Review: Superman #16

“A Fistful of Sticks,” by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort, is the eleventh chapter of H’el on Earth. H’el narrates to Kara how Jor’el prepared him for his space flight and adopted him into The House of El. Kara professes her belief in H’el and kisses him. The Justice League continues their siege of The Fortress of Solitude, but the alien zoo and the armory are populated with enough defenders to make their progress very slow, despite having the biggest guns imaginable, Superman, Wonder Woman, Superboy, and Cyborg. Superman attacks H’el, who teleports the Fortress away and leaves the League behind. H’el then activates the star chamber, which prompts Dr. Veritas to say “it’s over.” In the Himalayas, an alien summons a monolithic being called The Oracle to bear witness to the end.

A few heroes step out of character as the plot makes a beeline to its conclusion. Wonder Woman speaks like she was brought up by Granny Goodness and the Female Furies, not by the Amazons, telling Superboy to “keep criticizing Superman at your own peril.” Batman watches the big guns mop up Superman’s zoo and armory, and only when all the heavy lifting is done does he come out of the shadows to intimidate Superboy. This is humorous, and not really in character with the irrepressible New 52 Batman. Supergirl has been a patsy for far too long. It is also a little weird for Kara to kiss H’el a few minutes after she finds out he’s her adopted cousin. And yet these characters are momentarily all the more real for these flaws. It is as if when these characters are released from the care of their usual custodians, they relax a little so they can act and express feelings outside their usual confines.

Scott Lobdell’s best quality as a writer is leaving his character arcs open-ended and making their motivations somehow known and indeterminate at the same time. H’el, for instance, lies to himself just as freely as he lies to others. At one point he offers to leave Supergirl behind and come back for her later, when we know full well later means after the sun’s extinction. He is visibly distraught when Superboy brutally attacks her, and when he transports the Fortress away, he takes her with him. Lobdell established H’el as an unreliable narrator earlier in the story by having him masquerade as Superman in order to gain Supergirl’s trust. H’el has lied glibly to Supergirl since then, especially concerning the purpose of the star chamber. H’el’s duplicity is fascinating. What he conceals is also intriguing. Some burning questions were glossed over in H’el’s flashback. Why does H’el have the scarred grey hued visage of a zombie? Where did he get his odd power set? His “Teleport Other” ability is not among the typical Kryptonian super powers, although it would be on par with the weird abilities we see in Superman II..

H’el on Earth is a very ambitious tale that not only grounds Superman and his allies in their fundamental responsibility of being superheroes and saving the world, but also raises the stakes so that The Man of Steel’s new backdrop is a cosmic canvas with other Kryptonians and alien oracles coming to test his mettle. There are some lapses in character this issue, but they are artistic decisions which enhance the rapid pace of the story. The greatest strength of H’el on Earth is that it is a story in which people act decisively and with finality.