Here at SuperChat, we don’t just talk about the Man of Steel himself — there are worlds and worlds of stories revolving around our favorite Kryptonian, and this month, we’re lookin’ at a lot of them!
In the Action Comics 2022 Annual – written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Si Spurrier, drawn by Dale Eaglesham and Ian Churchill, colored by Lee Loughridge and lettered by Dave Sharpe – we take a break from the Warworld Saga to take a look at the influence Mongul and Clark’s respective mothers had on them, with a peek into the past.
On Earth, Jon Kent goes on the offensive against Bendix, and finding out just how deeply Bendix has his claws sunk into American politics, in Superman: Son of Kal-El #12, written by Tom Taylor, penciled by Cian Tormey and Ruairi Coleman, inked by Scott Hanna, Ruari Coleman, Raül Fernandez and Cian Tormey, colored by Frederico Blee and Matt Herms and lettered by Dave Sharpe.
Skipping back to the past again, Batman and Superman continue to fight against the the Devil Nezha — and might have to come together in a way they never have before, in World’s Finest #4, written by Mark Waid, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain and lettered by Aditya Bidikar.
Lastly, we have Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen’s Boss: Perry White in an anthology that has so many great names involved, we thought we’d just post the entire credits page right here:
Whew.
Armaan Babu: There’s a lot of Superchat to chat about this week, Tony, and very little time to superdo it all in! Our own Perry White, Matt Lazorwitz, may have the patience of a saint, but can we say the same for our readers?
Honestly, can we? I know very little about our readers. They must be Superman fans, though, so they’ve at least got that going for them!
Tony Thornley: My goodness that’s a lot, and we’re not even covering a main issue of Action Comics this month!
Interplanetary Parenting Parables
Armaan: I feel a little bad for the Kents, thinking of them as fictional characters who only get to live when they’re on the page. Because it seems like it’s impossible to do a story about Ma and Pa Kent that’s not about them imparting some life-long, small town wisdom on our boy Clark that profoundly shapes the man he grows up to be. Ma and Pa Kent can’t go out for ice cream, take a walk in the park or even tie their shoelaces without it being some allegory for how a person ought to behave. Still, as Superman-shaping stories go, this one was pretty charming…especially when directly contrasted with Mongul’s own harsh upbringing.
While Clark is being taught compassion towards bullies in Smallville, Kansas, a young Mongul is being taught that he’s not being nearly enough of a bully — anything outside of brutal, violent efficiency is weakness, and weakness means death.
Tony: When we get flashbacks, so much of Clark’s childhood seems to be focused on Jonathan Kent instilling his values on Clark. I’m glad that Johnson and Spurrier used Martha more, including a massive retcon to her personal history (or maybe it isn’t a retcon if it just hasn’t ever been explored). It’s a little weird that Jon basically doesn’t say anything the entire issue, but otherwise, I did like the narrative choices made here otherwise.
The Mongul story though…
Armaan: I definitely enjoyed the Clark story a lot more than the Mongul one. Johnson has what must be an entire campaign setting’s worth of notes about Warworld at this point, and its biggest players, and that was all out on display in this tale, but the story itself is a pretty paint-by-numbers view of how the very last scraps of the current Mongul’s compassion were more or less beat out of him.
The Clark story has a lot more to play with — but then again, compassion is always a lot more nuanced than cruelty. We see Clark see beyond his bully’s show of strength and hatred, to the fear and self-loathing that lies inside. We see Clark come to learn a little about secrets, and why even his own mother might want to keep them. Clark’s adorable good-boy swears as he tries to cut his own hair in solidarity with his mom’s going bald due to her chemo treatments. The good that Clark ultimately accomplishes — where on Warworld, cruelty simply grows like a weed, choking out everything else.
Tony: I really liked that Clark was so imperfect in this story. It shows the growth that he went through to become the person that he is today. He was a perfectly normal American kid, and he grew up to be such a good person because the Kents were truly good, compassionate people.
