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Truth & Justice Vol 1 2

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"Superman in "The Revolving Door"": This story is reprinted from Truth & Justice #4 (Digital), Truth & Justice #5 (Digital) and Truth & Justice #6 (Digital).

Truth & Justice #2 is an issue of the series Truth & Justice (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 2021. It was published on March 16, 2021.

Synopsis for Superman in "The Revolving Door"

This story is reprinted from Truth & Justice #4 (Digital), Truth & Justice #5 (Digital) and Truth & Justice #6 (Digital).

The police ram down the door of the home of the mother of Bud Oakwood, a prisoner accused of escaping from Stryker's Island Penitentiary and he quickly surrenders, asking them to not shoot up the house. Bud was convicted in a disputed trial about the robbery at Metropolis Municipal Credit Union, despite accusations of racial discrimination and lack of evidence. Superman had investigated his case and published a report about him being likely innocent, but the hopes of a retrial stand squashed with the supposed escape attempt.

As police take Bud away, he insists to Clark that he didn't try to escape. Clark tries to promise to try to help him, but gets alerted to the sound of a sniper rifle being loaded and in his Superman disguise, saves Bud from a bullet after it is fired. Clark asks Bud if he's okay, before assuring he'll catch his would-be assassin and will come to check on him later. A police officer berates Superman for giving time to a criminal, and states he should have let him die, with Clark responding that he didn't ask, before flying away.

Tracking the bullet, Clark finds a person running across rooftops and tries to catch him, but he teleports away. Getting befuddled with what happened, Clark decided that he needs to unravel this mystery, while also returning to Daily Planet to complete his news articles before the deadline. Back at the office, Clark argues with his editor Perry White for moving his story from the main paper, with Perry stating that the people who have recently escaped from prison are African-Americans, who have no recollection of their escape, and Clark's report on their high incarceration rates centred on Oakwood, the recent escapee.

As Clark and Perry argue about the assassination attempt on Bud, with Perry dismissing it as a case of vigilantism, Bud's attorney Karli Madison interrupts them and tells Clark her client wants to talk to him urgently, since he fears for his life. At Stryker's, Karli tells Clark she's close to proving that Bud was innocent and after Clark expresses his surprise on him being convicted for flimsy evidence, she states Bud's race was enough to convict him for some jurors. Clark then examines the prison, but sees no route of escape, surmising that they might have been teleported out, like how Bud's assassin teleported away.

As Clark and Bud talk, the former finds that the latter is completely truthful about what he's saying. Soon however, a portal opens up in the cell and the masked assassin throws bombs at Bud, but Clark freezes them before they can explode. He tries attacking the assassin with his heat-vision, but finds it has no effect on his armor, which has a Superman symbol. He later goes to the "American Justice" show to talk about the recent prison escapes, where he argues with the host of Jack Newman about high African-American incarceration rates and racial discrimination in the justice system.

Clark soon gets informed about standoffs between vigilantes and protestors all over the United States, and rushes to one city to stop armed vigilantes, wearing the same armor as Bud's would-be assassin. He goes to another protest and confronts the leader of the vigilantes trying to arrest escaped convicts. As Superman refuses to back-off despite their demands, the leader produces a handcuff coated in Green Kryptonite, significantly weakening Clark.

The leader of the vigilantes berates Superman for taking the side of the protestors protecting an escaped prisoner, while holding the handcuff laced with Green Kryptonite. Still retaining some of his strength, Superman tears out the road under the feet of the vigilantes. He then tells the protestors to get to safety, before floating into the air, and the vigilante leader tells his men to bring him within the range of Kryptonite radiation again.

A vigilante attempts to fire at a protestor to bring Superman back to ground, but he stops the bullet and opens a fire hydrant, directing the water flow at them, before encasing the vigilantes in ice. However they teleport away before he can catch them. While he decides to go to the Fortress of Solitude to examine the weapon they dropped, cops soon bring out the prisoner, who pleads to being innocent. Clark wonders whether all the supposed escapees were near to being released. He then decides to go to the home of Bud Oakwood's mother, Lola.

While talking, Lola tells Clark that sons should never keep a secret from their mother and he understands what she means. As he states that Bud was convicted in a biased trial and she's done all she could, Lola reveals that two weeks ago she had paid a mysterious man claiming to be a legal advocate, in return for hastening Bud's release. A few days later, she found Bud sleeping on her couch, but he was arrested soon after. She also discovered that the supposed advocate was a fake. Clark tells her not blame herself, before going to the Daily Planet to write about prejudice against African-American men. As he interviews people about their opinions, he gets despondent at their bigotry and prejudice.

Examining the gun of the vigilantes at the Fortress of Solitude later, Superman finds it belongs to Intergang. He then heads to Bruno Mannheim's headquarters, and shows Bruno the gun the vigilantes dropped. Bruno insists Intergang is innocent, but Superman states he knows he's lying. As he tries to apprehend him, the assassin who earlier tried to kill Bud, wraps him in chains laced with Red Kryptonite which weakens him. The assassin reveals himself to be the criminal called "Master Jailer", and tells Superman he will kill him once his powers are completely drained.

Master Jailer however changes his mind and decides that instead of killing Superman, he'll just show the world that he took him down. He then reveals his face and says his real name is Carl Draper. One of the vigilantes tells him to desist from this, but is told by Bruno Mannheim to let him as he has a mental illness. Draper insists he's not mentally ill and only has impulse control disorder, which causes him become obsessed about certain things. He also tells them that he's tired of being underrated, despite being the best locksmith in the world.

Draper then tells everyone how he came to be what he is. He used to work as a designer of security systems, but never got the chance of being rich and famous, due to the people who hired him. As Superman questions why he went after Bud Oakwood, he states that his disorder caused him to be unable to cope with unexpected obstacles and become angry, but he had this removed using surgery. After getting arrested once, he decided to scam the families of unfairly convicted African-Americans, teleporting the prisoners out and leaving no trace.

Superman surmises that Draper used the masked armed vigilantes as part of his pretension to stop the convicts, who were believed to have escaped. Draper confirms and states he was weaponizing the fear of African-American men among many people, to enrich himself by offering the rich and powerful to apprehend the prisoners, while trying to assassinate Bud in order to raise racial tensions. Noticing the mark of "U.S. Steelworks" on the chains holding him down, Superman breaks out of them and tells Draper that they aren't made out of Red Kryptonite like he believed, only coated in it.

Everyone in Mannheim's headquarters except Draper flee, and he takes out the handcuffs coated in Green Kryptonite, while the hero floats in the air. Clark uses his heat-vision to disarm him, before Draper uses his suit's attached spears to attack him. Clark however quickly melts them and encases Draper's handcuffs in liquid concrete using his heat vision, before taking him to Stryker's Island Penitentiary. Bud is meanwhile released after being found innocent. Clark later writes a report about how African-Americans are jailed more due to racial bias and tells the readers to consider the social and economic costs of it, with families ruined and billions spent on prisons, while their group has the highest exonerees.

While traveling on a train, Clark gauges the public's mood about his latest piece as usual. An old Caucasian man dismisses it as liberal propaganda and states one can't be arrested if they don't commit crime. An African-American boy however states that people like him will be more easily considered to be criminals, than Caucasians, but is brushed aside. Clark however thanks the boy for reading and believing his article. As he watches Bud finally reuniting with his mother, he states that both Superman and Clark Kent can make a difference through what they do. Though he can't eliminate racial bias, he will continue to fight for those unjustly imprisoned.

Appearing in Superman in "The Revolving Door"

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