More on Future State: Superman

Continuing my look at Future State: Superman … (Missed the first half of this review? Catch up now!)

Again, more than Future State: The Next Batman and Future State: Dark Detective, the Superman book contains stories that loose themselves from Future State’s near-present — inasmuch as we might assume “Superman of Metropolis” and “Superman: Worlds of War” take place concurrent to the Magistrate threat in Gotham, stories like “Superman vs. Imperious Lex,” “Kara Zor-El: Superwoman,” “Legion of Super-Heroes,” and “House of El” take place in the future-future, even the far-flung future. When it comes down to it — short of any of the writers picking up threads of these stories later — none of these are significantly different than Futures End tie-ins or the “Legends of the Dead Earth” annual series.

Your results may vary, but that’s fine with me, especially since we’ve got some winners here. Stealing the show for me is Johnson’s oversized “Superman: House of El,” a sci-fi fantasy epic about various descendants and others who’ve picked up Superman’s mantle (in the aforementioned far-flung future), drawn with gusto by Scott Godlewski (giving off a real Paul Pelletier vibe here). Notably, between “House” and “Worlds of War” (drawn by Mikel Janin), Johnson doesn’t spend as much time writing Superman here as he does people around and inspired by Superman. But Johnson does that really well — conveys Superman’s “peaceful warrior” aesthetic åwith aplomb — and that makes me eager for Johnson’s Superman even if I haven’t yet seen him write the Daily Planet newsroom, for instance.

Equally notable — and equally off the beaten path of Future State proper — is Mark Russell and Steve Pugh’s entertaining three-part “Superman vs. Imperious Lex.” Russell grafts Clark and Lois' current (and future) involvement with the United Planets on to that old Silver Age chestnut of Lex Luthor ruling the planet Lexor, resulting in the kind of political satire Russell’s known for (and for which American readers, at least, ought see some parallels).

Lex runs a propaganda scheme, convincing the Lexorians that Superman’s the bad guy for stopping Lex from pillaging other planets; Russell is particularly biting when for instance Lex fries a journalist who objects to rapidly shifting government-mandated narratives, or when another reporter is made to cheerily announce that Lexor’s meager rations taste better than ever. Any relation to Future State? Not really. A fun and savvy Mark Russell story? Definitely.

Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage’s “Kara Zor-El, Superwoman” is interesting for the way in which it posits the main character. The story sees Kara retired to Earth’s populated moon, where she’s tolerated with suspicion by her fellow refugees, and nurses old grievances in exile. She is sad and resentful over the Superman mantle having passed directly from Clark to Jon, with Kara never receiving the same public acclaim; Bennett flashes back to pitched battles between Kara and Clark and Jon respectively, of which I was never quite sure to what she was referring. Further the story turns on Kara holding back some dark power that she’s only pushed far enough to reveal in the end.

In reaction perhaps to DC’s generally cheery, generally nice Supergirl, varying portrayals in the last couple decades have seen not-nice, not-cheery “stranger in a strange land” depictions of Supergirl. That’s never felt like an authentic Supergirl to me, versus Raven or Spoiler or Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, though I recognize this 1960s ideal of a Kara Zor-El with never a hair out of place might be an imagination of the character due for an update.

As such, my instinct is to reject Bennett’s “Superwoman” as “too dark” (despite Sauvage’s bright art and watercolor effects), particularly the seemingly needless static between Kara and Jon. At the same time, I’m fascinated by the conflicts that Bennett creates whole cloth for Kara here, isolation and loneliness and having been overlooked and mistrusted. It would not be right to dismiss Bennett’s take out of hand; rather I’d be curious to read more from Bennett as to why this take on Supergirl speaks to her, where she sees it reflected in Supergirl’s history, and so on.

Future State: Superman has got 50 or so pages, if not more, on each of the Batman books, so to its credit, as I often say, if it’s not good then at least there’s a lot of it. And even, the Superman book is good, not exclusively once it loosens the chains of Future State but that certainly doesn’t hurt. (Brian Michael Bendis, lest I overlook, writes a nice “Legion of Super-Heroes” mystery here that doesn’t, as I’d feared, require minute knowledge of his recent run, and Riley Rossmo seems born to draw all the weird Legion aliens.) That a Future State book is best when it’s not a Future State book at all probably doesn’t speak well for the endeavor as a whole, but there’s some nice Superman writing in this book here and there.

[Includes original and variant covers, character designs]