Action Comics #51 Discussion

[SuperCrab]

I liked the bit with "Clark" in the Daily Planet newsroom. Felt like a really warped version of old times. They've got to find a way to get the real Clark Kent back there doing his thing. After the whole Truth arc, one of the things I was looking forward was getting back the investigative reporter day job dynamic, and it looks not only will our Superman not be alive to be doing that, but that the fake Superman they're bringing in isn't taking the job either. When's the last time we've had a Clark Kent, any Clark Kent, who's also Superman, coming into work 9 to 5 at a newspaper? Rebirth is reportedly, at least to begin with, moving away from that dynamic just as the pre-Rebirth stuff was. It's like they want to ditch it, but they know they have to toss their fans a bone and tie the occasional story in somehow to the old setting and cast.

I wonder if this convict turned psuedo-Clark Kent winds up actually taking on Clark's DNA and becoming the non-Super Clark Kent of the post-Rebirth books. Maybe just the Clark Kent half of his spirit generates himself a new body. Although, really, somehow bringing the convict into it would be a decent take on the whole "It's never too late to do the right thing" Superman redemption type theme.

Wonder Woman showing up at the end at the Fortress asking why the hell hasn't Superman told her about what's happening yet is a good question.

I don't really have much comment on the Supergirl stuff. It got them from point A to point B, and set up her book. I won't be reading her book (If I'm reading any of these books after Rebirth, which is unlikely right now), but I understand why they wanted to set it up a bit here. Obviously, it's well within character for Kal-El to track her down, "rescue" her, and give her a key to the Fortress.

Actually, the future of the Fortress of Solitude is an interesting question. By all rights, it really should be Kara's. She's the last Kryptonian on earth from this universe. It's her heritage. Superman is her cousin. SuperDad is not from that Krypton, it's not from his Fortress. I understand that when you're telling a Superman tale, it makes logical sense that whomever your Superman is gets Superman's traditional home away from home, but whether it'll make storyline sense to give him a key is a different story. Locking out Superdad from stuff like that might be a good way of getting across that this is not our Superman continiously, if they want to remind readers of that to prep for (hopefully) the return of this universe's real Superman. On the other hand, if as I fear, this is a permanent change and they are going to try to quickly move past Superdad not having been there as this universe's Superman all along, you can expect him to be in the Fortress of Solitude as if he's been using it for decades pretty quickly. It'd be pretty funny if he tried to approach and it shot him down.

[raidensix]

The Supergirl power lost needs to be explained more. How on earth was she affected by Vandal's scheme when she was neither directly "poisoned" or plugged in to Vandal's machine. Anyway, there's really not that strong a bond between Kal and Kara. Other than being cousins, they haven't spent that much time together. If anything, Kara has made it a point to stay away from Kal so I find the plot/her reaction a little forced.

[manofsteel1979]

I liked the bit with "Clark" in the Daily Planet newsroom. Felt like a really warped version of old times. They've got to find a way to get the real Clark Kent back there doing his thing. After the whole Truth arc, one of the things I was looking forward was getting back the investigative reporter day job dynamic, and it looks not only will our Superman not be alive to be doing that, but that the fake Superman they're bringing in isn't taking the job either. When's the last time we've had a Clark Kent, any Clark Kent, who's also Superman, coming into work 9 to 5 at a newspaper? Rebirth is reportedly, at least to begin with, moving away from that dynamic just as the pre-Rebirth stuff was. It's like they want to ditch it, but they know they have to toss their fans a bone and tie the occasional story in somehow to the old setting and cast.

I wonder if this convict turned psuedo-Clark Kent winds up actually taking on Clark's DNA and becoming the non-Super Clark Kent of the post-Rebirth books. Maybe just the Clark Kent half of his spirit generates himself a new body. Although, really, somehow bringing the convict into it would be a decent take on the whole "It's never too late to do the right thing" Superman redemption type theme.

Wonder Woman showing up at the end at the Fortress asking why the hell hasn't Superman told her about what's happening yet is a good question.

I don't really have much comment on the Supergirl stuff. It got them from point A to point B, and set up her book. I won't be reading her book (If I'm reading any of these books after Rebirth, which is unlikely right now), but I understand why they wanted to set it up a bit here. Obviously, it's well within character for Kal-El to track her down, "rescue" her, and give her a key to the Fortress.

