Superman #23 Spoilers

[StrikeJP]

Loving this. Feels like a direct sequel to Action #775.

[FishyZombie]

Could be like Alfred when he lost his hand. Just ice it and re-attach it. I think in real life you can do that with like fingers maybe, but not the limb itself. But comic logic is another beast. But man, loving the sense that shit is hitting the fan here. Can't wait to see how Cobb and Manchester tie together.

[The Learner]

Came in to post this. This is the likely scenario.

Last time only Superman saw the illusion of Lois dying, and Black's plan failed. But if he can trick Lois & Jon this time around? Will they crumble under the pressure and ask Clark to kill, or to reconsider his actions? And how would his family changing their stance on it affect the Man of Steel?

We know Superman won't compromise his morals, but he's never been asked by Lois to do "whatever it takes"...judging from the look on her face, this is exactly what she means...these are interesting situations to put him in.

I forgot Lois asking that. It could also be some kind of trick. Clark is going to have a hard time sticking to his ideals. Like you said, these are interesting situations to put him in.

[Patrick Gerard]

So we're clear, Black was pretty obviously behind the hawks taking Goldie to provoke Jon to kill in the first issue, wasn't he? This has been a very long game.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

So we're clear, Black was pretty obviously behind the hawks taking Goldie to provoke Jon to kill in the first issue, wasn't he? This has been a very long game.

Probably.

It would explain why Kathy just happened to appear there out of nowhere.

[Katana500]

I liked Kathy! shame she turned out to be an alien or villain or whatever. Interested to see what happens to her.

[Sacred Knight]

Lois will get her leg back somehow. In fact I bet it'll tie into Captain Storm's fate. His wooden leg is on display in Black's place, maybe we find out he gave Storm a new leg, and thus introduce the tech to get Lois her's back.

[Frontier]

I'm glad they had Mahnke do this issue. It's fitting that he'd be the one to handle the reveal of Manchester Black and his new Super-Elite.

So not only is Hamilton a small-town with a secret, but it's filled with Black's new and improved Elite, heroes with no qualms about defending themselves using lethal force. Although it feels like Black's been orchestrating everything, right down to the monsters that are attacking, to prove his point against Superman, however manufactured.

Of course for added drama, these are people Clark and Lois have been living with for quite a while now who seem to be turning out to be a Superhero kill squad.

Poor Jon is going to be through the ringer in this story, isn't he? Of course, I could say the same for his Dad .

Whether what happened to Lois's leg was an illusion or likely a quick fix once this arc is over, that was still a pretty brutal and visceral image .

[adkal]

When the injury happened, I thought: 'It's just cut or skewered, no way did they sever it.'

Then... I gaped.

Dang.

[Thor-Ul]

I liked Kathy! shame she turned out to be an alien or villain or whatever. Interested to see what happens to her.

We are talking about Manchester Black here. A telepath/telekinetic capable of mind control and illusion twisting. What is real and what is illusion? Are the Hamilton residents really aliens or are they being mind controlled?

[Sacred Knight]

I think there are a handful that truly are alien/supernatural and will serve as the new Elite from this point onward. I am not so sure yet that its the case with the whole town, though, and that people like Cobb and Kathy aren't just being mentally manipulated. But yeah, that's just a guess. Considering the power set of Black, everything's up for debate.

I would say it would be a ballsy move to keep Lois missing a leg, but of course we already know that's not going to be the case since she's quite two-legged in the latest Action, which takes place after this. So its definitely either re-attached in hospital or by Manchester Black tech.

[Superlad93]

Most of the people in Hamilton are human. The workers that Clark saved in this issue are evidence of that. But there's also the thieves from issue 7 that can be seen in the pods from last issue. Cobb and Kathy are very likely aliens. Everyone that has displayed powers in Hamilton seems to be an alien (all of the people who showed up at the Kent house looking for Lois), so it's a safe bet to say that includes Cobb and Kathy. In fact I'm about 95% sure we saw Cobb's true (tall, lanky figure in shadow they were running from) form in the epilogue issue when Jon and Kathy went to Deadman's Swamp. Doesn't mean they're "bad aliens" though. No one of the Super Elite seems to be under any mind control. They just seem to be buying what Chester is selling in much the same way that some of the people of Earth bought into Chester's way of thinking in 775.

I really do feel like there's an element of time travel and multidimesional travel at play here. I'd like to point out again that Jon creating the multiversal cube in issue 8 happened because he had a dream where he saw it, and Krypto was there. Krypto is shown to be under some sort of influence early in this arc, so it all might be playing out like Jon's dream.

Also good on Strom's leg, Sacred. I hadn't thought about the fact that it lines up with Lois getting her's cut off. Chester has it, and I was wondering why. I think it might give more credit to my theory that Chester has info on the future. He might've known that Lois was gonna get her leg cut off. Maybe his powers have grown to a point where he sees into the future now?

[The Whovian]

I am not a Superman to say the least, but I have to admit, DC is killing it with their new Superman books, especially Superman and SS. I really like these two books. Superman was great. I was floored when Lois got her leg sheered off. I had to look twice to see if they actually did it before moving on to the next page. I kept thinking "Surely, they wouldn't do that to Lois". DC isn't afraid to make waves right now. I like it. Maybe Supes can ask Cyborg to hook her up with a cybernetic leg?

And the reveal, why we already kind of figured it out, was still cool. Keep it up DC. Two thumbs up from me!

[The Whovian]

When the injury happened, I thought: 'It's just cut or skewered, no way did they sever it.'

Then... I gaped.

Dang.

Same here! I honestly didn't think it happened. I thought "that was probably just a glancing blow". But nope.

[Chris24601]

Whether what happened to Lois's leg was an illusion or likely a quick fix once this arc is over, that was still a pretty brutal and visceral image .

I'll go one further and say its either an illusion or it will be repaired by one of the aliens or some of their tech before the story ends.

I say that because the notion that Superman would just be sitting on tech that could regrow severed human limbs (I don't think they'd be too inclined to go with cybernetics no matter how realistic looking because that's something every future writer would be saddled with) and using it only for his wife/close friends instead of sharing that with the world is unfathomable to me.

And even if he WAS actually sitting on that kinda tech for the personal use of his family and friends that's just as much an issue going forward as just about ANY injury one of his friends could suffer that doesn't kill them outright could be fixed with no drama. That's just NOT something you wanna leave in the heroes' hands.

So yeah, I'm thinking 75% chance its an illusion, 24% real but fixed by someone other than Superman and 1% someone in editorial decided Lois should get a cybernetic leg going forward.