One of Jerry Ordway’s absolute strengths is drawing likenesses, no doubt about it!

As a kid who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I am well aware of Ordway’s work on the 1989 Batman movie comic adaptation, written by Denny O’Neil, which had near perfect renditions of all the actors throughout. His prowess was demonstrated in a few other projects, often commissions, as well.

Yes, I am also well aware that this is a Superman site, but I do like Batman and if anyone is interested, you should check out the 1989 Batman movie special!

Although there have been exactly zero movie adaptations of any DC movies during the Snyder era and everything that has followed, I had heard that there was a Man of Steel prequel comic that had been released digitally in 2013.

I stumbled across the prequel comic recently while looking for something else, likely because of all the scuttlebutt about the Snyderverse returning potentially under new WB ownership (a post for another day!).

It was written by Sterling Gates, the writer of Supergirl at that time, and drawn by the previously mentioned Mr. Ordway.

I am generally not a huge fan of comic adaptations of stuff, or movie prequel comics, but much to my surprise, I really enjoyed this!

Even though it takes place before the events of Man of Steel, I wouldn’t call it a prequel. It is a side story about Kara Zor-El along with an expedition team of Kryptonians on a mission to spread Kryptonian DNA to another planet (similar to Zod’s scheme in MoS).

Kara has to fight off a few villains along the way, whose only mission is self-interest and who want to eliminate Kara as well.

The story ultimately explains the huge Kryptonian ship found under the ice when Man of Steel begins, even if it doesn’t really explain what happened to Kara. And before anyone asks, no, it does not gel with the Supergirl’s story from The Flash (2023). It could have been followed up a bit if Man of Steel got any sequels, but alas, that was not to be the case.

The story is tightly written and the dialogue- the main feature of a competent writer in my book- is more than adequate. There are co-writer credits for David Goyer and Geoff Johns, which doesn’t hurt, but I am not sure how much of that was involvement in the movie script.

Either way, this was an enjoyable- and thorough (40 pages!)- read. Even though the vast majority of the story has nothing to do with characters from the film, we do get to see the Ordster’s great likenesses on the first and last pages, so there’s that.

It made me wish we could get more comic movie adaptations one day. We can always hope!

*NOTE! There are rumors that there were also physical copies printed in the UK and sold with the Blu-ray, but this is unconfirmed.*