Goddamn this issue was like getting stabbed straight through the heart. After getting the crap kicked out of him by Mongul, Superman basically sees every belief he’s ever had get dumped on. His fellow Authority members are dead, enslaved, or scattered, and all of them have lost faith in his leadership after his failure. The Phaelosians saw him fall and they don’t think he’s still capable of liberating them either. I’ve talked a lot about my frustration with how writers use “hope” as a buzzword, but the last two pages were the first time in a long time I actually felt something when a Superman story namedropped “hope” because of how oppressive the feeling of despair runs through this issue.
This actually landed for me because the rest of the story shows how bleak the situation is. With everyone else turning on him, to see that Superman has actually managed to maybe reach at least one person DOES feel hopeful. Because maybe it’s the spark that will set off a fire that brings Mongul down where Superman couldn’t do it alone. Anyway I loved the issue and I can’t wait for the next one! Superman has needed something like this for a long time, a story that brings him low and strips him of everything so he can climb back out of the pit and demonstrate that he’s not just an optimist when everything goes well and life is good. He’s someone who still believes in others even when the world mocks him for it and flat out tells him he’s wrong.