DC K.O Rages On!

***Superman #32*** (2023) by Joshua Williamson, art by Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira, and colors by Alejandro Sánchez. Cover Art by Dan Mora.

Previously, in Superman…

The events of DC K.O are being felt throughout the entire DC Universe as we jump right into the thick of things in Joshua Williamson’s Superman #32! In the previous issue, we began in earnest the “Man of Apokolips” arc, the first official DC K.O crossover issue with the mainline Superman title. In that issue, we discovered that prior to the tournament’s start, Superman visited the Fortress of Solitude to gain insight in the form of speaking with the simulacrum of Jor-El. Resolving himself to save everyone on the planet prior to the beginning of this lethal tournament, Superman returns to the newly rechristened LexCorp and charges Mercy Graves with the inevitable task of building dozen “Superships”, massive spacecraft that utilize Brainiac technology to be able to fit entire countries in a single vessel. As Earth prepares a mass exodus of civilians, Lois, ever the intrepid reporter, returns to the Fortress of Solitude to further press Jor-El on what he knows - or doesn’t know - concerning Darkseid or the Heart of Apokolips.

Lara, Superman’s birth mother, reveals a startling truth.

To her surprise it’s Lara, not Jor-El, who answers Lois’ questions, revealing a mind blowing revelation concerning Doomsday, the very same creature responsible for doing the impossible and killing the Man of Steel. Lara explains that Krypton’s scientists theorized that a dark omega power would rise as a final god, seeking to dominate all reality. It was this fear that led Krypton to create a champion to challenge the omega as an alpha, and Doomsday was this champion, the implication being that Doomsday was literally created to be the one to destroy Darkseid. But as Lois absorbs this information, the Fortress is suddenly attacked as Superboy-Prime of all people - back from the future battling the corrupted Legion of Super Heroes - crashes right in front of her. A corrupted Sun Boy arrives soon after, ready to destroy Prime or attempt to. But he doesn’t take into account that his sun based powers resulted in Lois Lane’s previously vanished superpowers to return, resulting in the triumphant return of Superwoman!

Inadvertently blasted by solar energy, Lois once again has superpowers…

Superwoman Returns!

…and she wastes **ZERO** time putting them to good use.

Our issue kicks off with a brief recap detailing how Lois lost her powers in the first place and immediately dovetails into a beautiful splash of her laying the smackdown on Sun Boy as Prime cheers on. I am an unabashed Superboy-Prime fanboy and to see him continue to play a role in Williamson’s Superman run is a delight, especially given he’s firmly a good guy and still maintains his meta knowledge of the DCU. We shift gears from Lois hurriedly explaining to Prime that they need to find Superman and tell him what they discovered about Darkseid and Doomsday to another flashback of sorts, this time from the perspective of Lex Luthor.

The greatest rivalry in DC reaches new heights (sorry Batman and Joker).

Having regained his memories some time ago after losing them following the House of Brainiac arc, we see how Lex winds up recruiting his former Legion of Doom cohorts to their old headquarters, effectively transporting them to their old base instead of inside the Phantom Zone where the Justice League intended. Lex informs them that the League wanted them out of the way and couldn’t begin to trust them in this tournament to crown a new King Omega. Furthermore, he points out the only way to win this tournament is to be ruthless and without mercy like Darkseid himself, something that the League couldn’t possibly commit to fully. And after all, who better to defeat Darkseid and use the awesome powers granted by the Omega energy to fix the world than Lex Luthor?

We see Lex rally the team of villains and infiltrate the tournament by entering through a nexus to Skartaris, effectively resulting in the wild events that place during the pages of DC K.O #1 and #2 as we get brief highlights of the chaotic melee that took place. Lex taunts Superman, informing him that he’s going to win because he knows the value of sacrifice, not caring if his own teammates die or not so long as he gets one step closer. More so, he informs the Man of Steel that the thing that bothers him the most about Lex’s stance is that some of Superman’s own friends will come around to that line of thinking, too. We get a couple of professional wrestling caliber fight cards in the form of quick previews of two such upcoming battles in the tournament: Superman vs. Captain Atom and Lex Luthor vs. The Demon!

Science meets sorcery as Lex must contend with the Demon, Etrigan very soon!

Once Again, it is PRIME TIME

We return back to the Fortress as Lois has caught Superboy-Prime to speed as he hysterically remarks on there being a death tournament and that he somehow is not in it. In what is probably my favorite scene in this entire comic and definitely a contender for best scene of the year in my humble opinion, Prime comments on how he would kill everybody in the tournament and how O.P he is, a power scaler’s dream. It’s hilarious as hell (to say nothing of Prime spittin’ FACTS) and shows us that while Prime is fighting on the side of the angels, he’s still that self away fanboy at heart. Lois tries to get Prime to focus on the task at hand, which prompts Prime to fly off, realizing something crucial given their location.

