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Superman and the Authority Vol 1 4

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"Widescreen": As Ultra-Humanite prepares to transfer a copy of his brain into Superman's cranium within the halls of the bottled city of Kandor, he tells Superman that it was the Ultra-Humanite who was Superman's first real enemy, not Lex Luthor or the Parasite. It was their rivalry that started

Quote1 Let's bring the thunder. Quote2
— Superman (Clark Kent)

Superman and the Authority #4 is an issue of the series Superman and the Authority (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 2021. It was published on October 12, 2021.

Synopsis for "Widescreen"

As Ultra-Humanite prepares to transfer a copy of his brain into Superman's cranium within the halls of the bottled city of Kandor, he tells Superman that it was the Ultra-Humanite who was Superman's first real enemy, not Lex Luthor or the Parasite. It was their rivalry that started the conflict between superhumans for control of the future, and that conflict ends now. As far as the Ultra-Humanite is concerned, Superman is history.

Superman tells Ultra-Humanite that history can wait, as he breaks free from his restraints and brawls his old enemy yet again. The Man of Steel had anticipated the Ultra-Humanite would attempt to use Kandor against him, so he shut down Kandor's Kryptonian environment, which means that Superman has more than enough strength to handle Ultra-Humanite. He also prepared one final surprise for Ultra-Humanite, a white Kryptonite blast from a weapon held by none other than Lois. White Kryptonite is a special kind of defoliant, extremely dangerous for plant-based lifeforms like Solomon Grundy, whose body Ultra-Humanite is now occupying.

Superman and Lois' plan worked perfectly and all they had to do was to stroke Ultra-Humanite's ego. Superman then tears Ultra-Humanite's head off Grundy's shoulders, knowing that Grundy will be able to regrow without Grundy's control. As he places the Ultra-Humanite's severed head into his computer's analyzer, Superman uses his teleband to analyze the genetic modifications used by Ultra-Humanite to implant his head into Grundy's body and realizes that Ultra-Humanite wasn't capable of such procedure on his own. He had help, and now, Superman has discovered his benefactor: Brainiac.

The Coluan scientist, realizing his involved has been discovered, directly contacts Superman and states his intention to save Earth from humanity itself, a rapacious omnipredator capable of destroying its own environment, and of course, Superman remains the single biggest obstacle in achieving that goal. Superman doesn't buy Brainiac's rhetoric for one second, for he knows that Brainiac merely wants to preserve the Earth's biosphere in a controlled environment, much like what he did to Kandor.

The Ultra-Humanite fought by Superman was merely one of thousands of clones mass-produced by the real Ultra-Humanite, who works alongside Brainiac and boasts of having achieved eternal life. His war with Superman has only just begun and the entire planet is their battlefield.

Meanwhile, Superman's team faces difficulties in Dubai. Midnighter is unable to establish contact with Manchester Black, while Steel discovers that the fog was actually caused by xenotechnology. An army of robotic drones, emerging from the fog, and demand the governments of the world to hand the world over to a more deserving people. A towering brute calling himself Iron Cross enters the battle, carrying Black's unconscious body with him. What Iron Cross doesn't realize, however, is that he is merely holding one of Black's mental copies. The real Black is still conscious and has summoned an army of mental clones against his foe.

The team is attacked by superhumans, such as the cybernetically enhanced scientist Siv and the French special agent Fleur de Lis. According to Brainiac, Siv fights to raise awareness for her home Haven, a place forgotten by Superman and the Justice League even after they promised their help. Siv shuts down Steel's armor, but she activates her spare. Meanwhile, Black is ambushed by his former teammate Coldcast. As the fight progresses, Superman is aware that Brainiac was behind the fight in Dubai and it was just a distraction for his real objectives in Kandor and Los Angeles.

While Apollo manages to calm OMAC down and tell her they're on the same side, Eclipso holds Lia Nelso hostage. Fortunately, Apollo arrives just in time to weaken Eclipso with his solar powers. In Dubai, Superman's team decisively ends the battle by defeating their opponents, just in time for Enchantress to teleport into the city and disintegrate Ultra-Humanite's army of robots, rendering them as little more than motionless brains.

Brainiac and Ultra-Humanite proclaim that their conflict with Superman continues but Superman has little time for their games as he and Lois return to their normal sizes back at the Fortress of Solitude. Superman understands that Jon will face hardships and will need his mother at his side, while he goes on to assemble his team. He says that each one of them has reasons to lay low, and for now, Earth is not safe for them. Sooner or later, they will have to return, but for now, there are other worlds where they can impose a meaningful change.

Superman recruited them for a special mission in deep space: they will liberate Warworld, a serious contender for the most dangerous planet in the galaxy. Sometime later, as Superman puts on his classic uniform, he speaks with Black about a special artifact from the New Gods found by Superman during the Metal Wars: a fragment merely referred to as "the Wall." He takes Black to a pocket dimension and tells him of a cosmic entity merely known as the "Hand of Fire", which writes messsages on the Wall during times of great cosmic upheaval. The Hand has been writing the exact same thing for the past 11 days: "Lightray is..."

Appearing in "Widescreen"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • The Authority's Spaceship (First appearance) (Cameo)

Events:

Concepts

Notes

  • Ultra-Humanite's words references the "first" Parasite but don't name it. In the Pre-Crisis continuity, the first Parasite Superman fought in the comics was Maxwell Jensen so this may imply that a version of Maxwell Jensen has existed in the past of the current continuity of Earth 0. However, he has never appeared in the Post-Flashpoint continuity where Rudy Jones is chronologically the first Parasite.
  • The epilogue reveals Superman has stored a fragment of the Source Wall in Fort Superman.

Trivia


See Also


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