r18novel Page 631
Page 631
However, when Orson Welles opened the script and read the description, he immediately understood the meaning of this plot.
...
The next morning, readers of the Daily Courier saw General Zod's appearance in the newspaper.
General Zod's debut shocked readers; the commander-in-chief of the Kryptonian armed forces was extremely imposing from the moment he appeared.
To showcase General Zod's powerful character, Xu Fu deliberately changed the comic's perspective, depicting the main villain from a low angle, giving readers a constant sense of alluring oppression. This oppressive feeling reaches a breaking point when General Zod arrives in Metropolis.
Along with General Zod, those exiled with him to the Phantom District, and those convicted by the Kryptonian military tribunal, all arrived in Metropolis.
Once they appeared, these people displayed strength comparable to Superman.
The comic also uses General Zod's words to describe in more detail why Superman is so powerful.
Fiore: "Do I feel much stronger now?"
As Fiora described, General Zod's female adjutant easily lifted the car and tossed it aside.
Then, she took a deep breath and exhaled frost from her mouth like Superman.
General Zod: "It's the sun. The situation here is different from that on Krypton."
Faced with the confusion of his female adjutant Fiora, General Zod looked at the yellow sun hovering over the Earth and understood the difference between Krypton's and Earth's sun from his description.
General Zod: "Krypton's sun is red, while the sun of this planet is yellow. The difference in our existence creates the gap in our strength. The sun of this planet provides a continuous source of energy, making us stronger."
As General Zod finished speaking, a red light appeared in his eyes, like Superman's.
Immediately afterwards, the powerful heat vision emanating from his eyes pierced through the building.
General Zod: "With these powers, we can turn this planet into a brand new Krypton!"
...
The less-than-superhuman strength displayed by General Zod and others immediately caught the attention of former readers of the Daily Courier.
Concerned about Superman's situation, they turned to another page of the newspaper, where the story was about Superman.
After receiving a call from his adoptive father Jonathan, Clark returned to the village where he grew up and saw a spaceship emitting a signal in the basement of the farmhouse.
Inside the airship, he also encountered a message left by his biological father, Joe.
It turns out that during Krypton's destruction, Joel-El, in order to preserve the planet's flame and hope for the future, placed its most precious treasures on Clark's spaceship. These treasures contained the hopes of Kryptonian society. The message also recounts the events of Krypton's final moments, including General Zod's rebellion and Clark's birth unlike that of most Kryptonians.
It turns out that the highly evolved Kryptonians abandoned natural conception centuries ago and chose to reproduce with Hubbots. It is for this reason that Kryptonians defined themselves from the very beginning: General Zod has been protecting Krypton since its birth, and Joel-El has always been a scientist.
But Clark was different; he was the only child to be born naturally in all the centuries that Krypton existed.
In his message, Joe A. tells us that Clark is different; he has the freedom to choose his own future.
This storyline also gives readers of the comics mentioned earlier a hint: Superman is a different kind of being, and although he is a Kryptonian, he is unique.
Giving readers a sense of superiority is also a common creative technique in comics.
Because readers tend to put themselves in the protagonist's shoes when reading a work, the sense of superiority is considered necessary. Once this sense of uniqueness is lost, readers usually feel dissatisfied and abandon the work.
The purpose of villains is to add value and uniqueness to the protagonist, not to belittle him.
After the reader is warned by him, the rest of the story delves into the bitter battle between Clark and General Zod.
Upon discovering the spaceship, Fiora, as the adjutant, was the first to arrive at the farm and engaged in a fierce battle with Clark, who had transformed into Superman.
To convey the tense atmosphere of the battle in the comic, Xu Fu deliberately focused on the damage they caused to the surrounding landscape, including broken trusses, fallen trees, and craters. This bridge design in the comic was obviously very novel at the time.
Earlier, although there had been battles with Brueak, this experience in space was distinctly different from battles on Earth.
In particular, when the scene from the Daily Messenger where Fiora strikes Clark's body, creating a huge dent in the ground, appears in the comics, readers who see this scene instinctively hold their breath.
This battle of pure power and might made them cheer, but at the same time they couldn't help feeling uneasy for Superman, who was on the other side of the battle.
Throughout the battle, there was a clear sense that Xu Fu portrayed Superman as an outsider.
Not only because he wanted to protect his foster parents on the farm, but also because Fiora, the second female lead of the Kryptonians, seemed to be better than Superman in terms of combat skills.
Regarding this point, Xu Fu quoted the text in the blank space next to the comic.
As Krypton's female lieutenant, Fiora possesses formidable combat abilities. She was born to fight, so it's quite normal that Superman can't defeat her, since Superman never received any combat training growing up.
