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"Hope - Superman: Lost, Conclusion": An hour earlier, Lois had visited Senator Jemison McMonigle at his home and relayed her findings to him: she had discovered that McGonigle had cheated on his wife with his assistant of a rival senator. McGonigle had lied to protect her, but this act had cos

Quote1 I will... I swear... come back to you. Quote2
Clark Kent

Superman: Lost #10 is an issue of the series Superman: Lost (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 2024. It was published on January 16, 2024.

Synopsis for "Hope - Superman: Lost, Conclusion"

An hour earlier, Lois had visited Senator Jemison McMonigle at his home and relayed her findings to him: she had discovered that McGonigle had cheated on his wife with his assistant of a rival senator. McGonigle had lied to protect her, but this act had cost him his position at the Senate and the bill he was pushing for was ultimately rejected. Having already begged his wife for forgiveness, he asks for Lois to keep his infidelity a secret and Lois agrees but warns McGonigle that if she found his secret out, someone else will, sooner or later.

Further into the past, in the unknown planet, Hope talks with Victor with a new Marquis unit. Victor belives that Superman's attempt to return home using the spatial anomaly nearby has failed. Even if Superman had successfully return home and brought aid to the new planet, he would definitely have lost his powers, for the sun is going supernova. Wracked with sadness, Hope returns home and attempts to live without Superman, until she goes to the bathroom and finds a hairbrush.

In the present, Hope has found Earth using telemetry data gathered from the anomaly used by Superman to return home. She uses her ring to translate her words and tells Superman that, with information from her ring, he can finally bring help to Victor's planet. Before the conversation can go any further, Bruce gets information that a civil war has broken out in Kasnia and that the separatist faction has attacked a disputed territory. Despite Bruce's protests, Superman chooses to get involved and speeds off into Kasnia.

Senator McMonigle was pushing for a bill that would provide aid to the war-torn Kasnia, but with the bill rejected, political negotiations have been cut short and the war has gotten worse. With amazing speed, Superman breaks the separatist tanks apart and throws them in front of the Kasnian parliament, where the negotiators are still bickering amongst themselves. With a crowd gathered in front of him, Superman says that this war will not benefit anyone in the long run and the only way to win is to sever the connection to Kasnia's dark past and build a bridge towards a brighter future. He can't stop all wars, but he can stop this one, at least for today. Now, the choice is in Kasnia's hands.

Lex, having heard about Superman's action in Kasnia, congratulates the Man of Steel, who has visited his mansion to confront him about what Lex did to Lois. Lex is happy that Superman is back to his unbearably naive self and amused over the fact that he could defeat all the evils that plague humanity but simply chooses not to. Superman, not impressed by Lex's words, replies that Lois beat him and that no matter how hard Lex tries, he can never break Superman. He takes his leave, but not before telling Lex that he should consider himself happy that Superman tries to mostly focus on his personal struggles, because Lex wouldn't like the alternative.

At the Kent apartment, Lois tries to ask Hope about the child she is carrying. With her ring deactivated, Hope can't speak English beyond a few words: "hope", "Victor's planet" and "Clark". Superman returns home, with Lois, Hope and the entire Justice League waiting for him. The Green Lantern Corps has supplied Hope with coordinates to Victor's planet and the League reach it in just a few moments. They depart but not before Hope kisses Clark in the cheek.

Clark and Lois are left alone in their apartment and Lois finally asks Clark if Hope's baby belongs to him. Clark replies that Hope's species reproduces through parthenogenesis. She must have grabbed a strand of Clark's hair and used it to become pregnant. Lois is angry and frustrated over the fact that she faked a pregnancy, while Hope got pregnant by using Clark's hair. She wants Clark go and help his Super Friends, much to Clark's confusion. Victor's planet has a red sun and if he goes, he will have no powers there.

Lois tearfully replies that Clark has to go because if he doesn't, she might never get him. All this time, she's been living with a ghost. Clark might be here with her, but right now, Superman has a job. With a tear running across his face, Clark promises to return and walks out the door.

