Action Comics 976 Discussion

[AlexanderLuthor]

For those wondering why Mxy was involved - he is one of the only characters in the Superman universe who could access the realm where Nuperman and Lois had been zapped to by Manhattan (we presume)

[GSman]

For those wondering why Mxy was involved - he is one of the only characters in the Superman universe who could access the realm where Nuperman and Lois had been zapped to by Manhattan (we presume)

But Nuperman and Lois were in Lana as red energy weren't they? Which is how they showed up in Superman #19 because Lana let go of the Red Energy.

[GreatKungLao]

1. Why is Lois and Clark such a threat to Dr. Manhattan?
I don't like the idea that Manhattan is the big bad, but the Mars thing is another in your face hint that indeed Manhattan is the baddie here. So why would he work to split up Lois and Clark? Is Lois and Clark the threat? Or perhaps it is Jon that is the being who could challenge Manhattan? The only thing I can think of, is that this entire "multiverse" came back in the first place because of Kal-L. Kal-L was the key to returning the multiverse.

If I recall correctly, in one of the interviews Johns said that antagonist does not necessarily means a villain. I think he is simply experimenting out of curiousity. Remember what Wally West said to Barry? This universe had love and hope stolen from it. Maybe Dr Manhattan is curious about if a world can live without these things, if a world can get these things back without someone else's manipulations, but as a natural course of events. As Superman Reborn shows, love and hope is back in DC universe thanks to the center of it all - Superman and Lois. Mr Oz and Manhattan thought that it is not possible probably because they did not believed in things like these to have any sort of importance for the world and living beings. In my opinion it is a great way to show how positive stuff can overcome and conquer even its darkest times. Maybe it's too fairy tale'ish, but I love stuff like this and can't whine about it making its way into DC comics, especially into the series of my most favorite super hero of all time, who should be about this stuff: love, hope, acceptance, happiness, how all of it can shine bright even after living through its worst times. Mr Oz saying that whose final word in it would be: Superman's or Manhattan's probably means that point of views of these two characters will collide at some point and one of them will come out more reasonable. Dr Manhattan might not be a villain, but just pretends to be one in order to test DC Universe's limits of overcomeing the impossible.

One reason I'm really loving Rebirth is that I feel like they've found a nice balance between 'action' and 'adventure.' We get Superman slugging it out with Doomsday or trapped on a hostile alien world fighting for Lex Luthor's life without his powers, and we also get a day at the Hamilton County fair, a Super-sons team-up, and a supernatural mystery deep in the woods.

This is, in my humble opinion, shaping up to be the best of times for Superman fans.

This. Thousands times this. Superman stories since Rebirth consist of so many genres at the same time and all have really great settings, really different from each other. Superman books became so contrasting. It even had horror elemnts thatnks to Mxy and doppleClark who had some really creepy angles and situations. It's good to be Superman fan this year. Really excited for what's coming next.

[Patrick Gerard]

I liked it. It left more questions dangling than I expected or hoped for but, with luck, next ACTION clears some of those up.

I will say that I think four specialized creative teams is better for events like this.

I think Jurgens is a great "second act" kind of guy and I recall him playing that role back in the weekly era, with a few exceptions. I think Tomasi is a great "first act" kind of guy (and Loeb was in his day).

For my money, what I liked about the Loeb/Kelly era was that you had:

Loeb tease some intriguing setups.
Casey or Millar flesh those out while developing a side concept.
Schultz doing heavy world building.
And Kelly generally bringing it home.

I'd like it if we had a Joe Kelly or Geoff Johns to act as a "closer" for stories like this. Somebody who says, "I'm going to take everything you just got and weave it all together." Grant Morrison is pretty good at this when he's on point as well. He tends to kind of gloss over the second act ending (How many of his stories timeskip past the second act fight? Most of them?) but he's good at that post-climax stuff.

I thought for sure we'd get something about, you know, Hank Henshaw descending on the Fortress of Solitude, since we saw him doing that. But that's likely dropped since, presumably, he was never there and was probably off being the Cyborg Superman while rotting in Blackgate now. I thought for sure we'd see a time wave hit him and change him into the Cyborg and Steel would clock him from behind while he's disoriented or something. I could have sacrificed a couple of pages to address his transformation back since he was active earlier in this arc.