As Prime soars away, Lois is quickly beset upon by more of Darkseid’s corrupted Legion, who quickly recognize the Kryptonian archives as a threat to the wouldbe Final God. As Lois calls out to Prime, our redeemed O.P Kryptonian returns to the fray and he’s not alone. Joining alongside him is none other than…SUPERMAN?! Lois manages to set aside her shock as Prime and Superman rally together, the three of them managing to fight off the corrupted Legion. Despite her earlier saying she was fine no longer having her powers, we can definitely see she’s enjoying fighting alongside her husband once more as the heroes manage to dispatch their foes in short order.

Prime moves quickly, realizing that they need to get the archives quickly before more of the Legion of Darkseid returns. Having a moment to breathe, Lois approaches Clark, asking him how the tournament is fairing and how the others are doing. But as she approaches, she’s struck with the sudden horror and realizes that this isn’t Clark at all, but rather a cyborg! Just as Lois lashes out, Prime stops her, reassuring her that this isn’t Cyborg Superman at all but just one of Clark’s many Superman robots and that they will need him to get to the Time Trapper. And our issues comes to a close as we see the very same Time Trapper in the grasp of who appears to be Booster Gold…but most assuredly isn’t.

Prime using his meta-fanboy knowledge to find Supermen Robots is peak.

Williamson and Company Deliver

Lex leads the Legion of Doom to the tournament grounds.

Much like DC K.O itself, this issue is explosive once we return to the present day. But before we do, we are afforded with some narrative meat and exposition as we’re informed just how exactly Lex and his cohorts infiltrated the tournament and how he stands in direct opposition to Superman, not just in the tournament but morally as well. Given Lex’s tremendous growth from the start of this volume of Superman as handled immaculately by Joshua Williamson, it is sad to see him return to his antagonistic ways, but Lex is just too good of a villain to keep shelved indefinitely. And if you’ve been following the series to date, we know that Lex is no longer concerned with the destruction of Superman and hasn’t been for a while. Instead, he would like nothing more than to work together with Superman given the good they’ve been able to accomplish albeit with great hesitation on Superman’s part. But Superman, for good reason, doesn’t trust Lex and given the stakes of the tournament, one can’t blame him for wanting to ensure Lex doesn’t get anywhere close to the King Omega energy the winner is promised.

Superboy-Prime casually breaking comic book kayfabe gives me life.

Once we return to Lois and Prime do we start cooking with gas, though. As I said previously, Prime is a delight and having him be a hero is something that’s been long overdue. He’s, strangely enough, a great comedic foil that doesn’t undercut the tension of the story with his meta commentary. And truth be told, Lois as Superwoman once again? It just…works. I don’t know if the right answer is to make Lois permanently superpowered or have her powers reserved for special occasions such as this - which Prime cheekily pointed out as being under event rules where time and continuity are tricky - but I think at the very least it’s a fine limited run to explore. Lois doesn’t need powers to be an interesting or core character in the Superman mythos, but when she has them, it’s fun. Seeing the two work together was something I could have honestly never predicted so it was a blast watching it play out page by page. I will say I’m not sure what Sun Boy ultimately hoped to accomplish fighting a Silver-Age tier Kryptonian who obviously operates on solar energy. I assume he was using red solar energy to try to weaken Prime, but how then did Lois get repowered as a result? Not a big deal, but something that made me ponder.

Barrows, Ferriera and Sánchez absolutely killed it.

The art here, courtesy of Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferriera with Alejandro Sánchez, fits the hard hitting and frenetic action worthy of being a DC K.O tie-in. It’s dynamic, brutal, and entirely expressive. Even without the speech or thought bubbles, you have clear insight as to the characters’ thought process and motivation. Between Prime’s exuberance, Lois’ stress, Superman’s frustration, and Lex’s resolve, each character depicted in the issue is perfectly emotive. Also, the use of shadowing here really brings everything together as Sun Boy’s flames and fiery energy make for one of the most dynamic pages in the book. The last page of the issue gives us a great shot of Superboy-Prime at the forefront with the various Supermen Robots behind him, many of them wearing different costumes to hearken to Superman’s storied and colorful history throughout the decades. And while he was only on cover duty this time around, Dan Mora continues to showcase why he’s arguably one of the greatest Superman artists of all time thanks to his depiction of Superman standing across from Lex.

Final Thoughts and Review

Next up on the card: **Superman versus Captain Atom**!

The thing I like most about DC K.O is that it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than its initial premise: a literal deathmatch tournament designed to crown the successor to Darkseid and his Omega power. It’s big, it’s bold, and it’s delightfully over the top. This issue manages to serve as a worthwhile tie-in to the event itself while still continuing the plot points established in the ongoing Superman title itself. A good testament to how well written a book is, especially a Superman book, is if you can keep the reader engaged where the titular character is seen only briefly, and in flashbacks at that. This book does this and then some.

Review: 8.5/10

Superman #32 advances the plot for both the current ongoing as well as give us some great developments concerning DC K.O itself, effectively making it a must-read. Between Lois and Prime’s race to reach the Time Trapper with their newfound knowledge in the upcoming Superman #33 and Superman’s announced bout with Captain Atom in DC K.O: Superman vs Captain Atom #1, fans of the Last Son of Krypton will be eating good this holiday season.