The dream turns even more wonderful.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran, Xermanico
What They Say:
Superman remains in his dream state, living in a reality where none of the tragic events that set him on his present course ever happened. Who will awaken him?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first part of this dream of Superman’s that Batman has put him under was certainly interesting to watch unfold. His own near-killing of Lois and their unborn child pushed him to a place where he was ready to kill the Joker. And who wouldn’t feel that way? While Batman stopped him from doing so, reassuring him that he would take care of interrogating the Joker and putting things right, he put himself into the more difficult position of killing the Joker and taking the fallout from it by turning himself in. While Bruce has always done his best within his own rules, he also knows, as much as he hates to admit it, that the world needs someone like Superman out there to be the bright, shining beacon of light to aspire to. A beacon that he always hopes will make his own work unnecessary.
As the dream continues here, we get something that spans decades and presents its own interesting storyline to explore. With Bruce now serving time in prison, and not getting out early for good behavior since he’s beating up a lot of punks in there as well, Lois and Clark are enjoying their lives as parents for Lara Lane-Kent, a pretty little baby that we see grow up over the course of it. There’s some good stuff from Clark about not realizing that this is what was really missing from his life since he never had anything like it before, but it also goes into some of the things that comes from being a parent as she grows up as well. It’s difficult on both parents with Lara as every child makes you worry, but it hits some really good notes as we see her learning to fly for the first time, getting a handle on her laser eyes and then becoming more involved in her father’s work as a superhero by being one herself, albeit she isn’t named along the way beyond just Lara.
What strikes the best note for me here though is when the two are above the world and begin talking about how everything truly is falling apart in a significant way, from a point of view that means something to both of them different than others. His being from a world that died because of ignoring what was going on to her being a part of both worlds and wanting to act since she’s not the “outsider” her father is. Since it advances things many years in this dream, we get her as a young woman making the UN appeal, where Wonder Woman is the secretary general and Lois is the president of the United States, and it starts to put things into motion to fixing the world. It’s a preachy speech as Bruce says, but it also says a lot of things that need to be said about working together to get past the loud voice of ignorance to deal with the bigger threat to survival. It’s all idealistic, but it fits for the dream and the kind of dream that Clark would have to see his adopted homeworld grow up and take responsibility for itself.
In Summary:
While I continue to be wary of a dream within a series like this as feels like it’s a bit more about padding things out, this installment in particular really resonates well. Hell, I want a whole Lara Lane-Kent series now to follow her adventures of righting the world and dealing with things there as it would be an interesting story to follow. Clark’s view of things here in realizing what was missing from his life is nicely done as was seeing how he and Lois coped with the various aspects and the touching upon what happened to Bruce. It’s all very superficial in many ways, but it offers the best kinds of teases for seeing how things can grow and change within a storyline and a shared universe rather than constantly being the same thing. I really, really liked this installment a whole lot for what it represents in being positive and trying to change things for the better.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 30th, 2014
MSRP: $0.99