[Aioros22]

Creative teams aside, because they`re damn good, this whole ContinuityTM repair ad naseum is just absolute bonkers, showing how DC hasn`t managed to slow down one bit one Crisis event after the other. This whole "this Superman - that Superman" resolution screams the PTB not knowing what they want. Was this an apology to Morrison? What for? Didn`t you decide to "kill" that Superman?

It`s just so unecessary it hurts.

[Naruto1996]

Exclusive: Dan Jurgens And Peter J. Tomasi Reveal The Consequences Of ‘Superman Reborn’ [Interview]

http://comicsalliance.com/superman-r...togallery-1=10

Jurgens and Tomasi clarify that Superman's continuity has been rewritten and that the world has only known one Superman. There are no longer two lines of time but one. And his acquaintances have known Jon since birth. In short, this is a mephistazo in reverse. The next two Action numbers will review the Superman story in this post-rebirth universe.

[Tenzel Kim]

The plot was conceived in order to reach a point, and it is successful in that regard. The point was making SuperDad the official, one and only, Superman. Don’t be deceived by the “merging” thing: it is not a merger in any way, this is 100% SuperDad. We shall see what will happen in the future, but every single element from the splash page (yes, also young Lex, even if someone missed him) is compatible with SuperDad rather than Nuperman. Yes, Jor-El has a headband, but if you look very closely you’ll see it wasn’t even properly drawn by Mahnke – it is just a result of the colouring. This makes me think that it is an afterthought, or something which they added “just in case”, but I think that Nuperman is completely, definitely gone. I don’t think that this should shock anyone.

Despite being a big fan of SuperDad and what has been done with Superman post-DCU Rebirth, I have to say I'm actually quite disappointed by how they ended this. In the story we get "A New, existence-wide, single reality, built from two" and then they go on to present a reality that based on what we see here has absolutely nothing of the N52 Superman. This does seem like a slap in the face of those readers who liked the New 52 Superman. I see where going with the dual memories as Superman Red and Blue would have caused a problem with Jon but to practically erase the New 52 Superman's entire history is not the way I would want to see him go away. I actually think that the Final Days of Superman was a pretty good farewell that made the character shine one last time, whereas this is just bringing him back get rid of him without really giving him a chance to shine.

I have no idea how I'd have done it but if I were a New 52 Superman fan I'd be as upset about this as I was when they introduced the New 52 Superman and left the old one without a proper goodbye.

[David Walton]

So crazy thought: what if they re-incorporate Hamilton County into the streamlined continuity by having Pa and Ma Kent live there? Or just Ma, if Pa was still killed?

[Korath]

Despite being a big fan of SuperDad and what has been done with Superman post-DCU Rebirth, I have to say I'm actually quite disappointed by how they ended this. In the story we get "A New, existence-wide, single reality, built from two" and then they go on to present a reality that based on what we see here has absolutely nothing of the N52 Superman. This does seem like a slap in the face of those readers who liked the New 52 Superman. I see where going with the dual memories as Superman Red and Blue would have caused a problem with Jon but to practically erase the New 52 Superman's entire history is not the way I would want to see him go away. I actually think that the Final Days of Superman was a pretty good farewell that made the character shine one last time, whereas this is just bringing him back get rid of him without really giving him a chance to shine.

I have no idea how I'd have done it but if I were a New 52 Superman fan I'd be as upset about this as I was when they introduced the New 52 Superman and left the old one without a proper goodbye.

Well, at least New 52 Superman had a proper send off, not once but twice. He died during Last Days and then again in Action 976, that's not too bad, all things considered. Obviously, it deprives me of a Superman I care about, but it'll save me a lot of money for the foreseeable future and it is still better than what D.C. let Rucka do to New 52 Wonder Woman by far. Like, from one edge of the Universe to the other better.

[GreatKungLao]

What is interesting about Mr Oz's final monologue. Did he just put Superman and Dr Manhattan into same league? O_o Considering that Blue energy gave Jon ability to fight back Mxy, who is a being from 5th Dimension with unlimited powers, who knows how actually powerful this Superman now is?

[Superlad93]

The catharsis factor of this book was pretty great!

-Jurgens writes a pretty fun Mxy. You can tell that he, Dini, Tomasi, and Gleason really had a great time playing with his self aware dialogue.

