Hope and Family Are at the Center of This Week’s SuperChat

Though they’ve been stuck in a bad place on their respective worlds, our Supermen each rally themselves in their own ways on this week’s Superchat. 

One Superman finally escapes a bottled city, taking the fight to Brainiac to save all bottled cities everywhere, in Superman ‘78 #5, written by Robert Venditti, drawn by Wilfredo Torres, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Dave Lanphear. 

Over on Warworld, Superman & the Authority find themselves subject to Mongul’s laws, bound in their first chains—but there is still hope to be found, in Action Comics #1,038, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, drawn by Miguel Mendonça, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Dave Sharpe. 

Back on Earth, Jon Kent does a little investigation into Bendix’s operations, with a little help from his friends and family, in Superman: Son of Kal-El #6, written by Tom Taylor, drawn by John Timms, colored by Hi-Fi and lettered by Dave Sharpe.

Armaan Babu: Hey, Tony! I hope you’ve been having a good holiday season. I’ve been back in my home town enjoying family, food, and, in the run up to New Year’s, a great number of vague but well-meant inspirational messages, so seeing the Supermen of two worlds fight back against seemingly hopeless odds has hit home juuust a little bit more this week. Have you been feeling similarly?

Tony Thornley: Honestly, been getting over a cold, so this week’s books are a welcome escape!

Superman’s Out of the Bottle

Armaan: Brainiac has had enough of these humans, their free will, their refusal to let him tell them the best way they can be saved. He’s bottling up Metropolis and going home before Earth can destroy itself with its alien welcoming ways. This seems to be the dispassionate Coluan 12th Level Intellect’s version of throwing a tantrum, and I love the pettiness of it. Peak villain.

Inside Kandor, however, Superman’s parents are preparing to, once again, send him away to fight for a better world. Tony, there are a lot of stories where a Superman is reunited with his parents only for him to have to say goodbye again – how do you feel this one ranks?

Tony: I think the unique thing about this version of this very familiar story is that here we get to see Reeves and Brando interact. I think it might have been a missed opportunity of the Donner Superman to never have these two greats together- one in his prime and one at the beginning of his career. Venditti and Torres capture the likeness and cadence of their performances so well that I feel like, in these scenes between Jor-El and Clark, we finally get to see them on screen together.

That interaction is really where the strength of the issue is. This issue is otherwise everyone is Metropolis afraid of what’s happening (loved the Richard Pryor and Shaggy Rogers cameos), and Brainiac watching it happen coldly. Seeing Jor-El proud of his son, as Superman steps into the unknown, into danger to save those he loves, as well as thousands of total strangers… Not just Jor-El, but this particular version of Jor-El? It’s a moving tribute to the film.

Armaan: With Superman out of the bottle (petition to make that the new “cat’s out of the bag”), we get to see him have a rematch with Brainiac’s scout robots, and I really enjoyed this battle sequence. First, it’s a visual treat. The old Superman movies may have had their cheesiness, but they absolutely brought about a sense of awe, and we see that here. The bright pinks of energy flashing against the reds of Brainiac’s ship in full alarm mode look great, but my favorite visual moment is seeing the miniature people of Kandor looking at Superman, large as a titan, saving them all.

What I also appreciate about this battle is that it avoids the trope of a difficult enemy suddenly being easier to fight because there are more of them. Superman barely held his own against one of these bots in his first encounter with them—here he defeats them not with a sudden burst of inspired strength, but with cleverness, using their own power against them. 

There’s a thoughtfulness there that you don’t see often enough in comic action scenes.

Tony: When a creative team can do something that clever with an action scene, I’m always drawn to it more. It’s not perfect, but it lands. And these scenes are where Bellaire’s work really shines in this issue.

Interesting behind the scenes thing to note here- we talked probably the first time we chatted about this series, about how it was clear that the series was originally intended for the old DC digital first format- shorter chapters, with physically smaller pages (half the height of normal pages). It’s clear about halfway through this issue, Torres got the world that they were switching away from that format. Suddenly the layouts started being more varied, and you couldn’t just split each page cleanly into a top and bottom half. It did make for a weird change when Clark first shows up to confront Brainiac, to the point that it felt like an editor put a few pages out of order. But it was good to get that change here.

Armaan: I hadn’t noticed that, Tony, but that’s a great catch!

