The Kingdom of Zod event concludes the way it began – with an extra-sized issue featuring all the key players and creative teams. But the comic itself begins with a surprise flashback to Hamilton, to a day when Superman was admonishing young Jon for a spot of Super Sons naughtiness with Damian Wayne. A sorry Jon asks his Dad if he ever did anything he regrets. Clark tells Jon he once had to send Zod and his followers back to the Phantom Zone.
And in the present day, Jon is at his father’s side as the whole Super Family battles a younger version of the man his father banished.
Among the participants are Supergirl and Ursa, Zod’s future wife, who has recently murdered the version she knows. She’s been trying to undo the death of Krypton with Booster Gold’s time machine, and isn’t giving up.
Someone equally keen to harness the time bubble is, happily, on the side of the angels, Lena Luthor.
And while the route to enacting the plan isn’t the smoothest – heroes and villains gotta bash – Lena’s machine works, leaving us with epilogues cum previews pertaining to all four of the current Super series.
Finally able to take a breath, Superman wonders why Jon has adopted the identity of Tomorrow Man.
It’s all leading to the new status of Superman Unlimited as a father-son team-up book.
Action Comics looks towards the upcoming extended Lex Luthor origin, but young Clark Kent will still be around, even if here he wants to stay in 2026.
Supergirl, meanwhile, has insisted on the Kryptonian Sunstone which created a Kryptonite Kingdom in El Calderon leaving with her. She repurposes its insta-building technology in Antarctica.
And the recent star of Superman announces that Prime Time is over.
I don’t believe it for a minute, Superboy Prime’s short run as the star of Superman has gone down very well, and we’ve already had a hint we’ll get more of him. Maybe a special or mini-series will follow his attempts to live a quiet life.
And while he doesn’t have a title right now, Kon-el looks to be heading for trouble when a bad influence shows up with weasel words.
I enjoyed this special. Yes, Lena’s time twisting was a deus ex machina but she’s using the tech that’s been a big part of this nine-part crossover, and she is a Luthor-level genius augmented by a Brainiac bot.
And the important business is the character dynamics, with the likes of young Clark getting a peek at the future, Lois helping Superman understand he’s a million miles from being a deadbeat dad, and Booster bolstering the boys.
And he’s not just super-camp counsellor, Booster is MVP when Lena needs a hand with her time tinkering.
The sequence that follows is my favorite of the issue – Superman writer Joshua Williamson is obviously a Booster booster, and artist Paulo Villanelli does him justice in a mini-strange sports story.
Williamson also give us a post-epilogues preview of more upcoming plot points.
I swear, it’s like Geoff Johns never left the building.
So what do we have? Black Lantern business, bottled Legionnaires, mad science without Lena… and a flag that says Zod? Answers on a postcard…
Am I the only one who thought that opening scene with Jon was Williamson really, really wanting to lock the John Byrne-era execution of Zod, Zaora and Quex-Ul into current continuity? I mean, since when did tossing Kryptonian crims back into the Phantom Zone bother the Man of Steel?
Also, shouldn’t Clark’s feelings in the flashback have been echoed in the main story in some way? Otherwise, what’s the point? Maybe Zod’s closing words to Superman as he sends him back to Krypton’s past are it.
The only moment in the issue that really felt off was this.
After two months of the Super Family trying to avoid Ursa and Zod changing the past, suddenly Superman is risking his own existence by stopping his younger self from returning to his origin point? Am I missing something?
Credit to everyone involved with this sharply written, excellently drawn issue – and there are a lot of ‘em. Pardon me if I’m too lazy to type out all the names.
So, how was it for you?
“I mean, since when did tossing Kryptonian crims back into the Phantom Zone bother the Man of Steel?”
Exactly. They take the gentleness of Superman way too far, sometimes. Zod, Faora, and the rest have always presented as evil and dangerous. The only regret that Superman should have is not putting them away fast enough.
