Superman Now!
By Adam Murdough
The Trinity, and particularly Superman, did indeed play a central role in Infinite Crisis, right from the first page. One of the most important scenes of the first issue is a terse three-way confrontation between Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, in which the three heroes heatedly outline one another’s recent faults and transgressions amid the ruins of the Justice League’s moonbase. The debate reaches its climax when Batman stuns Superman with the devastating, already infamous remark, "The last time you really inspired anyone--was when you were dead." It isn’t hard to hear the sentiments of more conservative, curmudgeonly DC Comics readers reflected in this and other criticisms leveled at each other by the Trinity in this exchange.
As the Infinite Crisis story unfolds, the Trinity heroes encounter characters that represent the best and worst in themselves, forcing them to confront their own recent shortcomings even more directly. Superman’s Jungian shadow, as it were, takes the form of two "parallel universe" versions of himself left over from Crisis on Infinite Earths, both of whom provide useful metacommentary on the mainstream Superman of today: Superman of Earth-2, the living embodiment of the Golden Age Superman held in such reverence by longtime fans of the character (including many who aren’t old enough to have actually experienced the Golden Age of Comics first-hand), and Superboy of Earth-Prime, a psychotic teenage hero wannabe whose emotional immaturity, antisocial behavior, and painfully limited/warped definition of "heroism" make him bear more than a passing resemblance to the stereotypical "whiny comics fanboy." These Supermen, both of whom hold the contemporary Superman in contempt for his seeming lack of resolve, are conspiring to undo the DC Universe created in the original Crisis and remake it in accordance with their own values--at the cost of billions of lives.
When the current and Earth-2 Supermen finally collide in a super-slugfest in Infinite Crisis #5, what readers are actually seeing is a character in conflict with his own past--or rather, with flawed, idealized notions of his own past, based in nostalgia more than fact. The Earth-2 Superman is portrayed as raving and irrational, pummeling his contemporary counterpart and blaming him for everything that’s "wrong" with the post-Crisis DC Universe. A story running concurrently with IC #5 in issues of Superman’s three solo series, entitled "Superman, This Is Your Life," gives readers a different, deeper perspective of this key conflict, revealing that the two Supermen somehow trade memories while trading blows, mentally living out each other’s lives and learning a few things about themselves in the process.
The upshot of this "Clash of the Supermen"--and of Infinite Crisis as a whole--is to dignify the modern Superman. The Earth-2 Superman realizes that neither he nor the Golden Age reality he is struggling in vain to resurrect have ever been as "perfect" as he had believed, and that the modern Superman, with his human sensibilities and penchant for self-reflection, is in his own way superior; his unjust misconceptions about the modern Superman, and about himself, seem intended to stand in for those of certain critical fans. Realizing the error of his ways, he eventually gives his life helping his contemporary self to defeat the murderous Superboy-Prime. Meanwhile, the modern Superman achieves a kind of psychic integration from his interaction with his classic Golden Age self. He regains some of his determination and clarity of purpose, and he learns to forgive and have faith in himself, becoming more at ease with both his humanity and his superhumanity, a lesson he would carry with him into the next year of Superman stories. In the end, perhaps the most important thing Infinite Crisis does for Superman is to grant him symbolic reconciliation with his idealized past, an important theme to consider in this anniversary year.
"One Year Later"
Another important outcome of Infinite Crisis is the partial undoing and redoing of the effects of Crisis on Infinite Earths and the creation of yet another "new and improved" DC Universe (and 51 additional universes to boot, allowing DC Comics to be set in a "multiverse" again for the first time in twenty years). Naturally, the first question on the minds of most DC Comics readers at the time was whether or not this would mean another "hard reboot" of the life histories of the Trinity and others, similar to what those characters underwent after the first Crisis. Fandom waited with bated breath to learn "what had changed," but DC Comics kept--and continues to keep--the details of its post-Infinite Crisis continuity rather vague, especially regarding the Trinity.
There was some early teasing about the possible reintroduction of young Clark Kent as a "superboy," but that story thread was basically aborted by the recent court case that lost DC the use of the "Superboy" name and likeness [see sidebar]. There have also been some strong hints that Superman: Birthright, the 2003-4 Mark Waid-written maxiseries that was meant to replace John Byrne’s 1986 revamp as the "new official origin" of Superman, has itself been removed from continuity, at least in part. Ultimately, however, new multiverse aside, Infinite Crisis has done relatively little to alter time and space where Superman is concerned. History will probably show that its true importance to the Superman legacy is as a tonal shift, instigating a sea-change in the attitude of the character and the general nature of the stories told about him, rather than as a nuts-and-bolts "retcon" event.
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