Jemm Son of Saturn #2 DC

by Greg Potter

comic book

Comic

Published January 1, 1996

About the author

Gregory Paul Potter is an American comic book writer best known for co-creating the DC Comics series Jemm, Son of Saturn with artist Gene Colan and relaunching Wonder Woman with George Pérez.

Reviews

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made a mistake while reading the first issue by not reading the editorial page at the end of the book and specifically reading Greg Potter’s process and inspirations for this series. Seeing him bring up ET, Star Wars, and Miller’s daredevil all as inspirations, and the need to have stories that take place in a real place at a real time with real people (specifically more Black people), all while telling the a story about growing up no matter what age you are, really elevates the entire story I see unfolding before me. I love and am terrified by the small drops of information we are getting about Jemm’s home world and upbringing through these issues. It’s so hard not to compare his physique and story to that of Martian manhunter. They both come from a distant planet where a war between different races of their species left them as the last of their kind. That by itself is an unfortunately too common story, but Jemm is remains quite different. Like the inspiration from Star Wars, it seems he was born to with the gem in his head and told his entire life that he was to be the special red alien to love and unite them with the white ones. That’s a hard thing to hear for your entire life, the weight of that on his shoulders. And while we still aren’t entirely sure what happened, it’s heavily told that Jemm is the last of the red sataurnians and someone he fights in this issue is the last of the white sataurnians. We don’t get much of the grey sataurnians like robot creatures we witnessed last issue, other than a brief fight and the knowledge they are still hunting Jemm. But if I had to guess these were sataurnian creations that helped contribute to the downfall of the entire civilization. Either way, if you can’t tell, it’s constantly leaving me wanting more.

This issue picks up from the last as Luther and Jemm come across a few unhoused men around a fire trying to stay warm in the cold snowy streets of New York City. The men did not feel like sharing and got quite hostile, and when Jemm gets into a defensive mood he can be quite terrifying. He even through one of the men into the sky, without us ever seeing what happened to him, and lunged at the others with an outstretched face of pure horror. It’s so interesting how he can do this whole also be a caring and compassionate friend to Luther in a moments notice. The men, in an attempt to get away from Jemm, knocked their fire over into him. But unlike MM, Jemm seemed to amplify the fire and react in a way that tried to smother him. Even if it didn’t directly kill him, it left him in a weak state for a few moments and reacted quite differently to any human. A man named Mister Freddie helped to put the fire out, and the pair gained a valuable friend from someone who claims to know every corner of the city. Including a place where they can send Luther’s grandfather off to rest. I have to admit I’m not entirely keen on the idea of just letting a body float through the NYC sewer system, that sounds like a recipe for disaster, but even without speaking English, Jemm understands the concept of a burial ceremony. And as he sees Gramps float away, he remembers back to his own teacher, a white sataurnian priest, who guided him in his youth. This is the first time we get to see what life was like on Saturn. Where Jemm sits he is royalty and everything around him is lush and green. But he is aware of a battle raging outside the palace walls between the whites and the reds, as his own white sataurnian teacher tells him that he is the unique one, never meant to turn to hatred, and destined to be the protector of all sataurnians. But with everyone supposedly gone, what is left to protect?

Our brief look at Saturn is knocked away as one of the grey Saturn robot is has caught up with the intent and later beams necessary to try and kill Jemm. But Jemm does not go down that easily, and with swift might he is able to rip the head off the droid and push it into the water, short circuiting it in the sewer water. But that is not the end of our troubles, as not only does the robot get a chance to call for back, suddenly the entire sewer system around them turns against them. The water rages up in the form of fists, and the sewer pipes begin to construct Jemm. The robot was not their only combatant to worry about, so is Kamah, a warrior of the whites and a koolar shape changer. Able to enter and control any inanimate objects, including the entire sewer tunnel around them. Her words frame Jemm’s time on Saturn in a completely different light, as she mentions the rest of his royal family is dead for the eons they ruled the planet with their iron hand and now he is all that is left. It would be easy for Jemm to feel hatred, but that is something he keeps deep within himself as he acts with precision and calm, using the gem in his head to send a laser that locates and knocks the warrior out of their hiding place on the inanimate walls. She is defeated and for a moment he hopes she is dead, but then sheds a tear looking at her as the last living white sataurnian as he remembers back to his teacher. WHAT HAPPENED?!

But there are also forces moving elsewhere. Remember Bouncer, the extra muscle that tried to hurt Luther’s brother to get the money. After getting injured in the fight he stumbled home to his mother in pain, realizing that he is sick of this work and inflicting pain on others now that he has experienced it themselves. But it seems the apple didn’t fall far from the tree as she immediately begins hurting him at the mere thought of betraying their benefactor who he works for and set them up with a good life. Sheesh. Additionally we see the survivor from the crashed space ship show up in the home of a Senator in the dead of night to show him the findings from the ship and to ask for help in taking down the sataurnians and avenging his fiancé. But the Senator is not alone, he is joined by a Mr Claudius Tull, a very wealthy man who seems to have a cybernetic implant for an eye taking up half of his face. Is is very interested to hear more about these alien creatures, and by the end of the issue we find out that Tull is the benefactor for Bouncer, and even goes to his house to dig more into the flying red man around New York. He wants to find Jemm to be his. Rich man with deep pockets in the government and an attraction to alien tech…oh no.