Superman #43 discussion (spoilers)

[Prime]

I think they should have left Yang stretch his legs in at least one arc before this. Just like Pak did. And then do this. Man, what is it with the Superman titles and always struggeling?

[Auguste Dupin]

What I didn't care for was Hordr's part of the tale. Blackmailing Superman so you can drain his solar batteries seems pretty silly to me. Are solar panels so hard to come by in Metropolis that your only source of solar power is to drain a superhero? Heck, you can even get a tax credit or credit from the power company for going green. If Hordr can build an extra-dimensional island with an enormous super computer, surly they can slap some solar panels on a building or something. The mysterious "I'm not really here!" thing is getting old too.

Dude,huh, no offense or anything, but....what?
I mean, I don't think you realize what they got here. We're talking about enough pure solar energy to turn what is otherwise a completely powerless guy into the most powerful individual on the planet (and possibly one of the most powerful if the entire universe), able to go toe to toe with the Goddess of War. There's probably more solar power within Superman than what every single existing solar panel in the entire world is providing combined right now. Superman's solar energy is a gold mine if you're into the superweapon market. So being able to blackmail what is in essence a walking breathing solar battery of epic proportion into letting you drain him at will? That's actually a pretty brilliant business plan, and there's no ammount of "go kill that guy" or "look the other way while we do crime stuff" that would be nearly as profitable as this.
My friend, you'd make a pretty poor comic book superweapon dealer.

[ssupes]

I haven't really read the issue but from what I've seen it ultimately fits the character of Lois Lane in that she ultimately rushes in thinking she knows what's best and deciding to act and not believe in Superman.
The lack of thought into her actions and whoever they may hurt is reminiscent to all the times she has run into a situation and ended up needing Superman to rescue her from it. And with the outcome the same in that she ended up getting out of a situation smelling like roses and she has a article that will probably win her a Pulitzer, and all she needed to do was sacrifice the safety of Clark and his loved ones to do it.
Is it any wonder Clark didn't approach her with his secret?

[misslane]

I haven't really read the issue but from what I've seen it ultimately fits the character of Lois Lane in that she ultimately rushes in thinking she knows what's best and deciding to act and not believe in Superman.

Admitting you haven't read the issue and demonstrating you don't know the character of Lois Lane very well means I feel I have to take any assessment of yours with a grain of salt. You're right that Lois does act impulsively, but you're wrong to not fault Clark for doing the exact same thing in this issue as well as others. You're also wrong that it's typical for Lois to not believe in Superman, and that this issue is an example of this. Lois is one of Superman's true believers, and has been since she was created. Even in Man of Steel she is credited for believing in Superman. In this issue, Lois did show she believed in Superman by believing that whatever fallout there was he could handle it.

The lack of thought into her actions and whoever they may hurt is reminiscent to all the times she has run into a situation and ended up needing Superman to rescue her from it.

You know how ironic this statement is considering it was Superman who ran into this situation (and the situation with the 3D gun printer in the first of Yang's issues) without a plan, and it was he who needed saving?

And with the outcome the same in that she ended up getting out of a situation smelling like roses and she has a article that will probably win her a Pulitzer, and all she needed to do was sacrifice the safety of Clark and his loved ones to do it.

Oh, come on! You say all this as if Lois made the decision as a means of acquiring those achievements and that she wouldn't have mixed feelings about them considering how much regret and remorse she has already been shown to feel for what she did.

Is it any wonder Clark didn't approach her with his secret?

Clark had no idea that Lois would do what she did, so this is a strange comment indeed. What happened with Hordr is not something either he or Lois could have ever anticipated. The reason Clark didn't tell Lois his secret, as stated in previous issues, was his desire to keep her safe. I believe that ultimately he will be able to forgive Lois, partly because he'll eventually be able to feel that she did a good and noble deed, and they will repair their friendship in a way that will make it stronger and closer than ever.

[Ishmael]

And the best way to get out of black mail is to own up to what they are blackmailing you with. What she did made sense. She took any sort of leverage away from them. Yeah she did not think about it, but you have to think about it this way. She was in the heat of the moment. She was what was being done to him, and what would be done to him time and time again. All due to the fact that they are holding this secret over his head. I feel like in that moment she made the right call.

I agree with this. I thought it was a good issue.

[dumbduck]

Unfortunately this was underwhelming. I take nothing back from what I said about Yang's writing, I love his dialogue and characterization. But they backed themselves into a corner the moment they decided to make it Lois who would reveal the secret. I agree with others who say that Yang had his work cut out for him getting onboard with such a big change happening, but I feel he got a great feel of the characters right from the start. The problem is that I guess making it Lois the one who reveals the secret was too good to pass up.

