Action Comics #974 came out this week and really ramped up one of my favorite recent storylines, the mystery of the new Clark Kent. Who is he? Where did he come from? I have a couple of theories ... a Mr. Oz creation, a normal human changed by a discharge of super-energy by the dying New 52 Superman, even some version of Matrix on this world ... but they are pure guesses. If writer Dan Jurgens has dropped any significant hints, I have missed them.
What is clear is that this Clark is more than what he says he is. And the way he has been drawn in certain panels gave him something of a malevolent feel. This issue puts that sort scary behavior on display for us front and center. This Clark has a temper and doesn't like to be made a fool of.
Do I have a better guess at who Clark is after this issue? No I don't. But I do know I am a little more frightened of him. And I am even more intrigued! That makes me happy!
The Clark mystery isn't the only plot in this issue. We get more of Superwoman's recovery and we get a new thread in the re-emergence of Blanque as a threat. So this certainly felt like a full issue, in a very good way.
Patch Zircher and Steve Segovia (with Art Thibert inks) split the art here. Zircher's work on the Lois/Clark pages are just wonderful. Zircher really gives us a wonderful Lois. And, as usual, his page layouts guide the reader's eye nicely. Segovia gets a bit of a more comic world canvas to work on with Fortress settings and alien armor. The different art styles on the differing locales made the whole thing feel pretty slick.
For me, the best thing about this issue was the slow turn of the fake Clark from mild mannered, clumsy, nice guy to scary threat. And nothing conveys that more than this cover by Gary Frank. Clark lurking in the background is eerie. This looks like a horror movie poster.
Last issue ended with a dying Lana being brought to the Fortress to be saved. Initially, it seems like nothing will be able to help Lana from death.
I am assuming that this takes place immediately after the end of Superwoman #7 when Lana just defeated Lena. And I suppose the 'I just saw you there' comment would be because she saw Clark frozen in one of Lena's chrono-cubes.
But that doesn't make sense if Lois is about to go out on that date with Clark, set up in an uneffected Metropolis.
Meanwhile, Lois has set up something of a creepy wall about this new Clark. She is trying to figure out just who he is (aren't we all!!!). And she realizes the only way to get closer to figuring it all out is to get closer to him. We see her preparing for this date with Kent. Zircher shines in these quiet moments of Lois getting ready.
But Jurgens gives us all these new facts about Clark's backstory. His birth parents died in an explosion (interesting) and he was adopted by the Kents. But really what I want is a little more. How deep does this conspiracy go? Are there adoption papers? I suppose with Superman dead, all the existing Clark photos or papers could be attributed to this guy.
Clark shows up for the date ... early. Usually I would chalk that up to a faux pas or a pre-date nervousness. But somehow it comes across as a little bit dark. Was he trying to catch Lois in something? Or catch her off guard?
He then leads her out to an idling limosine. Whoever he is, he doesn't have the 'down to Earth' style of the real Clark. Lois says it. The limo heads to an expensive, exclusive restaurant. And inside, Lois is led to a private room, extravagantly decorated. And then Clark proposes! Proposes!!
Boy, this Clark has acted close enough to the real thing before this issue to have me perplexed. Even I have wondered if he might somehow be a version of the real thing.
Meanwhile, when all Earthly treatments fail to stabilize Lana, Clark turns to otherworldly cures. If her powers are somehow Kryptonian based, maybe Kryptonian medicine will help.
In a nice look back at history, Superman puts her into his old Battle Armor. That suit has a sort of fluid matrix healing egg chamber. Thankfully, once inside, Lana stabilizes.
It is a nice callback to the Return of Superman arc from way back when. Given that Dan Jurgens was one of the drivers of that historic story, I guess it isn't a big surprise to see it mined again.
In that story, the 'dead' Superman did stay in the fluid healing chamber of Kryptonian Battle Armor while recovering from his fight with Doomsday.
One, he promises to be good. That is an odd statement. Does he mean as opposed to being evil? That he won't do something wrong? It just sticks out as strange language.
But he also says that he feels they need to be together. Is he channeling the history of the real Clark? Does he sense they should be married? That would be specific to the current Clark and not necessarily the dead New 52 Superman who never really clicked with Lois.
But then things change and Clark seems to dehumanize. Suddenly you don't see his eyes through his glasses anymore. He is something else. That look of confusion becomes a stern look, an angry look, a scary look. He vows to destroy who gets in his way.
