Review: Superman Annual 2026

Last week in Action Comics #1100, we saw Superman drained of his King Omega power and rescued from the time stream by Superman. This week in the Superman Annual 2026, we get the story of what happened to him between the end of D.C.K.O. and the rescue.

I'll start out by saying I liked this annual a lot. Writer Joshua Williamson and artist Eddy Barrows give us a pretty wild story, bouncing from the time stream to a desolate future to a villain's headquarters. We get plenty of Legions, an old Legion villain, a hero I haven't seen in a long time, and a character I thought forever in the dustbin of DC's limbo.

Barrows' art is it's usual graceful beauty. When the stakes get big, his art get big as well. But lately I have found his quiet moments, Clark talking to Lois in their apartment, where his art really sings. Yasmine Putri is on art for the back end of the book, introducing us to a new villain and showcasing the upcoming LSH book.

But what is this annual? The epilogue of D.C.K.O.? A backdoor prologue to the new Legion of Super-Heroes? The beginning of Kingdom of Zod? All of those things?  One thing that I like is that DC, at least the super-books, seem to be going from mini-event from mini-event. And yet, there hasn't been any event fatigue because while there is a thread through all of them, each book has been able to stand alone.

Whatever this book is, it works. As an long long long time Legion fan, I was pretty thrilled with the end of the story. On to the details.

Much of the book is split horizontally with the image of the King Omega Superman flying, a nice artistic flair.

I was glad for the recap of K.O., reminding me that Doomsday did something heroic, allowing his powers to resurrect Superman and therefore be able to beat Darkseid.

Still not sure how I feel about the Time Trapper Doomsday doing something good. Seems completely antithetical to the character. 

Super-charged with the KO power and the Time Trapper's abilities, Superman is drawn to the time stream which is being eroded and destroyed. 

Superman is taken up by the robot Hourman who is hoping to survive the time tempest. Without a Time Trapper to keep the future intact, another being is soaking up the time energy and destroying the future.

For an old-timer like me, I immediately recognized this silhouette. Heck, I've even seen this being fight the Time Trapper in the old Legion Baxter series.

Superman is powerful enough with his new abilities to try and re-stitch the timeline, keeping the future intact.

Now this is a double page, landscape spread of many panels of different futures we have seen in DC's history. Here is Kamandi and the future Titans from the Geoff Johns' take on that book. But we also see Future's End. We see DC One Million. 

Does this mean that there is no true future but everything is still possible. Interesting. It's like Morrison's take that everything is in continuity.

Hourman warned Superman that his mission to fix the future could take forever. It could disorient him.

At one point, a rather Time Trapper looking Superman, cloaked in the classic Trapper purple cloak, lands on a desolate Earth and gets a vision of Lois. 

I like that despite however long this has taken him, Lois is still in his heart. (In Action Comics #1100, Lois is what he screams when he escapes the time stream. That resonates even more with these visions.)

But in this barren Earth, Superman runs into Darkseid's Legion. But with Darkseid gone, they are free of his control.

How interesting to see this Garth and Imra as parents. Imra is hugging twin children. These Legionnaires recognize what they did and want to make amends. They even have built a sort of makeshift Legion HQ.

I like that this erases the 'evil Legion' and we see their true character.

Now I don't know if I quite understand the next bit entirely. As anticipated, the Infinite Man is the being eroding the time stream. If Superman is going to fix the timeline, this dystopian Earth with this formerly evil Legion will cease to be.

But don't forget Superman is juiced with Time Trapper power (heck he even manifests chains around his arms) and King Omega power. He figures out a way to defeat the Infinite Man and keep all the futures viable.

Pretty cool to hear him say 'Long Live all the Legions'! And Barrows crushes it here. Cosmic beings slugging it out. Multiple versions of the three original Legionnaires in the background.

Fantastic.

With the Time Trapper defeated and his extra-energy gone, Superman is in the time stream and rescued by Superboy, a replay of the ending of Action Comics #1100.

The story isn't over.

The Dark Legion is trapped in a bottle of energy by Brainiac One Million, a future version of the classic villain. It seems it is the classic Kandor trap for the Legion, shrunk and 'bottled'.

But look who is working with him.

<gasp>

Pandora! The face of the New 52 who was later vaoprized by Dr. Manhatten in Doomsday Clock.

Whoa!

Is Joshua Williamson crazy to bring her back? Or crazy good?

Moreover, Pandora is working for Darkseid. She is his 'Harbinger'. 

And Brainiac is more than happy to help as long as the future belongs to him.

You can't say 'Harbinger' in a DC comic without leaning into Crisis on Infinite Earths. And if you are talking about Darkseid taking over the universe ... well that has the word Crisis written all over it.

Moreover, we see that this Brainiac has captured a bunch of Legions. Silver Age! Threeboot! Retroboot! 5YL! Bendis!

Well, at least we know why it will be a new Legion coming soon. The others are trapped!

But my heart swooned seeing my 5YL Legionnaires again. Thank you Josh Williamson and Yasmine Putri.

Now seeing Pandora was a shock.

But seeing that this Brainiac's plan is to have the Cyborg Superman be the inspiration for any Legion is even more shocking. How the heck is that going to happen.

Anyways, this part felt like a little behind the curtain of the upcoming Legion book. Will this Brainiac be a visible foe for them? Or a 'pulling the strings' sort of universal threat?

Great annual doing all an annual is supposed to do! 

Overall grade: A