So I finally go to the conclusion of Superman Lost and I'm not exactly sure what I got from the conclusion of the series is what I sought out at the start.
Superman Lost started off with a solid and intriguing premise. Superman flies off with the Justice League on a mission. Less than a day later, Clark returns to Lois in their apartment except...
He's not been gone a day.
He's been gone for 20 years.
During the mission, Superman gets sucked into a space time wormhole thingy and gets deposited on the farthest reaches of deep space.
Important science lesson: space is big.
Back in the silver age, Superman would just pop off to other planets with no more bother than getting in the car for a Target run.
What writer Christopher Priest does with this story is apply some hard science. It ain't easy getting back home from outer space, not even for Superman because....
Remember our important science lesson: space is big.
From the outset, Superman Lost focused on 2 plot lines:
Clark's PTSD from whatever the hell happened to him over those 20 years lost in space.
What the hell happened to him those 20 years in space?
For the latter, Superman winds up on an Earth like planet that he calls "Kansas". The planet is spiraling towards self destruction which has somehow become a politically charged partisan issue.
Half the population thinks their world is just fine and any weird shit going with the sun or the ground shaking or whatever is just hysteria and a hoax to promote the agenda of the "other side". (Yes, you can call them MAGA Hats if it helps you relax.)
Stuck so far from home and unable to navigate to Earth or any other world without help because...
Space is big.
Thanks!
Superman takes it upon himself to trying save "Kansas" even if half the planet doesn't want to be saved because they think everything is fine, just fine.
Superman gets some some hope in a woman named "Hope" who shows up with a Green Lantern ring. Now those bad boys can take you anywhere in the universe.
Except...
Hope was bequeathed her ring by a dying alien Green Lantern and she hasn't learned to use it yet. Including that pesky business of space navigation.
So Clark, Hope and Clark's alien friend Szhemi (like "Jimmy") form a quasi family unit that Hope doesn't want to lose even as Clark keeps pining for Lois.
Speaking of Lois...
In the present, Lois is struggling to help Clark through his PTSD funk and nothing is working.
She actually turns to Lex Luthor for help.
And this is where Superman Lost goes off the rails.
Lex's plan to snap Superman out of his depression is to give Lois stage four cancer.
And Lois doesn't tell Clark which undermines Lex's whole point of giving her cancer.
Lois masks her cancer symptoms by letting Clark think she's pregnant.
And it turns out Lex Luthor didn't give Lois cancer, he just gave her cancer symptoms.
And does ANY of this seem like good idea to you?
Not to me, it doesn't.
Given the grace and sensitivity that Superman & Lois handled Lois's battle with cancer in season 3, I did not think having Lois in the comics getting zapped with cancer (or pretend cancer) by Lex Luthor as particularly appropriate.
Besides the tone dead "Lex gives Lois cancer" thing, there's some issue with a corrupt senator Lois is investigating and an out of nowhere sub plot involving a civil war in some Eastern European country that may be an allegory to what happened on the "Kansas" planet.
And Hope the Green Lantern shows up on Earth. She's pregnant. With Clark's child?
Nope, Hope procreates via parthenogenesis and her baby is a clone of Szhemi (Jimmy) clone.
Which makes up for Hope killing Szhemi, maybe?
Hope leads Superman and the Justice League back to the "Kansas" planet to help save everyone.
Then in some really convoluted time travel shenanigans I don't understand...
(It involves the Gandalf Superman we met in issue #7.)
Clark returns from the mission WITHOUT 20 years of trauma.
All that shit that was messing with his head is now gone.
Which sucks for Lois who spent weeks trying to help her husband cope with his PTSD to the point that she endured the debilitating symptoms of Lex Luthor's pseudo cancer!
Clark's lost 20 years just never happened?
Really?!?!
I'm not really sure what the hell happened but it's not just me. I've read a bunch of reviews online and it seems NO ONE has any idea what the hell happened at the end.
If this storyline had happened in a mainline Superman title, I would understand some impulse to restore Clark back to some form of status quo.
But this series was a stand alone series from the regular titles and also, that twist is vastly unfair to Lois and to the readers.
For the first half of this series, writer Christopher Priest had something going that was interesting, exciting and yes a bit challenging but in a good way.
The back half of this series is undone by sub plots and contrivances that add nothing to the primary narrative that Priest began with and undermines what could have been a powerful and influential chapter in the life of the Man of Steel.
Speaking of the back half of the series, the otherwise beautiful artwork of Carlos Pagulayan is under cut by several pages drawn by other artists. These artists (Lee Weeks, Dan Jurgens, Jose Luis and others) are all very good at what they do but it does affect the consistency of the visuals of the book.
The central premise of Superman Lost, that Clark could suffer from PTSD and what could cause such a trauma in one so powerful, was an intriguing concept and could've been regarded as a Superman tale for the ages.
It seems there was a lack of trust or commitment to the concept with a flurry of concepts and twists thrown at the wall to see what would stick.
Superman Lost could've been great.
Instead it has to settle for merely being good and to be honest, the twist of Clark not actually living through those 20 years, the series is undermined in that fairly modest goal.
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