United Planets Superwatch Spotlight: Regor

Title: The Case of the Second Superman

Writer: William Woolfolk

Artist: Wayne Boring

Letterer: Stan Kaye

Reviewer: Jude Deluca, a.k.a. Sarcasm Kid

As a follow-up from my post about the United Planets Superwatch, the proto-Legion in the pages of The Green Lantern, I thought it would be fun to do posts about its individual members. These characters don’t have the luxury of being included in Who’s Who In The Legion Of Super-Heroes, and many of them only made one appearance before Grant Morrison brought them back. I figured doing reviews on the original appearances might be a decent way to educate readers.

Now, to start off my Superwatch posts, our first review will be about Regor from Superman #58. Regor is one of many Superman pastiches from other worlds, the type who followed the outline of being rocketed to another planet as a baby and developing superpowers as they got older. Regor is probably one of the oldest characters in the Superwatch, to the point that his original tale has been designated to Earth-Two’s continuity similar to Halk-Kar.

We all know the story of Superman: Jor-L of Krypton built a rocket to send his infant son to another planet as their home-world,  Krypton, was destroyed. The rocket landed on Earth, where Kal-L was found and raised by the Kents of Smallville, Kansas. Because Earth’s gravity is lighter than Krypton’s and it orbits a yellow sun, the Kryptonian boy grew up to develop superpowers and became the hero called Superman.

Yet it seems that such an unlikely event was capable of happening twice…

On the Earth island of Barrios lived rocket scientist James Flint, alongside his wife and infant son. One day, calamity struck Barrios when its volcano erupted and started to plunge the island into the sea. Mr. and Mrs. Flint tried to save their son by placing him inside an experimental rocket, hoping it would reach America. Well apparently the rocket’s propulsion system was more powerful than James gave it credit for, as it overshot America and didn’t stop until it reached the planet Uuz well outside the solar system.

The infant boy’s rocket was discovered by a childless couple on the ice-covered, civilized planet. With no indications of to whom the rocket or the baby belonged to, the couple decided to take the Flints’ son and raise him as their own. Similar to Superman, as the Earthling boy named Winki Lamm grew older he developed super-strength thanks to Uuz’s weaker gravity. Winki leaped great bounds without really trying, and his Earthling eyes could see through the opaque, glass buildings of Uuz.

Winki’s father prodded the boy into using his superior strength to fight evil, so Winki crafted a daring costume and took on the name “Regor.” “Regor” meaning “a desire to help people.”

While fighting crime as Regor, Winki took on a day job as a TV interviewer. His coworker, Loria Rode, couldn’t understand why the supposedly weak Winki wasn’t more like the daring and dashing Regor. Because her name starts with an “L” and she’s a reporter, so of course she does.

Regor quickly found an enemy in criminal mastermind named Bantor. Bantor put his underlings through strenuous exercises utilizing increased gravity and contact lenses, granting them strength and eyesight similar to Regor. Equipping his men with guns firing ice bullets, it seemed like Bantor had Regor beaten.

Believing himself disgraced and unfit to protect Uuz, Regor left in the same rocket his parents discovered him in all those years ago. Superman luckily noticed the rocket’s arrival into Earth’s atmosphere and quickly intercepted it before the rocket crashed.

Brought to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, Regor laughed at the idea of Earth’s “polar conditions,” stating on Uuz that they needed heaters to get the temperature this desirable. After Regor explains his situation, Superman offers to give Regor some conditioning training to help him beat Bantor. I mean, fair’s fair, y’know?

Superman put Regor through some tough exercises to build up Regor’s strength under Earth’s gravity. Earth’s temperature took some getting used to, but Regor was happy to ditch his personal heater for once. Feeling much stronger than before, Regor thanked Superman. However, Superman had a plan to deal with Bantor.

Dressing up to look exactly like Regor, Superman returned with the Uuzian hero to the frozen planet. Superman asked Regor to lie low in Regor’s mountain headquarters while he dealt with Bantor. Of course, Superman wasn’t pleased with having to hop around instead of flying as he normally does but he couldn’t blow Rebor's cover.

Superman first made a visit to Loria Rode as she announced today’s temperature on Uuz was a scorcher. 90 degrees below 0, can you believe it?! Superman makes a public announcement on Uuz TV, announcing he’s ready and willing to give Bantor a remix. Bantor assumes “Regor’s” bluffing but worries the hero’s x-ray vision will spoil his latest plan. Specifically, the one called “Operation Thermos.”