And then we pan back to see that no one is driving the limo. Great slow reveal on the page. Wonderful art by Zircher,
So who is he? We know he has been scanned and is human. So no robot or Eradicator? And what's with the anger ...
I've been ignoring one of the subplots coursing through the issue. Early on, Superman gets notified that Hank Henshaw's group is breaking into the Himalayan Fortress. However, his devotion to Lana and his confidence in his defenses lead him to stay in the Arctic.
I don't quite know how Henshaw's agent gets past the vaunted defenses but he does. And he is telepathic controlled to release the ultraviolent psychic Blanque who quickly blows the whole thing up.
And Blanque was a big threat in Lois and Clark. He is a big threat. I'm excited to see what happens next.
What is interesting is that Clark downplays what he did with Lana. And Lois doesn't even mention what she did with 'Clark'.
It is odd to see these two maybe hold back on the truth. Maybe Lois thought that her Clark might be unhappy with the chance she took? Maybe Clark doesn't like to talk about any Lana with Lois?
Unfortunately the doppelgänger Clark followed Lois. He sees the real Clark and Jon and knows they are with Lois instead of him.
Suddenly this Clark looks outright violent. And blue energy spills out from behind his glasses. Does that make him more of a Dr. Manhatten construct?
I will say, if my guess of Mr. Oz being Vyndktvyx turns out to be true than this Clark could be a simple 5th dimensional construct. But I simply don't know.
In case you can't tell, I loved this issue. This 'Clark' plot grabbed me from the beginning. And this issue pushed the pedal all the way down. We are t seeing the well intentioned buffoon in this Clark. We seeing someone unhinged and almost unreal. What is he??
Gary Frank's cover is eerie and beautiful. I'd like seeing him to draw Kara again. He made her resemble a young Laura Vandervoort. Or even better, seeing him to draw Kara and Linda again.
I'm pretty intrigued by the fake Clark Kent's mystery. I guess whatever happens, Clark, Lois and Jon will be living in Metropolis, and both parents working for the Daily Planet when everything is over. And no one will be any the wiser. But how? There will be some reality-warping?
I wish Pa and Ma Kent go back during the impending cosmic chaos, but I'm not holding my breath. But it's so sad they will never get to meet their grandson. I miss the final years of the Pre-Flashpoint universe, when the extended Kent family was real large and close-knit: Ma, Clark, Lois, Kara, Conner, Lana and even Krypto...
Oh, I love Anon's idea of us getting Jonathan and Martha back ... I was so against their post-Crisis revival, but came to love having them around.
Onto the issue, I think the gas explosion bit was mentioned in the issue in which Superman examined 'Clark' - it's a nice callback to the most basic version of Krypton's destruction.
More and more I'm coming round to the idea that there's a Prime suspect as to who DoppleClark is... as for other points you bring up, my views are on my complementary review at Too Dangerous For a Girl (pluggity plug).
"Oh, I love Anon's idea of us getting Jonathan and Martha back ... I was so against their post-Crisis revival, but came to love having them around."
Agreed. Nonetheless, when supporters of the reboot who are at once Silver Age haters claim that Byrne's Superman was Golden Age Superman. Right, I remember Pa and Ma showing up in every issue of Action Comics published during the 40's.
"More and more I'm coming round to the idea that there's a Prime suspect as to who DoppleClark is..."
I've seen some fans guessing this Clark is Superboy-Prime. God, I hope not. That "parody" of an imaginary fan stuck in the past wasn't funny when Infinite Crisis hit the shelves and it isn't funny now.
Okay, it WAS funny when Supergirl and Power Girl punched him out of the planet in "Tales of the Sinestro Corps".
Oh, God, do you remember how much he hated Conner? What will he do when he learns there's another Superboy around? On the other hand, Jon is about to learn why morals are so important when you're a super-powerful Kryptonian.
Well, if we're to put up with Prime, I demand a scene in where Power Girl punches him out for murdering her cousin.
Why aren't you happy? We're about to read absolutely stellar dialogue again: "I'll kill you! I'll kill you dead!"
Why does DC insist on inflicting Superboy Prime about us? They're reminding us that they regard fans as self-entitled, deranged, incoherent, whiny brats right when they are supposedly trying to mend bridges with their disenchanted fanbase.
