Action #975 discussion (spoilers!!!!)

[manofsteel1979]

So....Superman Reborn Part 2



spoilers:

Lois and Superman fly to Metropolis and "Clark Kent's" Apartment for answers of Jon's whereabouts. There after doing some digging, they are confronted by the fake Clark Kent who finally reveals his true self,making Supes guess his identity, transforming into Luthor, Bizarro, Mongul, Parasite, Doomsday,Cyborg Superman and Brainiac before finally revealing himself as.... MR. MXYZPTLK!!!! Mxy essentially explains that he was captured by MR. Oz,and he waited for Superman to rescue him,but he never came, so when he broke out and found where Superman was he discovered the truth...or that he took as the truth....that Supes forgot about him, and it was because of Jon. He also realized that things were different in other ways, more pointingly , that the world knew Clark Kent and Superman to be one and the same. So, to 'help" Superman, he put a spell on himself to literally become Clark Kent, false memories and all so scanners and mind probes etc wouldn't reveal the truth, and set about living Clark's life to restore Superman's identity. He did such a good job that he forgot he wasn't Clark, until recent events brought all of Mxy's true memories back and how Supes and his wife forgot their Pal Mxy, and thus he enacted his ultimate goal. Since Superman apparently was done playing with Mxy, Mxy decided to take a new Playmate...Jon himself. So, he decided to take Jon and then wipe him from normal 3d existence so Lois and Clark forget about him.Mxy leaves without giving Supes and his wife any more answers. Clark vows to Lois to not stop until he finds their son, to which Lois responds..."Who's Jon?" . The back up story by Dini essentially fills in the gaps of how Mxy was captured, and the nature of his ongoing games with Supes, all related by Mxy to his new playmate Jon. I really can't or don't want to say too much more,but there are some take aways from this issue. 1) Looking back....it feels so logical that it was Mxy all along as Clark. The clues were all hidden in plain sight. 2) Mxy may have been involved with the fake Clark...but it seems he had nothing to do with Nuperman or the nature of the existence of two Supermen. That all is now more or less confirmed as the doing of OZ and Oz alone. I don't think we are getting any real answers on OZ this arc. This will likely reveal the nature of the dual Supermen and fix Superman continuity,but Oz and his long game against Superman and the DCU as a whole will likely stretch out another year at least. 3) The bedtime story aspect does strongly hint that current Superman has at least had most of the adventures of all his past incarnations, thus making him the "ultimate Superman" many of us (mainly me) have hoped to see,but those images of past artist interpretations Of Supes and Mxy are kept somewhat ambiguous.They could literally be how those stories unfolded for Supes or Mxy's own interpretation of events. Either way, I like this development. Anything that blurs the silly arbitrary line between "Pre-Crisis" and "Post-Crisis" even a little is a win in my book! 4) Superlad is Nostradamus. That's all. Seriously, he literally called the entire damn issue yesterday. 5) I'm not so sure this will indeed tie in with the events of Morrison's Mxy story...but it still may end up doing so. I imagine next week's issue deals with Nuperman in some fashion given the cover.

end of spoilers

Anyhow, I enjoyed the issue. The second half though was the highlight. I would have enjoyed it more had i not spoiled myself...but I'm only to blame for not going offline the last few days! Can't wait until next week.