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"Loss and Space!": While visiting the Kents, Superman detects a mental pulse coming from the Moon. Though he has never tried flying in space before, he believes that with a deep enough breath he can safely get there to investigate. When he arrives he finds a crashed alien spacecraft, whose pilot

Action Comics Annual #7 is an issue of the series Action Comics Annual (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1995.

Synopsis for "Loss and Space!"

While visiting the Kents, Superman detects a mental pulse coming from the Moon. Though he has never tried flying in space before, he believes that with a deep enough breath he can safely get there to investigate. When he arrives he finds a crashed alien spacecraft, whose pilot tells him he came to Earth to enlist Superman's help in defending his homeworld against the invading H'Tros. He begs Superman to press a particular button on the control panel, then dies. When Superman does press it, the ship automatically returns to its home planet, where he is welcomed warmly enough but notices that the people lower their heads as if repulsed because he is a creature of violence. They tell him that the H'Tros are a mechanical race which seems set on destroying all organic life. Superman flies towards the invasion fleet and takes out some of the craft before finding his way aboard the mothership and destroying its power source with his heat vision. Unfortunately the resulting explosion both destroys his air bottle and throws him far enough away that he loses track of where he is and has difficulty finding the way back to the planet. He makes it back just in time, to find the people not celebrating the destruction of the H'Tros but mourning them. They express their gratitude and send him home. For the first time, Superman feels vulnerable, realising how he nearly died in deep space, but when the H'Tros are detected approaching Earth he takes the only option open to him: he goes out to face them. With a breathing mask to ensure he doesn't run out of air again, he heads for the mothership, which is oddly undefended. When he gets aboard and finds the main power source, he discovers why: learning from the other fleet's mistakes, the reactor is shielded by a forcefield. However he realises that the drone ships are guarding another vessel, and when he goes aboard that one he finds a living creature, who tells him that he created the H'Tros to end war--by destroying the races which waged it. After ejecting the alien in its escape pod, Superman pushes its now-empty ship into the Sun, where the drone ships blindly follow. But the alien, now seeing no purpose in life, commits suicide. Back in Smallville, Clark tells Pa Kent how Metropolis threw him a parade, while the alien world sent him packing back to Earth--and yet he feels no different about either response. Pa tells him it's because they brought him up to do what's right, for the deed itself and not for what comes after. Clark replies that though he's been to the stars and seen the heavens, he'll never be as smart as Pa Kent is.

Appearing in "Loss and Space!"

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Links and References

Aquaman Annual Vol 5 1
Year One Annual
DC Rebirth Logo

This issue was part of the 1995 Year One Annuals crossover event, in which every annual was an origin story. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Annuals and Year One Annuals category.

Superboy Vol 4 69
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