The satirical superhero series Invincible was closer than it intended to be when it came to its Superman parody. An unsettling secret from Krypton’s past was revealed in Superman Annual #14, making Invincible’s darkest Superman twist apparent DC canon.
Invincible is Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker’s superhero series that focuses on Mark Grayson, the titular character and son of Nolan Grayson, aka the world’s greatest superhero, Omni-Man. When Mark finally begins developing powers similar to his father, the hero reveals his true intentions to his son. Omni-Man isn’t actually the benevolent Superman-like hero that Invincible believes him to be. Nolan actually belongs to a race of conquering aliens known as the Viltrumites, and he came to Earth as part of his empire’s plot for galactic domination.
While Invincible crafted this plot point as a dark subversion of the Superman lore, it may actually be closer to canon than originally thought. Superman Annual #14 by James Robinson and Javier Piña has Superman’s ally, Mon-El narrate the shared history of his home planet, Daxam, and Superman’s birthplace, Krypton. Mon-El notes that like any other world, the planet that would one day be known as Krypton, had to grow out of its lesser-developed days. But Krypton advanced at a spectacular rate and, before long, it had formed a “perfect” society. But it wasn’t enough for the Kryptonians just to amass knowledge on their planet alone. Growing “bored with perfection,” the Kryptonians created a mission known as the Great Inquiry, in which they sought the “enlightenment of other worlds.” But as Mon-El notes, this wasn’t a scientific expedition for Krypton. This was a chance for them to grow their empire at the cost of other civilizations.’
This is certainly a darker interpretation on the history of Superman and Krypton. Traditionally, Krypton is shown to be cautious of other worlds but rarely outright hostile to them. The idea that Superman’s people have a history of colonization and potentially other crimes against native alien races seems impossible to believe. But Invincible toyed with this idea just five years before Superman Annual #14’s release and became an unlikely portend of things to come for the Man of Steel’s past.
The reveal of Omni-Man being a fascist conqueror was a deliberate subversion of what readers would expect from a character modeled after one of comics’ most noble superheroes. And while the idea of an ‘evil Superman’ has become a frighteningly common sight, it’s nothing Invincible’s creative team would have hoped or intended would eventually be DC canon. Of course, unlike Invincible, this chapter of Krypton’s history is in the distant past and certainly isn’t reflected in the values of the Big Blue Boy Scout. But it’s still eerie to see one of Invincible’s most horrific spins on a hero actually be a canonical, though small, part of Superman’s history.