Actually, the future of the Fortress of Solitude is an interesting question. By all rights, it really should be Kara's. She's the last Kryptonian on earth from this universe. It's her heritage. Superman is her cousin. SuperDad is not from that Krypton, it's not from his Fortress. I understand that when you're telling a Superman tale, it makes logical sense that whomever your Superman is gets Superman's traditional home away from home, but whether it'll make storyline sense to give him a key is a different story. Locking out Superdad from stuff like that might be a good way of getting across that this is not our Superman continiously, if they want to remind readers of that to prep for (hopefully) the return of this universe's real Superman. On the other hand, if as I fear, this is a permanent change and they are going to try to quickly move past Superdad not having been there as this universe's Superman all along, you can expect him to be in the Fortress of Solitude as if he's been using it for decades pretty quickly. It'd be pretty funny if he tried to approach and it shot him down.

Well Superdad has his own Fortress in the Lois and Clark book,so he may not need Nuperman's Fortress anyway.

Supergirl will likely use NuSupes' s Fortress with Nuperman has her " ghost dad" fortress AI.

[Prime]

Wonder Woman looked angry. I don't exactly blame her either.

[Tayswift]

WW has to stop being a idiot and live her own life. geez this look like a 15 years old fantasy of WW

[Prime]

Kara shed a tear for her cousin how nice I guess.

[Rakzo]

Liked this. Thought that the connection between the two was well-depicted and Clark making a hologram for her after his death was something logical considering what his Kryptonian parents taught him.

[hellacre]

WW has to stop being a idiot and live her own life. geez this look like a 15 years old fantasy of WW

Oh you mean WW needs to leave Superman (a man she loves and fought at his side all through Truth and Savage Dawn) to declare love for his friend and your shipping preference Lois. Er, that's your fantasy, the narrative if one reads, says something different. And bet even if she didn't show up and he invited her your grouse would be the same. Nothing ever really changes with your pov once it is smww.

[hellacre]

Nice to see Kara and Kal re-unite. I wonder as Kara now has the keys if she'll take Krypto. And yeah Diana looks upset. Wonder who told her. Bats, maybe?

[Agniwolf]

WW has to stop being a idiot and live her own life. geez this look like a 15 years old fantasy of WW

yeah, her not being frigid for whoever male scum is totally out of character, especialy if said male scum is superman, the worst of them all

after all he was no more than a di** for when she was bored. any other attachment is a disrespect to her character

in fact she should slaughter him on the spot for having ever come across her path with his white alpha male attitude of feminine opression

[SuperCrab]

Well Superdad has his own Fortress in the Lois and Clark book,so he may not need Nuperman's Fortress anyway.

What's his fortress like? Where's it located? I actually used to subscribe to that book (Lois and Clark), but it was honestly (And I am not just saying this to knock Superdad) pretty forgettable. I just kind of remember it like, um, Clark and Lois raise Jon in California while Clark secretly stops monsoons and stuff and Lois writes books. Once they visited Metropolis for a brief vacation and almost ran into Jimmy Olson, that was pretty exciting. Even the intergang stuff and Henshaw didn't really do it for me. And I cancelled the subscription, so if the fortress was introduced recently, I'd have no way of knowing about it all (Don't have the most recent issue or two, probably).

I remember as I was reading the early issues going "Man, these are boring, let's get Clark interacting with the new universe versions of the his old friends from Metropolis and the Justice League.". Classic example of "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.". I'm glad I didn't say that to the editor or something, or I'd really be kicking myself. Obviously, I just meant as a side character in his own book, though, not replacing Superman as Superman.

Wonder Woman looked angry. I don't exactly blame her either.

Yeah, I'm not just Superman going "Well, Diana, I wanted to tell you, but the Superman/Wonder Woman comic title wasn't scheduled for an issue until this week." is going to fly as a good explanation for his girlfriend within the fictional storyline. He might have had an excuse if he had only told Batman, and gone for a better diagnosis and an evaluation of whether or not a cure was possible, saying he wanted to be able to get a handle on the situation and know what to tell Diana before he told her, but the problem is, he opened the first book of this arc with "I'm dying", told Batman he didn't want a second opinion on the diagnosis, told Batman not to look for a cure, and seemed to have plenty of time between asking Batman to look for Kara and Batman telling him he found her to try to track down Wonder Woman. And, you know, it's not as if Wonder Woman would have been a hindrance to tracking down and "rescuing" (in quotes, because in the end, it turns out no rescue was required) Supergirl- Wonder Woman is her own superhero, and she's always agreed that they both need to put the world before their relationship, she could have assisted him just like Batman (Well, more in the fighting than the computer research), and probably would have.

The only reason that makes sense as a good excuse would be if Superman and Wonder Woman are broken up. You don't really have an obligation to track down your *ex*-girlfriend to tell her about your new incurable non-contagious medical condition before you tell anyone else. Your girlfriend, you probably do. It's not like you have the ability to almost instantaneously fly anywhere in the world to have a conversation- oh wait, you do, you're Superman.

