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April 19, 2020
Superman is a character that has endured over 80 years. Due to the timeless nature of his origin story and values, he is a character that will continue to endure. However, despite this fact, there have been a number of attempts by DC and various writers to modernise his character for younger generations. A prime example would be the still on-going Earth-One series which has entries for not only Superman [Straczynski & Davis.2010], but Batman [Johns & Frank.2012], Wonder Woman [Morrison & Paquette.2016], Green Lantern [Hardman & Bechko.2018] and the Teen Titans [Dodson & Dodson.2014] as well. However, a far more drastic example can be seen in the New 52 initiative beginning in 2011.
The New 52 initiative essentially restarted the DC Universe as a blank slate. Allowing new readers to jump on to long running characters, as well as modernising characters for the 21st century. The initiative spun out of the event Flashpoint [Johns & Kubert.2011], a storyline that saw The Flash, Barry Allen, drastically alter the timeline through manipulating time. The result was a new universe that combined the main DC timeline, Wildstorm universe and better integrate the Vertigo comics. For some characters such as Batman, their timelines were simplified. Events still happened, but in a much shorter time frame. Other characters were not as lucky. Superman was one such character who had to be completely reset to re-establish his mythology and hopefully re-introduce the character to a new audience.
Superman’s introduction to the New 52 didn’t have the best start. While the Action Comics title was spearheaded by Grant Morrison [Morrison & Morales.2012], telling the story of a much younger Clark just beginning his journey in Metropolis. The Superman title, on the other hand, was under the pen of the legendary George Perez [Perez & Merino.2012], what should be a perfect combination. However, Perez only stayed with the book for a handful of issues. The reasoning for this Perez expressed in a 2012 interview with Comics Alliance, “Unfortunately when you are writing major characters, you sometimes have to make a lot of compromises and I was made certain promises, and unfortunately not through any fault of Dan DiDio, he was no longer the last word, lot of people making decisions, going against each other, contradiction, again in mid story. The people who love my Superman arc, I thank you. What you read, I don’t know. After I wrote it. I told them here’s my script, if you change it, that’s your prerogative, don’t tell me. Don’t ask me to edit it, don’t ask me to correct it, I don’t want to change something that you’re going to change again if you disagree” [McMillan.2012]. As Perez goes on to say in an interview with CBR, “I had no idea Grant Morrison was going to be working on another Superman title[…] I had no idea I was doing it five years ahead[…] So I was kind of stuck. ‘Oh, my gosh, are the Kents alive? What’s his relationship with all of these characters? Who exists?’ And DC couldn’t give me answers. I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re deciding all these things and you mean even you don’t know what’s going on in your own books?’” [Melrose.2012] It’s clear that DC’s creative heads had in mind their own ideas for Superman, but what they didn’t have was clear communication or a complete vision. Just ideas with no direction. This was largely true though the first few years of the initiative, however, organisation and strength of storytelling took a drastic change up until the point that the Rebirth initiative was decided, and the days of the New 52 became numbered. This is most evident when looking specifically at the character of Superman.
To make things clear, there is a distinct difference between a story just ending, and a story having closure. A story ending is incredibly common regardless of media. Batman: Year One [Miller & Mazzucchelli.1986]has an ending, but it doesn’t have closure. The story as a whole talks about the first year of Batman’s career, and while that story is complete, the ending leaves it open for Bruce Wayne to go on and have more adventures. There is no closure in that story. More stories will follow. As Segal states in Closure in Detective Fiction when discussing closure, “There is a widespread tendency to conflate this term with ending, whereas I believe it is important to differentiate between the two: the difference was established quite clearly in Barbara Herrnstein Smith’s classic study Poetic Closure (1968) but has not always been observed in later studies. What do we mean by saying that a narrative (text) has ‘ending’? it may be simply that the tale has reached its termination point, in which case we are referring to an inevitable (and hence ‘obvious’) phenomenon, since every narrative text has to end somewhere. On the other hand, we might be referring to the sense of an ending (Kermode 1967), that is, not to the textual termination point itself but rather to a certain effect, or perceptual quality, produced by the text; in Smith’s (1968:2) formation, “one of stable conclusiveness, finality, or ‘clinch;” In such a case, what we are talking about would better be termed “closure” [Segal.2010:155]. When discussing closure then, especially in relation to Superman. The only place in which you can find this, is in either Elseworld publication, or in the New 52 incarnation.