With the robots destroyed, Superman’s shown Brainiac that Brainybots aren’t going to do the trick—it’s time for a tactical retreat to get to the big guns. Superman hasn’t given up on trying to appeal to Brainiac’s better nature, though, as he carefully walks down spaceship corridors, keeping an X-Ray eye out for further traps.

That’s when Brainiac shows up in his giant mech suit in what has to be one of my favorite lines of villainous arrogance of all time – “I am my better nature!” 

Superman did his best, but it looks like it’s going to be an all out brawl to the finish. The book’s got one last card to reveal, though—Lex is triumphantly rising through bottle Metropolis in a hot air balloon, a plan clear in mind, and I’m dying to find out what it is.

Tony: Not just that- he’s in the classic Luthor colors! I can’t wait for the conclusion!

First Links in the Chain

Armaan: So, as great as the run-up to this Warwold Saga has been, and as big as the last two issues were, it feels like this, here, finally, is where the saga truly begins, and I love that. I love that this run got the time to properly build this story up, to get two issues that introduce Warworld and Superman & the Authority’s brutal beatdown. I can see another timeline where this story was introduced about a year ago, starting with this issue, with a handful of flashbacks catching us up.

Tony: Before we started writing, we talked about how Johnson could have started here, and wrote about Clark and the Authority starting a cold war, working up from the bottom. I think it’s smart that he didn’t do that, or writing the team as an invading army. I like that we had two issues of Superman being taken down a peg first. We’ll talk about why in a minute.

Armaan: Before we dive in proper, though, I know you have a lot to say about this issue’s big step-up in art.

Tony: Definitely. Mendonca is back on pencils this issue. While the complaint that he’s very house style is still in effect here, it’s much stronger than last issue. The lines are much tighter, he has some stronger layouts. It’s better, and I think soon, he’ll be a generally stronger fill-in for Sampere than he was last month.

But for as much a step up as it was on art, our poor heroes are sure in a tough spot.

Armaan: With their defeat and the gloating done, we get a more personal view of what life under Mongul’s tyranny is like. We’ve heard about it, from the Phaelosians, but now we get to see it. Mongul attempts to turn Superman against his own morals—failing, of course, in a very touching scene, but you have to wonder just how many people Mongul is going to hurt in his attempts to break Superman.

We also have the scene of Natasha and OMAC receiving their new chain links for those they defeated in the arena. As bad as it is to be defeated by a terrible enemy, there’s something much worse when you gain approval from that system for what they’ve forced you to do. 

This was a powerful scene. There’s a religious fervor to the Warzoons’ obsession with combat, iron and the strength that the chains represent. They worship the chains that bind them, and very few people seem to be questioning it…for now, at least. 

You mentioned that you liked that Superman was taken down a peg here—and it appears that Superman prefers it this way too, as battered and bruised as he is.

Tony: Yeah, and he’s right where he wants to be, with the Phaelosians. Makes me wonder what their secret is, why the UP is trying to keep their existence secret. I’m sure we’re going to get it in this story arc, but that doesn’t make it any less fascinating.

This story could have gone so wrong. There’s an alternate reality where Superman and the Authority waltz onto Warworld as an invading army, beat up Mongul, and then leave the entire planet in chaos, or worse just pretending that everything would be fun, full of warm fuzzies. This is a much more thoughtful approach compared to what it could have been. We’ve lived through that in the last 20 years; we don’t need to pretend that it would have gone differently for Superman.

I’m sort of on the edge of my seat now. This is becoming my most anticipated title every month.

Armaan: Same here.

What fascinates me here is that it kind of had to happen this way. We saw what happened when Superman flew in from a position of power, floating above the Warzoons to try and inspire a better way. He was mocked. A bigger failure than the physical beating he received soon after.

Here, though, he’s sacrificed himself – admirably – but the thing is, he’s taken the Authority down with him, and I like that Midnighter calls him out on that. Superman’s life isn’t the only one on the line here; he’s got a whole team who have been dragged into the same stakes he has.

We’re all fans of Superman here, but I am very, very excited to see how the rest of them deal with the situation they’ve been thrown in.

Family, Flirtations, Fights!

Armaan: This series has been a little rocky for us, but I think this one might be my favorite so far. Not just that, but this issue solidifies what I think this series should be. If the rest of the series could be more like this one, I’m gonna have a much easier time enjoying what comes forth.

It plays to Taylor’s biggest strengths—fun, heartwarming interactions between friends and family, which I’m suddenly realizing has been missing from this book. Jon’s no loner, his connections are a big part of who he is, even more than his father I’m tempted to say. 

