Man of Steel Prequel Comic Book Reveals Origin of Spoiler & Easter Eggs

Super fans got a real treat today with the Walmart prequel Man of Steel comic book which has a story by David Goyer, Geoff Johns and Zack Snyder.

If you purchased tickets today at Walmart for the advanced Man of Steel screening you received a code for a free digital comic book.

The comic book is a prequel to the movie that comes out June 14th.

The issue is filled with lots of Easter Eggs and one major spoiler.

Spoilers follow.

The issue centers around Kara Zor-El, otherwise known as Supergirl in the DC Comics.

She and a batch of fellow Kryptonians are taking some sort of survivalist test where only four can pass.

Well, one of the Kryptonians, Dev-Em, ends up murdering another, Kell-Ur, which is the first murder in 1000 years.

The test is quickly ended with Dev-Em getting put on trial (in front of these type of guys).

At first his sentence is death, but some of the other council members object to that as that would make them as barbaric as Dev-Em. So his fate is to remain in their custody indefinitely.

Turns out, those who passed the test got sent on a voyage of a lifetime — to spread Krypton throughout the universe. Quite literally, too.

Kara is shown amongst a thousand Kryptonian spaceships that get sent out into the universe carrying a life pod that will birth new Kryptonians.

It’s kinda like the Genesis Project from Star Trek.

Well, Kara and her fellow Kryptonians go into stasis for 10 years, but we see before she left for space that Dev-Em escaped, and that some of the council members aided him.

Not too hard to put it together: Dev-Em wants revenge on Kara, so he stows away on her ship and waits for them to sleep.

During the voyage, Dev-Em woke some of the crew, and we are witness to what has become of them with their skeletons and a crew member’s hand was used to access the ship etc.

Well, Dev-Em lets Kara sleep the entire ten years, but killed the crew.

She finally awakes and finds that Dev-Em (now ten-years older) has gained control of the ship and killed the crew.

Dev-Em wants Kara at his side etc.

A battle ensues with the ship controls getting damaged.

The nearest habitable planet must be located!

Yes! It’s Earth!

The vessel searches out Earth and crash lands — in Ellesmere Island, Canada.

But perhaps, more importantly — when did it crash!

Eons ago! The time of the “cave men!”

But before it crashed, Kara was in the captain’s chair (assuming), and one of the last things the computer emits — “initiating self-repair!”

We are also taken to the present day where “Mission Control” discovers a signal from Canada.

We then see Clark Kent on the fishing boat heading for there.

To be continued in the Man of Steel!

Thoughts:

Obviously, we are to assume that this is the origin of the Fortress of Solitude — it’s Supergirl’s ship from Krypton.

Interestingly enough, in Geoff Johns’ Superman Braniac story, Supergirl was sent out ahead of Kal-El to be his protector, but was lost in space. So in the Man of Steel prequel comic book, in a way, she achieves that goal.

It’s quite possible Supergirl could still be alive as the ship began to “self-repair”; perhaps putting Supergirl into stasis in the process.

It could be that it took the ship eons to self-repair, hence the signal. Or — Kal-El somehow initiates it. (Update: Official explanation previously released about the Fortress is that it is wedged into eons of arctic ice; descibed as a “mother ship”).

With Zod arriving on Earth, it could be he wants to discover Supergirl‘s ship? Why? Because it has the potential to birth a new Kryptonian civilization with the “growth codex.”

It also appears that the growth codex may have been activated as Kara used it against Dev-Em.

Guess what else gets a mention? Thanagar! That’s the homeworld of Hawkman and Hawkgirl!

During Dev-Em’s trial when his death sentence is imposed, a Kryptonian Council member remarks they shouldn’t act like the barbaric Thanagarians, “eye for an eye” etc.

Pretty cool!

I guess we can also take from this that the Kryptonian civilization survives the death of Krypton, as they dispatched thousands of these “genesis” ships. Or maybe we’ll learn more about that fate in the movie?!

It also looks like Richard Schiff’s Dr. Emil Hamilton is included, but is not named. The only character that gets a mention as part of Mission Control is “Robinson.”

Here’s also a list of names that were in the comic. Recognize any?!