House of El: The Shadow Threat reveals that Jor-El and Lara’s most dangerous experiment is a big change that could save, or crush, its flailing world.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for House of El: The Shadow Threat #1, from Claudia Gray, Eric Zawadski, Dee Cunniffe and Deron Bennett, on sale now.
DC continues to expand its stable of young-adult graphic novels set outside of main DC continuity with House of El: The Shadow Threat, the first of three books that will analyze life on Krypton before it exploded. It revolves around Zahn of the House of Re as he works with the dissidents in Midnight to figure out why they’re experiencing doomsday-like earthquakes, and why the powers that be are apparently covering it up.
In the process, Zahn’s cousin, Lara comes into play along with her husband, Jor-El. While they might be most famous for being Superman’s parents, these two also conducted dangerous research involving Krypton’s most dangerous secret that could drastically alter society forever and lead to massive upheaval.
Lara’s pleased to see Zahn fighting for the lower-class, especially as it seems like the elites have no interest in shaking up the status quo. Just like in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Kryptonian births are genetically engineered, so everything is built on predestination. Mechanics, engineers, mathematicians, artists and soldiers all have their fates mapped out way before they’re born, so generations are locked into dynasties.
Zahn isn’t a fan of this because he doesn’t think people’s legacies should be something inescapable, and it’s this kind of mental freedom that has him working with the freedom fighters. However, Lara’s working on something much bigger: gene recombination, which rewrites one’s DNA and allows them to be their true selves. This is her way of creating a “complete Kryptonian,” one who can feel, empathize and show compassion.
And as for the first test subject, General Zod sends his friends Sera-Ur, a talented soldier who’s part of his terraforming military. He’s angry that the council has them risking their lives on planets where terraforming just isn’t working so he wants a critical-thinking society, and he risks charges of sedition to ask Sera to be the lab rat.
Sera agrees as she realizes soldiers don’t care about their comrades being killed; they’re just programmed for the mission and it’s why their brainwashed society can’t even solve poverty. But once she undergoes the transformation, the procedure takes a toll. She’s less decisive in battle, experiences fear for the first time and even sympathizes with the enemy. In short, Sera’s a risk to her squadron and so, she heads back to reverse the process. The big twist is she finds Zahn there in Lara’s lab as he wants to undergo the process after he spied on Sera’s experiment. While he has a crush on her, he cares more about being unplugged from his ‘advanced’ lineage, no matter the price.