4 out of 5

The more I think about this issue, this more I dig it.

Ever since Dr. Light raped some ladies and Supes and WW killed some folks back in the ‘Identity Crisis’ days, DC has been playing around with trying to tuffen up the image of their universe, with weekly series after weekly series and beheading after beheading and stupid crossover after stupid, motherfucking crossover.  Yes, Marvel has done their fair share of this too, happening sometime around ‘Civil War,’ but they (mostly) pulled their head out of their ass – not too smoothly, but they did it – and have managed to keep the crossovers going on while still remembering to have fun on some books.  But DC got stuck in some kind of feedback loop, thinking the only way out was to keep going deeper… and so now we’re on the verge of ‘The New 52’ and ‘Forever Evil’ and angry Superman, and a book that was managing to please some people – Adventures of Superman, which was taking a classic Detective Comics approach and featuring rotating creators doing one-shot moments from Supes’ past (y’know, happier times) – well, that book obviously has to go.  I believe ish 16 is the last for now (until it’s rebooted with, like, Skeleton Superman or something), and we’re treated to a creative revisionist review of Supes life that, by ditching the known canon, manages to boil things down to their core and show us what – to Keatinge, to many of us – Supes is all about.

I’m ceding to the interpretation offered here, which is a lot smarter than I probably could’ve put together.  Keatinge offers a framing story during which ‘the old Earth dies,’ and Rathotis, ‘The boy king of America’ (a cat) and Kamandi, ‘The last astronaut off Earth’ are set to leave the exploding planet.  But Kamandi halts Rathotis to tell him some stories of Superman, ‘to say farewell, until we return again.’  Thereafter we take some trips (drawn by different artists) through a Golden Age version of the character, fighting frankensteins alongside Batman and Dracula, a brief flash of a Silver Age, with Brainiac and Kandor underlining the sci-fi fueled tales of that era, a present day Metropolis Mxyzptlk adventure, and, finally, a ‘billions of years later,’ where Superman MMXCIX (which is maybe a misprint of MMCIX, as it’s stated later – 2099 vs 2109, respectively) watches the last life besides his own pass, then joins all the ‘super-sentries’ – various versions of Supes – to once more give birth to a new universe.  Some characters we recognize – Professor Potter, Lois – age in more realistic time during these different eras, while Supes remains primarily the same, and there are several themes Keatinge works in to underline the hope that Supes symbolizes – namely a rocket fueled by Red Kryptonite – Phaethon – that goes missing in the Golden Age, spotted throughout the ages, and finally rescued at the end of time – and Superman continually saying that, for overcoming any challenge, there’s always a way.  By couching it so smoothly within his narrate, Keatinge avoids this becoming cheesy.  It moreso drives home, in 30 scant pages, how iconic this character has the power to be, and as we’re ‘reborn’ into the dark world of the new 52, rest assured, one day we’ll rediscover that we want Supes to be our Big Blue Boyscout – something Kamandi, a Kirby character, certainly suggestive of the grand creativity of yore, makes sure to tell Rathotis, the ever-complaining, doubting boy-king who probably represents our modern readers.

Due to the linked review, I was brought to look into those key names: Rathotis was probably another name for Tutankhamun, the historical boy-king, whose significance, according to wiki, “stems from the fact that his reign was close to the apogee of Egypt as a world power and from his rejection of the radical religious innovations introduced by his predecessor and father.”  So I’m probably overly interpreting, but a kid who rejects the past, right before Egypt’s power took a downturn.  As to Phaethon, “Here Phaethon lies who in the sun-god’s chariot fared.  And though greatly he failed, more greatly he dared,” also from wiki, on Phaethon’s tomb, according to Ovid.  Phaethon sought proof his father was a God, and ended up almost fucking things up for the world as a result, but rightfully bailed at the last minute.  I think that quote is probably more directly relevant than the history, but it could still be layered over Joe’s take on Supes, accepting his failings, continuing to try for more.

Anyhow, I have to be fair and admit that, had I not read that review, I’m not sure I would’ve allowed the story another pass.  It’s an interesting tale, though not particularly ‘fun’ unless you’re open to what it’s trying to do.  Read with purpose, it really is a pretty powerful piece, but it’s definitely not a one-shot that you’d hand to a new Superman fan as an explanation of the character.

Hopefully these dark times will pass, though, and a writer with the same understanding of Superman as Keatinge (or, y’know, Keatinge) will once again give us some comics to actually smile about.