In Superman Rebirth #1, the pre-Flashpoint Superman and Lana Lang head to the New 52 Superman's tomb to enter and move the body. Lana is there to move the body, to bury it on the Kent farm. The pre-Flashpoint Superman is there to take the body to the regeneration matrix to revive the body. After all, the pre-Flashpoint Superman had died and been restored in that way.
The whole scene reminded me of Funeral For A Friend, the arc that happened in the immediate aftermath of the Death of Superman. In that story, the world was reeling from the death of Superman, grieving. But there were other forces at work, many of them nefarious. People wanted the body for their own purposes. I am sure, Superman Rebirth #1intentionally was crafted to call back to this.
Wanting to look back at Funeral For A Friend, wanting to revisit a scene at the tomb, and wanting to showcase Supergirl (this is a Supergirl blog), I thought I would review Adventures of Superman #499.
Before we get to the story, a couple of comments. One, I really love Funeral For A Friend. Death of Superman had many wonky story beats (Doomsday heads to Metropolis because he overhears a wrestling commercial?). Reign of Superman (which I also love) has huge action sequences, the mysteries of the four replacements, and the return of Superman. Funeral takes a pause to let us see how the loss of Superman hits everyone. It really is a character driven arc, even if it has its own action sequences.
And I'll remind people that I think that Funeral For A Friend is the turning point for the Matrix Supergirl. The arc starts with her as the subservient lover and ends with her questioning Lex and moving towards being an independent hero. We see her take the next step in Reign of Supermen. But this chapter is when she is still naive to be listening to Lex completely.
Written by Jerry Ordway, with art by the stellar Tom Grummett and Doug Hazelwood, here is Adventures of Superman #499.
