Superman: Lois & Clark #7 (2016)

Superman: Lois & Clark #7 (June, 2016)
“Arrival, Part VII”
Writer – Dan Jurgens
Pencillers – Lee Weeks & Stephen Segovia
Inkers – Scott Hanna, Art Thibert, & Jay Leisten
Colorist – Jeremy Cox
Letterers – A Larger World Studios
Assistant Editor – Andrew Marino
Editor – Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $3.99


If you would have told the teenage Chris (otherwise known as Chris is on Earth 616) that at any point in his life he would consider Superman among his favorite characters, he’d have laughed in your face… then he would have adjusted his hypercolor t-shirt and probably would have quoted Bart Simpson.


I would have never even imagined that… what’s more, if you would have told me that a Superman title would be my favorite book month in and month out, well I certainly wouldn’t have believed that either… and yet, here we are.


The Superman books of late (with Superman: Lois & Clark topping the pile) have been a real surprise.  After many false-starts and inconsistent narratives, DC Comics appears to have found a winning formula for this family of titles… just in time for the re-whateverthey’recallingit that’s on the rapidly approaching horizon.


I’m super pleased that the current creators are the ones that will come with us through the Rebirth Rubicon.  I am (not even cautiously) optimistic that the Superman books they have in store for us will maintain a high level of quality, and anxiously await experiencing the roll-out.


But, that’s still several weeks out.  For now, let’s discuss Superman: Lois & Clark #7.


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We open on a Flashback, some several years ago.  Lois and Jon are returning home from the grocery, and are surprised when they find Clark inside in full celebration-mode over Lois’ latest “Author X” book publication.

All the while, Jon is playing with his Superman and Flash action figures and is having trouble figuring out who would win in a race.  Lois picks Superman but Jon appears to come from the John Byrne school of super-powers… if speed is Flash’s only power, then he’s gotta be the fastest in the world.  Jon ultimately has Flash win, which I wish would have elicited at least a funny eyebrow cock from Clark.  Best part here, Jon’s Superman action figure… it’s got the trunks!

Back in the present, Lois and Jon are locked in a burning storage room.  Over the past few issues Intergang came to the realization that Lois White and Author X were one in the same.  Little did they know, when they locked the pair inside that one of them would be impervious to fire damage.  Jon breaks them out, and with Intergang hot on their heels, they flee the scene.

Meanwhile, Clark is over on the Roosevelt Bridge dealing with the television-manufactured threat of Blackrock.  The two tussle, until Clark finds out this was all a television publicity stunt.  He then spikes the poor fool into the ground, and destroys all of the film evidence (good thing they weren’t going live!) before heading toward his wife and son.

Intergang has caught up with Lois and Jon, and plan to take them out firing squad style.  Luckily, Clark blurs by in the nick of time and hauls his family to safety.

When they arrive at home, Lois and Clark realize the jig is up… they gotta come clean to Jon.  They do their best to explain their former home on the pre-Flashpoint (though they don’t call it that) Earth, and Jon seems to come around.  He was initially quite upset that they kept such a massive secret from him, but seemed to process the information pretty well, even to the point of embracing his father being a superhero.  Jonathan and Martha would be proud.  Clark gets an odd feeling, and has a strange vision of violence.  He knows he is needed, and so he takes off… leaving his proud wife and son safely behind.

Throughout the issue there were a couple of vignettes of a woman called Hyathis who is in search of the Oblivion Stone.  She manages to come into possession of half of it… however, not the second.  For that one is currently being kept at Clark’s makeshift Fortress of Solitude.

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Man I love this series.  If I didn’t know for a fact that this Superman will be continuing on post-Rebirth I’d be bumming pretty hard right now.  It was the announcement of this title back in the late-summer of 2015 that brought me back to DC Comics in a major way.  I felt as though this book was something of an olive-branch to older and lapsed fans.  While I still collected and read DC Comics, I didn’t really consider myself a full-blown “DC Guy”.  Lois & Clark (and Titans Hunt) was DC’s mea culpa, and for me… it worked.  I’m back.


This was yet another incredible issue of this amazing series.  There’s so much heart in this book, that I cannot help but smile as I read it.  As cliche as it may sound, this is my Superman.  Each and every month Dan Jurgens proves that he is the Superman creator of my generation, and I am incredibly thankful he will be continuing on in the legacy-numbered (yeah, it matters) Action Comics post-Rebirth.


I suppose if I had to nit-pick anything, it’s that I really have very little interest in the Oblivion Stone subplot that has been weaved through this series since the start.  I am far more interested in the “White” family dynamic.  I feel like I’m seeing an old friend that I hadn’t seen in many years.  All I want to do is find out what he’s been up to… the Oblivion Stone story, while probably necessary, feels like a distraction from the real “meat and potatoes” of this series.


The art continues to be great in this series.  Despite the abundance of illustrators here, I felt it flowed very nicely.  I like Superman as a Dad… because, and I may be projecting here… Superman, to me, was (and is) the perfect Dad.  Seeing him actually playing that role, with a son he adores, almost brings a tear to my eye.  It’s strange when you can actually be happy for a fictional character… but, (as I say far too often) here we are.  He’s earned his happiness… and I am glad we have been given this opportunity to experience it.


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