It was nice to see Churchill and Eaglesham on the line art by the way. Both artists actually did a great job of making Clark and Mongul actually look like children (one of my frequent pet peeves), and Churchill portrayed the emotional core of Clark’s story really well. He would not have been my first choice for a story about Superman’s childhood, but he really did a good job.
We Definitely Read This One
Armaan: Jonathan Kent’s been slandered in the press. Framed for murder. Forced to relocate his family to avoid attacks from another nation, and pushed to the limits of his powers to save the mind-controlled genetic experiments of the same nation. Jon is going on the offense, now — or he would, if he could gather just enough evidence to avoid causing a major diplomatic incident. Luckily, Jon’s got friends in high places, and so calls in recent billionaire Dick Grayson to drop in for a chat with Lex Luthor…and bug Luthor’s office in the process.
Tony: So here’s my problem with this issue. I know I read it. I’m absolutely positive of that.
I don’t remember a single thing about it..
Armaan: Well, that’s going to make this a very short discussion.
Tony: Wait a minute… We’re on issue #12? I have a purchase receipt but it’s not in my Comixology library… HANG ON ARMAAN.
Okay, I contacted customer service, fixed it and read the issue. Sure would be nice if the #1 digital comics platform ACTUALLY WORKED THE WAY IT WAS SUPPOSED TO. Now I’m ready to talk.
Armaan: I mean, it says a lot about how much you’ve been enjoying this series that you convinced yourself you read and forgot about it already.
Now that it’s fresh in your mind, though, what do you think?
Tony: We’ve expressed frustration with Taylor and writing social issues before. This issue was really weird for that. His version of Luthor the philanthropist is interesting. I think I’ve said before that I feel that Taylor writes Luthor well, and we get the two-faced side of Lex here that I really enjoy (though it would have been nice to get a nod to Lois confronting him a couple issues ago). But exactly how far he takes the idea of Lex and Dick Grayson connecting over what Dick’s done is so weird. I mean, Dick really hasn’t done anything for Lex to admire except avoid some assassins, has he?
I did like Jay and Jon confronting the corrupt Senator (who if I remember correctly is former Metropolis PD Commissioner Henderson, in a nice little bit of continuity), up to a certain point. It felt like very classic Superman… until Henderson turned into a tentacle monster, which was a total what the fuck moment for me. Though I guess it does show Bendix’s collaborators can’t trust him now, since I’m sure Henderson had no idea he was going to turn into a Cthulhu.
But on the plus side, Tormey and Coleman drew the hell out of the issue, and their styles meshed so well that it took me a page or so to realize they’d traded off duties.
Armaan: Yeah, I had a bit of a tricky time figuring out just where the trade-off was, so well done there. Also, I’m fine with a squid senator. I’m sure Tom Taylor would have loved an entire issue of Jonathan shaming a US Senator with trademark polite righteousness, but superhero books have a punching quota, dammit, and Krypto already hogged most of the action up to this point!
Fortunately for Team Superman, though, all of Bendix’s creations have a pretty simple weakness: a single chip that, once removed, removes Bendix’s control entirely. Unfortunately for Jay, though, in the process of removing that chip, his mask is removed — and now he stands before the entire world as a metahuman ally to Jon.
What do you reckon — now that Jay’s a public figure, do you think Jon’s going to let the world know that Jay’s his boyfriend as well?
Tony: From what we’ve heard, it sounds like that’s coming. So I’d guess so. Maybe that’s part of the focus of the upcoming Dreamer issue? We’ll see.
By Our Powers Combined…
Armaan: It’s our month to grab World’s Finest away from our BatChat buddies, and I’m glad we got this week’s, ‘cause not only do we have our regular Super and Bat family team-ups, we’ve also got ourselves some Green Lantern shenanigans. Specifically, Silver Age style Green Lantern shenanigans, where the rules can make even less sense than they probably do. Also, we get to see Hal Jordan get beat up. Between this series and DC vs. Vampires, we’re getting to see a lot of that, so hooray.
