Editorial notes:
This Book Review was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03/05/2011.
Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky… but no: it’s only a bird, only a plane. Superman died ten years ago. This is an imaginary story. Aren’t they all?
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow was intended to be, in real-life terms, a what-if: what if D.C. Comics were to end their money-spewing Superman comic franchise? Or more to the point, if they were to end the Superman mythos, how would they do it? What would Superman’s last story be?
Alan Moore, the guy best known for rubbing grit all over comic books, was given the reigns, and the results were published in XXXXXXXXX.
The story and spoilers:
The adventure is told through a frame story; Lois Lane is being interviewed as part of the Daily Planet‘s 10 year memorial for the man of steel…
It starts with a spate of attacks by enemies Superman and Metropolis had thought long gone, starting with a crazy Bizzaro who tries to become an opposite-Superman, culminating in a blue-kryptonite suicide. Other villains make their show, and Kent’s true identity is revealed. Fearing that something terrible is about to happen, Superman takes his friends to his Fortress of Solitude, and awaits the coming seige.
Lex Luthor meanwhile stalks an icy landscape, searching for the remains of another of Superman’s foes: the andoid Brainiac. Luthor finds Brainiac’s skull, which he wears and is possessed by, à la The Mask.
Luthor-Brainiac (ostensibly) set up a force field around The Fortress, trapping Superman and friends inside. The Legion of Super-Heroes from the 30th century – a band with which Superman as a boy had adventures – visit, giving Superman Checkov’s gun in the form of a small statuette. The battle continues, Superman mourns that he could never love Lois, a couple of people die, and then finally, Luthor-Brainiac is defeated.
But it seems that someone else was behind the whole things: Mxyzptlk, a being from the 5th dimension with magical powers. Superman thinks, then realises that the statuette holds a phantom zone projector[1]. As the unpronounceable foe attempts to flee, Superman uses the projector, splitting Mxyzptlk between dimensions and killing him.
Having broken his vow to never kill[2], Superman seeks out gold-kryptonite, which irreversibly strips his powers, and walks out alone into the arctic.
Thoughts and reflections:
It’s difficult to know how to evaluate this; by contemporary standards, it’s not very good.
The story is not very substantial: essentially a checklist of Superman motifs, awaiting a final reveal as to who is responsible. Emotional salience is achieved merely by that which is not done in comic books, namely, killing off any of the favourites. But, in 1986 this was shocking, and the mere idea of Superman dying in a last blaze of glory was considered sufficiently unthinkable so as to justify the story’s narrative.
With all that said, the notion of what could be done as the last Superman story is tantalizing. Here are some ideas of my own:
Take a leaf out of Shakespeare’s Julius Ceaser and focus on what happens after Superman dies.
[1] Why does Superman have a phantom zone projector at hand? Because the Fortress (as originally conceived) is a place where Superman keeps memorials from all his past battles. It’s like his pool room.
[2] I’m not sure when, or even if, Superman ever explicitly made this promise. In the golden age, Superman’s actions occasionally resulted in the death of others. Presumably, this oath was more of an understanding, perpetuated throughout the silver age, and for which this storyline is ultimately intended to be an elegy.
