War of the Supermen

My initial intent was simply to write a review for the War of the Supermen mini-series. However, my feelings are that those of you who have not kept up with the Super-titles (Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Superman, Supergirl, and the year-long series Superman: World of New Krypton) over the past two years could not entirely grasp the consequences of this mini-series. For those of you who don't have all the time in the world, I suggest you scroll down to last four paragraphs which deal directly with War of the Supermen. If not, I hope you enjoy the ride. Since I have no reviews this week, be sure to catch my DC reviews at ComicAttack.

Due to the fact that I will be recapping two years worth of storytelling, crossing over almost 5 titles, I do hope you will forgive me if I happen to leave something out. That being said, the story truly begins with Brainiac. For years now Superman has, on numerous occasions, encountered many Brainiacs, who have ranged from appearing to be an android to a green humanoid figure. It turns out that the true Brainiac, a Coluan, has been traveling space in his spaceship bottling up cities and adding them to his collection. Supergirl informs Clark that prior to her leaving Krypton, Brainiac bottled up the true city of Kandor, which then prompted Clark to board Brainiac's ship and retrieve the bottled city of Kandor. Unfortunately, being ripped out of Brainiac's ship left the bottle city unstable, so Superman had to fly it to the middle of nowhere, where it proceeded to enlarge. Let's take a moment to revel in this foolishness.

So now what we've got is Earth, inhabited by billions of humans, a couple hundred meta-humans (if that), and now 100,000 Kryptonians. Almost immediately Superman made an attempt to help the Kryptonians assimilate into the Earthly way of life. However, the Kryptonians for the most part felt as if they were better than the humans and the humans feared the Kryptonians. This caused there to be battles on a couple of fronts, including casualties on both ends. First, a group of humans were murdered by some Kryptonians, which led to a handful of Kryptonians being murdered including Zor-el, uncle to Superman, father to Supergirl, and leader of the Kryptonians. This prompted Alura, wife to Zor-el and mother to Supergirl, to launch the city of Kandor into the air and used their crystal technology to create a whole new planet, New Krypton, on the other side of the sun. And this, ladies and gentlemen, was the beginning of the end.

Superman #686 marks the issue when Superman is no longer represented in the self-titled series. Instead, for the better part of the year Superman only appeared in the World of New Krypton series. That series essentially was meant to do two things. One, was to illustrate the life of the Kryptonians and their desire to rebuild their once advanced civilization. The series detailed the divisions of classes, the authoritative role that Alura took, the scientific advances made to make the rest of the planet inhabitable, and New Krypton's interactions with other civilizations in space. Basically, it established New Krypton as its own planet. The second role this series played was to establish the amount of control Zod still had. For those of you who don't know, Zod had previously been imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, was released, and now is the man all Kryptonians look up to. The fact that Zod had so much control was integral in Superman's decision to leave Earth and join hi people on New Krypton.

Upon Superman's departure from Earth and his series, Mon-el and the Guardian became the primary focus. Mon-el (his real name is Lar Gand, however when he initially landed on Earth he had a bout of amnesia and when he started showing powers similar to Superman's, Superman concluded that he must be his long lost brother. He then proceeded to name him Mon-el, Mon because it was Monday and El after Superman's family name,) a Daxamite, was locked in the Phantom Zone in order to survive, left the Phantom Zone and became Metropolis' Super-guardian. He was befriended by the Guardian, Jim Harper, and became romantically involved with Billie Harper. While he was kidnapped for a brief amount of time by General Sam Lane, he was able to escape and resume guardianship of the city.

General Sam Lane, father to Lois and Lucy Lane, was presumed to have died in battle many years ago. However, it is revealed that not only is he alive but he has created a defense to the Kryptonians, known as Project 7734. General Lane, convinced that the Kryptonians will destroy Earth and kill the humans, developed an army to kill every single Kryptonian, including Superman and Supergirl. General Lane recruited Lucy Lane and gave her a special suit that would allow her to appear Kryptonian. She took the name Superwoman.

Prior to this story Lois and Clark had adopted a son named Christopher Kent, Zod's son. He, along with Thara Ak-Var, took on the guise of Nightwing and Flamebird, respectively, and became Earth's protectors. Initially they sought out "sleeper" agents, Kryptonians in hiding waiting for the signal to attack from Zod. Later they crossed paths with Supergirl, who spends this entire time whining and crying, basically being useless, because she is torn between the two worlds. Inevitably she decides to leave Earth because Lana Lang, the woman that took Supergirl in, decided not to burden Supergirl with her terminal sickness. It is also later revealed that Christopher Kent and Thara Ak-Var are in fact the incarnation of the Kryptonian Gods, Nightwing and Flamebird.

Not to be outdone, during this time Jimmy Olsen is hunted by the assassin, Codename: Assassin. He uncovers the truth behind project 7784 (which in case you haven't figured out by now, is hell spelled upside down on a calculator,) through his contact, Natasha Irons. It is revealed, by Natasha, that General Lane has created a magical army meant to take out the Kryptonians (Kryptonians are weak against magic, in case you were unaware of this fact.)

