The Day of the Krypton Man: Conclusion

The Day of the Krypton Man concludes with a bang.  Both Clark Kent's career and Superman's Fortress of Solitude will suffer in the process.

Superman #42

Draaga arrives on Earth (with the Jackie Gleason-esque space cabbie in tow) to challenge Superman.  Clark Kent deserts Newstime to change to Superman, but to his surprise, under his work clothes is not the Superman uniform but traditional Kryptonian garb.  With oddly no hesitation, he decides he is no longer Superman or Clark Ken but simply Kal El.  He goes to fight Draaga, now completely detached from his humanity and seemingly willing to kill his adversary.  Their fight takes them to the Statue of Liberty, and Professor Hamilton devises a plan to save the landmark by teleporting the two to his lab where he thinks he may be able to hold them both.  Unfortunately, his plan doesn't work and he accidentally teleports Superman, Draaga, and half of the Statue of Liberty to the moon!

Elsewhere, Clark Kent and Jose Delgado both get eviction notices at their apartments.  And Morgan Edge, out on parole, tries to stop Intergang from pursuing revenge against Lois, Clark, and Cat, which could hurt his defense in the trial.

Adventures of Superman #465

Professor Hamilton succeeds in teleporting Kal El back to Earth just as he was about to deliver the death blow.  The space cabbie drags the unconscious Draaga back home for now, but we'll see him again in Panic in the Sky.  Now that Clark is acting completely unemotionally, Collin Thornton decides to fire him.  With nothing going right for him, Jose Delgado decides to take to the streets again as Gangbuster.  Ma and Pa Kent watch the news in horror as their son nearly kills Draaga on the moon.  The Kents decide to fly to Metropolis to see if there's anything they can do to help Clark.  On the plane, Martha Kent worries that their son may be fulfilling his true Kryptonian destiny and there may be no bringing him back.

Meanwhile in orbit, a malfunctioning space shuttle start to fall to Earth.  You wouldn't know it at the time, but this one page is the first appearance of Hank Henshaw.  Hank could have been just a one-off villain in the next issue, but years later Hank Henshaw would become one of the imposters after Superman's death and one of Superman's deadliest post-Crisis villains, Cyborg Superman.

Action Comics #652

The Kents arrive in Metropolis but find their son has completely abandoned his human heritage.  Kal El's Kryptonian robots take them with him to the Fortress of Solitude.  They plead with him not to give up his human life, but he won't be swayed by emotions.  However, the Kryptonian battle suit starts to attack them and Kal El figures out the Eradicator is behind all of it, including his strange behavior.  Pa Kent finds the hidden Kryptonite and uses it to disrupt the Eradicator.  Superman stops it, while demolishing the Fortress in the process.  He decides the Eradicator and the costume it made for him are too dangerous to keep around, and flies into space to throw them both into the sun.  Superman resolves to continue living his double life, while preserving the legacy of Krypton on his own terms.

The Eradicator would return a year later in the follow-up story, Revenge of the Krypton Man.  But it would eventually evolve into its most familiar form as another one of the imposters after Superman's death.