Plus, Superman may be a daytime hero, but Hi-Fi’s work on all the night scenes this issue is gorgeous. 

How’d you enjoy the issue?

Tony: Taylor plays a lot more with what a Superman book featuring Jon really could be. He’s embracing who Jon is as a character, his relationships with others, and building it in this issue into something much more interesting. It’s no longer a Superman Lite story. It’s Jon Kent, Superman story.

I’m still not totally bought in on Bendix as a villain, but this issue did a lot to bring me around.

Armaan: This issue gives us a lot more clarity on what Bendix is up to. We open with a purple-eyed, psychic villain kidnapping the homeless of Blüdhaven (possibly setting up the Superman/Nightwing crossover happening later this year), and literally shipping them off to Gamorra.

Before we get back to them, though, there’s a little fallout to deal with from the previous issues. First up, Lois Lane is understandably upset that the world’s most paranoid superhero couldn’t keep his best friend’s parents safe because he somehow didn’t factor in the idea of a metahuman being used as a weapon. That’s right, Batman, I’m calling you out—you really dropped the ball on this one.

It’s a small scene, and I do understand that even as a writer it’s not easy to find a way to outwit Batman, but I really think that Bats would have come up with better protection than this. 

Tony: I adore that there is little Batman is afraid of… except making Lois Lane mad.

We’ve talked at length with past issues how Taylor couldn’t strike the right balance of the social issues he likes to write about with the superheroics. I think he comes a lot closer here. Yes there’s human trafficking but he does it in a more allegorical way that feels just about right for the DCU.

Armaan: I think there is a place for comics to tackle real-world issues in more real-world ways, I just don’t think Taylor’s the writer for it. Giving Superman a situation to tackle that could only really happen in comics – human trafficking to supply Bendix’s metahuman arms race – is very comfortable middle ground.

The human moments are a lot of fun here, too. Jon gets some quality time with Jay, which I appreciate, after the rushed lead-in to their kiss. They have dinner, get to know each other. Jon does the classic Superman (and Flash, now that I think of it) move of speeding to another city to grab a more authentic dinner…it’s nice. We also get a rushed origin story for Jay—it turns out Jay’s a lot more important to this Bendix plot than we thought, as the son of Gamorra’s former President.

Which leads us to one of the most amusing scenes of the series so far. Jay, Robin, and Lois Lane all independently infiltrate STAR Labs to help Jon gather the information he needs, bumping into each other in the dead of night. Jon’s got a wonderful support system of brilliant people, and I love to see them all running into each other while doing what they do best.

Tony: I’m glad that they made Damian’s appearance a surprise. It made the DCU connections feel more natural, rather than a ploy just to sell a handful more issues. That scene was pretty funny, but it worked. I really dug what it accomplished too. The plot advanced, Jay felt more naturally integrated into the cast, and Damian and Jon got a good moment. Taylor and Timms’ version of Damian did feel a little off though, or was that just me?

Armaan: Mildly? There’s the new costume, which I’m not used to, but it also looks a bit like he’s aged up—possibly to look a little closer to Jon’s age, I’m thinking.

Tony: I think that was part of it, and the other part was Taylor’s dialogue was closer to Dick or Tim than Damian, which is disappointing since he’s written a good Damian before. Maybe it’ll work better in the upcoming special, or maybe I missed something in Damian’s series. I don’t know.

Armaan: What I did enjoy from the art is the next scene. Jon saving the kidnapped metas from the ship. This was a great sequence. Like I said earlier, we don’t often get a lot of nighttime fights in a Superman comic, and Hi-Fi’s lighter colors look wonderful when contrasted with darker hues. I think my favorite moment is Jon heroically throwing out lifebuoys to help out the henchmen he just super-breathed off the ship. Timms gives us some real dynamic moments here. Plus, between magic and Kryptonite, it’s easy to forget Superfolks are vulnerable to psychic attacks too, giving Jon a real challenge in this fight. 

Family, flirtations, fights. What more could you ask of a comic?

Tony: Agreed, it was a lot of fun. More of this, less of… whatever those other few issues were.

Daily Planet Musings

• J’onn’s serial continues to be interesting in Action, but it still feels a little out of place.
• Would love to see more traditional Superman supporting cast in Son of Kal-El, especially Jimmy Olsen.
• Also, Kara and Conner when?
• Non-bald villains when?