While the beginning of the New 52 Superman was a rocky start to say the least, he had a clear arc through the five-year publication as well as a conclusion. During the later half of the publication, this version of Clark begins to resemble the classic interpretation in terms of spirit and heart. At issue #38 [Johns & Romita Jr.2015], this version of Superman gains a new ability known as the Super-Flare. An explosive ability that releases all fo the solar energy stored within his body. While it’s deadly to those around him, it strips Clark of his abilities while he’s recharging. An experience that is entirely new to him but leads Clark to open up to his dearest friends, Jimmy Olsen just an issue later. Unfortunately, from issue #41 onwards, his secret becomes revealed to the world, and the downside to the Super Flare really starts to sink in. Superman begins to resemble his silver age counterpart. Less powerful, with diminished abilities. No longer able to fly, but still with great strength. The world now knows who he is. This is something Clark has to deal with, alongside the entire world knowing his identity. Alongside this, a story in the Justice League book had Superman thrown into the pits of Apokilips, where the negative energy corrupts him. By the time we reach the final few issues of Superman, and the apply named storyline The Final Days of Superman [Tomasi et al.2015], Clark is very much aware he is dying.
The end of the New 52 Superman almost grounds the fantastical nature of superhero comics in a stark reality. This version of Superman dies. Death is a real situation here as it is in the real world. Heroes can die. As Sarah Gilead states in her paper, Magic Adjured: Closure in Children’s Fantasy Fiction [Gilead.1991], “In one sense, the return-to-reality closure asserts the conventional, ideologically mandated meanings and indeed relations between the concept pairs, ‘child’ and ‘adult’, ‘fantasy’ (or ‘dream’) and ‘reality’. But to do so, it must counter a potential obscuring of such meanings and relations: the initial narrative movement from fictional reality to fantasy raises the possibility of regressive slippage from adulthood to an idealized realm of childhood” [Gilead.1991:288]. The New 52 was marketed and certainly received to be a more mature take on the DC Universe. Events such as Future’s End certainly show this. And yet despite that, it’s still centred around superheroes. Something that is overly seen as childish given its original audience was the children of the great depression. With Superman being the first of these superheroes to be created, the ultimate return to reality closure would be his death.
Of course, the classic Superman also died previously during the Death of Return of Superman in 1993. However, a key difference here is that the classic Superman not only came back to life, but the event was planned as a way to buy time before the wedding of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. The New 52 death is a permanent decision. It’s one that thematically adds closure to this Clark’s journey. Clark dies in his lover’s arms, in this universe Wonder Woman. His final moments were spent saving people he cared for and knowing that the world he loves is in safe hands. Wonder Woman and Batman are with him, while the classic, and older, Superman promises to take his place.
This is closure for the New 52 Superman and his readers.
This act of closure is continued in the one-shot Superman: Rebirth #1 [Tomasi & Gleason.2016]and the first issue of the Rebirth run Superman #1 [Tomasi & Gleason.2016]. The classic, Post-Crisis/ Pre-Flashpoint, Superman visits the grave of the New 52 Superman, half hoping that his experience in The Death and Return of Superman will happen again but having to admit that his New 52 counterpart is truly gone. The first moments of the Rebirth series are simple, but a tribute to what came before. “The world needs to see again that there’s a Superman looking out for them. You may not be here in body, but I know you are in spirit…. The colours will fly” [Tomasi & Gleason.2016:01-05].
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