In 1978, comic book writer Elliot Maggin (aka Elliot S! Maggin) published a book called Superman: Last Son of Krypton. This coincided with the release of the movie “Superman: The Movie”. The book was meant to be a tie-in, of sorts, to that movie. The plot of the book has no direct relation of the movie and it tells its own story, told within the continuity of the Superman stories that appeared in the various comics, of the time, that starred the Man of Steel. Maggin was the writer of a great number of them.
As a fan of the various DC Comics of the time, I was elated upon reading this totally original story by a man who soon became my favorite writer of Superman stories.
The story recapped the basics of Superman’s origin, beginning with his Kryptonian father, Jor-El, feverishly trying to complete the building of a rocket ship that would carry him, his wife, Lara and their baby son Kal to another planet before Krypton destroyed itself.
The story continued to the discover of Jonathan and Martha Kent of a freshly crashed rocket carrying a small child. They decided to adopt the baby.