Bantor sends out his henchman Vanch to act as bait, while over at the TV studio Loria receives a message that someone is holding up a bus. Superman arrives to find Vanch and some of Bantor’s men robbing said bus, but Vanch escapes after blasting a nearby bridge. Confined to his Regor disguise, Superman can only use his strength to save the bridge.

Now acting as Winki Lamm, Superman heads back to the studio to chat with Loria. As if Loria Rode would ever worry about a spineless tramp like Winki-saaaaay. Why is it Winki’s never around at the same time as Regor? And whenever Regor leaves, Winki always shows up. “Winki” gets offended by the comparison with the lunkheaded Regor, yet Loria finds the whole thing very suspicious.

Vanch reports back to Bantor, who is pleased “Regor” got a good look at him. Bantor explains that Vanch will go to the big flower garden where Loria Rode is supposed to deliver a live story the following day.

The next day at the aforementioned garden, Loria is given a tour of one of Uuz’s only flower gardens. Since the temperature on Uuz is so low, growing flowers is difficult. The plants that blossom are treated with a plastic spray to make them last longer. This also makes the flowers ridiculously expensive.

Meanwhile, watchin the live broadcast Superman recognizes Vanch in the background and fears for Loria’s safety. At that very moment, Bantor’s men stage an ambush. Unfortunately, by the time Superman gets there, he doesn’t realize that Bantor has set up a trap involving mirrors and the very same plastic spray. Stuck in plastic, Superman still won’t use his other powers to escape lest his Regor disguise is blown. Thinking that he has captured Uuz’s protector, Bantor is ready to unleash Operation Thermos.

With “Regor” and Loria captured, Bantor’s group raids a heater factory (apparently no one has ever tried this before). Bantor announces on live TV that he has gotten Uuz’s hero AND their heaters, so the citizens will have to pay his prices if they don’t want to freeze to death. Apparently there is only one factory supplying heaters for the entire planet.

The real Regor’s watching all this from his headquarters, and decides that he needs to do something even if Bantor defeats him again. Superman covertly escapes the plastic block using his super breath to make it look like one of the henchmen misfired their gun. The real Regor shows up as Superman frees himself. Loria thinks Regor is moving so fast that he is in two places at once.

Superman and Regor work in tandem, but move fast enough so that Loria really thinks there’s only one hero. The two heroes do a “fastball special” as Regor hides inside a tire truck and Superman throws it at Bantor’s men. Getting out of the way, Superman watches as Loria thanks Regor.

Alone, Superman informs Regor that he is going to take care of the climate problem which seems to breed trouble. Using the type of raw power only the Golden Age Superman possesses, Superman goes about literally making a sun for Uuz. Afterall, even the poorest people on Earth can enjoy the sun so why can’t Uuz be the same?

By colliding Uuz’s two lifeless moons together alongside a mass of meteors and space debris, Superman is somehow able to create a working sun. He then starts pushing Uuz into orbit around this new sun.

On Uuz, Winki Lamm is so excited about this new sun that he forgets to remove the ring he generally wears as Regor. Loria catches sight of this and starts to connect the dots. Thankfully, Superman makes one final appearance as Regor to distract Loria. Regor AND Winki Lamm in the same place? Geez Loria, how could you think WINKI LAMM was Regor?

Regor later thanks Superman for all his help, and is left to deal with Loria’s nagging, not knowing that Superman is dealing with the same type of aggravation from Lois Lane on Earth. Those Ls! They’re all the same!

So let’s all just stop and think about what might happen when a planet which normally had a frozen ecosystem suddenly gains a sun that begins to exponentially warm up the planet’s temperature and atmosphere? What, exactly, do you think would happen to an ecosystem that’s arctic 24/7 not to mention what would happen to the people who have since adapted to such low temperatures?

This story was ridiculous and unbelievable and that’s why I kind of love it. We’ll be seeing more stories with characters who had reversals of Superman’s origin, but as right now Regor’s my favorite due to all the horrifying implications about what Superman’s “charity” might have done to Uuz.

Regor largely captured my attention because I liked his costume design and the prospect of Uuz intrigued me due to its glass architecture and all-year winter. Him being a resident of the Earth-Two universe, I wonder how it might have looked if someone introduced a new Regor from DC’s last Earth-2 series (even though I hated that book).

As a bonus for this recap, here’s a commission of Regor my friend dklem on tumblr did for me while she was having an art sale on ko-fi.