House of El: The Shadow Threat is The Perfect Man of Steel Prequel – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Given how House of El: The Shadow Threat's depicts Superman's parents, this really could have been a prequel to Zack Snyder's Man of Steel.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for House of El: The Shadow Threat#1 by Claudia Gray, Eric Zawadski, Dee Cunniffe, and Deron Bennett, on sale now.

We've seen quite a few takes from DC on Krypton's society before it was destroyed, showing what life was like for Jor-El and Lara before they shot Kal-El off to Earth to save him. Outside of the mainstream continuity where Jor-El eventually returned to inform his son of their history, it was addressed in Elseworld stories such as All-Star Superman.These stories add layers of sympathy to the planet and show how the various clans suffered through their civil war--with bad choices made rampantly.

Now, the young-adult graphic novel, House of El: The Shadow Threat adds its own spin, but after dissecting what Superman's parents are up to here, this is actually the perfect prequel to Zack Snyder's Man of Steel.

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In the opening sequence to the DCEU movie, we witnessedRussell Crowe's Jor-El wanting more for his son, especially after the elites lost the plot on how to deal with the quakes that were occurring. General Zod and his military had also become disillusioned with their terraforming missions.Following an attempted coup it became clear Krypton was imploding from the inside long before the big bang.

But what stood out in Snyder's vision was how Krypton created its houses, with genetic engineering leading to predetermined fates for clans. This is how Krypton locked in artists, scientists, soldiers and politicians -- with people having fixed destiniesas their genes were assembled in chambers. Jor-El hated it because it meant no one could evolve and dream to be something bigger, thus there wouldn't be as many leaders and revolutionists. More so, natural birth for Kryptonianswas taboo, which is how Kal-El was made.

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The Shadow Threat walks a very similar path as Lara's created a machine that can scramble people's genetic code to make them complete Kryptonians. It's a re-sequencing to give them emotions such as compassion and empathy. This is her way of bettering society because the tribunes have created a nasty caste system. They're younger here so this would have beenthe perfect precursor to what Snyder laid down as it's adetailed look into how this was affecting the youth on Krypton, especially the military.

Granted, Lara's pregnant in this story through natural means, but had House of El simply not had her conceiving, it'd inform how Jor-El and Lara were on the big-screen and why they acted the way they did. Here, they'rerevolting outcasts that the tribunes don't want to deal with. As Lara's cousin, Zahn-Re, triesto figure out his destiny, his perspective reveals just how crazy Lara and Jor-El were considered. Even Sera-Ur, the soldier Lara reformats, thinks that while the couple's revered, they're best left on the fringes of Krypton.Thestory adds nuance as Lara mopes around temples, gathering intel on the old ways and who might still be interested.

There's also Midnight, an insurrectionist group that feels like they're made to follow General Zod in overthrowing the guilds. They want freedom and an equal Krypton, much like Zod's legion in Man of Steel. In the film, we learned he and Jor-El were close, and thisbook follows suit. In fact, Zod's the one who sends Sera to be reformatted secretly in Lara's lab.

While the filmversion of Zod is dedicated to order, his military duty and the Genesis Chamber for genetic coding, House of El has him toeing the line. He wants to liberate people, buthe also wants peopleto fall in line when he says so. It's easy to see him actually realizing genetic coding and the chamber workin his terrorist mission to produce brainwashed soldiers, which can be where he and the Els fell apart. Ultimately, there are quite a few parallels that just can't be ignored which could have beefed up what Snyder did.

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House of El: The Shadow Threat is The Perfect Man of Steel Prequel - CBR - Comic Book Resources