Nickname Spotlight: The Last Son of Krypton

Superman has accumulated a lot of nicknames over the years. The Man of Steel, The Man of Tomorrow, The Metropolis Marvel, and one more are some of the most popular, and in fact, they were used to help create the personas of the four characters that appeared in the storyline "Reign of the Supermen" after Superman died fighting Doomsday.

It's that last one I want to talk about today.

"The Last Son of Krypton". The nickname was created by Elliot S. Maggin, and the story goes that he'd wanted to include it in the comics for a long time but editorial would never let him. He used other, similar nicknames, such as the Colossus of Krypton and the Last Survivor of Krypton (more of a description than a nickname, really), but never got to use that specific phrase, an epithet that is now so strongly tied to the character. And how did it become attached to the character in the first place?

Simple: Maggin wrote a book.

See, in 1978, Superman: The Movie came out, and they wanted a tie-in novel, so Maggin wrote this, a story that covers Superman's origin just like the movie does. I say "just like the movie does" because, despite being a movie tie-in - you can see Christopher Reeve's photo right on the cover - it doesn't really have anything to do with the movie. It diverges from the movie in many major ways, including spending time as Superboy and teaming up with Lex Luthor to fight aliens.

The important thing is that the novel had a different editor than the comics, so Maggin wasn't told no!

I can't find a comics appearance before Action Comics #687 (April 1993, above), but there must be one. If you find one, let me know!