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Superman to Cyborg Superman: Take the Blue Pill (Action Comics #999 Spoilers)

I am still flummoxed by just how well Dan Jurgens has handled Superman since the DC Rebirth relaunch less than two years ago. While successful in the '90s as writer and artist on Superman, I was generally disappointed by his work, finding it trite, dull, and uninspired — especially when compared to exciting contemporaries such as Grant Morrison or even those that came before such as John Byrne. The Death of Superman was also the death of any interest I thought I could ever have in the character. And that remained pretty much true, even when Grant Morrison started writing the solo character for the New 52.

And then, with Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason on Superman, everything changed. Even with the disappointing tie-ins to Watchmen, this was an exciting, relevant, interesting, challenging, inspiring series — and plain old fun.

Well, today we get Dan Jurgens's final regular issue of Superman, with Action Comics #999. And on his way out, to be replaced by Brian Michael Bendis's whim, he looks to redefine the character again.

We know that Action Comics #1000 will see his tribute to Metropolis story, 'For the City Who Has Everything', referring to the classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons story 'For the Man Who Has Everything' in which the cosmic marauder Mongul has sent a Black Dahlia plant to Superman on his birthday, which has trapped him in a coma-like state and playing out one of his fantasies, that Krypton had never been destroyed, and that he grew up with his biological parents. And, as a result, no longer a threat to Mongul.

Well Action Comics #999 may be getting in a little earlier. Superman finds a way to deal with Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman, who he had banished to the Phantom Zone, using the same tool his father Jor-El had — changing his mind and finding another alternative.

Superman to Cyborg Superman: Take the Blue Pill (Action Comics #999 Spoilers)

He creates an artificial happy world to live in rather than banished emptiness, based on Hank Henshaw's mundane fantasies.

Superman to Cyborg Superman: Take the Blue Pill (Action Comics #999 Spoilers)

Basically, taking the blue pill. And then putting off to deal with later… putting Cyborg Superman on pause until Bendis leaves Superman? But definitely trying to define himself away from his father.

Something Lois Lane is also doing with her father, Sam Lane, whose position on Superman brings him side-by-side with Lex Luthor's traditional position, as a danger, a threat, and a poor inspiration for humanity.

Will there be a reconciliation of views and ideas? More blue pills to take?

ACTION COMICS #999
(W) Dan Jurgens (A/CA) Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
"The General"! Superman's journey through time has crashed to a halt, and at the end of the line General Sam Lane stands face to face for the first time with his grandson, Jon. Buckle up, because the most awkward super-family reunion in history is about to begin!In Shops: Mar 14, 2018
SRP: $2.99


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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