to a future where Kryl-Ux used the power of the Promethean Giants to take over the Earth, and the Prometheans are referenced several times in the pages of the titular Book of El as the true power on the Earth in the years since Superman disappeared and Kryl-Ux was able to take over.

“Warworld Saga” is one of the best modern Superman stories, with Johnson giving readers a whole new view of Warworld. Adventures of Superman: The Book of El #1 is looking to do the same thing with the Promethean Giants. Long time DC fans have seen the Promethean Giants for years, as they are sometimes part of the Source Wall, one of the most important parts of the DC Multiverse. The Source Wall is from the New Gods comics, and the lore of the Source Wall plays into the history of the Promethean Giants.

The Promethean Giants Are Ancient and Powerful

The Promethean Giants were first encountered in New Gods #5, when Jack Kirby was first building the New Gods mythos. Metron, the New God obsessed with knowledge, was traveling through the Promethean Galaxy and came across one of the massive giants. Kirby described them as being like Metron, obsessed with knowledge, and this obsession led to them being imprisoned on massive asteroids, floating helplessly through the void of the universe. Little is known about the Promethean Giants; we know that they are ancient and powerful, but other than that, they’re just prisoners, a sign of the hubris of those who are too powerful and where the quest for ultimate knowledge can take those foolhardy enough to pursue it. However, the Promethean Giants aren’t the only ancient, massive imprisoned beings we see; they are reminiscent of the giants we see on the Source Wall, which could tell us more about the power that Kryl-Ux was able to harness by helping free them.

So, the Source Wall is basically the border of the multiverse. Beyond it is the Source, which Kirby established as the ultimate power source and secret. It was where everything came from. Many gods over the eons have made their way to the Source Wall in order to break through it and take the secrets of creation, and nearly every one of them has ended up in imprisoned in it. Even Darkseid has spent his time on the Wall. It was later revealed that the Source Wall was created to keep Perpetua outside of the DC Multiverse. The Promethean Giants aren’t just near the Source Wall, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t related to the Source Wall. Perhaps the Prometheans were imprisoned by the Hands, the beings who built the Source Wall to keep Perpetua out. Warworld was the home to an ancient power known as the Fire of Olgrun, which was part of the old god Olgrun. There are six other aspects of Olgrun out there, and the Promethean Giants may be the key to finding one of them. Kryl-Ux uses them as a weapon against the Earth, and is somehow able to control them enough to use them, so perhaps they are the key to another aspect of Olgrun.

The Promethean Giants Have Never Been as Dangerous as They Are Right Now

“Warworld Saga” was able to take a story that could have really bad — a low powered Superman imprisoned by Mongul on Warworld that lasted over 20 issues had a lot of potential to get really, really bad. However, Johnson was able to find ways to make the whole thing extremely interesting by developing Warworld in new ways. Adventures of Superman: The Book of El #1 is picking up on some of the plot threads left hanging from “Warworld Saga”, and it would be awesome if Johnson did for the Promethean Giants what he did with Warworld.

We don’t really know very much about Promethean Giants; we’ve never been given much of an origin for them. They are, however, a Kirby creation, so they’re definitely perfect for the kind of wild ideas that Johnson brings to books he writes. Even with this first issue, we don’t really know much about them, we just know that they’re important to the future. Johnson is an excellent writer, so I’m sure we’re going to get something just as interesting as what we got from “Warworld Saga”.

Adventures of Superman: The Book of El #1 is on sale now.

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