Superman is DC’s most iconic hero, and one of the faces of the company. He’s the metric by which all superheroes are measured, which is only fitting, given that he was the man who kickstarted the genre in the first place. He’s more recognizable than the vast, vast majority of fictional characters from around the world, between his s-curl hair and simple, stalwart smile. Just about anyone can recognize Superman at a glance, which is exactly the kind of trait you want one of your biggest characters to have. In turn, it’s very rare for DC to drastically change Superman’s appearance, but it’s not unheard of, which is exactly what happened today.
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Superman’s newest event is the “Kingdom of Zod,” which has set the Super-Family against Zod’s Kryptonite invasion, and thrown Superman into the fight of his life against Zod himself. In their initial brawl, the Man of Steel suffered a massive injury that might just be a permanent new fixture of his design. Superman #41 had Zod burn out one of Superman’s eyes, leaving him scarred. It was shocking beyond belief, but something that we should have seen coming, given that the series gave us all the warning it could have nearly two years ago.
An Eye for an Eye Makes the Superhero Go Blind
“Kingdom of Zod” has centered all around Zod’s utter hatred of Superman, and his suicide march to victory over the Els once and for all. Months ago, he dropped an entire meteor of infected Kryptonite on the Earth, which has now woken up and begun infecting everything in sight. Superman arrived from the timestream just in time, but being surrounded by poison, had to don a battlesuit to go against the galactic dictator. They had a brutal, downright bloody brawl, where Zod got the upper hand and used what remained of his heat vision to burn Clark’s eye before going for the kill.
Thankfully, Superboy and Superboy-Prime arrived in the Supermobile to snatch Superman before he was super killed. Still, they were too late to save his eye, which is an unbelievably massive change to Superman’s design. Before this, the biggest change DC would commit to in regards to altering Superman’s appearance was costume changes and buzz cuts, with the occasional mullet. Superman losing an eye would be his biggest physical change ever, and would definitely impact his normal life. Half his vision powers are simply gone, and that’s not even talking about how Clark would need to excuse his sudden lack of depth perception. It’s a massive change, and there’s evidence to suggest that it won’t simply heal anytime soon.
A Warning Finally Delivered
All the way back in Superman #20, the Man of Tomorrow confronted the Time Trapper, who revealed himself as Doomsday from the far future. The villain had developed intellect and time manipulation from his endless rebirths, and had come to warn Superman of the coming challenges, but found that he returned too early. He directly called out how Superman still had both his eyes as evidence that Zod had not returned yet. This means that Superman losing his eye is a big enough event that it leaves a mark, and that he won’t simply regain it at the end of the event.
The fact that this was called out over twenty issues ago is insanely cool. All too often, these types of plot threads and teases of the future never come to pass, as runs end before they get there, with them only appearing in potential futures that never truly occur. This happens so much, and the fact that this is Superman we’re talking about made everyone forget that this was coming, even though it was right in our faces all along. Now, I don’t think Superman will go around wearing an eyepatch or anything, but he could need to get an artificial eye to make up for his new scar.
Superman very rarely goes through major changes, physical or otherwise. Seeing something this big happen to him, even if DC is likely to cover it up and revert it later, is so cool. It shows that the company is willing to take swings, even with the living symbol of the status quo like Superman. It’s always a blast to see these types of storylines play out, and I cannot wait to see what they do with Superman’s lack of an eye later in this story and beyond.
What do you think DC is going to do with Superman losing an eye? Will he get a replacement, or will he actually simply grow it back before this story is over?
Superman #41 is on sale now!
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