The Huntress DCNU blog has the theory that DC intends to bring everyone back. I'm not sure how that would work, but I've been rereading issues of the Post-Crisis Kara and I've realized how much I miss her. Will Rebirth reveal Post-Crisis and Post-Flashpoint Kara are one and the same? Will we find out where Earth-One Supergirl went to after Convergence? Will they bring Leesburg Linda back to expand the Super-Family? We'll see.
Took some doing, but I finally found her little yellow trailer. It was squatted down under a drooping maple tree at the back of a scruffy trailer park somewhere in dead end Oklahoma. A cherub birdbath canted in the front yard and potted ferns straggled from the porch. I parked my car out by the mailboxes and sauntered toward the trailer, my fedora pulled low over my left eye and my snakeskin boots kicking up little clouds of red dust–the bloodhound hot on the scent.
Halfway up the driveway, the door of the trailer opened a crack and a woman’s deep voice came from inside, “That’s far enough.”
I stopped and held up my ID card. “Inez Frasier? My name’s Paul Michaels. I’m a private investigator.” I reached into my shirt packet for a business card.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The screen door banged open, and I was staring into the cold black eyes of a shotgun.
I darned near jumped out of my skivvies! “Jeez, lady, be careful with that thing. You could accidentally shoot somebody.” Sweat drizzled down my neck and glued my shirt to my back. “I just want to talk to you for a couple of minutes, that’s all.”
It took a few seconds to collect enough spit to speak. “Like I said, Mrs. Frasier, I’m a private investigator. About a year ago Mrs. Natalie Corvel hired me to locate her mother.”
No sounds came from inside the trailer, but the barrel of the shotgun now pointed more toward the ground than at my head. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and took my chances. “All I had to work with was a shoebox full of postcards my client received over the years. I have photocopies here if you would like…” The shotgun rose up a few inches. “Aw, come on. What’s it gonna’ hurt to listen to me for a couple of minutes? Jeez, I wish you’d put that thing down.”
“Okay, okay. You never lived in any of the towns where you mailed the cards, right?” I chuckled. “Real clever of you.” No response. Figured in for a penny, in for a pound. “So, are you Natalie Corvel’s mother?”
“Au contraire, Mrs. Frasier. I make my living outa other people’s business.” I slid into my best Sam Spade voice. “Look, ma’am, I mean you no harm. I only have a couple of questions to ask, and I’ll be on my way.”
The screen door opened wider. A tall woman with grey hair pulled back at the nape stepped onto the porch and gestured toward a chair with the barrel of the gun. “Make it quick.”
I minced my way up the steps and sidled toward the chair. It wouldn’t do to startle either her or that gun. “If you are Mrs. Corvel’s mother, all she wants is to know you’re okay and where you are.”
Her face turned to granite. “That the only reason you’re here, Mr. Private Eye, to confirm your half-baked theory?”
I slid my business card onto the small table between us. “Well, uh yeah, unless we could reach some kind of, you know–arrangement…”
She barked a harsh laugh. “Uh-huh. I give you money and my trail miraculously disappears, that kind of arrangement?” She leveled the shotgun dead at me. “You get off my property, you gumshoe weasel. Get into that sorry-looking automobile of yours and get out of my sight, or I swear I’ll blow holes in your worthless carcass. I’m counting to three.”
I exited stage-left, churning out of there in a cloud of Oklahoma dust, not looking back or slowing down until I hit the highway. By the time my client acted on my information, Inez Frasier and her yellow trailer had vanished.
But ole Inez never missed a beat. Every so often she sends me one of her blasted postcards, knowing full well I’ll go prowling after her like some fool tomcat chasing catnip. She’s waltzed me across Oklahoma, Texas and even way up into Missouri.
You ever seen a two-headed snake, P.I.? I did once–he drove a hunk of junk Plymouth and wore lizard boots.
Ann, I really like this incarnation! The dialogue is crisp and entertaining and the story complete in itself, yet it also leaves a bit of an opening for more adventures with our inscrutable Inez!
Loved this post! The ending is worthy of O’Henry! My husband’s grandmother’s name was Inez. She had the same spunk as your character, and while our Inez never weilded a gun, she was deadly with a broom!
As Abe Simpson, Homer’s Dad, exclaims as he and his son flee the authorities: Call me mint jelly, cause I’m on the lam! I enjoyed the fact that the heat became another character in the story(and with the temps over here hitting 93, I know about sticky,wet clothing).
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