Superman, Vol. 1 – Issue 656

Superman struggles with Subjekt 17 as he tries to save the Kazakh soldiers in the area endangered by their battle. As the battle rages, it becomes apparent to Clark that Subjekt 17 isn’t a mindless brute, but a reasoning alien, much like himself. Callie Llewellyn finds the records room of the old Soviet base that Subjekt 17 was kept in, and reads the files detailing his origin. Like Clark, Subjekt 17 is an orphan trapped on Earth, but that’s where the similarities end. The Soviet scientists that found his pregnant mother and took him upon his birth experimented upon him, seeking to control him, or use his own biology to develop their own super-soldiers.Faced with this reflection of his own existence, Superman has to try to walk a fine line between protecting humanity from Subjekt 17 while trying not to hurt him for all he has suffered through.