Early on, I noticed that Jim Shooter had a “tell” in his writing style.
His superhero stories, usually absorbing, often included villains of such insidious power that they actually frightened the superheroes, sometimes so much so that they fled into hiding or were forced into moral compromise.
Shooter mined shadowy caverns of “superhero noir” about 20 years before that became popular and then clichéd.
In World’s Finest 173 (Feb. 1968), Shooter introduced us to Kralik, an alien who was allegedly Superman’s most fearsome foe. Like other Shooter creations such as Mordru and the Fatal Five at DC and Graviton and the Beyonder at Marvel, Kralik is meant to be overwhelming and unsettling.
Although Superman recalls Kralik with a shudder in a flashback, this was in fact the character’s first and last appearance — and he didn’t really appear in this story at all.
“The story, another by Shooter (offering a cameo by his creation, the Parasite) features our heroes becoming their most-feared enemies — Two-Face and Kralik,” noted comics historian Steven Thompson. “Kralik? WTF???”
“This one is a real doozy,” wrote Ben Herman. “But you could say that about many of the stories published under the auspices of editor Mort Weisinger during the Silver Age. Mad scientist Dr. Arron seeks revenge on Superman and Batman, who recently put a stop to his illegal experiments. Arron manages to secretly drug both of them, via bottles of soda pop no less, with ‘Psyche-Distorter chemicals’ that he has developed. This chemical causes both heroes to take on the evil identities and personalities of the enemies they fear the most.”
After transforming themselves into duplicates of Kralik and Two-Face, Superman and Batman actually think they are the villains, and clash in a deadly duel. So the actual villains never appear in the story, and nor does the Composite Superman, even though “he” ends up straightening out matters.
In a surprise Shooter move, it’s the criminal scientist who caused all the trouble, Dr. Arron, who saves the day. Exposed to his chemical, he turned into an amalgam of his most feared foes —Superman and Batman — and defeated “Kralik” and “Two-Face,” bringing them to their senses.
What Shooter had to say about his creation of the Superman villain the Parasite applies equally to Kralik.
“They asked me to write a Superman story and I looked at the Superman villains lying around and thought, really, this guy hasn’t had a new villain forever,” Shooter told Bryan Stroud. “And the villains he had were all scientists or sneaky guys. They weren’t real heavyweights. So I wanted to have somebody who was a physical challenge for him.”
In his early teens when he started writing comics, Shooter was arguably more attuned to fan fantasies than the older writers who were already adults when the comic book industry began.
“Comic book fans love A. revisiting old villains and B. ranking them, and that comes into play in this issue, where Batman and Superman are at a special exhibition,” noted Brian Cronin in CBR. “It’s interesting to see who Batman fears the most among his enemies… uncertainty freaks Batman out the most.
“Amusingly enough, that appearance of Two-Face as a statue was the ONLY appearance of Two-Face in a NEW story between the introduction of the Comics Code and the adjustment of the Code in 1971.”
As Batman explains, “Once I know a crook’s M.O. … his Modus Operandi, or method of operating … I can pretty well predict his moves. It works well with everyone … except Two-Face!”
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