Two Big Endings In This Week’s SuperChat

All good things come to an end, but if you’re a Superman fan, all tyranny does too. We wrap up several long arcs in this month’s Superchat, beginning with the conclusion to the Warworld Saga in Superman: Warworld Apocalypse, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, drawn by Brandon Peterson, Will Conrad, Max Raynor and Miguel Medonça, colored by Lee Loughridge and lettered by Dave Sharpe. 

Next, Jonathan and friends have taken the fight to Gamorra, and Bendix’s machinations crumble around him, in Superman: Son of Kal-El #15, written by Tom Taylor, penciled by Cian Tormey, inked by Cian Tormey & Scott Hanna, colored by Frederico Blee & Matt Herms and lettered by Dave Sharpe. 

Armaan Babu: Two very different arcs starring two not so different Supermen both coming to a close this month, and it’s been an interesting journey on both sides. Before we get to the upcoming crossover between Action Comics and Son of Kal-El, we’re taking a quick look back at how we got here — and how satisfied we are with the endings we got. Any first thoughts before we dive in, Tony?

Tony Thornley: I think… well. I don’t think it went very well in my opinion. And that’s exactly why we have this column!

Warworld Apocalypse

Armaan: Last issue set up a hell of a board. Midnighter, Manchester Black, the Enchantress and most of the rebel army making one last stand against Mongul’s army and the corrupted Auhtority team members. Natasha Irons, Orphan and Leonath trying to turn Warworld’s depowering red solar energy into the much more empowering white solar energy. Finally, Superman recently betrayed by the man who’s been guiding him through Warworld — Kryl-Ux, who we discover set this whooole thing into motion to begin with.

That’s a lot of names to keep track of. I will admit freely that I had to look up Leonath and Kryl-Ux’s names just for that para above, despite having covered every issue. There are just so many people here. I’m not saying it’s too many, because their places in this finale felt earned, but names are hard for me and this was a lot.

Tony: Buddy you just nailed my problem with this issue. It was SO full of characters and plot and… everything else. I’ve expressed my concerns the last couple issues of Action. There was just not enough time and page space dedicated to the build up of all these plots. Accordingly, only one of them REALLY worked for me. Thankfully it was Clark’s story, as it should have been, but still it’s a problem.

Armaan: We have this rather evenly split between three storylines, so let’s start with the battle for solar energy, with Natasha, Leonath and Orphan up against Teacher and a corrupted Darling. We have Miguel Medonça on art here, which I’m glad for, because his work on Darling is incredible. At once horrific and deeply emotive — Darling is my favorite character in this entire saga (not counting the Man of Steel himself, of course). Darling just looks creepy, and there’s such…intensity in their hunch, their limbs, the focus of their singular gaze. When Darling’s going in for the kill, you know they’re going all out. When they wrap around Orphan, reunited and happy…it’s bizarre and unsettling but also incredibly endearing. 

Orphan uses the power of Genesis to pretty handily send Teacher away, to reunite with Darling. It’s the happy ending I was most worried about not getting. There’s a special satisfaction to getting resolution for a side character you’ve nonetheless latched onto completely, isn’t there?

Tony: I’m going to stick to my point about the overstuffed nature of this story, by agreeing with you. Orphan and Darling got that spotlight issue. We got enough earlier to care about them, and that pays off here.

Armaan: That’s not the only touching scene we get in this part of the tale, however. A sacrifice play is required, and as Natasha holds off an army of Warzoons, Leonath is the one to make it. Whether you’ve latched onto Leonath in the same way I did Darling, or if you’ve pretty much forgotten who he is right up until this moment, he sure makes the most out of his death scene. 

I think this was beautifully done. It’s an impressive sendoff for a character I feel I barely got to know.

Tony: It was done incredibly well, I agree. It was for a character that again, we barely got to know, but here I wish we’d gotten the opportunity to know him better before his death. It was a great moment that made me feel for someone we’ve barely gotten to know. It was good writing, which made me all the more frustrated for what we didn’t get leading up to it. It all comes down to pacing, I think.

