Action Comics #981 Discussion [SPOILER]

[Miles To Go]

Pretty jam-packed issue, with cameos from the other members of the Super-Family observing the battle between Clark and Zod, setting up their inevitable apperances later in the story. Don't you just love it when Action lives up it's title billing? Lots of Super-feats in this one and a fantastic showcase for Zod's sheer power and brutality. The ending also reminded me of the recent story arc in Doctor Who.

Still not sure when this is set, because Jon is still whining about leaving Hamilton with Lois being insistent they move.

[DragonPiece]

Really good issue. Art was on point and the cameos were great.Before Reborn, I easily could have said Superman was the better of two Superman books, but Jurgens is fighting back strong lately with these great issues. I really love this current status quo.

Pretty jam-packed issue, with cameos from the other members of the Super-Family observing the battle between Clark and Zod, setting up their inevitable apperances later in the story. Don't you just love it when Action lives up it's title billing? Lots of Super-feats in this one and a fantastic showcase for Zod's sheer power and brutality. The ending also reminded me of the recent story arc in Doctor Who.

Still not sure when this is set, because Jon is still whining about leaving Hamilton with Lois being insistent they move.

Unless something from next weeks Superman 25 denies it, I'm pretty confident after reading this issue, this is set before Black Dawn. They still live in Hamilton and Lois and Jon even drive over there this issue. I just think if this was set after black dawn, there would have been more urgency to leave Hamilton as well as less reluctance from Jon on moving to Metropolis, especially with Kathy not holding him back to be in Hamilton since he'll know she is a alien.

[Kuwagaton]

If Kathy survives Black Dawn, I think it'd be more reason to stay.

But yeah, gotta love Superman rushing headfirst into those three with his senses screwed up, haha.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

This may not have changed my opinion of the run as a whole at all, but credit where credit is most certainly due: that final twist was cleverly, effectively built up to.

[WheelchairX]

I really enjoyed this issue. Great writing, great art and that final twist was effective and unpredictable - just what makes a great book.

[K. Jones]

Superman going for it is crazy, here. I mean I'm into his decisive choice for action and he fought hard and got away without serious injury. But jeez! This might be the most stacked Revenge Squad in history, he needs Supergirl, Steel, Superboy, Super-Luthor. (Maybe some Bat-Lois, too.)

Zod feels great here. I'm pretty stoked on his new costume, actually - I think in Zod's case especially, a mix-and-match approach, that involves "Kryptonian Armor", with a bit of the Man of Steel biometal design, some of the 90s Zod sort of "knight-like" armoring elements, and some of the Silver Age and New Krypton era black-on-grey Krypton military officer slightly fascistic Nazi-esque uniform design really works, as does giving him the "Z" (backwards S) instead of the previous Zod Crest, and giving him the cape.

[K. Jones]

Weird. Maybe not the right place to bring it up, but it just occurred to me that the Reborn timeline we just recently got in this title for Superman is in fact his official "New 52" history. I was thinking about COIE (and the fact that it happened, but it DID NOT destroy the Multiverse) thanks to Convergence. And how Convergence is the birthplace of Jon Kent, still in continuity, and his parents, and that Parallax crossover. But also the fact that Convergence is a textbook example of a pocket timeline scenario, a closed loop that repaired itself, and recall that at the end of Convergence, all the folks from doomed timelines that were trapped in the Bubbles (even the ones who were killed in Bubbles) just got reinserted back into their native timelines. So like, Bruce Wayne, dead Doctor Hurt and dead Joker, get reinserted back into the point right before Flashpoint takes effect ... and juts proceed to get Flashpointed anyway. Hurt is back alive, buried and toxified. Joker is back alive, and decides he wants to cut his face off (maybe to deal with the cosmic awareness that something freaky just happened?), and Bruce is back alive.

Just as simply, though probably less simple to explain; Pre-Crisis Barry gets reinserted back to COIE where he can die again, come back again, and get Flashpointed again. There wasn't a TON of overlap based on who was in the bubbles. We saw COIE-era Barry in the COIE bubble, but it was FP-era Wally in the IC-era bubble - though that is the point where he goes missing from the timeline due to shenanigans. Perhaps most interesting to me is the case of Dick Grayson, who exists in COIE-era and IC-era, and does the marriage thing to two different women in each. COIE-Dick is reinserted into COIE where he doesn't end up marrying Kory, and IC-Dick is reinserted just before Flashpoint where he doesn't end up marrying Babs.

So anyway, then there's the case of Superman and Lois.