From that moment on they had the choice of characterizing Lois as the hard bitting journalist that she is. Or pleasing the Clois fans. Make no mistake, I'm happy they didn't turn Lois into the 'villain' of this story, but it's clear now that you quite simply can't please everyone. I feel the same way with Johns taking Clark back to the DP. I prefer Clark as a freelancer, still in Cat's blog, but I'm happy if that makes fans of tradition happy, but it's clear that they'll never have enough.

As a fan of the SM/WW relationship I feel DC has to make a choice. Either go forward with the new status quo or revert everything to same old Clois. Half measures won't please any side. Clois fans are getting a book all for them in a few months.

Apart from that it wasn't even really bad. I liked that Lois made an error in judgement. She panicked and made a mistake. Or possibly saved Clark's life. Maybe we'll never know. That's why Diana agreed with her, we have to remember that this Lois isn't used to regular high time adventures with Clark. She did what she thought was best at the time. I liked that she was afraid because she saw the scenes of his torture and then the corpse in that chair. It was a very human 'mistake'.

But, way too much touchy feely between Lois and Clark. The preview was fine, but the limit. More of that was way too on the nose. Obviously, being a dude, the scenes of Clark and Lois in bed only irritates me. But I have to wonder if it was a naked Diana with a clothed male character beside her. It'd be cool to think about the female fans of the SM/WW pairing, they exist and they are many . Lois was coming way too strong on to Clark right after he told her he has a girlfriend. It was quite simply too much.

After re-reading the issue a couple of times I have to say the resolution was really not bad at all. It was a good resolution within the limitation of not making Lois the 'villain'.

[manduck37]

Dude,huh, no offense or anything, but....what?
I mean, I don't think you realize what they got here. We're talking about enough pure solar energy to turn what is otherwise a completely powerless guy into the most powerful individual on the planet (and possibly one of the most powerful if the entire universe), able to go toe to toe with the Goddess of War. There's probably more solar power within Superman than what every single existing solar panel in the entire world is providing combined right now. Superman's solar energy is a gold mine if you're into the superweapon market. So being able to blackmail what is in essence a walking breathing solar battery of epic proportion into letting you drain him at will? That's actually a pretty brilliant business plan, and there's no ammount of "go kill that guy" or "look the other way while we do crime stuff" that would be nearly as profitable as this.
My friend, you'd make a pretty poor comic book superweapon dealer.

Boy, I didn't think of that. I'd make a terrible supervillain! Time to rethink my career choices

[Sacred Knight]

As of this issue I've also passed the breaking point that's already been passed with many of you. I don't ever want to see the super flare again. There were potential interests to explore with it when it was initially introduced, I thought. But the utter ridiculousness of how much its overused in this one title alone has just completely ruined it for me.

[Superlad93]

As of this issue I've also passed the breaking point that's already been passed with many of you. I don't ever want to see the super flare again. There were potential interests to explore with it when it was initially introduced, I thought. But the utter ridiculousness of how much its overused in this one title alone has just completely ruined it for me.

I liked the idea behind the ability more than anything else. One thing in particular stood out to me in a few interviews and hinted at in a few issues, and that was the idea that Superman had developed a sort of addiction to using the power for it's side effects. I thought a whole story or running plot thread on that would have been spectacular, and a great look into the mind of this guy. The novelty of the idea that Superman has this growing addiction to being human is just fantastic. I was hoping they'd do a sort of play on all the stuff he feels and senses but instead it would be as a human. Like talking about how it's and absolute exhilarating shock to the system to have the volume on the world turned so far down. The comic or arc could be as if an alien was dissecting and analyzing a normal human but from the inside. Maybe Jim having an almost intervention-like talk with Clark about his "flaring". I think that would've complimented the Truth story line more as a way into it.

[Last Son of Krypton]

As a fan of the SM/WW relationship I feel DC has to make a choice. Either go forward with the new status quo or revert everything to same old Clois. Half measures won't please any side. Clois fans are getting a book all for them in a few months.

They have made no secret of wanting a love triangle. I think if Dc could, Superman would have a deep relationship with both women at the same time for purely "commercial reasons" (you know, make everyone happy).
Think of what they did with Superboy: he was the clone of the son that in a different timeline Lois had with the same Superman that had started dating Diana.
They'll not make a choice, at least not in the immediate future.