Armaan: Next, we’ve got the Authority vs…well, the former members of the Authority. We haven’t gotten enough time with the team for this fight to have much in the way of emotional stakes, but it’s an entertaining tale nonetheless: Illusions from Manchester Black helping Apollo to get back to his old self was fun, a switcheroo that had even me fooled. Lia, I feel, has been the only member of Superman’s fractured team who’s had anything really approaching an arc, and seeing her make her own sacrifice play – in the same heartbreaking fires that took Leonath from us – was a pretty satisfying conclusion to her story, finally bringing Lia back.

Tony: Lightray is! I’m really hoping the Authority is sticking around in the title. For one, the team has some trauma to sort out, and I don’t want that to be off screen. It’s good soap opera and we’re just getting into what makes these characters interesting, especially next to Superman. I will say some of these moments were frustrating to me, for the reasons I’ve already given, but in Lia’s case? Hell yeah. It means that we have the potential for more Lightray stories. 

I love the House of El/Kent, but bringing in members of the Superman family who aren’t Kryptonian makes it better. Including the entire Authority has potential for that, and I think every one of them could make for a fantastically interesting addition to the supporting cast right along with Jon, Conner, Kara and John Henry. Lia, though, has the most potential by far. She had a huge destiny, and I want to see that play out on the page.

Armaan: Lastly, of course, we have Superman vs. Mongul himself, the two main opposing forces that all of this was for. In a way, it’s the least interesting of all three stories — we’ve seen this fight a hundred times before. Superman refuses to sacrifice his morals to beat the villain, no matter what the stakes, but somehow, the villain gets his just desserts anyway.

In this case, from the man who started all this — Kryl-Ux, newly empowered by white solar energy, claiming Mongul as the first of many revenges. 

With Mongul defeated, we wind down with epilogues. Kryl-Ux is set up as a villain for the future, and we finally learn just why the Durlan senator Thaaros was so hell-bent on erasing the slightest mention of the Phaelosians’ existence: Thaaros was the one who sold the Phaelosians out to Mongul in the first place. 

Given that Thaaros’ mysterious shame was what this whole Saga began with, I was expecting something a little…more. Given that Kryl-Ux is still out there, gunning for the Durlan senator, there might be more to this story, but will readers still care by then? I’m only lightly interested myself. Tony – what about you? Now that the Warworld Saga has come to an end, how do you feel about it as a whole, and are you satisfied with the way it ended?

Tony: Kryl-Ux has a fascinating future I think. When you say it looks like he’s headed towards villainy, I wonder if it’s more likely something more morally grey. Something like what Mr. Oz started to become before that story blissfully came to an end. The Phaelosians have been the best addition to the lore of Superman in this era and we’ve already seen what that might mean in the future (thanks Future State!). I wonder if Kryl-Ux is the Loki figure of that possible future’s Asgard?

Armaan: Certainly something to consider. As for me, I think that this was an extremely ambitious storyline that fell apart under its own weight. So much setup went into this, so much unique background lore, so many characters brought in, and so much was promised — I feel we got only tastes of what could have been. There were highly enjoyable moments, great artwork, and I love the way Johnson writes Superman, but the Saga as a whole? I don’t think it quite did what it set out to do.

Still. DC. Make this a video game. I’m begging you. There’s so much left to explore and I’m dying for a medium that will let us do that. You can’t go wrong!

Tony: Yeah, I think it’s now down to the repercussions of the story to say how successful it is. Even with Clark back on Earth, there’s so much more that can be done with Warworld, the Phaelosians and the Authority. This was a good issue, and I can even forgive the artist jam, given it was pretty much divided by chapter. If the lead-up had been stronger, I think I would have just loved it.

Son of Kal-El

Armaan: Now, the conclusion to this was a much simpler affair. Last issue gathered the team and set the stage for the fall of Bendix, and here, we get that happening. Jon, placing his faith in his team, disrupts control devices on the metahumans, taking Bendix’s power away, and publicly dethrones the tyrant, saving the captured metahumans, his boyfriend’s mother and coming out to the world in a very public way.

