The Superman who has a wife and child and who has been working in the background to keep safe the New 52 version of Superman takes over in the wake of the New 52’s Superman’s death. I’m sorry. I tried to write that sentence in the least confusing way possible. No matter how I wrote it, though, it never felt like it made the least bit of sense.
The background Superman is the same one from before the New 52 continuity took hold, and he has memories of past events such as battling with Doomsday. And that’s where the only action in this entire issue takes place. I suppose that is why the cover price for this comic book is only $2.99; DC had such a limited budget for this issue so they kept the effects and fight scenes to a minimum.
Seriously, though, for an issue that was supposed to be a reboot but not a reboot, nothing happens. New/Old Superman confronts Lana Lang. They go to the Fortress of Solitude to get some red herring to bring the recent Superman back to life. But they don’t get it, so New/Old Superman states that he will take over.
The illustrations of Superman give him deep blue eyes, a woman’s face, and a man’s beard. This Last Son of Krypton appears as though he were Commander Riker cosplay done by beefy woman from the Midwest.
The one great idea that this issue advances is that there are no more multiple versions of Superman. Instead, we get the familiar Superman from long ago—the 90s. And maybe he will be the center of this comic book. This might be the issue that refocuses the story and puts the continuity back on track.
But these “we’re sorry for letting things go off the rails so we are putting things back” issues could be avoided with a decent editorial staff that plans for more than three issues into the future.We have had retconning events like these happen for ages in the comic book industry. I figured at some point we would move past them and get back to decent storytelling.
Maybe with the next reboot event that will happen.
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