That my friends is a very, very abridged version of the Superman titles from the end of 2008 to 2010. In 2010 we have seen two major events in the Super-world: Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton and Superman: War of the Supermen. I've already reviewed Last Stand of New Krypton in depth, so I'll give a brief recap. The original Brainiac attacks New Krypton, the Legion of Superheroes and Mon-el save the bottle cities aboard Brainiac's ship, Brainiac is arrested. This led directly into the four part mini-series, Superman: War of the Supermen.

Superman: War of the Supermen had a lot of action and ended up doing a lot of things to the DC universe. The first issue brought us the complete destruction of New Krypton, along with all of its inhabitants that were not part of the military. The second issue revealed that Superboy was leading a rescue mission to save Natasha Irons. While in space Zod launched a group of soldiers to attack Earth. Meanwhile, Superman and Supergirl were busy having their version of a catfight in space. The third issue, as by far the best issue of the entire series. It began with General Lane, aided by Lex Luthor, turning the yellow sun into a red sun. I know, you're thinking "who cares?" Well, the fact of the matter is, there were thousands of Kryptonians in space and when the the sun turned red they lost all of their powers, including their ability to breath in space. This brought the total population of the Kryptonians, which was once 100,000 to 7,000. Sensing their brethren were in trouble, Flamebird and Nightwing fly off to save them. And in one of the most selfless acts these books have seen in years, Flamebird sacrificed her life to turn the sun back to yellow, just in time save Superman and Supergirl, how lucky for them. Outraged, Zod launches his most brutal attack yet and the Kryptonians begin destroying Earth.

The fourth and final issue began by showing us the fight being fought on multiple fronts. Superman was taking on Zod and a group of his soldiers, Supergirl was fighting Ursa, who had recently destroyed the White House, and Non was taking out the JLA. In a moment of absolute brilliance, Superboy and Krypto save the day. With the knowledge that the Phantom Zone was now back in existence, used the Phantom Zone projector to send first Ursa, then Non, then the remaining Kryptonian soldiers back into the Phantom Zone. In other parts of the world Supergirl, the Guardian, and Steel find General Lane and take out his group of meta-human defenders. And in what can only be explained as a moment of sheer stupidity, Supergirl does not kill General Lane, who in turn kills himself. Back on the surface Superman decides that he will transport both himself and Zod into the Phantom Zone, destroy the Phantom Zone projector, thus trapping Zod for eternity. However, Christopher, using his final moments as Nightwing, transports Superman back to the real world leaving himself trapped in the Phantom Zone.

After all that you have to ask yourself, what was the point? The only conclusion that could logically be reached is that there was no point. The War of the Supermen mini-series accomplished nothing more than to revert the world to the way it was before 2008. General Lane was once again perceived to be a hero, as the world at large saw his actions as a necessary preparation to an inevitable fact. The Kryptonian population was once again at 2 (2.5 if you include half of Superboy.) Mon-el was once again trapped in the Phantom Zone. Christopher Kent was also once again trapped in the Phantom Zone and he had reverted back to being a young boy. Also, it begs to be mentioned that had you not been reading Action Comics, you would have had no inclination as to why General Lane used none of his magic wielding soldiers. In the pages of Action Comics, it was revealed that Captain Atom staged a coup and ended any alliance General Lane had.

My biggest issue with this series is how completely irrelevant it made the last two years. All that development of New Krypton in World of New Krypton, pointless. The development of certain characters, such as Nightwing, Flamebird, the Guardian, and Mon-el, pointless. Though I should mention that Billie Harper is in fact now pregnant with Mon-el's child. The existence of other Kryptonians, which I might add distracted Clark when his father was having a heart attack, pointless. I am sick and tired of Superman's goody two shoes view of life. The entirety of his role these past two years has been, convince the Kryptonians not to hate the humans. When in these past two years, the humans have systematically killed them all. Except for Superman and Supergirl, again, how lucky for them. And to reiterate my point, how stupid of Supergirl not to kill General Lane. General Lane has committed genocide, torturing and killing near or over 100,000 of the last Kryptonians. Killing him doesn't turn her into him, it exacts the justice that her people deserved. Because for two years they listened to Clark Kent's naive lectures about right and wrong, and where did that leave them, dead.

Overall, this was a lackluster finale to what could have potentially been a major event. It almost feels as if there was a shift in direction and I do question at what level this decision was made. Because in all honesty I can not fathom why a two-year long story would be written to inevitably nullify the entirety of it's story. Which leads me to believe that somewhere along the lines, a decision from the higher ups was made to alter the course of the story, which would also explain for certain aspects to the story that were not up to par with the other aspects. I am left questioning whether or not the success of Blackest Night significantly altered the ultimate goal of this story. Whether the success of Blackest Night caused a speculation that Brightest Day would be just as successful, which would have been thrown off by the existence of 100,000+ Supermen flying around space. I am also left wondering whether or not the signing of a certain writer caused the higher ups to completely wipe the slate clean in anticipation of the new writer. Inevitably, what we're left with is a whole lot of questions and not many answers. But what is certain, is that this event was not the epic event it was advertised to be. Instead it turned out to be nothing more than a large eraser that negates two years of character and plot development and that makes me truly sad.

Take a look at the abridged summary of the past two years I just presented you with. Now forget it all, because it does not matter.