Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader Richard H. wrote in to ask:

Has Superman ever confronted Tomar Re, the green Lantern in charge of the sector Krypton when it blew up?

Richard, of course, is referring to something that I did an article on a while back (he's not referencing my article, but I just mean that he's referencing the same thing I wrote about), which was how Tomar-Re, who was the very first alien Green Lantern that Hal Jordan met after becoming a Green Lantern (as opposed to the dying alien Hal met right away - various reboots have changed it so that Hal has met other Green Lanterns first. I thiiiiiiiiiiiink that the current continuity says that he met Sinestro first) was the Green Lantern assigned to the Sector with Krypton in it!

In Superman #257, Elliot S! Maggin (based on a story idea by Neal Adams) did a story with artists Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano showing Tomar-Re about the retire from the Green Lantern Corps. However, before he could retire, he had to first confront his greatest failure...or was it a failure after all?!?

Tomar-Re, you see, had figured out a way to save Krypton, but it just seemed as though fate had another thing in mind for him that tragic day...

So Tomar-Re is naturally all super sad. But not so fast, Tomar-Re! The Guardians explain to him that it was his failure that ended up giving the universe Superman and that trade-off was more than worth letting that planet die!

Their logic is more than a little bit dubious there, but hey, at least Tomar-Re doesn't feel like a total jerk. The Guardians don't usually concern themselves with making their Green Lanterns feel better, so they must have been huge fans of Tomar-Re to go out of their way to make him feel better about the whole Krypton deal.

Okay, so that was 1972. Tomar-Re was killed off in an odd story during Crisis on Infinite Earths (he gives his ring to John Stewart, who, in turn, gives the ring he got from Hal Jordan back to Hal Jordan). Did Tomar-Re ever happen to run into Superman before that time? Read on to find out!

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In 1983's DC Comics Presents #60 (by Cary Burkett, Irv Novick and Tony DeZuniga), Superman has to team up with the Guardians of the Universe (well, at least ONE Guardian) to take on the Green Lantern Corps itself as the evil Weapons Master has found a way to take control of their Green Lantern rings and turn them against them by making them his slaves. As you might imagine, an entire enslaved Green Lantern Corps would be very bad news for everybody...

Okay, but before Superman went into action with the Guardians, Tomar-Re pulled him aside to talk to him...

So, as it turned out, Superman never got a chance to CONFRONT the Green Lantern who was assigned to Krypton (and it does, honestly, strain credulity a bit that it never occurred to Superman to ASK who was the Green Lantern of Krypton) but he DID meet him. It is interesting to wonder whether Tomar-Re did the right thing in talking to Superman if he didn't plan on telling Superman about their connection. I don't even necessarily blame him for not wanting to tell Superman right before a super-important mission something major like that, but maybe AFTER the mission?

Thanks for the question, Richard! If anyone ELSE has a question they'd like to see me address, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!