Matrix Mondays On a Thursday: Superman #22

The holidays falling early in the week have made standard scheduling on this blog a bit of a nightmare. I had a decision to make. Keep Matrix Mondays on only Mondays, delaying the conclusion of The Supergirl Saga a couple of weeks. Or somehow transpose Matrix Mondays to another day. Somehow I managed to move it to this Thursday ... but more on that later.

Superman #22 is the last part of the three-part Supergirl Saga. It also is the conclusion of John Byrne's run on the character, with Byrne writing and drawing the issue. The fallout of this storyline effected the Superman books for some time afterwards, leading into the introduction of Gangbuster, the Exile storyline, and the ultimate 'small e' exile of this Supergirl after a bit of misdirection. And then, of course, there is the actual reason why Superman exiled himself to space after this.

Spoiler alert for the 30 year old story, he executes the Phantom Zone villains from the pocket universe.

When this came out, I thought it was a stunning ending. And I thought the repercussions of it were appropriate with Superman questioning himself and whether it was safe for him to stay on Earth. It also made him skirt the edges of mental stability. Things wouldn't be the same.

But now, after all these years, I hate this decision. And I hate it for one reason. This book is one of the primary defenses people use when they defend Superman killing Zod in Zach Snyder's Man of Steel. When fans like me were repulsed by that ending, saying simply 'Superman doesn't kill', the fans would bleat 'What about Superman #22?'

And there isn't an easy comeback to that. He does kill here.

Of course, as I said before, we had his near immediate introspective reactions of regret and shame a mere 30 days later, a self-exploration that lasted over a year. Not the same as movies in which three years pass between plot progression.

But I vowed that I would curse the darkness of the Snyder-verse any more.

Instead, I'll shine the light on the high points of this story. Supergirl was back, in a way. Despite his heroic front, the pocket universe Luthor turns out the be just as big a narcissist as the classic. And Superman learns a hard lesson.

On to the book.

The Supergirl Saga Part 2 ended with Superman and the band of Luthor-led rebels vowing to bring the fight to the Phantom Zone villains.

This book doesn't waste any time.

The opening splash is Superman standing outside the protective dome of Smallville, viewing the wastelands, and preparing for battle.

The rebels, fighters like Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan, and Ollie Queen, join Luthor in high-tech fighter jets.

And, of course, there is Supergirl.

Seems like a pretty foolish mission, one built more for a Suicide Squad.

In short order, the wicked trio of Zod, Quex-Up, and Zaora kill everyone but Supergirl, Superman, and Lex. Even the Smallville stronghold is lost.

And it isn't pretty. We see Bruce's head explode from a backfist.

It is too much for Supergirl to take. She has had enough and flies off to engage.

This Supergirl is powerful.

But she's not that powerful.

When struck by double heat vision from Zod and Zaora, she devolves into protoplasmic goo, a melting purple mass.

Now this was a revelation in the story.

First readers thought this might be some new incarnation of Kara Zor-El.

Then we learned she was a fortified Lana Lang from a pocket universe.

Now we learned she was something else.

Finally Luthor tells Superman to head back to the Smallville lab Superboy had. The best solution might be there. Lex flies off to draw off as many of the Zone villains as he can.

Unfortunately, Lex can only lure away 2 of the 3. Quex-Ul follows Superman.

The pocket universe Kryptonians are far more powerful than the current incarnation. Quex-Ul mops the floor with Superman who luckily finds just what Luthor told him to find. Gold Kryptonite.

As this is a different universe with different Kryptonian physiologies, the Gold K only effects Quex-Ul. He is suddenly powerless.

Using his strength and speed, Superman makes a quick prison cell and then ends things neatly. He exposes Zod and Zaora to the Gold K and locks them up as well.

The monsters are suddenly mere mortals.

But it is too late for Lex. He is barely alive.

Here we finally learn the true origin of this Supergirl. She isn't Kara. She isn't Lana. She is protomatter, built on the molecular matrix of Lana. She isn't truly alive.

Of course, given Byrne's penchant for mining classic Superman material for his own new timeline, I shouldn't have been surprised to see Lex experimenting with  protomatter .

And then the bigger kicker.

Lex always knew about the Gold K. He could have used it to end the Kryptonian threat early on. But he wanted it to be his solution, his idea, that saved the day. That is the old Luthor hubris and narcissism I'm used to. He'd rather let all of Earth die than admit he was lucky to save the day.

He is as big a villain as the Phantom Zoners.

And so there is nothing left but the wetworks.

At first Zod is all coy, promising that one day the Kryptonians will figure out how to get their powers back, then how to breach into the real DC universe, where they will run amok again.

But Superman shrugs off all the threats. These three criminals killed billions of people. He is the sole living being besides them in this universe. As such, he will act as judge, jury, and executioner.

He opens up a canister of green K.

The response of the villains is interesting. Zod lies, saying he was an innocent dupe of Quex-Ul. Quex-Ul kills Zod for this betrayal, before the K can do its work. Zaora promises Superman pleasure, a life where she will be his slave. There is no honor among thieves. Their baser instincts come to the surface when confronted with punishment.

But again, Superman is detached from all this pleading. He simply stands there and watches them succumb to Kryptonite poisoning.

Byrne does a good job of showing that this isn't something Superman relishes.

The next page shows a small Superman in white space, empty ...

Then two very dark panels of Superman, shrouded in shadow, walking in the dust of death.

He is shaken, sad, probably even wondering if he did the right thing.

And then he sees something out of the corner of his eye.

Matrix survived.

He brings this protomatter being back with him to this universe. He asks Ma and Pa to raise Matrix like they raised him. She was an innocent in all this chicanery. She should have a better life.

It doesn't matter that she thought she was Lana. It doesn't matter that she attacked them.

She is the last vestige of that pocket universe. She deserves a second chance.

And then we get the ominous closing panel, the last panel from Byrne on Superman. A rather dour and pensive looking Superman flies away knowing that nothing will ever be the same again.

And they weren't.

Byrne was gone. Superman dealt with this sin. Matrix became Mae, then became Clark, then became Supergirl. And she had her own downs and ups and more downs. In fact, she doesn't appear as Supergirl again for four years!

FOUR YEARS!

Still, we had the idea of a Supergirl back in the DCU, in a way.

Now I already ranted about this storyline a bit in the intro.

So I guess I have to answer the question you have been asking yourself. How could I do a Matrix Monday review on a Thursday?

Well I went back in time, to when the universe was young, and took a slice of a Monday. A slice almost inconceivable. And then I pared away everything accept review space making it a 'Pocket Monday' in which I could write my nefarious words and present them whenever I wanted.

As for the Supergirl Saga, I guess I have to say it is a big story for Supergirl fans, introducing this incarnation to the DCU. It significantly impacted Superman's books for years. And it is pretty tidy. This three issue arc would take 12 issues today.

Overall grade: B+
Overall grade (arc): B+