But, way too much touchy feely between Lois and Clark. The preview was fine, but the limit. More of that was way too on the nose. Obviously, being a dude, the scenes of Clark and Lois in bed only irritates me. But I have to wonder if it was a naked Diana with a clothed male character beside her. It'd be cool to think about the female fans of the SM/WW pairing, they exist and they are many . Lois was coming way too strong on to Clark right after he told her he has a girlfriend. It was quite simply too much.

When in his last interviews, Yang talked about the sexual tension that exists between the two because they're attractive people (or super attractive in Superman's case ), I didn't think he was referring to something so "explicit".

Oh, about "sexual tension"... we also got a "touching" moment before...

[oldschoolfan]

I agree with this. I thought it was a good issue.

I agree too.

Please note we are arguing the merits of the reveal, and not arguing what the reveal was really about....

This arc started right around issue #41 and here we are three months later with an answer. Sure you may not like it, but the quality of the story and the way it is structured is really well done. I don't think these books are struggling at all, I think they are actually doing great!

And I appreciate the story structure even more when I consider what the other authors are doing in the other three Super books to coordinate this idea.

Keep it going Super-team!

[Cipher]

Just read this. I enjoyed everything about it except, as others have said, the reveal. Not the reasons for it -- just the actual pacing and impact on-page.

The first half of the book has some of the best Lois-Clark-Jimmy writing we've seen in the entire New 52 -- all of it. I thought the conversation between Lois and Clark in which she promises to keep his secret was quite affecting, and the "I'd have found a way to follow anyway" bit that followed put a huge smile on my face. Yang has a stellar take on these characters. I lamented in another thread here that Lois and Jimmy seemed to be skirting on iconography in this continuity whereas characters like Lana, Steel and Cat had all been built-up in story, but here, finally, is that kind of writing for Lois and Jimmy.

Likewise, I enjoyed the rationale behind Lois' leak and the aftermath, justifying both her action and Superman's anger believably. Would he have found another way out? Maybe; probably. But that's how things work; people make snap decisions, and Lois is right -- he'd have made the same kind of snap decision for her. We know they both deal with fallout later.

Superman trashing Hodr's robots as he simultaneously deals with Lois' reveal is wonderfully satisfying and Romita's art sells the suddenness and brutality of his escape. Great action scene.

So what's not to like? Again, the reveal itself falls flat. It's maybe too soon after their initial conversation, and it doesn't get the space it deserve on page. I'll give this story the benefit of the doubt, but right now it feels like this may have been better saved as the finale of this storyline in the Superman title, to end on a bang and give things a bit more room to breath.

All in all though, I really enjoyed this, and am not sure where the complaints about Yang's writing are coming from. He may need to adjust his pacing for a 22-page per month superhero book, but the characters are all extremely on-point, and the drama feels genuine. Depending on how the fourth issue goes, I may rescind the pacing comment as well.

If this is a middling Superman book right now (and I don't think it is; I thought it was quite good), then hell -- we're dealing with a great line-up of titles.

Apart from that it wasn't even really bad. I liked that Lois made an error in judgement. She panicked and made a mistake. Or possibly saved Clark's life. Maybe we'll never know.

I dig this. This is the kind of storytelling I'm excited to follow. In fact, I haven't been this excited by a monthly superhero book in some time.

I'll forgive slight pacing problems all day long if the character tension continues to be handled this maturely.

Also, good, good dialogue here. Even Hodr, at risk of being generic villain du jour, has a distinct voice. (And props to Yang for using a topical supervallin.)

[Flash Gordon]

So shouldn't Kara have a solar flare ability? Wherever the hell she is, I mean.

Gah, I miss Supergirl.

[Sacred Knight]

She DOES. That's another funny thing. She has exhibited this same power and without the downtime afterward. And its still never been mentioned. I can see how Johns never did, he doesn't pay attention to anything that isn't his own stuff, but its still funny how it was touted as something all new when it wasn't at all.

[Auguste Dupin]

She DOES. That's another funny thing. She has exhibited this same power and without the downtime afterward. And its still never been mentioned. I can see how Johns never did, he doesn't pay attention to anything that isn't his own stuff, but its still funny how it was touted as something all new when it wasn't at all.

Yeah, she was doing it since, like, the very first issues of her series.
The most hilarious thing, it's most certainly a complete coincidence. Two complete different writers just decided at completely different times: "Hey, you remember when Vegeta blew himself up againt Buu? Let's give our guy tthe exact same power".