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.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

Superlad accurately predicted Fake Clark's problem with Superman.

This was easily the best issue of 'Action Comics' since Rebirth began, and is even better than most of Rebirth 'Superman'.

Not because of the main story, which while conceptually fine, I thought was really poorly written. Superman rattling off his enemies names one by one was groanworthy, and Superman comes off as not that smart.

spoilers:

Once he realizes he's dealing with Mxy, he asks how he could be here, like it's such a surprise that Mxy, the guy that's from another dimension and can travel from Universe to Universe is in the New 52 Universe? And unless something happens with Lois in the next part of the crossover, she's going to take a backseat in the quest for Jon, because her memory's been altered and she can't remember his existence.

end of spoilers

It was just bad stuff all around.

But the main idea behind the story is great, which is why Dini delivered such a great back-up story. That's where the issue really shines. In one short story Dini also writes Jon better here that anything I've seen from either Jurgens or Tomasi, although I say that without having read Super Sons yet.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

So Morrison's Action doesn't seem be accounted for at all.

spoilers:

Not only is there no mention of the New 52 arc in anyway, but Mxy even refers to his girlfriend Gsptlsnz, even though the New 52 version was married to Nyxlygsptlnz, who is supposed to be the same character, but she's clearly the Pre-Flashpoint version, and he refers to her as girlfriend, not wife.

end of spoilers

More about the nature of the New 52 Superman and Lois were revealed in this week's Superwoman. More on that when the discussion thread is up.

[Kuwagaton]

You can't have an issue 975 without a celebratory nature.The splash pages were severely compromised by the spoilers. I mean the candy swirling around made it a little obvious, but going through the rogues wasn't bad unless your sense of time gives a feeling that it all went down in over few seconds . The whole situation is pretty bewildering and it makes sense that he was confused. Think about this: less than half of us were able to guess correctly despite months of discussion and no one punching us in the face.

As far as being in disbelief, he went ten years without encountering Mxy, and the ten years he spent going through it with Mxy were unlike what we've seen with Fake Clark.

But yes, Dini took it home.

[Miles To Go]

Quite a nice issue...the nostalgia of the splash panels were kind of pointless though, since most if not all of those elements have cropped up before this issue, and will be cropping up afterwards. Jurgens also missed out on a great oppertunity for a Breaking Bad joke (it was worth it to see who first said "WRONG" though...ah, 2006-era internet memes)

Dini's back-up was the meat and potatoes of the issue, I loved the callback to a mispronounciation during the game with Myx, and we got some better nostalgic nods to Mxy across the medium

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

You can't have an issue 975 without a celebratory nature.The splash pages were severely compromised by the spoilers. I mean the candy swirling around made it a little obvious, but going through the rogues wasn't bad unless your sense of time gives a feeling that it all went down in over few seconds . The whole situation is pretty bewildering and it makes sense that he was confused. Think about this: less than half of us were able to guess correctly despite months of discussion and no one punching us in the face.

As far as being in disbelief, he went ten years without encountering Mxy, and the ten years he spent going through it with Mxy were unlike what we've seen with Fake Clark.

But yes, Dini took it home.

It isn't that he didn't know it was Mxy. It was that after he figured out that it was Mxy, he was questioning how, not just why, a being that can travel through dimensions, time, and Universes could have made their way to the New 52 Universe.

[manofsteel1979]

So Morrison's Action doesn't seem be accounted for at all.

spoilers:

Not only is there no mention of the New 52 arc in anyway, but Mxy even refers to his girlfriend Gsptlsnz, even though the New 52 version was married to Nyxlygsptlnz, who is supposed to be the same character, but she's clearly the Pre-Flashpoint version, and he refers to her as girlfriend, not wife.

end of spoilers

More about the nature of the New 52 Superman and Lois were revealed in this week's Superwoman. More on that when the discussion thread is up.

spoilers:

I think the Superwoman issue confirms that Nuperman and Nu Lois and Superdad and Ma Lois are indeed the same people and somehow they were separated...and soon they will be whole. Some sort of merging is coming.

end of spoilers

[Kuwagaton]

It was all kinda confusing, but mainly I see him wanting to know where Jon is, and I would imagine any questions about Mxy revolve around why he posted up as Clark for at least weeks on end and deleted his son. Mxy is very random but not prone to these sort of actions inexplicably.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

spoilers:

I think the Superwoman issue confirms that Nuperman and Nu Lois and Superdad and Ma Lois are indeed the same people and somehow they were separated...and soon they will be whole. Some sort of merging is coming.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

A merger, and all kinds of alterations to continuity.

end of spoilers

[Miles To Go]

spoilers:

A merger, and all kinds of alterations to continuity.

end of spoilers

Have you read New Superman yet? There's a few things of note in there too

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

Have you read New Superman yet? There's a few things of note in there too

Not yet.

I'll probably read it a few hours from now.

[The Learner]

I really enjoyed the issue, especially the back story. It was fantastic. The interaction between Jon and Ruppletat [Cool name], art are good too.
Now that Lois doesn't remember Jon, I am kinda concerned if it'll sideline her for the rest of the issues. Coming to Oz, he has some pretty uber tech that is capable of capturing and negating the powers of an omnipotent being!!! Super excited for Superman #19 next week.

Anyone read Superwoman? How is that? I haven't read it yet.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

Anyone read Superwoman? How is that? I haven't read it yet.

Amazing.

While I was in the process of making the discussion thread, I kept rambling on about all the metatext and I just couldn't keep myself from rambling when talking about the issue, so I just backspaced everything because I didn't want to make a post that was a disjointed essay.

The issue was dense, and clues you in on how the conclusion of Reborn is going affect Superman and the New 52 Universe.

If others read the issue and interpret it the way I did, it's going to be a very controversial issue because of what it has to say about the Superman mythos. But I loved it, it's much closer to what I wanted out of the book than the first story arc, although I do think the first story arc is better overall.

[The Learner]

Amazing.

While I was in the process of making the discussion thread, I kept rambling on about all the metatext and I just couldn't keep myself from rambling when talking about the issue, so I just backspaced everything because I didn't want to make a post that was a disjointed essay.

The issue was dense, and clues you in on how the conclusion of Reborn is going affect Superman and the New 52 Universe.

If others read the issue and interpret it the way I did, it's going to be a very controversial issue because of what it has to say about the Superman mythos. But I loved it, it's much closer to what I wanted out of the book than the first story arc, although I do think the first story arc is better overall.

Any chance for a merger?

[DragonPiece]

Seems like next issue is gonna be the real butter because we will finally see how new 52 superman fits into this.