Writer: Joe Kelly
Artists: Ed Benes, Tom Derenick, Karl Kerschl, Duncan Rouleau, Dale Eaglesham, Ed McGuinness
Publisher: DC Comics
Wait . . . what?
This is the third and final part of “Superman, This is Your Life.” The second chapter was jumbled and unclear, but a few rereads put all the pieces in the right place. If you didn’t read chapters one and two, good freaking luck.
Through their physical conflict in the present, Earth-One Superman (that’s our guy) and Earth-Two Superman (the guy who came back in Infinite Crisis #1) are sort of swapping each other’s memories, living out each other’s pasts . . . except they play out their lives in each other’s worlds through their own methods. And fail. Or something.
A few things right off the bat that need to go: Superboy Prime is on the cover, and we really don’t need another Superman – especially one who plays no role in the interiors – to make this story any more confusing than it already is. Second is E1 Superman living out E2 Superman’s life: there was hardly any of this in the last chapter, and it isn’t clear at all what E2 Superman had done wrong or what E1 Superman thinks he’s changing. He’s apparently doing such a good job that all the other heroes retired before the Anti-Monitor showed up and Supes has to fight him alone. Huh? Weren’t there supposed to be other heroes from other Earths involved? I don’t have the original Crisis on me for reference, but it shouldn’t have to be a prerequisite to decode this story.
The meat of the story revolves around E2 Superman, and while it plays out like a deranged Elseworlds story, that’s essentially what it is and there are plenty of fun twists that riff off the last year’s worth of Crisis-related stories. But the logic doesn’t quite add up. E2 Superman ultimately fails to successfully live E1 Superman’s life because he allowed Luthor to live. How is this different from normal? If anything, E2 Superman fails because he took a proactive authoritarian stance on everything except killing Luthor, his only act of mercy, which is more a characteristic of E1 Superman. At the same time, E2 Superman’s tyrannical actions, such as banishing enemies to the Phantom Zone and killing Doomsday, seem to be exactly the kind of immorality he accuses E1 Superman of. So he fails because he wasn’t as hard core as E1 Superman, whom he feels is corrupt and a failure. What’s the moral?
If anything, this story will make you think. And then you’ll hurt from all the thinking and you’ll try to bash your skull in.
At least the art is nice. With six pencillers, it better be.
What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!