3) The Ongoing Mystery Of Superman
DC’s New 52 initiative had introduced us to a new version of the Man of Steel, a younger, less seasoned hero. Shockingly, the build-up to Rebirth saw DC choose to kill this version of Superman off, replacing him with the time-displaced pre-New-52 version. It was a stroke of genius, because this twist has reintroduced the marriage to Lois Lane and given us a tremendous new hero in their son, the new Superboy.
But, with hints that the New 52 timeline wasn’t a reboot after all but had actually been manipulated by the characters of Watchmen, who was the New 52 Superman? There are definitely some tantalizing clues out there; back in his run on Superman, Geoff Johns seeded a character called Mr. Oz who claimed to have taught Superman about responsibility. It’s pretty clear to fans that this is actually Ozymandias, one of the Watchmen.
Meanwhile, the New 52 Superman’s death transferred some of his powers to two innocent bystanders – the New 52 Lois Lane and Lana Lang! In a shocking twist, Superwoman #1 proved that this was unstable by literally killing the New 52 Lois Lane, but Lana is still the star of the Superwoman title.
This is one of the abiding mysteries of Rebirth and it needs to be explored in a lot more depth. Hopefully we’ll start getting some answers soon!