Of course, that Clark doesn't really have a good excuse for not telling her if they're still dating isn't necessarily a continuity error for the storyteller. Maybe he's just writing Clark to act like an ass or have some sort of emotional problem with telling the woman he loves that he's dying. I mean, the guy is human- er, Kryptonian. Whatever. He's not perfect. He does some of the same type of things bad romantic partners of both sexes do to each other all the time. He's got the same potential imperfections with interpersonal relationships as anyone does.

But, within the story, if I were Wonder Woman, sure, I'd be pissed. I'm a guy, so I'm not into imagining myself as Wonder Woman, but you know, if I were dating a woman who was acting like Clark...

Which reminds me, he told *Lana* before his girlfriend. That's really what's going to hurt him with Diana, I'd imagine. Like, okay, Bruce is trying to help you find your missing cousin, Kara is your cousin who you want to carry on your legacy (Interesting point there- Clark could in theory try to explicitly pass the baton to Supergirl, his flesh and blood from his own universe, and not to SuperDad. I doubt editorial will allow it in the end because of how they are handling Rebirth, but it'd be a better story. Not only could SuperDad sort of be a fake in the eyes of the Justice League and the Daily Planet Clark Kent friends, but what if he's actually usurping duties and legacies that Clark Kent explicitly tried to leave to his cousin? The Justice League and Lois and such could be really pissed.), but there's no reason he had to actually find Lana and tell her before finding Diana and telling her. I guess Diana could have been busy battling Titans or whatever she does in her books, but from her approach at the end of AC #51, I get the feeling she wasn't.

[Prime]

He was probably thinking of a way to tell her, but Diana probably got pissed because she heard it from someone else. That really sucks. WW is rightfully angry. Everyone should be uncomtarble next to Superdad, especially Diana and Kara.

[vasir12]

What's his fortress like? Where's it located? I actually used to subscribe to that book (Lois and Clark), but it was honestly (And I am not just saying this to knock Superdad) pretty forgettable. I just kind of remember it like, um, Clark and Lois raise Jon in California while Clark secretly stops monsoons and stuff and Lois writes books. Once they visited Metropolis for a brief vacation and almost ran into Jimmy Olson, that was pretty exciting. Even the intergang stuff and Henshaw didn't really do it for me. And I cancelled the subscription, so if the fortress was introduced recently, I'd have no way of knowing about it all (Don't have the most recent issue or two, probably).

It's under a mountain. He made it himself overtime and is full of stuff he's collected over the ten yea-rish time period.

[Myskin]

Read it. It's a readable issue with some decent art, but let's be frank, it appears even better than it actually is because the quality level of the Superman line has been really low for a very long time by now.

The whole story seems a filler to settle the new status before Rebirth and to pick up some old plot threads. And it is done nicely, but nothing more. To be fair, some lines such as "But I had every intention of helping people who needed help, even if wearing an 'S' made me a target" are REALLY cringeworthy. I had the same problem with Superman saying something like "I'm dying but I worry because I won't be able to help people when I won't be around anymore". Yeah, I get it, Tomasi really wants to make Superman appear heroic, but there is no need to do it in such a "in-your-face" way.

[SuperCrab]

It's under a mountain. He made it himself overtime and is full of stuff he's collected over the ten yea-rish time period.

Cool. If the folks who think this universe's Superman will one day return to reclaim his place, but that this older Clark from another universe will also be sticking around in some way, it might be good to have him keep using his new mountain fortress instead of taking over new52 Clark's anyway. It'll help familiarize people with distinctions between the two, and is potentially something he could keep if he decided to help people in some other way as a different superhero, and allowed Clark to retake his rightful place as Superman in the current DC universe.

Maybe he could be west coast based, and have a public superhero identity that is a bit closer to the Superman one than the black suit was, but still makes it clear he's not Superman himself in this universe. Maybe they could have him soaring over mountains in Colorado and tall pine forests in Oregon, with the occasional Arizona desert or whatever, and not just California, and thrown in an interesting supporting cast of neighbors or friends he can have a BBQ or a chat with, and watch a baseball game.

I kind of remember Earth 2 Superman, the Earth 2 from the 70s and early 80s, which featured Golden or Silver age Superman, while Bronze Age Superman had the main books and main universe, having some regular people friends. Specifically, I'm thinking about a couple that had a porch, and who he and Lois knew. Guy had a mustache.

I don't really hate Superdad, I just don't want him in place of my Superman, and his son being such a strong story element with his own superhero stuff is very unappealing to me.

I think I do kind of remember the new fortress now that I've read your post jogging my memory. He was keeping a prisoner or two there, and I think there was some kind of a statue or fountain.