The deus ex machina was very much needed. I can’t stand when writers think they can make such drastic changes in the status quo and manage them for any length of time going forward. They cannnot. Brian Michael Bendis is the epitome of the arrogance needed to think that one can. Everything reset and all the toys back in the sandbox, ready to played with at an optimum all over again in the next adventure. It’s like the Bronze Age never died. 😉
Great review as always!
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Thanks for the kind words. Were I Superman I’d be getting my two dozen allies to hold the baddies off while I zoomed to the Fortress for the Phantom Zone Projector. Problem solved.
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I suspect Conner will pretend to fall under Luthor’s sway and when he acts against him he’ll find out Luthor planned for that. When it comes to brainpower, Conner’s two dads’ super intelligence canceled each other out.
The best part of the issue was Clark flying off with Lois.
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Harsh but fair!
I do like your story idea, though.
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You’re definitely not the only one who thought that opening scene was going to reference Byrne’s story. I really liked this crossover. The story was tight enough and had some interesting/surprising twists (See especially what happened following Zod’s resurrection of Ursa) and the time travel shenanigans.
I really hope you are right about seeing Superboy Prime again. It feels weird to type that, but Williamson has performed something of a miracle with that character.
And three cheers for Booster Gold! It’s good to see him save the day.
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The above is Super Captain. Sorry ’bout that.
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Isn’t it, I do enjoy it when Booster is allowed to be on good form. Now, where’s Skeets?
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I was glad that they didn’t reset Zod. He does probably need a rest for a while.
Is that the original Legion in the bottle (going off the capes)?
Stu
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Yep, that’s from the recent Superman One Thousand Annual, Brainiac has been bottling realities. The Legions are in a pickle.
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I enjoyed this event, even if there were some strange choices made. Some thoughts, good and bad:
Young Zod does have a point: Why do the Kryptonians need to die? Given how easy time travel and death faking is in the DCU, why couldn’t they just pull everyone out at the last second and transport them to the future or something? I’ve never understood the whole “the past is set, but the future is unwritten” schtick. I mean, its always the future or the past, no matter what point in time you exist in.
How well is Lor-Zod going to take to his mom’s return when she is one of the ones who pushed him away? Did he ever know that she died? He had been banished before New Krypton fell to the Khunds.
I have a hard time believing that the Super Family would leave El Caldero in a state like that and not help them rebuild in some way. Would they really let the people of that country suffer because of the actions of their ruler?
I’m bummed that it seems Supergirl and Co are leaving Midvale to go live in Antarctica. Are the killer penguins back? Are they looking for the Mighty Bruce? And is the villain at the end Reactron or Blackstarr?
Clark looks too young in the Superman epilogue. in that final panel, he looks like he is wearing his dad’s suit.
In the flash forwards, is that Ursa working on a Black Mercy?
There should be no reason for Conner to turn to Lex. The whole reason he sat out for a while before Infinite Crisis was because he was afraid of being too much like Luthor. And when he returned, he went on a quest to find out who he was more like: Superman or Luthor – with him desperately trying to prove to himself that he belongs in the House of El.
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Yep, the positions on time travel are arguable – billions of people may not have been saved were there no Superman, but billions of Kryptonians would have survived, and who knows if a few of them wouldn’t have travelled off-planet and saved billions more?
Little Lor-Zod will hopefully reunite with his mother and leave us all alone! I’ve had enough of the Zod family… bring back Faora.
Amen to your El Caldero comment, the people need help.
Oh gosh, I’d not considered that Midvale may be being left behind, I’d hoped Supergirl’s pals would spend more time there and let Kara grab the spotlight. We’ll see.
Conner is far too advanced in his superhero journey to join Lex, and Lex is too smart to believe Superboy would trust him. But these are comics, so who knows!
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Anj here!
Didn’t even think that the opening scene was Clark talking about killing the pocket universe PZ criminals in Byrne’s book … not admitting it all to young Jon. That is brilliant and makes me like that scene even more.
You’re brilliant!
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You’re very kind!
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