We go back and forth on Taylor’s writing a lot, and while I find the ending of this uninteresting, what I do enjoy is how much Jon sets himself apart in an action scene. Though he’s toppling a tyrant, the whole thing feels like less of an act of violence, and more one of kindness. The focus is less on the villain he’s defeating, but more on the people he’s saving. 

Tony: For all my quibbles with Taylor- and yes, lately there have been more and more of them- he keeps showing that he understands Superman on a deep level. He gets what the symbol means, and how to show on the page that Jon gets it, even if he’s still learning. It’s a fascinating read from that perspective. I would be curious to see what a Taylor-written Kal-El series would be like.

But anyways.

Armaan: In fact, it’s the rougher-edged stars of the cast who ultimately take Bendix down. Robin intimidates Bendix into an escape, while Luthor’s the one who casts the final blow. 

I do have a minor quibble with this, however. Between this and Warworld Apocalypse, we’ve had two stories where the main villain is ultimately defeated by another villain who’s willing to get his hands dirty, just so our Superman can stick to their morals and eschew serious violence. I’m not saying I want either Supermen to be more violent…it just feels like a cop-out to let another villain end the threat just because the writers can’t figure out a way to have Superman do it without getting his hands dirty. What do you think?

Tony: I think that’s an interesting point. It kind of goes with what I initially thought was about to happen to Bendix. When we don’t see his mysterious space station visitor at first, I absolutely thought it was Clark, not Lex. I really think the conclusion would have been much stronger if it had been Clark, bringing Bendix in “clean” instead of Lex murdering him.

Armaan: I did enjoy the art here. This is exactly what a young team book of superheroes should look like. The action is clean, gorgeously colored and powerful, everyone is very entertainingly animated, and most of the supporting cast all get at least a panel that lets them really, really shine. 

Tony: Agreed. Tormey has come into his own in this story. He’s still a little bit house style-ish, but his personal style is pushing through more and more. This is going to end up being his star making turn, and I’m excited by that prospect. The Superman titles need more consistency in the art and this is a great start to it. Could you imagine if Sampere was still drawing Action? The one-two punch of that would just be stunning.

Armaan: Unlike the Warworld Saga, which left me wanting more, I’m glad the Bendix storyline is over. Bendix was never that compelling of a villain, especially when Lex Luthor’s right there. He was too cartoonish of a villain in a comic that aspired to be more than just caricature, and he’s going to be soon forgotten in an issue or two.

This wraps up Jon’s first major arc of Superman, so Tony — what do you think of the series so far, and what do you hope to see going forward — keeping in mind the known limitations of Taylor as a writer?

Tony: Despite it’s heavily flaws, I still think it was an overall pretty solid story. There are several things that I think the series could use.

A) Jay is still a cipher. Taylor needs to actually develop the character into a character, rather than a plot device.

B) If Taylor would concentrate less on “important” and more on plot and character, I think the other stuff would come.

C) Is Gammora going to be a major part of the Superman universe now? It’d be interesting to see it integrated alongside the Authority, given their connection.

D) The Superman supporting cast would go a long way to improve the series. Look at the Tales of Metropolis back-ups, and integrating Jon with those stories would have been fascinating.

There’s a path forward for this series that could be not just interesting and worthwhile, but could really do some great things with Jon. I just hope we see it done.

Daily Planet Headlines

• Excited to see Superman’s return in the next arc. 
• It is hilarious that Dark Crisis – DC’s current big event – is so uninteresting that even DC’s own books are largely just ignoring it.
• Dreamer spinoff, please.
• Would absolutely have traded the entire Authority team to see what kind of inspiration Lois Lane would have provided for the people of Warworld.
• Orphan & Darling spinoff, please.
• The House of El back-ups by Johnson and Lapham did not have the promised resolution in Warworld Apocalypse Hopefully it does elsewhere.
• Remember how much we enjoyed the first issue of Son of Kal-El? Because we barely do.

Armaan Babu

Tony Thornley

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.