Today, see how Dan Jurgens used Superman to wrap up the plot of the first series that Jurgens wrote for DC.
Wrap it Up is a lot like my Provide Some Answers feature, which is about long-running comic book plots finally being resolved. This, though, is a more specific comic book occurrence where the plotlines of a canceled comic book are wrapped up in the pages of another comic book series. This would happen most frequently in Marvel Comics, but other companies did it, as well.
This time around, we’re looking at how the Sun Devils’ adventures were wrapped up in the pages of Superman.
When Roy Thomas first came to DC in 1980, he had SO MANY ideas for new comics. He had so many ideas that a lot of the concepts took years to actually see publication, since there were just too many to do all at once (plus, of course, Thomas had OTHER ideas later on, as well, and he and Gerry Conway also wrote a number of screenplays during this period). As I wrote about in a Comic Book Legends Revealed a while back, one of those concepts was a futuristic version of the Blackhawks with Conway that instead became the Sun Devils years later in 1985…
The series was written by Conway and drawn by Dan Jurgens, with a variety of inkers early on. Eventually, Steve Mitchell became the regular inker on the series, which was a 12-issue series consisting of four three-issue interconnected arcs. Jurgens did one of his earlier writing gigs on this series, as he took over the book for the final three-issue arc.
Each of the arcs, by the way, had a three-part connected cover. I’ve seen someone claim that if you also stack each of the arcs on top of each other, they also form one giant image. I don’t think that’s really true, but hey, you be the judge…
(Click here to enlarge the image).
The concept of the series, as originally developed by Thomas and Conway was that we would follow a man devoted to peace and see him twisted around until, by the end of the series, he is a man devoted to war.
In the first issue, we learn that the Sauriod leader (a sort of reptilian race), Karvus Khun, has been named the leader of the powerful Triad Confederacy. Rik Sunn was leaving his home planet, (which had been colonized by Earth over the years) Wolfholme, (where there were some rumors that the Sauroids was planning on attacking) to go become a diplomat in the Earth Federation, even though his younger brother wished that Rik would use his impressive flying skill to help fight against the Sauroids…
As soon as Rik’s transport ship was gone, though, the Sauroids launched the rumored attack on Rik’s home planet. His brother, Kirk, and the other pilots fought bravely but things still looked bleak, as all of their ships were eventually destroyed. Before he died, though, Kirk flew his ship into the warp drive of the main Sauroid destroyer, blowing it up.
This threw Khun into a rage and he ordered his fleet to destroy the planet entirely…
When Rik arrived at Earth, he was, of course, shocked at the loss of his home planet and the death of his family. He went to go join the Federation Navy only to find that they weren’t interested in fighting against the Sauroids over the destruction of Wolfholme, so Rik teamed up with some like-minded souls to go become sort of freedom fighters, the Sun Devils!
Over the years, Rik and his gang fought against the Sauroids on numerous occasions. In the final issue, the Sauroids had developed the Star-Crusher, capable of wiping out an entire solar system. Khun was prepared to use it to wipe out the Centauri System, one of their last big rivals, but the Sun Devils showed up and took over control of the Star-Crusher. Rik then aimed it at the Sauroid home world and planned to destroy it but his friends convinced him that basically two wrongs don’t make a right. So Rik decided not to kill billions to avenge his home planet and he turned over control of the Star-Crusher to the Centaui leader, along with a recording where the leader promised not to use the Star-Crusher against the Sauroids.
But, well, he lied…
And the series ended with the Sun Devil on the run (as the Centauri leader needs that recording so that Rik can’t show the galaxy what he did). And then that was it…for nearly a DECADE!
In December 1993’s Superman #86, Jurgens re-teamed up with Mitchell (filling in for the regular finisher of the series at the time, Joe Rubinstein) to show Superman, who was lost in space following a misadventure with Lobo, come across a spaceship chasing another spaceship and blasting a hole into it. Superman scared off the chasing ship and then fixed the breach in the attached ship. He comes aboard and meets the grandson of a great collector, who says that the other ship are pirates…
Superman goes to take on the pirates but is teleported on to the “pirate” ship and kept from being fully teleported (so he can’t actually move) and we learn that the pirates are actually Rik Sunn and the daughter of Rik’s old ally, Scylla.
The other ship, naturally, belongs to Karvus Khun, who has been living the life of luxury on the run since his empire was destroyed (Khun wasn’t on the Sauriod homeworld when it was destroyed). Rik has been chasing him for decades, even as the rest of the Sun Devils grew tired of his mission of revenge.
When Rik finally confronts Karvus, Karvus doesn’t even recognize him…
Rik then blows up both himself and his old enemy. Superman saves Scyla’s daughter and he reflects on how she has to live for tomorrow, unlike Rik…
The issue was cleverly written in such a way that you really didn’t have to know anything about the Sun Devils to appreciate the tale, but if you WERE a Sun Devils fan, this was a bittersweet reunion and story wrap up.
If anyone has a suggestion for a comic book series that has its plots wrapped up in another comic, drop me a line at [email protected]!
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