Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Superman: The Final Days of Superman

Next up for the month is trip to the 2010’s. These years have been weird to the Man of Steel, haven’t they? His origin’s been revamped at least twice in the comics, he’s had his identity outed, he’s shacked up with “Amazonian Hotness”, and he died… again. Yes, that actually happened. Right before DC Rebirth started, it was decided to put the New 52 Superman “out to pasture.” In other words, the dude gotta go since we got this older, wiser, more-Supermany Superman over here to use now. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of what was done with Superman in the New 52, I gotta say that I was a little sad to see him go. Then I read Peter Tomasi’s and Dan Jurgens’ run on the Superbooks and I kinda forgot about that dude.

“The Final Days of Superman” crossed over all the Superman related books except for Supergirl (Action Comics #51-52, Superman #51-52, Batman/Superman #31-32, and Superman/Wonder Woman #28-29). Peter J. Tomasi was brought into write this 8-issue crossover. As for the artists, they varied a lot. We had dudes like Mikel Janin, Ed Benes, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Manhke, Paul Pelletier, and Dale Eaglesham on pencils. I’ll just list the inkers below since this going to take a while. So, what happens when someone decides tries to mix “The Sandman Saga” with All-Star Superman?

The Final Days of Superman

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi

Pencils: Mikel Janin, Doug Manhke, Paul Pelletier, Ed Benes, Scot Eaton, Dale Eaglesham, and Jorge Jimenez

Inks: Mikel Janin, Jaime Mendoza, Sandra Hope Archer, Ed Benes,

Colors: Mikel Janin, Wil Quintana, Tomeu Morey, Alex Sinclair, Christian Alamy, Livesay, Tom Nguyen, Dale Eaglesham, and Wayne Faucher, Alejandro Sanchez, Miguel Sepulveda, and Jeremy Cox

Letters: Rob Leigh

Editor: Eddie Berganza and Andrew Marino

SYNOPSIS

Superman is dying… yeah, they don’t bury the lede here. Because of some recent battles he’s gone through, Superman has terminal Kryptonite poisoning and it’s slowly killing him. Left without any way to fix it… in a world full of science and magic…, he tries to do what he can with the time he has left. He first ends up reaching out to the ladies of his life: Lois and Lana. Then, he reaches out to Batman to let him know. Clark also has Bruce search for Kara (Supergirl) since she’s been MIA. Later, someone attacks Superman and Batman and takes someone Clark’s blood back a scientist named Dr. Omen. It turns out she’s doing some experiments on Superman’s DNA. Also, a low-level criminal named Dennis Swan (ha) is escaping from the cops when he gets hit by a blast of light and somehow becomes Superman.

Now this was funny. Take that, uber-Bat Fans!

Superman eventually finds Kara in National City and tells her the news. He also bequeaths the Fortress to her. Then, Wonder Woman shows up peeved that Clark hadn’t even told her about all this death stuff. The two embrace and head off to one of ARGUS’s prisons. Swan ended up being captured after he went to the Daily Planet acting like a crazed Clark Kent. Superman wonders if his new solar flare power has anything to do with this. He tries to talk to another villain, Ulysses, in the prison, but Swan (who I’ll call “SuperFake”) escapes. Superman ends up getting accidentally exposed to red sun radiation and this weakens him some more.

Batman tracks some goings on in China, so he, Superman, and Diana travel overseas. They get accosted by The Great Ten (China’s superheroes) , but after a minute, they decide to talk. They find Dr. Omen, but it turns out that her projects might have caused this. Meanwhile, SuperFake finds Lois Lane and takes her to the West Coast where the Pre-New 52 Superman (Bearded Clark) is living with his family. Superfake attacks Bearded Clark and those two fight for a bit. When Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman arrive on the scene, Bearded Clark takes his family to a Fortress of his making.

It all ends with a fight between our heroes and the now-insane SuperFake. Even though Superman is expending all of his strength, he fights on with the rest. Even Supergirl joins the fight.  When he sees that Superfake is about to explode, he takes him into the atmosphere and uses his own solar flare to counteract the energy. Bearded Clark also helps Superman and even catches him when all is said and done. Afterwards, Superman ends up passing away surrounded by all of his friends and family. Lana and Steel (John Henry) were even able to say their goodbyes. The story ends with this news reaching the world and Lois deciding to write about Superman’s story.

Well, New 52 Supes, you were okay. You had some ups and downs, but you came out fine in the end.

OPINION

Even though this felt like an editorially mandated move, it was a nice read. The story of Superman dying and seeing his loved ones for one final time is what makes the story work. All of the interactions Clark has with Lana, Lois, Bruce, Kara, and Diana work for me. It was also interesting seeing Superman deal with his mortality. While it’s been done better in other stories, this one worked too. I also liked how this felt like a farewell to Superman’s New 52 era. Some things from this era got highlighted here a bit. It also worked as a nice transition into the Rebirth era since some stories got their start here. The “new” Superman, Supergirl’s new status, the business in China, and the Lois/Lana duo are some examples.

The artwork was pretty good as a whole. Even though we had quite a few artists for each series, it all looked good. It helped that you had artists that could make Superman look… Super. You also got a few that would eventually be brought over into the Rebirth Era like Jorge Jimenez. Now that guy knows how to do a good Superman. My favorites from this large group were Janin, Jimenez, Mahnke, and Benes. I really have no problems with the art as a whole. The only thing I could nitpick would be on SuperFake’s  various looks during the story. You could no-prize it as his form constantly changing, though.

While I wasn't the biggest fan of the pairing, this was nice.

As for my problems, Superman’s death itself felt flat. In fact, it was weird that Superman didn’t look for any alternative options. Heck, Diana even threw out going to the gods and Superman was like “Nah, I’ll pass since I’m gonna go over yonder.” He just accepted that it would happen. Maybe there was some meta commentary going on there, I don’t know. It also didn’t help that you had another Superman standing there ready to take his place.

Bearded Clark: Hi, kids, I'm what they call "the old hotness."

I also thought the origins behind the Fake Superman (I’m getting tired of writing SuperFake) weren’t explained well. How did Dr. Omen even get that solar energy from Superman in the first place? Maybe I missed it, but I don’t know.  I did think that it was interesting that this version was essentially  a mix between Bizarro, The Sand Superman, and Superman Red. Heck, he ends up turning red at points, so maybe they took influences from everywhere. Other than those things and some small nitpicks, this was a fine farewell to the New 52 Superman.

…………………………………………………………………..

In the end, “The Final Days of Superman” was a nice story. While it may not have sent off the New 52 Superman in style, it did start off DC Rebirth well. I’d say that I’m done with the New 52, but I just got to re-read something for my other blog, Comics Crossover Central. It’ll be “H’El on Earth,” and… let’s just say that this may not go down well. As for here, I’m finally going to hit the 90’s with another story that has Superman losing his powers. I guess I found the theme for the month: Superman losing something important… Eh. Well, I’m off to bed. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.