While Lois investigates a Congressional scandal, Superman joins the Justice League for what seems like an ordinary mission. Later, back home, Superman seems incredibly out of it, and also doesn't seem to be breathing regularly. Bruce Wayne shows up, with bad news for Lois, but he seems just as surprised to see Superman there; Lois tears into him, "what did you do?" But this wasn't on Batman: the Chinese government had been trying to salvage the drive from a crashed spaceship, but caused an implosion that could've destroyed the earth: Superman sacrifices himself to stop it, and is thrown something like 14 thousand or so light-years into space. Still in shock, Superman tells them, it had taken him twenty years to get back...!
On earth, the series alternates between Clark's pronounced PTSD, and Lois's probably ill-advised attempt to bring him out of it by going to Lex Luthor. Lex's 'help' involves giving Lois cancer: he figures, she would tell Superman, Superman would attack him, and Lex would kill him, but at least he wouldn't be all weird and mopey anymore, right? Lex did not take into account the idea that Lois might not tell him, instead passing her nausea off as a pregnancy! We also see Superman's space travel, which covered vast distances but didn't really get anywhere: with no points of reference, he's mostly stuck on a distant world--that doesn't seem to have a name, so Supes calls it 'Kansas'--inhabited by a culture Priest describes as libertarian at one point. It's sort of a democracy, but also cliquish: the general consensus seems to be, if people are dumb enough to vote to be idiots, it's not anyone else's responsibility to save them. In the same vein, so what if the sun's going to explode? That might not happen tomorrow, or in my lifetime, why do anything? Oh, and Superman couldn't get full power in the sun there, blocked by a nebula; the whole thing seems virtually designed to frustrate him. Even the arrival of a Green Lantern doesn't help much, as the ring wearer, Hope, had no idea what that was...in more ways than one.
This kind of series was usually 12 issues, right? I almost feel like it could've used the extra two, even if there's some What If Elseworlds-like sidebars towards the end that don't add a ton. Likewise, Superman goes to therapy, which he probably needed after this, but he also borrows Supergirl's therapist and her appointment! (Clark is also, somewhat rightly, hard on himself for not understanding what Kara had been going through or supporting her enough.) The therapist later asks, how much does Superman hate Lex, which Supes tries to brush off; but there are several short fantasies of Superman murdering Lex in various ways: those might actually be Lex's annihilation fantasies. After all, if Superman killed him, he would be proven right, which is really all Lex ever wanted.
Lois also has a conversation with Wonder Woman, that seems full of jealousy and resentment, that I had thought Lois had got out of her system long ago. Similarly, every time Bruce shows up it's with bad news, and Lois is taking none of his crap.
I got this at a buy two/get one free at EntertainMart: they haven't come through for me as often as the dearly departed Hastings, but here and there. Recommended!
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