Superman has escaped from doomed Krypton and is back in the Phantom Zone in the present day. The mad god Aethyr has been altering the reality of the ghostly realm, creating mass and giving its ethereal inhabitants physical form. Superman comes across old friend Mon-El seemingly saying a prayer. Bringing the Man of Steel up to speed, Mon-El makes it apparent he wasn’t praying for rescue.
Redemption, perhaps. Or for the souls of the prisoners he’s killed.
Mon-El heard enough while Superman was away to identify just which solar system is at risk.
Super-scientist Mr Terrific has an idea as to how to save the sun, but it requires the absent Superman. But Superman is approaching the problem from another angle, confronting Aethyr in the hope of reasoning with him.
Well, after getting his attention.
Elsewhere, young Super-Chaps Kong and Kon continue their efforts to persuade the curator of a space museum to return items to their rightful owners. Having a band of Khund warriors at Superboy’s command helps.
It really does. Our heroes manage to wrap the case up, making me wonder if they’ll show up at all next issue. I won’t mind if they don’t, because entertaining as this side romp has been it’s got bugger all to do with the story it’s interrupting – heck, I’d happily excise it from the ‘Phantoms’ trade collection when it appears. More room for the Superman story would be great – we have four more Mark Waid-written issues and focusing on Superman, Mon-El and the threat to Earth would be fine by me.
The thing that makes the biggest impact this issue is the image of Mon-El bashing unseen Phantom Zone criminals to death with a rock. Sure, they were attacking him, but still, it’s sad it was the only option for someone who was also always one of DC’s shiniest heroes.
Speaking of shiny, it’s great to finally seen Mon-El out of his Phantom King cosplay, Big Yellow Fasteners and all. Artist Clayton Henry continues to give us slick, strong illustrations in the Superman story, while Michael Shelfer’s looser style suits the zaniness of the Kong and Kon nonsense. Henry deserves particular praise for how traumatised Mon-El looks by everything he’s going through. It’s all coloured by Matt Herms, whose Zone tones are especially attractive. I’ve already complimented Dave Sharpe on the thought he’s been putting into this storyline, here he gives us – so far as I know – our first look at written Daxamite. It’s pretty.
The Supergirl back-up strip somehow manages to get even more boring. ‘Your mission, Kara Zor-El,’ is the title of the chapter. We don’t find out what Supergirl’s mission is, this is mainly the mystery prisoner wittering on about nothing.
The only point of interest is that writer Mariko Tamaki inserts the enigmatic golden bore into a flashback to the terrible Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow series. That was a hit, so maybe Tamaki is after popularity by association. Given that book took massive liberties with Supergirl’s classic origin, it’s an Elseworld, so that’s another reason to ignore this disgraceful waste of space.
Meghan Hettrick draws, Marissa Louise colours, Becca Carey letters and it’s not their fault.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Yeah, Tamaki did manage to bore us even with the first hint of plot progression in eight installments. Since the Super Office wants only ineffectual portrayals of Kara and Karen, it’s perfect. Only Johnson defied them and he’s ot the door.
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I expect PKJ chose his moment to go, but hopefully he’ll be back with the Super Family at some point.
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I’m waiting for the Supergirl story to be complete, then read read it as a whole. Installments just make it a chore; it may be better if read once complete. Waid’s retroactive moralizing of the Phantom Zone usage is glaring when juxtaposed with Mon-El’s death-dealing, even if it is for survival. Why are morally upright characters such a challenge for writers? Can they only be interesting if besmirched somehow? Superman has had to undergo this treatment for over 20 years with no success. . .and writers still haven’t given up on it (Absolute Superman!). The “when in doubt, make him a killer” approach just needs to stop.
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Levitz played into Mon-El’s streak of instability that first reared its head when he and Saturn Girl were up against each other in a Legion election and faced off against Validus and did so well. I see Mon being forced at times to go dark, which, yes, is against his nature, like Waid has shown him doing as just an unknown piece of what led to the cracks in his psyche Levitz beautifully established.
As an aside, I’ve always wondered why only Levitz explored what being a phantom observing the universe could mean. Did he wander the universe? He could be a font of information for dead or forgotten events and races and show he had learned unknown disciplines and sciences. Heck, in eras between Superboy’s cruel way of saving his life and Brainiac 5 perfecting Saturn Girl’s cure there could have been other times when Mon-El had been freed for adventures in the real world.
Hmm, now I want a mini exploring Mon-El’s untold history almost as much as I want him to finally dump the selfish and shallow shrew he dates.
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I would read that. It might make sense to have Mon team up with history buff Cosmic Boy for some time travel exploration.
I really miss reread some of my old Legion comics, I’ve obviously forgotten the good work Levitz did with Mon El. I remember him being ill for a while…
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That was when Mon chose almost certain death over a return to the Zone and got overruled, right? When Levitz found what made Mon more interesting, that his weaknesses were internal and massive, the character shined. Only a damaged soul would have taken Shady back after she left him for Earh Man.
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Absolute Superman hasn’t hit DC Infinite yet so I’ve not had a look, but he’s a killer? Instant turn-off. It seems a shame when writers like PKJ have shown him to be an innately good man.
I honestly don’t thing the Supergirl story will be any better read as a oner, but I’d love to hear what you think when you try that!
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I’m generally not a fan of having heroes kill. But Mon-El, in the Phantom Zone, seems like a solid exception. Levitz has emphasized how difficult those thousand years of exile were for him, and this seems like one example — entirely congruent with what we knew before.
And yeah, I thought I spotted scenes from Woman of Tomorrow in the Supergirl feature. Looks like that book is popular enough to be folded into the main timeline, a la The Killing Joke.
I hope Waid sets Superboy and Super-Man aside for the next few issues, too — but I hope instead, he replaces them with a short look at what some other members of the Super Family are up to. Let’s see Jon and Natasha Irons team up!
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I’d like a ten-pager giving a scene to everyone – are the twins going to school? Have John Henry and Lana set the date? What WAS that reference to Supergirl having a fate all about? Is Krypto dating?
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