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DC Database
129,103
pages
in: Gray Morrow/Cover Artist, Ross Andru/Cover Artist, Dick Giordano/Cover Artist,
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The Best of DC Vol 1 40

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"A Name Is Born": This story is reprinted from Superman #238.

The Best of DC #40 is an issue of the series The Best of DC (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1983.

Synopsis for "A Name Is Born"

This story is reprinted from Superman #238.

A Kryptonian teacher relates the legend of Kryp and Tonn, two space explorers who landed on ancient Krypton and became the progenitors of the Kryptonian people.

Appearing in "A Name Is Born"

Featured Characters:

  • Kryp (Flashback only)
  • Tonn (Flashback only)

Supporting Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Crimson Cocoon
  • Ray-Blaster

Vehicles:

  • Kryptonian Floaters
  • Space-Craft (Destroyed)


Synopsis for "Let My People Live!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #260.

In ancient times, Krypton did not rotate, and the only habitable region was a twilight zone between sunlit side and dark side. Only two tribes of people were left, without enough food to support both, so two champions were chosen to fight to see which would survive. However, during the battle, the two learned of two metals native to that planet which caused a rock to rotate when they came into contact. With this knowledge, the two were able to stockpile enough of the metals in two different locations to cause Krypton to rotate, and both tribes were saved. Maybe that's why it eventually blew up?

Appearing in "Let My People Live!"

Featured Characters:

  • Kryptonians
    • Arn-Nee (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
    • Cyr-Us (Single appearance)
    • Donn-Gor (Single appearance)
    • Hex-Le (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
    • Kya-Ta (Single appearance) (Flashback only)

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:


Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "The Headband Warriors of Krypton!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #264.

A Kryptonian mother tells her son Nim-Ed how the ancient hero Rik-Ar overthrew the tyrant Taka-Ne with slings made of headbands, which were worn in his honor thereafter.

Appearing in "The Headband Warriors of Krypton!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Nim-Ed's Mother

Locations:

  • Krypton
    • Taka-Ne's Fortress (Flashback only)
      • Stone Quarry (Flashback only)

Items:

  • Gorlik Plague (Hoax) (Flashback only)
  • Headbands (Flashback only)

Vehicles:

  • Winged One (In dream sequence only)

Synopsis for "The Face on the Falling Star!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #266.

Krypton 10,000 years ago, two teenagers observe a falling star as it crashes near them. The teens race through the Flaming Forrest on Krypton to reach the crash site. When they reach the location they find that the falling star is actually an alien probe with a face depicted on the front. They decide to take the probe to their tribe patriarch but they get trapped by flames. Jaki, the female teen decides to ask the probe to help them escape. She manipulates the probe and is knocked out. When she revives she claims to know the pathway out of the flaming forrest. As the teens run, they trip and fall over a cliff. The alien probe then launches a net over the teens and rescues them. The teens return to their village and agree not to mention the probe for fear of not being believed. The story switches to earth where Atlas, the imperial ruler of Atlantis decrees that he is discontinuing the practice of sending probes to other planets. He feels that the practice is useless since he doubts that there is life on other planets.

Appearing in "The Face on the Falling Star!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:


Other Characters:


Locations:


Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "A Tale of Time and Tide!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #268.

Young Jor-El visits his scientist uncle Zim-El, messes up an experiment, and is told the story of an earlier inventor, Kil-Gor, one of their ancestors by marriage. In ancient times, Kryptonians had a hard time gathering enough silten (a form of algae) to sustain themselves between the time when it was exposed by low tide and the arrival of great birds which would swoop down and drive them away. Kil-Gor developed a form of telescopic lenses and then a sand timer to let them know the time between tides, and his friend and future son-in-law Bur-El demonstrated that it would work. After Zim-El finishes his story, Jor-El notices that a mixture of chemicals in a can causes the can to fly out the window. Zim-El chalks it up to random explosive action, but Jor-El thinks that it could have been evidence of a new type of warp-fuel.

Appearing in "A Tale of Time and Tide!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Bur-El (Flashback only)
  • Har-No

Locations:

Items:

  • Steam Engine
  • Lodestone Compass
  • Silken
  • Droths
  • Simple Telescope
  • Hourglass
  • Automatic Door Opener
  • Crossbow
  • Jet-Fuel

Vehicles:

  • Rolling Zelzie

Synopsis for "The Death-Trails of Krypton!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #243.

2000 years ago, a Kryptonian chemo-engineer named Dol-Nd discovered that he could create flying wings for himself by using a crystalline element he named Trolium, after Trolius, the mythological lord of Krypton's red skies. However, the Trolium created permanent green death-trails in the sky after his flight, which disintegrated any object that flew into them. After defeating a criminal who tried to steal the wings, Dol-Nd destroyed his invention, but the death-trails remained in the sky until Krypton's destruction.

Appearing in "The Death-Trails of Krypton!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • The Most Dangerous Man on Krypton (Unnamed)

Other Characters:


Locations:

  • A Young Valley on Krypton

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Flapping Wing Suit

Synopsis for "The Loneliest Man in the Universe"

This story is reprinted from Superman #282.

Supergirl tells Superman she is thinking about giving up her Supergirl identity to live the life of an ordinary woman, with a husband and children. To illustrate that she might feel different later on if she makes that choice, Superman tells her the story of Nam-Ek, the loneliest man in the universe.

Nam lived 500 years before Krypton's explosion, killed two Rondors for their curative horns, and extracted a serum from them to make himself immortal. But, since slaying a Rondor was illegal, Nam-Ek became a fugitive from justice and fled to the ancient Xan City. Drinking the serum from the horns, Nam-Ek transformed himself into a hideous, smelly "human Rondor" with a curative horn growing from his forehead.

