New Super-Man 13 Preview/Discussion

[adrikito]

Super-man Zero Kidnaps Omen..

http://comicbook.com/dc/2017/07/07/e...super-man-13/1

[Assam]

This issue was great. I'm shocked. Absolutely shocked.

Kenan is really coming into his own, Baixi, I-Ching and Avery got good moments, the story and art continue to be top notch and come one: We've a Bane of China now. Between this and Alpaca you know they're slowly setting up an arc where the JLC has to face a team of Bat-Man rogues.

[Katana500]

I really liked todays issue too! I just wish it sold more every month, so i wouldnt be nervous reading the solicits and seeing 'last issue'

[darkseidpwns]

This issue was great. I'm shocked. Absolutely shocked.

Kenan is really coming into his own, Baixi, I-Ching and Avery got good moments, the story and art continue to be top notch and come one: We've a Bane of China now. Between this and Alpaca you know they're slowly setting up an arc where the JLC has to face a team of Bat-Man rogues.

That Bane looked like a parody though, I dont see any serious story in store with him or the Bat rogues, just tongue in cheek funny stuff.

[gwangung]

That Bane looked like a parody though, I dont see any serious story in store with him or the Bat rogues, just tongue in cheek funny stuff.

Well, that's why they have a MacArthur Genius writing this thing and not us fans.....(Seriously, I think more than 3/4 of the fans missed all the Chinese folk tales and mythology that's infusing the book, even after the broad strokes from the White Snake Legend...)

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

Well, that's why they have a MacArthur Genius writing this thing and not us fans.....(Seriously, I think more than 3/4 of the fans missed all the Chinese folk tales and mythology that's infusing the book, even after the broad strokes from the White Snake Legend...)

As much as I love the book, I do feel I'm not appreciating it as much as I should be.

[gwangung]

As much as I love the book, I do feel I'm not appreciating it as much as I should be.

I'm afraid we're all cultural illiterates here. All we know is American pop culture....all the world cultural stuff flies over our heads...

[Slaughter]

My ten cents:

- Kenan faces a lot of inner turmoil, but Master I-Ching sets him straight. That IS a lot of things to take at once.
- See Kenan, this is why not taking that guy back to prison was a bad idea.
- Dude that's some cold torture. Some would say the reverse, through. I heard the chinese invented torture.
- "China is weird" mah gurl you just came from a place where a speed storm turned randos into speedsters and survived getting murdered by a guy called himself Godspeed
- "Am I-Ching? I can see why you would call me that. Shadows often retain the original's shape."
- Clearly the two Chings are not the same person, because we see them in different places in time and space they could't both be at once without being two people.
- Anathema lol!
- Man I can't help but feel bad for poor Superman Zero there. The guy was treated like some discardable tool, then kept stuck in a lab indefinitively. Dr. Omen still treats him like trash even through the guy is super-powerful and, you know, right there. She is really no mother to poor Zero.
- In this issue: What if Superman wasn't dead during Knightfall.
- American Alien. Heh, I see what you did there.

The mystery of "E-Ching" (E for Evil) continues.
Here's my theory: I think E-Ching is the Pre-Crisis I-Ching who somehow escaped/survived all the multiverse weirdness intact without fusing with his post-crisis counterpart, attained great qi and became evil/morally ambiguous, while the I-Ching we know is the New52 one. That explains how E-Ching clearly knows about timeline reboots. I wonder if they will tie that concept with Buddhist/Dharmic concepts of reincarnation.

Alternatively, I-Ching did something to his qi and split himself into Pure Yang and Pure Yin. It would explain why E-Ching has that weird glowing outline around him, and how he can repower a kryptonian clone with his yang/solar radiation. There's also a clear color symbolism, with E-Ching wearing all-white and I-Ching wearing all-black.

[HsssH]

I was thinking more about Yang/Yin thing, it probably would fit better in this story while Crisis stuff would be a bit out of place. Also, was that a figure or speech or is Super-Man zero supposed to be actual brother of Kenan?

[Frontier]

I was thinking more about Yang/Yin thing, it probably would fit better in this story while Crisis stuff would be a bit out of place. Also, was that a figure or speech or is Super-Man zero supposed to be actual brother of Kenan?

I think it was a figure of speech, or they're "brothers" in that they both owe their lives to Dr. Omen.

[stephens2177]

1 is her actual kid,and the other is a clone.course zero could be a clone OF Kenan,just aged to adulthood,like Kon and black zero.

[Katana500]

Who's icon is the white one after Wonder-Woman?

[Slaughter]

Zero being a clone of Kenan could be possible, but I don't see the resemblance there.