Superman should be reinserted into his native timeline, to be flashpointed into New 52 Superman. There's extenuating circumstances, as he has stepped outside of the timeline repairing itself to go solve the COIE multiverse decimation problem. But when he gets back, to the New 52 universe ... he SHOULD reintegrate back into his new timeline. He should instantly merge with New 52 Superman. And he shouldn't have "arrived back a few years too early, allowing him to age up to proper middle-aged dad age". What's more ... he shouldn't have been back yet in the timeline at all - New 52 Superman shouldn't have come to fruition until Superman rejoined the timeline. And that timeline should have been the one we just had retconned in, where Jon was born and Perry White was there and everything happened.

That has to be where Mxyzptlk steps in. He said he took advantage of a timeline situation that was already happening. Convergence was erased, Superman was supposed to just get back and be Flashpointed into the new, different but similar history of Superman (complex enough because they have to do with Thawne, Barry, Pandora, AND Doctor Manhattan timeline ****). But instead we got a pretty dramatically different Superman and then learned an older Superman Classic was still living here in secret. (One realizes that upon finally reintegrating, N52 Superman (in his 20s) and Superdad (in his 40s) must have split the difference age-wise, and met somewhere in the middle.)

So right ... so Mxy must have split them in two the very second Superman returned to the universe and reintegrated into the timeline. And he, or the split itself, is probably why Superdad ended up landing in the timeline in the year that he turned up, 5 years before the New 52 stuff kicked off, 10 years before now, ish. And an interesting result of the split is that because he was split in two, with distinct chronal energies ... New 52 Superman actually got Flashpointed WAY harder than certain other core DCU characters. I mean Aquaman is essentially the same dude with minor historical tweaks. Batman and Hal Jordan's histories are virtually unchanged.

Man, I thought I had a really punchy, short, simplified way of describing it to myself for shorthand reference but I got carried away writing.

Convergence reintegrated everybody into the native timelines, so Mxy must have done the split right before Superman Classic got Flashpointed, basically. This ironically means that Mxy is responsible for the loophole that allowed Jon Kent to continue existing - although the fact that the "birth" itself happened in the Flashpoint Timeline Universe Bubble, and that some force also kept that Timeline alive longer after the Flashpoint ended, could conceivably, if a writer wanted, have something to do with it, too.

[Lvenger]

Mxy's not the one who split Superman into two separate versions. It's most likely Manhattan who did that but as of right now it's unrevealed.

[Sacred Knight]

Good issue. I liked the build up to the Super Family all coming together. No Steel and Superwoman cameo though, was kinda odd. In any case he's going to have plenty of eyes help him now that he's blinded for the siege at the Fortress.

[adrikito]

BLIND...

I never imaginated that, during the battle I imaginated another problem.. Is dangerous that Black Vault.

But, this is temporal.. Maybe the Fortress can heal him.

I like Lois Lane with Black Hair.

[Sacred Knight]

Its black and longer in this issue. Another reason to like Herbert.

[Frontier]

There's just something about seeing Zod, Cyborg-Superman, and Eradicator all together, squabbling like the dynamic Supervillains they are and bashing Superman that just feels so awesome. I can't wait till we have the entire Revenge Squad together just to see the character interactions and subsequent Superman-beatings. Mongul and Zod are going to love each other .

I noticed Zod's interest was very piqued when he learned Superman had a son, and a half-Kryptonian one at that. I wonder if we're going to see a Jon - Zod confrontation happen during the ensuing melee in the upcoming issues? That would be an interesting encounter for the both of them.

So Zod's army is stuck in the Phantom Zone. I wonder if we're going to get cameos of Faora and Non ?

It was nice getting establishing shots of the rest of the Super-Family reacting to Superman's fight with the Revenge Squad. Not only does it setup the rest of them coming in to back Clark up, but it makes the Super-line feel more like it's own fleshed-out universe .

Not that I don't believe Supes would have a hard time taking on Henshaw, Zod, and Eradicator all together, but a part of me did feel like he could've done better against them...but then you get the revelation at the end of the issue, with Jurgens doing a great job of hinting at in hindsight, that explains everything.

[Lvenger]

Good issue. I liked the build up to the Super Family all coming together. No Steel and Superwoman cameo though, was kinda odd. In any case he's going to have plenty of eyes help him now that he's blinded for the siege at the Fortress.

I'd guess Steel and Superwoman would be shown next issue since they're at the Fortress when the Revenge Squad and Super Family square off.

[stephens2177]

Man I could just watch the bad guys talking to each other all day lol.

Blind is cool,but doesn't a SUPER healing factor make any injury that lasts almost impossible?

[David Walton]

I noticed Zod's interest was very piqued when he learned Superman had a son, and a half-Kryptonian one at that. I wonder if we're going to see a Jon - Zod confrontation happen during the ensuing melee in the upcoming issues? That would be an interesting encounter for the both of them.

"Come to me, son of Kal-El! Kneel before Zod!"