Superman and the Authority #4 - "Widescreen"

[laughing_tree]

The notion that you could get the same thrill of watching Superman take down an authoritarian regime but you put it on another planet so it doesn't seem as crass that Superman could solve all our problems. But you can put him on a planet where he can solve the problems of some ridiculous, symbolic problems of human nature, I liked that. It really worked and gave me an ending to the story that was different but it did what I wanted. It took it out of what Superman has been doing for all these years fighting the same Brainiac and Luthor but leaves it behind to say he's going to take it on a higher metaphorical level. -- Grant Morrison

Comments

[lordy_co]

So, Brainiac is the DC editorial, Superman is the old-guard writers and the Authority is the new creative blood, right?
It kinda works.

[numeronone]

But then again, that means Morrison's been pushing the "DC Editorial as cosmic vampires" angle for almost a decade now (if "Final Crisis" is the first instance, which I doubt), and still taking money from them the entire time...

[lordy_co]

Yup, genius move.

[lizard_of_aus]

...Okay, clearly there's a wealth of symbolism I've missed out on in Final Crisis.

[tinygaylaura]

This was definitely my favorite issue of the miniseries

Felt much more focused. Issue one felt very padded to me and the Enchantress subplot felt like a very odd retcon that was dragged out too long but this issue I loved

The Ultra Humanite is trading in NFT's

He really is evil 0_0

I love that Manchester Black convinced Coldcast to defect by going "cor blimey if it ever gets out you were on a team with a nazi your gonna be cancelled quicker than you can say Pewdiepie me old son"

Any comic that has the heroes literally kicking a nazi's head right off their body is a good comic in my opinion so I loved that

The Ultra Humanite really half assed this evil scheme

Coldcast and Fleur de Lis are decent enough choices for a mercenary team but Iron Cross and Professor Membrane here? That's not scraping the bottom of the barrel that's scraping what's under the bottom of the barrel because you scraped it so hard and punched through

Even Rainbow Raider and Loophole would have been better choices than that.

Hell even Barrage and the goddamn Clock King are a more respectable choice than that

[thanekos]

Brainiac is working with the Ultra-Humanite and has Koko the space monkey, but didn't make a joke comparing the two.

Admirable restraint!

[coldfury]

So, uh, I'm really confused about continuity right now.

I know this is DC, so 'continuity' is a dirty word and all, but I have to ask...

In the main Superman books, he just left to go to Warworld... and in this book, he takes a team to go to Warworld. But this book is obviously not main DC continuity, right? He's fully powered over in the main books and he's less so here. (Plus the whole... 90 years+ old thing.)

Is that a coincidence? Or are these both 'canon' in DC's loosey goosey sense of the word now?

[tinygaylaura]

No this book is in DC continuity

This is the story of how Superman formed the team that went to Warworld with him

And Clark isn't over ninety years old here????

[coldfury]

Didn't the first issue have him talking with President Kennedy?

[lordultimus]

Something something time travel.

It feels like there were changes for this book behind the scenes.

[coldfury]

But he has gray hair! The mourning S from Kingdome Come! Reduced Powers!

The other book has none of that! *sob*

I hate DC.

[lordy_co]

Today's issue of Action Comics explains that (mostly).

[beyondthefringe]

I think there were... Morrison's story was based on Didio's whole 5G concept where Superman debuted in 1939 and so forth, but after that was scrapped, DC had to find a way to reconcile this Superman with the Action version.

Time travel to explain him being in the '60s, and cosmic radiation to explain his aging/loss of powers (with Manchester Black and the Enchantress helping him to look like he's still in his prime)

Sheesh. DC, just get your shit together.

[tinygaylaura]

He'd been sent back in time when he met him

[thezmage]

Pretty sure that's not what "indestructible" means

[mindsweeper]

Superman said, "I could genuinely care less". :(

[stubbleupdate]

Pompety Pom Pom

[super_fly]

Someone needs to direct Iron Cross to The Paradox Of Intolerance, but I doubt he'd listen.

And I see Ultra-Humanite is going with the M Bison strategy of securing the value of their currency which is still more plausible than crypto.

[numeronone]

So nice that the prevailing pattern in Morrison works is for a well-dressed bald person (usually male-presenting) to turn up and explain and/or solve the plot.

[scorntx]

Don't mind someone explaining the plot really.
Someone's got to, and it usually isn't Grant.

[icon_uk]

Well played scorntx, well played.

[deathcrist2000]

“The prophesied return of the Baby Hitler” might be one of Grant’s best gags, especially if you know which of their previous co-creations Iron Cross is blatantly riffing on.

[jaxjyls]

I love that Fleur de Lis is this super soldier mercenary whose terrible with money.

[tinygaylaura]

I want to see more of this violent French lesbian

[blues32]

Ehhh...I'm not liking this idea. Superman is being damn foolish if he thinks he can just head on over and free Warworld. It's WARWORLD. It's literally built for war. And if it's being run by a Mongol, then things are going to be even harder. I think he's going to get a good chunk of his team killed and that's not something Superman would do. Unless it's Apkolpis War.

How is Iron Cross still alive? He's a head. And a head that Coldcast should be freezing solid for rep points in that panel.

[tinygaylaura]

Hopefully Iron Cross won't be alive for long

I'm pretty sure it's hard for Mongol to rule anything if he's dead, comatose or in the Phantom Zone so there are a number of ways to free Warworld from him

[blues32]

Mongol is no light weight. People seem to forget that. He won't fall easily. Even if they win, what next? The planet is a massive doomsday weapon, if I recall correctly. How has it not been destroyed yet, for that matter? It's like just leaving a Death Star around.

[tinygaylaura]

Well I assume what next is that they find a way to help the planet form a government that isn't run by Space Caligula and they also disarm the planet so it isn't being used by lunatics to fly through space destroying and conquering worlds

I find it very odd when fictional stories and people in real life say "Oh sure you can topple this dictator, but what do you do after that?" when there are countries in real life that were ran by dictators that got toppled and when what happened next went right what happened next was "The country actually becoming a decent place to live that wasn't a godforsaken worthless hellpit that not even a roach would want to infest"

[leahandillyana]

In most cases however topling a dictator results in a civil war which is very likely to end with a new dictator instiled. Note that most of the successful cases were a case of the dictators steping down to prevent them being executed in a revolution.

[tinygaylaura]

I'm not denying that Superman has his work cut out for him here. But even if it's hard work it's better than leaving Warworld in the hands of a monster like Mongol

[blues32]

This was my point. It's a gigantic weapon and Mongol was undoubtedly surrounding himself with scum kept in line through his sheer might. There's no way that it ends with Mongol. It may never end at all. Does Superman intend to install a leader himself? If he does that, then I'm going to say that this ISN'T Superman. I know he represents the American Way and all that, but I had assumed that meant the virtues, not the faults.

It's also highly doubtful that any redeemable person on Warworld was actually there because they wanted to be. So they'll probably want to be returned to whatever world Mongol conquered (assuming the world is still inhabitable afterward).

[blues32]

I don't think you CAN disarm Warworld. I mean, it's Warworld. If it was any more of a weapon, it would be a Transformer. Might as well just blow the planet up.

[tinygaylaura]

That would then raise the problem of where the population would go

Warworld has a lot of regular citizens living on it if I remember right. And the intergalactic community in the present day DC universe isn't the friendliest. Finding worlds to take in millions or maybe billions of refugees might prove hard