Review: Phantom Zone #4

Today I review Phantom Zone #4, the final chapter of the mini-series which introduced teh concept of Aethyr the Oversoul into the DCU.

As I have said in prior reviews of this mini, this is about as crazy a Superman story as you are going to read. We go to Hell and back, from the lurid to the psychedelic, and then back to Earth for a slugfest. I don't know if I have ever read something quite like this before. And certainly as a 12 year old reading this off the rack, I was both confused and elated.

Writer Steve Gerber does a great job of mixing a weird, almost horror vibe to the story as Superman travels through Aethyr in hoping to get to Earth. Last issues trip through the layers leads to the monster's lair. But, as usual, Gerber provides us with oddly paced side scenes to flesh out the story. From the opening 5 page scene of the nihilistic Nadira and Az-Rel destroying a punk rock club to Faora Hu-Ul doing what she does best, a lot of pages are spent making sure we know who these villains are and what they would do if left to tromp around Earth.

Artists Gene Colan and Tony DeZuniga are on art again and really have had to stretch themselves this whole series. We are in the dingy back streets of Gotham and the surrealistic landscapes of Aethyr. I can't imagine anyone better suited for the job.

And as a side note, once again Supergirl is treated with tremendous respect getting into the main action sequences and quipping her way through clobbering the villains. Just great stuff.

Settle in once more for the weird!

We start out with our beatnik and extra-powered Krytponians, Az-Rel and Nadira hanging out in a rock and roll club somewhere. The punk band on stage bemoans that Supergirl and Wonder Woman stopped the nuclear Armageddon last issue.

Az-Rel and Nadira are bemused at the level of existential ennui seen in the revelers. They decide to up the game showing they care neither about life or death. The move by Nadira to shove the knife into her neck is wonderfully dramatic.

When those gathered get upset at the Kryptonians spoiling the fun, Nadira makes them convulse while Az-Rel makes them burn both with his pyrotic powers and his heat vision. They leave behind a burned club littered with bodies.

We get 4 pages of this! I love that Gerber gives the scene that room to breathe so we get to see just how psychotic these two are. I mean, if you remove them from the story, the main plot moves along fine. But I love seeing that not all the Kryptonian criminals fall in line behind Zod.

Meanwhile, Faora Hu-Ul does what she does best. 

In a distant country, she lures a shepherd into her arms by bathing seductively in a nearby pond. 

As he succumbs to her feminine wiles, she unleashes her anger against males. She crushes him like tissue paper.

Again, this is an added scene which shows us how deadly these criminals are without impacting the main story. But I love it.

In particular, the way the scene rolls out is fantastic as we go from 'romance' to horror in a millisecond.  Faora turns froma bathing beauty into a siren when she lures the man into her grasp. Colan and DeZuniga just bring it here.

Once more, I wonder how Gerber got away with these scenes which build up the universe but are sort of tangential to the main story.

Meanwhile, we finally see what Zod's ultimate plan is. 

If he had to suffer in the Phantom Zone at the hands of the Els then Superman's whole adopted planet will suffer too! He has built a Phantom Zone cannon powered by the Green Lantern battery. Once the Earth revolves around it once, the whole place will go into the Zone.

It seems like an overly elaborate and overtly vengeful scheme by Zod. Why not rule the planet? Or raze it? Or fly off as far away from it as possible?

Ahhh, pride cometh before the fall.

As for Superman and Quex-Ul, they have pierced the final veil of the Phantom Zone and have finally come face to face with Aethyr.

This demon god seems a bit haughty in his discussions. 

Since they have made it this far into the Oversoul, they will now be absorbed into him.

This is his realm with his rules, so our heroes begin to literally melt.

I love how Aethyr is never really truly seen. He is just this sort of purplish devil bathed in smoke.

Superman and Quex-Ul become wild blobs of ink, tossed about and sent to another scene.

As I have said all along, this is a crazy story which veers from ground super-hero action to this sort of bizarre nightmarish stuff.

Superman reduced to a smear of ink is just crazy. That maelstrom of colors is wild.