With Clark gone, Lois spends the next few hours putting the finishing touches on her story. She falls asleep, but when she awakens, she finds Clark waiting for her. He has fixed the toaster, like she had told him to. She is happy that he returned and asks him about his mission and Clark replies that he had no idea the mission would take a few days. She is confused and asks him about his white suit but Clark has no idea what she is talking about. She remembers that Adam Strange said that space travel was basically time travel and realizes that the Clark standing in front of her did not experience the journey to Victor's planet. Once he completed his mission to China, he went home.

In another timeline, while Superman and his allies were travelling to Victor's planet, he decided to make a stop and get close to a Contrectatio ship visiting Victor's planet. With Hope's ring having the ability to manipulate time, Superman has travelled to the exact point in time where his younger self would be found by the Contrectatio. He connects Marquis to the ship and uploads the coordinates to Earth. This will allow the Contrectatio to bring Superman to Earth instead of Victor's planet out of confusion.

To ensure his younger self returns home, Superman has chosen to remain in this timeline and decided to visit an old friend: the old Superman from within the spatial anomaly, now dead after many years. He entombs his older self and thanks him for allowing him to make the choice the older Superman knew his younger self would make: the choice to give Lois her husband back.

The father of Hope's child is not Superman, but rather Szhemi, the boy Hope killed in a misguided attempt to keep Superman from leaving Victor's planet. As atonement, Hope used Szhemi's hair to get pregnant and thus give genuine hope to the peoples of both Neo-Arkasia and the Republic. Superman's mission was a success. The people from Victor's planet were relocated to a new planet, in which they started to bicker amongst themselves again. Hope's child would be born as the first citizen of both nations, the first step in building everlasting peace between them. Now, Superman has a new mission: to protect both planets from afar and become the gatekeeper of hope.

Back on Earth, Superman and Lois are free from the problems of the past and can now build a brighter future together.

Appearing in "Hope - Superman: Lost, Conclusion"

Featured Characters:

  • Superman (Clark Kent) (Flashback and main story)

Supporting Characters:

  • The Contrectatio (Future) (Flashback only)
  • Green Lantern/Hope (Future)
  • Justice League
    • Adam Strange
    • Aquaman (Arthur Curry) (Cameo)
    • Batman (Bruce Wayne)
    • The Flash (Barry Allen) (Cameo)
    • Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) (Cameo)
    • Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
    • Hawkman (Carter Hall) (Single appearance) (Unnamed)
    • Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) (Single appearance) (Unnamed)
    • Martian Manhunter (Cameo)
    • Wonder Woman (Diana of Themyscira) (Cameo)
  • Lois Lane
  • Superman (Clark Kent) (Past) (Flashback and main story)

Antagonists:

  • Heb Hepa (Single appearance)
  • Kasnian Government (Single appearance)
  • Lex Luthor

Other Characters:

  • Arkasians (Future) (Cameo)
  • Senator Jemison "Mack" McMonigle
  • The Republic (Future)
    • The Victor (Future) (Hologram)
  • Szhemi (Future) (Grave)
  • Superman/Clark Kent (Far Future) (Appears only as a corpse)
  • Superman and Hope's son (Future) (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (Cameo)
  • Senator Delores Wilshire (Full name revealed) (Mentioned only)
  • Green Lantern Corps (Mentioned only)
  • God (Mentioned only)
  • Mrs. McMonigle (Unnamed) (Mentioned only)
  • Senator Wilshire's assistant (Unnamed) (Mentioned only)
  • Marcus Aurelius (Mentioned only)
  • Søren Kierkegaard (Mentioned only)
  • Tony Robbins (Mentioned only)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Alien Vessel (Flashback only) (In ruins) (Cameo)
  • The Contrectatio's Spaceship (Flashback only) (Cameo)

Concepts:

Notes

  • Final issue.



See Also


Links and References

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