Review: DC K.O: Superman trade paperback (DC Comics)

Reading the DC K.O. event is not straightforward for trade fans.

The DC K.O.: All Fight book collects the eight “All Fight Month” issues, though some of these — Superman, Titans, Flash, Aquaman — fall in the middle of the respective series trades in which they also appear. Someone wanting to be caught up on Aquaman before the intersection with All Fight could turn to the Aquaman Vol. 2 trade, but that Aquaman issue is “Round Two” of All Fight, and there is a loose narrative throughway within those books. There’s essentially no way to be exactly current on both Aquaman and All Fight without interspersing your reading between the two books — and really, between quite a few of the tie-in trades.

That’s all the more complicated with DC K.O.: Superman. For a little while there was a listing for a Superman book that was just Joshua Williamson’s pre-DC K.O. issues, parallel to Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2: The Omega Act. Admittedly, on the Superman side, that would have been too few issues for a trade, though Justice League managed it with a couple of specials.¹ Eventually the Superman book thickened to this one, though some evidence of the push-and-pull is visible — a note unlike I’ve ever seen before on the back of the book affirming that this is indeed volume 6 of the ongoing Superman series … right above the words “Vol. 6” that are also printed on the back.

DC K.O.: Superman ends up spanning from before DC K.O., getting some key characters in place, to during the event, so that’s one spot the audience might split their reading. Then, the book includes the seventh round of “All Fight,” so another place to switch between books. Then, DC K.O.: Superman contains references placing issues after the DC K.O.: The Kids Are All Fight special (collected in DC K.O.: Battle Royale) and the events of DC K.O.: Justice League Unlimited. The interconnected continuity of the event is great, but reading it in order in trades is a challenge. (No doubt eventually to be amended in an expertly curated omnibus.)

In a book that launches with a focus on Superman’s relationship with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Williamson mostly hews to the same metaphors as Geoff Johns' Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes book way back when — that for a young Clark Kent who felt ostracized because of his powers, the Legion was his first sense of fitting in. But also, in the timey-wimey way that also includes Williamson’s work with the Time Trapper Doomsday, Williamson emphasizes the ouroboros of it all, that the Legion inspired Superman and Superman inspired the Legion, and I’ll be watching to see what Williamson does with that knot.

[Review contains spoilers]

The Aquaman Vol. 2: Justice League Blue book surprised me in that, when it came down to the events of DC K.O., Jeremy Adams story was as much about Aquaman as it was about what Mera was doing while Arthur was at the tournament. (This is equally a strange but appealing way to structure an event, not retelling parts of the event in the regular series but rather treating it as if the hero is “away.”) DC K.O.: Superman has something of the same thing; I knew Superboy-Prime was arriving in this title, but I wasn’t expecting him so soon, and at times we more follow Prime, Lois Lane, and a Superman robot than we do the Man of Steel himself.

[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]

As well I wasn’t expecting Williamson to give Lois back her “Superwoman” super-powers. This is awkward, as I discussed with Superman: Love and Mercy; it’s fun to see Lois with powers, but it’s as untenable for the intellectual property in the long-term as Bruce Wayne having a broken back, so Lois must eventually lose those powers. Then, so as not to mire the book, Williamson must make Lois magically OK with not having powers, when the very opposite plotline would always be true for her husband.

It seems however that Lois' powers are not gone, so much as a blast of the right sunlight at the right moment might bring them back temporarily. Certainly that was a good shocker on the page by Williamson, though I’m not sure if it makes the situation better or worse. In a sort of blend of Silver Age and modern aesthetics, there’s now a logical explanation for Lois to gain and lose powers whenever the story calls for it, which is not unappealing; at the same time, that’s more opportunity for Williamson or a less enlightened writer to make Lois' powers or lack thereof a wedge between herself and Superman.

(Oddly, though Lois does not wear her Superwoman costume throughout most of the story, she is wearing it in the final pages as she walks through a crowd. The previous conceit was that Superwoman never went close enough to anyone to reveal her identity; maybe she’s doing the “blurring her face” thing, but I also wondered if Williamson was suggesting the secret is out.)

Williamson has a DC Next Level Legion book coming out featuring an all-new Legion (something I have feelings about, but we’ll discuss another time). How that fits into the paradigm of Superman and the Legion creating one another, I’m not entirely sure, except that Williamson does some work here to reconcile the Legion from the Brian Michael Bendis run as being a Legion but not Superman’s Legion. Also we find that Darkseid’s Dark Legion did not replace “our” Legion, as I’d thought, but rather they still exist, as a multiverse’s worth of Legionnaires fight the Dark Legion offscreen. Time will tell, but it leaves me curious what Williamson will depict as the relationship between his new Legion and the Legions that have come before.

DC K.O.: Superman really only gives a passing glance to the idea that Superman, of all people, is about to join a contest where he kills all his friends. Not that Superman isn’t reluctant throughout DC K.O., but not so reluctant that he doesn’t participate, and Joshua Williamson’s book still doesn’t quite give that the attention it deserves. It remains to be seen whether DC K.O. has lasting effects or not — whether the point was the fighting itself or simply holding Darkseid off; I’ll be interested to see whether, having made a light mention of it, Williamson ever returns to that point.

[Includes original and variant covers]

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1. In another timeline, maybe that short Superman trade could’ve included the Summer of Superman special, which is directly referenced in this book.  ↩︎

Rating 2.5