Week of 30 September 2009

(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comic.)

SUPERMAN #692 (11/09)
"Down Time"
ROLL CALL: Karate Kid (image), Mon-El (image), Sensor Girl

The Guardian gathers the Science Police together in their usual cop bar for a wake for Mon-El. He reveals that Jon Kent was Mon-El's secret identity, and Billi Harper is shocked. As the two talk, the Guardian reveals that he also knows that Billi is the neice of the man he was cloned from. (Apparently he knows everyone's secrets...or so you'd think.)

Next the Guardian talks to Team Leader Wilcox, the redhead who has been around for the last few issues. She tells him, "I'm a widow. Lost my hubby not too long ago. My heart's closed. Maybe forever. Certainly for now." The two of them toast to "The future."

Then we follow Wilcox home. She speaks on the phone, saying (among other things), "Anyway, the Science Police had a wake for Mon. Yeah. They think he's dead. They'll know the truth soon enough, I guess."

Mon-El, alive?! Who could possibly have guessed?

Wilcox hangs up, and on the next page...well, there's an advertisement for Blackest Night. But on the page after that...Wilcox looks at a framed picture of Princess Projectra and Karate Kid and sighs, "Oh, Val." Pull back, she's crying and the top of Sensor Girl's costume hovers by the open window above her.

All right, I'll admit it. They surprised me. I knew that Mon-El wasn't dead, but I would never have guessed in a million years that Wilcox was Jeckie. (In fact, I had to look back at the last few issues to see if Wilcox was actually there. She was.)

We already knew that the Espionage Squad is on a mission in the 21st century. And Tellus has already been connected with the whole storyline in Superman. But now it seems that they're a little more involved in what's going on.

I wonder if Team Leader Romundi is anyone?

Anyway, the story ends with Mon-El a bacta tank in in Project 7734, just like the one that had Tellus in it. Unfortunately, they put a bathing suit on him...but it's a tight one. Hooray! And he's mad.

Next issue should be fun....

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