But let's make it weirder just to be weird. 

Aethyr plops them onto a city street scenario to 'confuse' them. And then when they get reintegrated, Superman is in Quex-Ul's clothes and Quex-Ul is wearing the red S.

In hopes of finally redeeming himself and proving he is a hero, Quex-Ul flies up into the maw of Aethyr only to have his soul absorbed into the beast. He is now one with the Oversoul.

And it looks like Superman will end that way as well!

Angered beyond words, Superman dons his famous costume again and screams defiantly at Aethyr that the Oversoul won't have the same luck.

That panel of the giddy Aethyr, cackling about the death of Quex-Ul is fantastic.

I said things were nutty in this book.

Superman knows that Earth is just beyond this last plane of existence.

He also flies up to face Aethyr. But rather than fly into the unholy fire spewed from Aethyr's mouth, he burrows into the demon's skull. 

What he sees defies his senses, ghosts and wraiths and more demons, the souls absorbed by Aethyr. They are wretches, unable to be saved. 

And then he smashes through the crystalline curtain back into the real universe, freed from the Oversoul.

I love this page, especially that middle panel. That is Superman flying through Hell.

Back in the real world, the remaining heroes feel the Earth shudder under the rays of Zod's cannon. Without a second's pause, Supergirl simply says she will be back and flies into space.

She meets her cousin above the Earth. Together they batter some of the lesser known criminals and shatter the cannon. Supergirl grabs the power battery and with pinpoint accuracy flings it to Wonder Woman who hands it to Hal.

Superman just batters them and a repowered Green Lantern comes and cages most of them.

But the main baddies Zod and Faora fly off, streaking to Metropolis.

There they are spotted by Nadira and Az-Rel who are so anti-authority that they use their powers on their Phantom Zone compatriots. Zod collapses in seizures. And Faora erupts into flame.

And now, my favorite page in the book. Faora crawls out of the river, burned and mutilated, vowing revenge.

There is Kara, standing with supreme confidence and sassiness, calling Faora 'Sweet Cheeks' before presumably mopping the floor with her off-panel.

Now this is the Kara I want to see.

Smug in their display of power over Zod and Faora, the two walk the streets of Metropolis only to run into the zealot Jer-Em.

You may remember that Jer-Em was wracked with guilt over his role in the death of Argo City. Plagued by his sin, he has decided to subject himself to Kryptonite, slowly killing himself. And he thinks that Az-Rel and Nadira deserve the same fate. He is Rao's prophet of doom.

He grabs Nadira who already is weak.

Ahhh, the disenfranchised youth! I love how Az-Rel, who had spoken how death and life were the same and he would embrace death suddenly runs when death is knocking on his door. So much for his existential ethics!

Nadira feels completely betrayed by her lover leaving her so uses her powers to make him convulse. This attack on Az-Rel's mind has him unleash his power on himself. He burns himself to ash.

Suddenly Superman is left with three corpses.

Just a brutal ending for these three. Suicide, murder, and death by a lover.

I love Gerber's words here, describing how beautiful Az-Rel is in death.

There is nothing left but the wrap-up. 

Green Lantern creates a new Phantom Zone projector and sends the surviving Kryptonian criminals back to the ethereal prison. 

Before there can be much discussion though, Superman flies off. He doesn't even share what he saw in the Zone. He can only mull over Charlie's sacrifice and all he saw.

Whew!

Talk about a melange of horror, psychedelia, and good old fashioned super-heroics. Face it true believer! This one had it all!

I love this mini-series for this boldness, this experimentation. 

It happens both fast and slow, an amazing job of pacing by the group. So issue three has us pinballing through Aethyr and its planes while issue four devotes pages to side plots. All this in the gorgeous packaging of Colan's art. 

Plus, and this is really part of my love for this, Supergirl is at the top of her game here, doing more to save Earth than anyone. And her takedown of Faora is legendary.

Now you know about Aethyr. There is one more issue with him though, one which I may cover at length if there is enough clamor!

Overall grade: A