Originally Posted by
manofsteel1979
Actually my hope is that New 52 Superman returns with Kal-L and Pre-Crisis Kal-El in tow and together with Superdad all four take out Cyborg Supes...then turn attention to the true puppet master of this whole thing....BRAINIAC PRIME.
Warning: This is a rather long post and it all sprang forth and i couldn't stop writing...
It turns out it is he that somehow engineered the "fall" of each of the Supermen. He orchestrated the Death of Kal-L at the hands of Superboy Prime in INFINITE CRISIS (it's implied he controlled Alex Luthor and Superboy Prime to set events into motion), He controlled Mxy to force the end of Pre-Crisis Supes and force him to "kill" himself. (turns out Pre-Crisis Supes figured it out that Mxy was being manipulated at the end of "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow" and faked his demotion to Jordan Elliot to 'hide' from BRAINIAC, with a way to repower himself when the time came...clever guy. He is the one by the way who ends up rescuing both Kal-L and Nuperman from their fates via his ability to Travel across hypertime. ).
BRAINIAC PRIME also engineered the Poisoning of Nuperman all to get him out of the way to take out the "anomaly" of Superdad and his family...thus the Cyborg Superman revival. (turns out they weren't Supposed to survive CONVERGENCE...Yes, Convergence was also an elaborate plot to kill Superman across the multiverse once and for all and it went wrong, thus his plan "B" of killing them one by one that led to all this). Together the combined might of the four core Supermen of the multiverse destroy BRAINIAC PRIME once and for all and scatter his essence across the multiverse, which is the real reasons why we've had so many wildly different Brainiacs over the decades...they are all pieces of the essence of PRIME and all gained evolved into independent beings trying to evolve back to their original self but never quite do so thanks to a Superman always there to stop them and retard their evolution.
Afterwards, the Supermen all meet at Nuperman's Fortress.As they stopped BRAINIAC's plans, the Multiverse went on without having their Supermen lost. Earth -2 never was destroyed and they still have their Kal-L , Earth-1 still has their Kal-El and POST-CRISIS Earth still has their Clark Kent, thus the versions standing in the Fortress are now Time anomalies, redundancies who have no Earth of their own .
As they mull over how to proceed, a portal opens.
Out steps the Golden Superman and his Lois from the end of DC ONE MILLION and they offer a chance for the other Supermen to join him as a SUPER-LEAGUE policing the multiverse to prevent BRAINIAC PRIME from reforming. KAL-L and Pre-Crisis KAL-EL elect to join...but Superdad and Nuperman do not. Earth-0 is their home. Their turf. Superdad has a life. A family here a son to raise. Nuperman wants to get back to his life here being Superman. Golden Superman just smiles and says "I know" and hands each of them a "gift" to help in their new journey before disappearing.
Superdad opens his box...it's a piece of Gold Kryptonite from his Earth in a lead box.
Nuperman thanks Superdad for holding the fort and tells him he doesn't have to give up his powers...as far as he is concerned he has just as much right to the name given the good he had done in the months he filled in.
Superdad says "No, Kal. This is my Sons home,but it has never been truly mine. I was just keeping the home fires burning until you came back. I knew you would. Death has always been a temporary thing of those that wear this suit. After all, you are Superman. That's what we...YOU do. you are the impossible." before Nuperman can stop him, Superdad opens the box. In a flash of Gold is now just plain, ordinary Clark White. " It's kind of fitting ,this I mean. I've always thought of myself more as Jonathan and Martha's boy rather than Kal-El of Krypton. Now I am."
After a moment of quiet confirmation and perhaps a bro-hug or fist bump Clark looks at Nuperman and gestures to his boxed gift. "aren't you going to open that?" Nuperman smiles and does. Inside are two items. One is a folded red garment...the other a sunstone crystal with a note. "Never forget where we've been...but always be the Man of Tomorrow" with that, Nuperman slides the crystal into his computer....
It's the chronicle of all of Superman's adventures across the multiverse....we see actual comic panels from 80 years of stories on the screen as Superman and Clark White watch in awe. Superman unfolds the garment as they watch the images flash on the holoscreen...it's a new cape with the yellow "S" on it. Kal looks it over in awe and recognizes the stitching.
"Martha Kent...Mom...made this.I...I'd recognize that stitching anywhere." Clark White smiles "Comes to show there are constants in the universe."
Superman removes his tattered cape with the black "S" and puts the new one on his nanosuit. Superman closes his eyes as to concentrate and the nano-suit shifts it's form to something we don't see immediately but it's something that Clark White recognizes immediately. "Nice" he says "but, isn't that a little retro for you?" Superman says..."What the hell. I'm in a retro mood. Besides if I get tired of it I can always remove the trunks. No big deal." Clark White wryly remarks " You'd be surprised." Superman chuckles and they look at each other after a beat.
This is a sort of goodbye.
"so....you want a ride?" Superman offers Clark White "Nope. I'll use the League teleporter to get back to Metropolis. Lois , Jon and I have a lot to decide and talk about. You, however, have a world to get back to. Go. Up Up and Away."
Last shot of the comic, (all this occurs in ACTION #1000 btw) a full splash page is the real Superman, in the classic look (at least for this ending...as he says he can always change it later again), flying towards the reader from the Fortress smiling and alive, ready to tackle the next 80 years of adventures.
NOT THE END says the caption box...
*oh and as it turns out BRAINIAC PRIME is really Golden Age red haired "alexi" Luthor who was possessed by the Golden Age version of Vril Dox, driven insane and eventually evolved into a place of omnipotence in the Multiverse with an obsession with Superman in all his forms and illerations across space and time.