Action Comics #1037: The One Left Standing!

After months of deliciously tense build-up, the time has come, my friends, for the ultimate confrontation between Superman and Mongul. …well, sort of. That may be Superman’s intention, but situations are never as simple as they seem.

So, where are we now? Last issue, Superman departed from Earth alongside his newly formed team, The Authority. Their goal is to confront and defeat Mongul and dismantle Warworld’s slave system bringing freedom and liberty to the people who have been crushed under the Mongul line’s boot for… however many decades, centuries, or more. A goal both lofty and worthy, of course, but complicated by Superman’s deteriorating physical state. You see, some months back, Clark encountered a breach in space and the aliens that spilled forth from within it… and since then, he has been dying, his power fading. Until now, his growing weakness has been disguised through the efforts of his teammates. Now, with his arrival on Warworld, the masquerade is over and his weakness has been revealed to Mongul – who, by the way, is currently riding one of those aliens like a horse.

That brings us to Action Comics 1037, and the first battle between Mongul’s forces and the Authority… a battle that may be more unbalanced than it initially appears. Of course, it’s safe to assume that Mongul’s forces are formidable – what’s a good hero without a good villain after all? But the forces present are largely black boxes – their abilities, their strength, even their basic motivations are largely unknown and that gives the forces of Warworld something of an advantage. This extends even to Mongul himself, a ruthless and cunning foe who shares a powerset with his father and the grandfathers before, but does not share their weaknesses. Mongul-who-is has proven to be a far more dangerous enemy than anyone could have predicted, in part because he is aware of the inevitability of conflict with Superman and chooses to plan his moves with that in mind. This turns Warworld into a death trap for Kryptonians, designed to bring Superman low and, ultimately, break him.

Physically, at least, he may be able to do just that. And while I’m sure Superman’s will is in no danger of breaking, it will be interesting to see how he manages to maintain his goals and convictions in the face of a planet-sized system rolling forward to crush him… sometimes with the help of the very people he came to save. People who watch Superman fight on their behalf… and chant Mongul’s name.

Elsewhere, from their safe observation distance, the United Planets council has another dilemma – to stand for right, supporting or even sending backup to Superman’s aid, or to stand back and wait it out in hopes of taking the side of the victor. This decision is complicated by the presence of certain silver-tongued – and suspicious – Durlan from the last issue… a man who clearly has his own agenda and his own stakes in this contest.

So here’s the question: how do you teach people who have never known freedom, who do not know what it is, or how to hope for it, to value their own lives, their own wills, and their own agency? And does he even have the right to do so? Mongul certainly doesn’t think so. For my part, I’m going to say in this case he absolutely does. Slavery is anathema to decency and even with questions of sovereignty acknowledged, Mongul threw the first punch. He’s the one who sent that slave ship to Earth with passengers under orders to kill Clark’s family.

But he didn’t attack the United Planets. And that leaves them all too vulnerable to the Lord Premier of Durla, whose all-too-familiar appeals to xenophobia and bigotry are about as effective here as they are in real life. As the Twilight Zone once said, people are the same all over.

All of this sounds pretty grim, but I don’t mean it that way. In the modern world, these issues are made more difficult due to the complexities inherent in our geopolitical environment, and no doubt they are difficult within a fictional universe as well. But the DC Universe has something we don’t. They have Superman.

…and an author controlling the way this narrative comes out. Obviously.

This issue marks the first issue undertaken by artist Miguel Mendonca, and let me tell you, it is great. I have been a massive fan of Daniel Sampere’s run on this book, and I’m not going to pretend that I’m not going to miss him. That said, Mendonca’s artwork is perhaps more fitting for the direction the plot has taken now. While the work is absolutely beautiful, Mendonca brings a kind of organic grit and a little bit of roughness. It is a style that would not be out of place in a sword and sorcery title, for example – I can easily see him on a fantasy epic or a Conan title just as easily as I can see him on a superhero title, and if Superman’s presence in Future State is at all representative of what’s to come, that’s just what the book needs.

Sauntering over to the backup, we find one of my favorite underused characters, Martian Manhunter. Despite the occasional solo mini and his presence on the Supergirl TV show J’onn has always suffered from a dearth of use. While he did have an excellent solo outing under Steve Orlando and Riley Rossmo a few years back, to my mind he has more often than note been adrift since he was excised first from his previous position as the sole consistent member of the Justice League and then from his role as founder.

That being the case, it’s exciting to see him here in this Shawn Aldridge and Adriana Melo backup feature, complete with loving callbacks to one of the most character-defining periods of his comics life – the Justice League International years. There’s just something endearing about watching J’onn in all his classic Martian Manhunter glory relaxing on a sofa with his chocos and his fluffy cat.

More than that, though, Aldridge chooses the right question to ask: who is J’onn and what is his role? What does it mean for him to be himself in the world as it currently is? It’s the question the character has grappled with on a meta level for years, but perhaps the best way to answer it for the reader is to answer it for J’onn himself.