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All-Star Superman

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Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:40 / 11.04.07

I won't get to go to the shop until tomorrow, so for the next day I'm going to be covering my ears and going LA-LA-LA-LA, but it's good? I'm glad. My Thursday is going to be wonderful. Dammit.

16:59 / 11.04.07

I'm a Thursday-getter too.... if I only didn't have an appointment this evening..!!!!

17:26 / 11.04.07

Sign my ass!

Phex: Dorset Doom

18:00 / 11.04.07

Wow, now there's a statement it's not possible to take out of context. Anyone got a pen?

20:40 / 11.04.07

Great read.

Awesome color work as well.

Bizzaro World as (warped) Mirror.

Jimmy Olsen & Quintum are a buddy movie in the making.

Lois seems to say alot in her body language.

Quite a few great oneliners.

And that touching farewell beyond Jupiter. . .

Spyder Todd 2008

22:09 / 11.04.07

The Sun-Eater goodbye and Jimmy were my favorite parts of this issue. "In case I need to impress a girl..." It was good times. Jimmy Olsen has never been this cool...

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

23:00 / 11.04.07

Best.

Last Page.

To ever last a page.

14:45 / 12.04.07

After finished, everything I read I was on a inertia trying to see through the/it's bizarro-type of opposite. Jesus bejeezus x-ray semiotic vision, and it was a fairly good trip of ambiguity...

I just have to say I'm sort of on a brain-bleed for the scope of different heights this issue reached. F*%$&@g fantastic.

On the only note I was able to conjure, I found Bizarro land to be a 80's cartoon psychedelic backwash of "What if: Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton re-imagined Rio de Janeiro's slums". Something in the way gigantic Zibarro stood amidst all like "Christ the Redeemer" statue -- maybe because I had the Christmas thing on my mind, and him being beside the statue of liberty and the stairs (and Zibarro being the unique one with self-awareness, suffering alone etc -- the sacrificial lamb mentioned earlier in the ironic sacrificed figure of Allie). Maybe some contrast will surface later.

And God, James Bartholomew Olsen...
(and I loved the quirky little details like Superman's leave blows Lois' skirt up)

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:19 / 12.04.07

"Godspeed, Superman." (Indeed)

SPOILERS!!! There will be a distant space:

Took me a while to get some of the logistics sorted out, but: Htrae comes up from the Underverse, tries to infect Earth, Superman hurts the cube planet and is caught up as it burrows back down into the Underverse to lick its Bizarro wounds.

Bizarro matter emulates regular matter and then converts regular matter into Bizarro matter.

Superman letting the Sun-Eater go is like a mournful reprise of Superboy playing in space with Krypto. It's not just about the Eater outgrowing the Fortress - Superman won't be around as Superman much longer, in theory. He won't be able to take care of the Eater no more.

"Mister James Bartholomew Olsen, you dare not expect me to clamber aboard this aerial death trap in these heels!" / "Aw, come on, Ms. Grant. Even Perry could do it in those heels!" Jimmy Olsen is such a perv. Love love love.

Steve Lombard's dark truth. "Any way I can help. Always been a big fan, as you know." He's just emulating the proverbial Superman swoosh like everybody else.

Very plot-driven issue, and it made me realize how character-focused the previous ones were...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:41 / 12.04.07

Plus, the colour correction on the front cover is a great detail. Criss-crossed chill-vision to go along with the Super-Magma-Halitosis.

15:46 / 12.04.07

Loved it as much as everyone else. One thing occured to me: the reappearance of the Sun-Eater really makes me think that it's being kept in our mindspace so as to provide the eventual resolution of Superman's solar poisoning.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:49 / 12.04.07

I'm curious about being on Htrae as it shunts down into Infraspace, actually -- Clark loses his powers. The sunlight's shifting to safe-for-Bizarros red sunlight and he loses his powers, but he should still be super-charged from his body battery, yeah?

16:36 / 12.04.07

Red sunlight has always been shown as shutting down Kal's powers almost instantly (main memory of this is from Red Son).

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:39 / 12.04.07

It's a bit up in the air though, since the Crisis - Clark could maintain his charge for a bit when he entered red solar systems, as I recall. I don't think I'd have such a problem with the power loss if Clark being overpowered and dying as a result wasn't the pivot of the whole series, but maybe it's just the Silver Age pseudoscience depowering him while his body maintains a charge that it can't use and expel...maybe this will speed up his death process.