-I'd liked Jon in this issue. Very sympathetic, determined, and brave. More and more he's solidifying as Superboy. It'd be pretty interesting if his new power is related to the 5th dimension.
It's said that the Superman blood line eventually gains 5D powers. This might be the way this version of the blood line does it?

-"Mxy out" lol

-Cool, Lois is a brunet.

-So then according to Jurgens' words in the interview, the never was a Truth story line, and there's only ever been one Superman. Nice.


-This has shades of infinite Crisis and Final Crisis/Superman Beyond. This idea that it all comes from Superman. Oz is wondering who has the final say in reality: "Manhattan" or Superman.
That's a fascinating idea. It's also cool because, just as in Final Crisis, if Superman has his way then everyone gets a happy ending.

[DragonPiece]

Exclusive: Dan Jurgens And Peter J. Tomasi Reveal The Consequences Of ‘Superman Reborn’ [Interview]

http://comicsalliance.com/superman-r...togallery-1=10

Jurgens and Tomasi clarify that Superman's continuity has been rewritten and that the world has only known one Superman. There are no longer two lines of time but one. And his acquaintances have known Jon since birth. In short, this is a mephistazo in reverse. The next two Action numbers will review the Superman story in this post-rebirth universe.

I posted that on the last page, but yeah, it only gives more questions. Does only Superman and Lois know something the timeline changed?

[bat39]

Despite being a big fan of SuperDad and what has been done with Superman post-DCU Rebirth, I have to say I'm actually quite disappointed by how they ended this. In the story we get "A New, existence-wide, single reality, built from two" and then they go on to present a reality that based on what we see here has absolutely nothing of the N52 Superman. This does seem like a slap in the face of those readers who liked the New 52 Superman. I see where going with the dual memories as Superman Red and Blue would have caused a problem with Jon but to practically erase the New 52 Superman's entire history is not the way I would want to see him go away. I actually think that the Final Days of Superman was a pretty good farewell that made the character shine one last time, whereas this is just bringing him back get rid of him without really giving him a chance to shine.

I have no idea how I'd have done it but if I were a New 52 Superman fan I'd be as upset about this as I was when they introduced the New 52 Superman and left the old one without a proper goodbye.

But the truth is, that the whole POINT of the Rebirth initiative has been to do away with the New 52, except for the parts which 'worked'.

The purpose of 'Reborn' has never been to 'merge' the two Supermen - its been to restore some semblance of the pre-Flashpoint continuity and cement this version of Superman in the mainstream DCU.

Its LITERALLY been said that the 'Red' Superman and Lois had their timeline corrupted. A major subtext of this arc has been Superman basically fighting of a reboot.

As far as the New 52 Superman goes - honestly, I don't get the fanatical devotion towards him a certain vocal section of the fanbase has. I can understand people maybe not liking the current status quo of Superman being married with a kid, or being married at all. But I don't get the obsession with this particular iteration of the character. About the only memorable thing about him, IMO, is Morrison's arc. Honestly, I can now consider Morrison's arc as an interesting 'out-of-continuity'/Elseworlds take on the Golden Age and early Silver Age Superman and leave it at that.

Apart from the origin, New 52 Superman was basically Superman before the marriage, with an armor.

I do genuinely believe there should be an LOTDK style Superman series set in the past, featuring stories from Superman's early career. Maybe THAT would provide an alternative to the current status quo. But honestly, there was nothing that distinctive about Nuperman beyond some superficial aspects.

[grahamgg]

I've been reading the TPBs ... I was a fan of the original Supes & Lois being back in the DCU with Jon but to be honest, all this merging of continuities makes my head hurt. The whole thing (going back to Convergence) just smacks of editorial mandates and DC head honchos not really knowing what they want or where this thing is going. Look! It's a NEW 52 Superman! Oops! He didn't really turn out to be as popular as we wanted, let's bring back the original and kill off the new version! No wait, that's a slap in the face to the new fans, can't do that. Well, I know! We'll merge 'em! That'll piss everybody off!

PS ... It's kind of obvious the're shoehorning in either Dr. Manhattan or Ozymandias from Watchmen as the "big bad" behind the entire thing.

[Dr. Banner]

I loved the outcome. The Super books couldn't be better now!