Absolute Superman #3 (2025)

Six years ago on Krypton, Kal-El's parents take him on a camping trip to the Rao mountains. They tell him that his teacher contacted them about writing his assignments himself rather than using the Luminarium, and Jor-El tells Kal that he's breaking with three thousand years of Kryptonian tradition. Kal-El replies that writing his own words makes him happy, while the Luminarium's feel lifeless. His parents encourage him to keep doing it, even though it's hurting his grades and getting him in trouble, and say that they trust him to find his own path and follow his passions. Kal-El says that whatever he ends up doing with his life it will always lead him back to the Redlands and the life their family leads. Although they had been trying to put on a brave face for him, Jor-El is unable to stand hearing that and walks off without a word deeper into the caves to collect rock samples. That night, Kal overhears his parents sobbing. Over the coming days after they return home, Kal notices that his mother is always working on something in her garage and his father keep bringing Sunstone home with him. One evening he sneaks down and listens to them at work. He hears Jor-El say that his proof is irrefutable and he needs to present it to the Klerics soon. Lara replies that the Klerics will either ignore him, or worse condemn him as a heretic, and says that when they do she wants him to stop trying to reason with people who don't believe they have a right to speak on world affairs. Kal-El hears Krypto barking outside and goes out to see what's happening. He finds dozens of half-decayed animals dead on the ground with a green gas rising up out of them. He heads out on his bike and finds similar signs of devastation all over the Redlands: withering crops, dead animals and poisoned lakes; as well as rumours of greater disasters in far-off regions like the Dandahu Ocean boiling, the Fire Falls raging out of control and the gold volcanoes running dry. However, the official news stories say that these are just isolated minor problems caused by natural gas leaks. A week after the camping trip, Kal-El's class go on a field trip to Kandor. On the train journey there they see a multiple train derailment caused by an earthquake. Kal-El writes down everything he has seen and posts it to the school's new board, by the time they get to Kandor it has been taken down, all his notes have been remotely deleted and an appointment has been set for his parents to speak to the school administrator. In Kandor, the class of Labour Guild children are taken to the Halls of Wisdom, the headquarters of the Science League. The teacher asks which of them plans to apply to the Science League when they're old enough and everyone except Kal-El raises their hand One of his classmates asks where the Klerics are and the teacher brusquely tells them that they are busy and not to ask any more questions. The class heads off but Kal-El hangs back and looks out of the window of the skyscraper, wondering why anyone would want to work so far from the ground. Suddenly he hears his father arguing with someone and goes around a corner to find Jor-El being dragged away by three Law Guild officers. Jor-El yells at the officer that they're all in danger and he needs to talk to the Klerics, but they say he is a heretic. Kal-El runs up and asks what's happening, and Jor-El tells him to run home as fast as he can. One of the officers knocks him out with a taser and Kal-El tries to fight the officers, but the simply push him to the ground. Kal-El runs out of the tower and rushes home to tell Lara what happened. Lara dons the armour and picks up a homemade gun. She tells Kal-El to come with her, but that if anything happens to rush back home on his bike and call for Sol. They return to Kandor and go to the Central Law Guild Office where Jor-El is being held. The officer try to arrest Kal-El as well for trying to spread the news about the environmental disasters, and so Lara fights her way to the cells using the armour, the gun (which shoots lava), and Krypto equipped with a shield made of Sunstone dust. The Luminarium expedites Jor-El's trial, declaring him guilty and sentencing him to immediate execution, but Krypto bursts into the cells and overpowers the jailers before they can kill him. Lara follows after taking out the remaining officers and automated defences and frees Jor-El. Meanwhile, Kal-El wonders why the place isn't being swarmed with troops. He makes one of the officers who Lara blasted give him the access codes and logs onto a nearby computer terminal. Kal-El sees that the Klerics have been building starships with enough space aboard for the ruling classed of Krypton, but nobody else. He puts together everything and realises Krypton is doomed. The family return home on their hoverbikes and Jor-El and Lara try to break the news thar Krypton is dying to Kal-El, but he tells them he already knows. He believes that they plan to blast him into space alone in Lara's spacesuit, but his parents hug him and tell him they would never send him into space be himself. They lead him into the barn and show him a ship they have built for themselves, their friends and family and anyone else they can save. Lara laments that they can't save the whole planet and that the Klerics didn't want to know what is coming. Jor-El gets a notification on his tablet and sees that the Kelrics already know: they have built ships to save the upper classes and have been hiding the fact that Krypton is doomed from the people. The story is all over the Luminarium and was just uploaded from the Central Law Guild Office in Kandor. They both realise that it was Kal-El and smile at him proudly. Kal-El looks up at the ship and asks where they're going. In the present day on Earth, an elderly woman in the final stages of dementia named Martha Kent is passing away in a retirement home in Smallville. She keeps asking for her son, but her records show that she never had children.