Grant Morrison's look at the early days of Superman has wrapped up in an almost abrupt fashion. The world was threatened by invaders and a huge chunk of Metropolis was miniaturized and placed in a bottle. Thankfully Superman was on hand to save the day.
This isn't the end of the story as Morrison trickled out more nuggets of plot and character development that we'll have to wait and see to find out how they play out in future issues.
Hopefully you're read ACTION COMICS #8 to witness the final battle of young Superman. We won't spoil everything but there will definitely be some spoilers below.
== TEASER ==Who was that 'little man'?
This was one of the things left out in in the write up for issue #7. We saw Glenmorgan talking to a bartender. I might be missing something but there was definitely something familiar about him.
When it was seen that Glenmorgan seems to be a little out of sorts, he mentioned that "the little man" gave it all to him and then took it away. There was no sign of the man but Glenmorgan feels he is now in hell and the little man is the devil.
Obviously this is something we'll be seeing more of in the future.
Superman's costume still changes
We saw when Superman put on the Kryptonian armor, it changed its appearance based on the House of El, giving him the S-emblem and familiar colors. During his battle with Metallo, one of the other bottled cities is smashed and Superman ends up grabbing a piece from inside. Immediately his costume changes symbol and color. As soon as he discards the piece from the bottle, his costume reverts back to the red and blue.
It's unclear what the significance of this is. It makes sense that the costume would be attuned to his DNA and give a representation of his colors and symbol. Why it would take on a different look based on something he grabbed, while still wearing the suit, doesn't quite make sense. We'll have to see how and why this feature is used later.
Superman's spaceship saves the day, again
We saw in issue #6, which took place after the events of this battle, that Superman took possession of the space station and made it his original Fortress of Solitude. What we didn't know was how he took it over. It wasn't just a matter of defeating the bad guys and sending them on their way.
Grabbing the miniaturized version of the ship (that was inside the bottled city of Metropolis), Superman flicked the rocket inside the head of the invaders. Because the ship was invulnerable and had "some kind of crystal computer system," they wouldn't have a defense against it. Because the ship's primary mission is to protect the son of Krypton, the invaders were now under their control.
What happens to Steel?
In the last issue there was the question about what happens to Steel after all of this? He's saved a lot of lives yet in the current time period and all the other "New 52" books, there's been no mention of him. For all of his heroic deeds, you would think he'd make a big impression on the world. There could be the possibility that he doesn't survive but when asked about being a superhero, he simply shrugged off the idea.
Superman is now a hero
In just a matter of moments, right before Metropolis was attacked, Superman was still seen as a menace by many. He had some fans but the fact that there was the possibility he was an alien. The army apprehended him and (under Lex Luthor's orders) were basically torturing him.
Due to his role in saving the day, he was given the key to the city. Everyone was all smiles and cheered him on as he explained who he was and where he came from.
Where this differs from other tellings is he basically revealed everything during a press conference when he got the key. Lois Lane didn't get the exclusive. Clark Kent didn't either. A crowd of reporters were on hand to take down the details of his origin.
What else happened?
What about Clark's reporting career? Is his secret identity safe? What happens to John Corben? These developments and more are the reasons you need to check out the rest of the issue for yourself.
There is also a prologue at the end as well as the Superman of Earth-23 coming next issue. Who knows what else Grant Morrison has planned for Superman.
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