I was thinking more about Yang/Yin thing, it probably would fit better in this story while Crisis stuff would be a bit out of place. Also, was that a figure or speech or is Super-Man zero supposed to be actual brother of Kenan?

Would it? Dharmic religions like Buddhism are all about circles of reincarnation, in other realities even. How does that work in a multiverse were time is a circle that suffers constant alteration? You're dead, and then BAM! You're not. The events of your life happen again, with alterations. Also, you were born decades later for some reason.
I've read that Dharmic religions may have influenced Gnosticism.

I remember when I was seeing the first hi-res version of Morrison's Map of the Multiverse from Multiversity, and my cousin was there and passed by me, and asked me what was that. I told her it was a map of the DC Multiverse, she told me it looked like the Mandala. We see the Mandala symbol in Issue #12 as E-Ching describes the realms of existance, and they remind me a lot of things in the DC Multiverse map.

Well, the Yang/Yin thing is weird. Yang is light and Yin is dark, right? Should't the real deal be the one in white? Then again, both Yang contains some of Yin, and Yin contains some of Yang within itself. Unless its a "dark is not evil" thing. E-Ching seems to adress himself as a "shadow" of the real I-Ching, and shadow is Yin qi. Perhaps the Yang and light/white theme of E-Ching is part of the Yang within Yin, and E-Ching is actually a being of dark/shadow/evil/Yin.

E-Ching interrupts I-Ching meditation. "What is it you're so fond of saying? 'To become selfless, one must first have a self.' How is that working out for you?" Then I-Ching says "You!" and E-Ching replies "Don't you mean - me?

Whoever E-Ching is, I think he is an agent of the Gods/Demigods. He believes super-heroes are humans attempting to enter the realm of demigods.

So we have:
- Kenan Kong: Full of self, full of ego. Currently in the process of honing his qi to act like Superman, he is turning his self into selflessness.
- Superman Zero: Has great power/qi, but no self. Desires to have two names. Power comes easily to him because he lacks a self, so power is all he has/is.
- Green Snake/Peng Deilan, White Snake and Sorceror Monk Fahai: Animals that cultivated their qi to ascend from the realm of animals to the realm of humans.

There's also a theme of dualities:
- Dr. Omen/Kenan's Dad
- I-Ching/E-Ching
- Kenan/Zero
- Peng Deilan/Fahai

[stephens2177]

He could be kenans clone,or he could be a reincarnated kon-el from another existence,who doesn't know who he is,or how to become more than just what he is now

[HsssH]

Zero being a clone of Kenan could be possible, but I don't see the resemblance there.



Would it? Dharmic religions like Buddhism are all about circles of reincarnation, in other realities even. How does that work in a multiverse were time is a circle that suffers constant alteration? You're dead, and then BAM! You're not. The events of your life happen again, with alterations. Also, you were born decades later for some reason.
I've read that Dharmic religions may have influenced Gnosticism.

I remember when I was seeing the first hi-res version of Morrison's Map of the Multiverse from Multiversity, and my cousin was there and passed by me, and asked me what was that. I told her it was a map of the DC Multiverse, she told me it looked like the Mandala. We see the Mandala symbol in Issue #12 as E-Ching describes the realms of existance, and they remind me a lot of things in the DC Multiverse map.

Well, the Yang/Yin thing is weird. Yang is light and Yin is dark, right? Should't the real deal be the one in white? Then again, both Yang contains some of Yin, and Yin contains some of Yang within itself. Unless its a "dark is not evil" thing. E-Ching seems to adress himself as a "shadow" of the real I-Ching, and shadow is Yin qi. Perhaps the Yang and light/white theme of E-Ching is part of the Yang within Yin, and E-Ching is actually a being of dark/shadow/evil/Yin.

E-Ching interrupts I-Ching meditation. "What is it you're so fond of saying? 'To become selfless, one must first have a self.' How is that working out for you?" Then I-Ching says "You!" and E-Ching replies "Don't you mean - me?

Whoever E-Ching is, I think he is an agent of the Gods/Demigods. He believes super-heroes are humans attempting to enter the realm of demigods.

So we have:
- Kenan Kong: Full of self, full of ego. Currently in the process of honing his qi to act like Superman, he is turning his self into selflessness.
- Superman Zero: Has great power/qi, but no self. Desires to have two names. Power comes easily to him because he lacks a self, so power is all he has/is.
- Green Snake/Peng Deilan, White Snake and Sorceror Monk Fahai: Animals that cultivated their qi to ascend from the realm of animals to the realm of humans.

There's also a theme of dualities:
- Dr. Omen/Kenan's Dad
- I-Ching/E-Ching
- Kenan/Zero
- Peng Deilan/Fahai

Bumping this just to say that this was good read and thanks for sharing your thoughts.