Tony: I love any time that a writer shows Hal Jordan being a complete dipshit, and this issue was great for that!
Armaan: Hal’s been possessed by the Devil Nehza, meaning his energy constructs pack a little magical wallop to them — which is significant, because he’s able to harm Superman with them. It’s also significant because it changes the rules juuuuust enough for Batman and Superman to be able to combine their willpower to just yank Hal Jordan’s ring off his finger through the power of their own mental focus. The warped green cherry on top of this strange cake is that since the two combined their willpower to summon the ring…once the ring hits them it combines the two of them, as well.
Tony: I love that Waid hand-waves the “I just wanted to give Mora something cool to draw” in the narration as “must be because of the magic!” Nice touch.
Armaan: It’s far from the first time we’ve seen ourselves a Superman and Batman composite, but I gotta say, as cool as this one looked, the combination was less than the sum of its parts. Batman’s a detective, and a planner — in the middle of a superbrawl that neither of them were prepared for, the Superman half brings a lot more to the table than the Bat-half does.
Still, I’ve long given up on this comic’s story and plot devices holding up to scrutiny. This book is fireworks — pretty colors and wild explosions of stuff happening all over the place. The story’s an excuse, and a pretty weak one at that.
Tony: Yeah, more and more by the issue, it’s clear that Waid is doing one of the things he does best- writing to his artistic partner’s strengths. In Mora’s case, it’s giving him as much of the DC Universe as possible, and then dialing up the bonkers as he does it. Then he’s just stepping back, letting Mora draw it, and adding dialogue afterwards.
I like it! This is the best looking ongoing DC has going right now I think.
Armaan: That’s debatable, but it’s a pretty strong contender. Let’s not forget the lettering, which completely gets the vibes of this book and matches the art step for step. This is such a visual treat, I can’t wait to see where it goes next.
The Many Misadventures of Pericles White
Armaan: They might revoke my Super-fandom card for this, but Tony, how am I just finding out his given name is “Pericles White”? Did you know this?!
Tony: I did not, and this seems like a Matt Fraction creation. But who knows, it’s incredible regardless!
Armaan: I have mixed feelings about this anthology. It is not, as I was first misled to believe, an anthology of new stories celebrating the man himself, Pericles White (I am never calling him anything else from this point on), but just two new stories and a handful of reprints from ages past.
There’s not even a very consistent theme amongst them all — hell, the Pericles we see in the first story is vastly different from the one we see in the second, and those two stories had the exact same creative team!
So what we essentially have is a bunch of very, very random and silly stories sandwiched between two very heartwarming ones. I loved the first and the last tale; they paint ol’ Pericles as a man who has given his heart to the Daily Planet and Metropolis. Whose heart is tired, and aged, but still ready to dive right in and tell another story the world deserves to know. It’s a character I want to see more of — and it’s not a character that lends himself well to sillier, random stories.
Tony: Perry is such an incredible character. I think back to the Jeph Loeb written story where Clark once said that Perry is too good a journalist to not know that he’s Superman. It’s a weird theme for a one-shot, since he’s gotten so few stories anyways, not to do more than a couple new ones.
But hey, new Fraction and Lieber material? I loved it!
Daily Planet Headlines
- Clark trying to cut his hair with increasingly more dangerous tools, and failing each time, is comedy gold.
- Grumpy Batman + Cheerful Good Dog Krypto is also comedy gold that we don’t see nearly enough of, and we demand an Annual that features a Batman who’s forced to dogsit for a weekend.
- Do you think Nightwing fancied up his hair a little extra just to mess with Lex?
- Supergirl lost Robin in the timestream — more time traveling shenanigans to come!
- All in favor of the Mora design being the official new Composite-Superman design, say aye!
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