(It's good to get money) Of course, this forced beating did not last long.
Superman quickly retaliated, unleashing a heat beam from his eyes at Fiora. Fiora also retaliated, but was unable to withstand the power of Superman's heat beam and was likely to be hit in the body.
Meanwhile, another explanation appeared in the blank space.
Although he also gained his power under the yellow sun of Earth, there are still obvious differences between Fiora and Superman. Clark grew up on Earth and has absorbed the power of the yellow sun for more than 20 years. That power of the sun has settled in Superman's body, constantly improving his physical abilities. Fiora, on the other hand, has only been on Earth for less than half a day. They can use those powers freely and are already very powerful.
Superman didn't breathe a sigh of relief after successfully defeating Fiora, because in his previous conversation with Fiora, he had indicated that he hadn't come alone.
Superman arrived in Metropolis and immediately saw the Kryptonian warriors wreaking havoc in the city, as well as General Zod looking out over the city from the Metropolis Daily Messenger building.
Upon seeing General Zod standing on the pages of The Messenger magazine, Superman flew to him without hesitation, attempting to launch an attack.
However, in the next frame of the comic, General Zod appears to be swinging his fist at Superman.
In this shot, you can also clearly see a wounded and bleeding Superman.
This is also the first time since Superman's creation that blood has appeared in a comic book.
"...Superman, are you injured?"
Upon seeing this scene in front of the Daily Courier, readers wore expressions of shock.
Chapter 737 The Angry Crowd
Superman is injured!
On the same day the Daily Courier published the story, news of Superman's injury in the series spread throughout the streets of New York.
Instantly, tens of thousands of readers were outraged, clearly unable to accept the scene of Superman, an omnipotent character, being injured in a comic book.
In an instant, the mailboxes of The Messenger were flooded with all sorts of protest letters.
Some extreme readers even wrote in, threatening to "commit suicide" if the newspaper did not change the plot of that part of the cartoon.
This threat to life seems absurd, but the letter did appear at the protests, and there were many similar statements.
The birth of Superman coincided with the worst period of the Great Depression, which obviously gave the character a strong sense of the times and symbolic significance.
People projected their own pain and hope onto this figure, turning him into a symbol, an incarnation, a cultural embodiment of America during the Great Depression.
How could such a great "savior" suffer?
John Jr. immediately delivered a threatening letter to Xu Fu, who was even somewhat surprised by the intense reaction from his readers.
He clearly hadn't expected such a strong reaction from readers to the story about Superman being injured.
Surprisingly, this plot device, which is very rare in later generations, was met with strong resistance from readers during the Great Depression.
"Boss, will you reread the plot of this comic?"
At the newspaper office, John couldn't help but ask Xu Fu a question.
As a loyal reader of Superman comics, he also had some difficulty with the final issue of the series, in which General Zod injured Superman.
"No."
Shaking his head, Xu Fu gave his answer.
The arrangement of Superman's injury was a conspiracy he deliberately devised to draw out the subsequent power.
Of course, he can't make changes just because of readers' protests. If he compromises this time, the plot will become even more problematic later on.
It's important to understand that Xu Fu's initial intention in creating the serialized version of "Superman" was not only to save the newspaper from bankruptcy at the time, but also to collect the idea of "faith". As the comic continued to be serialized, it was necessary for the comic's plot to develop further in order to gain more "faith".
The storyline of Superman getting injured in this issue not only elicited a strong reaction from readers, but also brought Xu Fu just as much [faith].
Clearly, such a controversial design is more likely to resonate with readers, leading to greater relevance in [faith].
[Faith (70250/100000)].
Xu Fu looked away from the constantly changing "[Faith]" section in the text, and looked down at the "threat" letter in his hand, lost in thought.
...
"I oppose Superman being harmed!"
"Superman..."
"Give us back the mighty Superman!"
To Xu Fu's surprise, the readers' reaction was even more intense than he had expected.
(bbaj) Later that day, hundreds of disgruntled readers gathered in front of the Messenger newspaper to protest, hoping that Xu Fu would change the plot of the latest series.
"Boss, what should we do?"
Inside the newspaper office, looking at the protesters who refused to enter, John and the others looked at Xu Fu with worried expressions.
Deep down, John Jr. certainly agreed with these readers' opinions, and he himself wanted to re-examine the plot of this comic book issue.
But as someone who was surrounded, he felt a pang of fear.
After all, if these readers surrounding the newspaper's editorial office were to break in and something happened, few of them would be powerless to resist.
"Take your camera and follow it."