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Action Comics Vol 1 1050

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"Project Blackout": Manchester Black wakes up strapped to a machine in a LexCorp laboratory. Luthor tells Manchester Black that the machine will kill him, but before he dies he wants to know if Black really did come to believe in Superman during their mission on Warworld. Manchester Black admits

Quote1 My mind and body are stronger than they've ever been. Concepts like weight, distance, temperature, even spacetime have largely lost meaning for me. Quote2
— Superman (Clark Kent)

Action Comics #1050 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 2023. It was published on December 27, 2022.

Synopsis for "Project Blackout"

Manchester Black wakes up strapped to a machine in a LexCorp laboratory. Luthor tells Manchester Black that the machine will kill him, but before he dies he wants to know if Black really did come to believe in Superman during their mission on Warworld. Manchester Black admits that he did, and also tells Luthor that in all the time he was with the Authority and on Warworld, Superman never mentioned Luthor once. He mocks Luthor, telling him that his arch enemy doesn't even care about him despite all the time and money he has spent on his obsessive quest to destroy him. Black laughs hysterically at Luthor as he flips the switch to activate the machine.

The machine drains Black's psychic energy and releases it in a great wave which blasts from the lab at the top of the LexCorp tower and sweeps across the world. The psychic wave deflects off the sophisticated defences around the Kent farmhouse; where Lois, Jon and Jay are meeting Jonathan and Martha for dinner. Jon leaves to join Clark in dealing with a burst dam in India, and while he is out Perry White also comes to join them. However, Perry is shocked and confused to see Jay, who he identifies as the "younger Superman's" boyfriend, but tellingly not Jon's. Clark and Jon arrive in costume and Perry is even more disoriented, addressing Clark as "Superman" and asks where Clark is. Superman tells Perry that he is Clark and Perry drops to the ground bleeding from the nose.

Clark rushes him to hospital, where the doctors examine him and determine he has had a stroke. Lois wonders what could have caused it, and why Perry didn't seem to know that Clark and Jon were the Supermen. Clark suddenly hears a loud and painful signal. He flies to the source, Lex Luthor's office at the top of LexCorp tower, where Luthor is waiting. He tells Clark that he has come to begrudgingly accept that the world needs Superman and offers to work together for the good of humanity, showing him a new LexCorp branded costume he wants Superman to wear; but also says that Superman can only be truly effective as a symbol if people view him as a god, not a man, and nobody can know he is Clark Kent.

Clark realises Luthor is behind what is happening and demands he undo it, but Luthor reactivates the signal to incapacitate him and gets into a new giant Warsuit incorporating Warworld technology. He tells Clark that if anyone learns his secret identity it could kill them, and again orders Superman to join him. When he also implies that he could make Lois and Jon forget who he is, Clark attacks him and throws him out of the tower. He then punches Luthor into space and drags him to the moon to prevent Luthor causing any collateral damage. Clark tells Luthor he won't let him hurt people anymore and Luthor flies into a rage, claiming that when they were growing up in Smallville, he was an outcast because his intelligence made him different to the other kids, and he is angry that Clark chose to keep his secret rather than be an outsider too when they were young, and jealous that he chose to reveal it to the whole world rather than tell him first.

As they fight, Superman demands that Luthor undo what he has done and to know where Manchester Black is. When Luthor replies that Black is dead, Superman furiously attacks him, easily outclassing the advanced Warsuit that Luthor expected to overpower him with. As a last resort, Luthor teleports Superman away to a distant star system but to his shock Superman instantly reappears and his Warsuit freezes up. Superman tells Luthor that he is now more powerful than ever before, and demonstrates this by causing the armour to break apart by simply touching it. He returns Luthor to Earth to be charged with Manchester Black's murder.

Later, he meets with Batman and Nightwing in Gotham City. They tell him that Luthor was able to use his technology and Black's powers to plant a hypnotic suggestion in every person on Earth; his family were protected by the farm's shields and his superhero friends were immune due to psychic defences implanted by the Martian Manhunter, but everyone else has had their memories of his and Jon's identities wiped, to the point that even if they see any of the recently produced media that identifies them by name their minds will simply delete it. Batman points out that, although this serves Luthor's goal of dehumanising him to the people of Earth, it's actually not a bad thing that he and his family are anonymous again. Clark admits he is right, although he is worried about how Jon will adjust. His concern is unfounded, as Jon is loving the chance to be normal.

Luthor is imprisoned at Stryker's Island. Meanwhile, somewhere in the Multiverse; Val-Zod, the Superman of Earth 2, investigates the murder of another Superman from an alternate universe, apparently the latest in a rash of murders of alternate versions of Kal-El. He says that he needs help to solve the mystery, but an unseen companion warns him they cannot risk another Kal-El. Val-Zod says that they need Jon Kent.

Metallo wakes up in a secret LexCorp lab, and discovers that his new body is almost identical to his human one and possesses senses of smell, touch and taste. A hologram of Luthor orders him to stop Superman's plans to remake the city and take it from Luthor's control.

Appearing in "Project Blackout"

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Notes

  • This issue takes place after the events of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 where the battle between from Superman and Lex Luthor was first glimpsed in the epilogue.
  • Lex Luthor's Project Blackout erases Superman's real identity from the minds of every residents of Earth except for himself, Clark's family, the Titans and the members of the now-disbanded Justice League.

Trivia

  • Superman originally revealed his identity during the events of Superman (Volume 5) #18 before the rebirth of the Multiverse.
    • In this story, Perry White almost died after discovering that Clark is Superman but, in that story, he was both surprised and proud of him after hearing the truth.


See Also


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