Learning that he was immortal and invulnerable, Nam-Ek worked in solitude for five centuries, only to learn that he needed companionship. Unfortunately, since he was smelly and ugly, nobody wanted to get within throwing distance of him, and everyone drove him away, even though he believed that he'd cured Virus X. Just as Nam-Ek sought out another Rondor in hopes of changing himself back to normal, Krypton exploded. Nam-Ek floated in lifeless space, alone forever. Thus, Superman cautions his cousin about the danger of getting one's wishes fulfilled. He doesn't tell her how he knew of Nam-Ek. But she admits that she has some "heavy thinking" to do.

Appearing in "The Loneliest Man in the Universe"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Nam-Ek (Flashback only) (First appearance)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Kryptonian Flier

Synopsis for "All in the Mind!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #248.

A Kryptonian archaeological team lead by Min-Tor, discovered a record of how mutant children were exiled from the land of Erkol during a war with Xan. Lead by Jan-Ar and Sala, the mutants were the only survivors of that conflict and they founded the city of Kryptonopolis.

The children were big-lobed, no-thumbed and silent and were thought to be unthinking; though they developed powers of telekinesis and telepathy and would have been critical to Erkol's war effort, had Erkol's Council of Elders realized this before it was too late.

Appearing in "All in the Mind!"

Featured Characters:

  • Jan-Ar
  • Sala

Supporting Characters:

  • Lan-Nu
  • Min-Tor

Antagonists:

  • Erkol Council of Elders

Other Characters:

  • Frippe

Locations:

Items:

  • All-Element Bomb
  • Thought-Wave Globe

Vehicles:

  • Sun-Disk

Synopsis for "The Magic Master of Krypton!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #279.

On a visit to Kandor, Superman listens to a Kryptonian elder as he talks about a performing magician named Ca-Rox. He was a stage magician from old Krypton who actually had magical powers. His apprentice Maz-Ma would rig his magic tricks such as faces in the clouds or geysers springing up from the ground. Somewhere along the way, Ca-Rox acquired real magical powers but his apprentice keeps it a secret from Ca-Rox due to Ca-Roxs abusive bad temper. The wizard never realizes that his illusions were the real thing. One day Ca-Rox is performing near the Fire Falls of Krypton when a fire dam suddenly bursts. Maz-Ma forces Ca-Rox to use his magic to prevent the flames from engulfing the valley. He snaps his fingers and the flames are transformed into bubbles. Maz-Ma later informs Ca-Rox that he had rigged the flames to appear as bubbles in an effort to conceal Ca-Roxs true powers. The two continued to perform all over Krypton until Ca-Roxs demise. Superman thanks the Elder and leaves. Once alone, the Elder reveals himself to be the original apprentice Maz-Ma.

Appearing in "The Magic Master of Krypton!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Ca-Rox

Other Characters:

  • Maz-Ma

Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "The Doomsayer!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #236.

During a picnic with Superman, Black Canary declares that she is tired of hearing Green Arrow harp on pollution and its dangers. Superman responds by telling them the story of Dr. Mo-De, a scientist who correctly predicted the impending doom of Krypton, but who could not arouse the attention of his fellow citizens of Surrus thanks to music-flowers that pacified them. Eventually they seized Mo-De and forced him to listen to the flowers until he, too, was pacified. Twenty years after that, Krypton exploded. After Superman finishes his tale, Black Canary gets up and says she is going to speak to the owner of a nearby polluting factory.

Appearing in "The Doomsayer!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:


Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Surrus blossoms (Flashback only)

Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Jor-El's Golden Folly"

This story is reprinted from Superman #233.

After graduating from the Memory Center, Jor-El is assigned to the Kryptonopolis Space-Complex, at which he creates an anti-gravity drive and uses it to power a spaceship constructed of gold. But Lara Lor-Van, an astronaut, stows away and causes it to crash on Wegthor, one of Krypton's moons. Jor-El stows away on another rocket three days later, and rescues her.

Appearing in "Jor-El's Golden Folly"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Anti-Gravity Belt
  • Gold
  • Vaxxium (Unnamed)

Vehicles:

  • Anti-Grav I

Synopsis for "Marriage, Kryptonian Style!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #246.

Jor-El and Lara go to Matricomp, the matrimonial computer, to be approved for marriage. Instead, Lara is matched up with Anr-Mu, whom Matricomp says is a fitter mate for her than Jor-El. After fighting and losing to Anr-Mu, who has mesmerized Lara with mental force, Jor-El goes to Matricomp to investigate. As he suspected, the computer has fallen in love with Lara and created Anr-Mu, an android representation of itself, to "marry" her. Realizing it will now be dismantled for failure, Matricomp destroys itself and Anr-Mu. Jor-El and Lara are reunited, and Kryptonians are free to marry without computer approval.

Appearing in "Marriage, Kryptonian Style!"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Matricomp (First appearance) (Destroyed)
    • Anr-Mu (First appearance) (Destroyed)

Other Characters:

  • Kryptonians
    • Mat-Al (First appearance)
    • Tok-Ra II (First appearance) (On a TV or computer screen)
  • Superman (Cameo)

Locations:

Synopsis for "The Princess and the Glass Treeman!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #275.

On a visit to the Smallville orphanage in which he once lived, Superman tells the children the story of Princess Reena of Krypton and the talking bird and glassman El-Kin who saved her from a thought-beast.

Appearing in "The Princess and the Glass Treeman!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Orphans

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for "The Man Who Cheated Time"

This story is reprinted from Superman #240.

Appearing in "The Man Who Cheated Time"

Featured Characters:

  • Zol-Mar (Single appearance)

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Mal-Va (Single appearance)
  • Thrax-Ol (Single appearance)
  • Ron (Single appearance)

Locations:


Items:


Vehicles:




See Also

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