Note: This series was originally published in 2013 on my old site, www.berkeleyplaceblog.com, which is now devoted 100% to music. I have reprinted the series here, for posterity.
Lois and the vanished one million are not happy living in Superman’s utopia. Again, the parallel is to Adam and Eve wanting more than God gave them in the Garden of Eden.
Superman realizes that creating Eden was not enough for mankind. He now believes that nobody can—or should—create paradise. Or is this just a retroactive justification for refusing to cure Father Leone’s cancer?
I’m not going to spoil who the “big bad” is at the end of all this, but I love these two panels from the final issue because they end up where all superhero stories end up; and yet, at the same time, the big final battle is kind of a disappointment—in the sense that after all the soul searching and mystery, all that is left to do is destroy. Very similar to what the rebels told Superman themselves, earlier in the series: In order to rebuild and heal, some must die.