As annuals go, I thought this one did quite a bit to fill us in on Thara Ak-Var and Christopher Kent, K'Riss. The last we saw of K'Riss, then Christopher, he had volunteered to go back into the Phantom Zone to help out Superman. Plus . . he was only 6 or 7. Now, as we've seen in recent issues of Action, he's about 18 or 19, and . . he's Nightwing. Also, what about Thara? She was the head of security when Kandor first emerged on Earth. So, how did she go from being a trusted aide of Alura's to becoming Flamebird? Well . . it has to do with Kryptonian religion. Flamebird is a major character in their religion. Flame and fire is an important symbol to them. The creature that represents that, Flamebird is a half Phoenix, half dragon type character. Nightwing, her polar opposite is her antithesis and her lover. And here I thought Nightwing & Flamebird were just a couple of characters that Superman and Batman created when they visited the bottle city. At least that's how it was originally presented in those old World's Finest comics. This way makes a lot more sense though. Anyways, Thara became a member of the Religious Guild and through them had a vision of Flamebird, and she believes a melding of minds. That's when she became aware of Nightwing. K'Riss on the other hand, is suffering some kind of mutation, probably from being born in the Phantom Zone. In the time since he's been back his age has accelerated a couple of times. Non helps him hide from the rest of the Kryptonians, until Zod and Ursa get upset because K'Riss looks into Zod's collection of Brainiac stuff. It seems that Zod was obsessed with Brainiac before be became obsessed with Superman. But K'Riss isn't just looking. He puts one of Brainiac's devices on his head and . . everything in the room comes to life. At the same time, Thara has another vision but this time it's of K'Riss. She thinks of him as Flamebird would of Nightwing. And in that instant they become connected. She obtains an experimental Phantom Zone projector from her step-father, Zor-El, and goes into the Zone to free K'Riss. And . . ta-da! Just like that we're all caught up on their background story and the motivations for them becoming the crime-fighters that they are now . . Nightwing & Flamebird. Well, it's a little more involved than all of that, but . . I have to leave something for you to read. Right? Greg Rucka and Pere Perez did a great job with this story. It really filled us in on the whole transformation and brought another piece of Kryptonian lore up to date. Plus . . there was 40 pages of art in this issue. Fan-frikkin-tastic!
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