#dev-em

As the cold open said, Dev-Em is little more than a footnote in Superman's history. DC had long established that Superman was an absolute power in the universe, not a relative one. He was not simply strong, he was all but invincible, and the only thing that could rightly challenge him was another Kryptonian. With Krypton long reduced to space dust, they were forced to contort newer and wilder ways to introduce Kryptonian adversaries.

Adventure Comics #283, earlier that year, introduced the concept of the Phantom Zone, and with it, future Superman nemesis General Zod. Zod is a surprisingly minor figure in the Superman mythos. Before he burst into popular culture in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, most of his appearances were flashback or phantom zone ghosts, like this one. He was a decidedly unimpressive figure with a potbelly and a pair of stupid undershorts and never once made Superman kneel.

Phantom Zone criminals would be a regular figure in Superman stories from then on. Whenever they needed a foe to give Superman a good solid punching, they could decant one of these ghost supes from their torture prison, have a thrashing, and then put him back into their hellish limbo dimension without considering the carcerial ethics involved. We'll look at that another time.

Instead of using the Phantom Zone, they created Dev-Em, the kind of man who would have beef with a toddler. Dev-Em is Superman's asshole teenage neighbor. His parents are family friends to Jor-El and Lara, but he's just an unpleasant little shit. The very first thing we see him do is try to drive his goofy jetsons car at baby Kal-El and nearly run him over. Most of the story in this issue is showing all the antics he and his friends get up to, and he really is a terror.

You know what, I've decided that we're going to talk about the messed up justice system on Krypton right now, because there is some fascist bullshit going on here. This is a clearly militarized police force going around with truth-o-scopes and threatening to sentence people to the phantom zone for what amounts to minor pranks and property damage. I like to give Krypton the benefit of the doubt but maybe it was always a shitty place.

Surprisingly, Dev-Em is the only one who believes Jor-El that the planet is going to explode. He breaks into his lab and steals some papers, with the intent to steal the idea and pass it off as his own. Despite having incomplete notes and the education of a kryptonian high school football star, Dev-Em isn't just able to replicate Jor-El's achievement, he succeeds him. Stealing a bunch of equipment, Dev-Em takes their space doomsday prepper bunker and makes it spaceworthy, with enough supplies and shielding that not only does it survive a planetary cataclysm, it carries its passengers safely to Earth.

This really makes Jor-El look like an absolute buffoon. I have a pet theory that one of the reasons Kryptonians never went into space was that the gravity of their planet was so powerful that conventional rocketry would be impossible due to the fuel requirements. I think Jor-El was consumed with an impossible problem to the point of self destruction. If he had instead tried to create some kind of shelter, he could have saved himself, his wife, their child, and their little dog too. Hell, that happened to Supergirl by accident.

The next issue picks up right where the last one left off, with Dev-Em discovering little baby Kal-El has grown up into Superboy and deciding to ruin his life for funsies. Superboy remembers Dev-Em because of his inconsistently applied powers of super-memory, and then he's immediately zapped into the phantom zone. Dev-Em makes a fake Superboy costume and a Mission Impossible mask and sets out ruining his life.

Sadly, the story takes a downturn after that. Because Superboy is trapped in the ghost dimension and Dev-Em is an invincible kryptonian, there isn't really any conflict to be had. Nobody can fight Dev-Em or even attempt to dissuade him, so he just gets to do what he wants. Conversely, he's not smart enough to realize that Superboy has a secret identity and he never attempts to expose him as Clark Kent, or make the people of Smallville hate both his identities.

At the end, Dev-Em doesn't even get his comeuppance. He flies off through the time barrier and isn't seen again for another thousand years when he decides to bug the Legion of Super-Heroes. Superboy doesn't even get to prove himself to the people of Smallville. Instead, he calmly explains himself, and the local police chief makes up a story about exposure to Red Kryptonite. Everyone just accepts that Superboy was driven loony by space rocks and things go back to normal. The status quo is resolved now and forever.