17:59 / 12.04.07

Or cure him. It was an overload that was killing him, after all.

18:08 / 12.04.07

nice idea.

18:23 / 12.04.07

I just figured his loss of power was as much if not more a result of the inverted physics of the underverse. While the red sun radiation may prevent his using the yellow solar charge built up (too fatal levels) in his cells, I don't think it will serve as a cure.

Htae modeled itself as earth based on information gain by contact with one of Quintum's Bizarro explorers?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:28 / 12.04.07

It's an interesting motif that's been set up, though - for every metaphorical Super-death we're shown, we're also shown a potential "cure."

Bizarro mirrors Lex Luthor's idea of "The Super-Infection from Planet Krypton!"

#7 links up so well with #4 -- Black K / Bizarro black speech bubbles, Jimmy Olsen saving the day, Quintum at the edge of beyond (at the same time - where the hell is Quintum for most of this issue? He's in the Underverse and then he's holing out in some all-purple zone that could be at the heart of P.R.O.J.E.C.T. or in Infraspace, or, or, or).

Zibarro is the Bizarro Bizarro, the true Superman doppleganger in a sea of Bizarros...Bizarro Statue of Liberty made me laugh, thinking of Planet of the Apes: "How could I have been so wrong / it was Htrae all along..."

18:51 / 12.04.07

My guess is that Quintum and crew are holed up in some basement with-in the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. base. He was followed back into normal space by the planet eater. This then raises the question of how the whole planet of Htrae was able to get out of the Underverse without obliterating the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. base.

If it's a mater of scale it may have been small enough to exit the Underverse via the same hole the black K was dug up from. Perhaps fellow who dies back then (in issue 4) was the lifeform that attracted the Planet Eater and was in essence the Bizarro Prime (#1?) for the Underverse.

Presumably getting back into the Underverse was also a matter of scale. Htrae may have already been inperseptably small by the time is sunk back down the hole in the P.R.O.J.E.C.T.'s basement?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:55 / 12.04.07

Or so dense that it simply sinks through space-time wherever it happens to be, no matter how far away from P.R.O.J.E.C.T. I stand by the notion that this is probably more of a convergence thing than a "magic door in the basement thing."

21:25 / 12.04.07

Damn Easter Bank holidays! DAMN THEM!!

21:59 / 12.04.07

I thought Super's ram into Htrae was him causing a major nuclear mega blast to one portion of the planet to change it's axis to reflect the yellow sun on it's oceans back to the night portion of the Earth.
(talk about representing a modern solar god who brings the sun amidst the darkest night to save his people, eh? Morrison, you bastard...)

That wasn't it? He just "hurt" Htrae?

---

I loved the Planet's crew here. (poor) Allie**, (poor?) Steve, Jimmy's "sixth sense" (I guess it's too late to cast a young Bowie to play him in the next film), too-cool Perry, adorable too-gorgeous Lois...

Still mind-melted trying to work through what Zibarro's status is... (and why are they sacrificing -- or just burning -- a couch?). And a bit confused to how much is opposite in Bizarro's speech patterns (never read anything with them before).

** Am I wrong to assume "Allie" ironically died (/sacrificed) by killing herself since that was the extreme bizarro-opposite of what previously life-loving "no-sacrifices-because-we-die-tomorrow!" Allie would do? (and therefore, Steve didn't have that much to do with her death?) Or was she actually just going to infect Kitty, and Steve threw her out?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:17 / 12.04.07

Sparrow:

I thought Super's ram into Htrae was him causing a major nuclear mega blast to one portion of the planet to change it's axis to reflect the yellow sun on it's oceans back to the night portion of the Earth...That wasn't it? He just "hurt" Htrae?

I think it was both -- Htrae gets hurt (although, we only really know it for what Jimmy says, and the fact that Superman mentions earlier that it's not an invasion force, only a single organism) but in the process, Htrae's oceans reflect yellow sunlight on the Earthbound Bizarros, stopping them in their tracks...he takes out the invasion force *and* forces Htrae to back down, sinking into the Underverse. "That's why the sun's light is receding to the red end of the spectrum..." The sunlight he's just been using to reflect down on the invaders is now shifting to red as it hits Htrae-descending.

Superman pulls off a double-hit, hurting Cube-World AND defeating the invading Bizarro commandos in the process.

22:51 / 12.04.07

Ok then. Got confused by a post, and feared I was filling the story by myself("fan-wanking").

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:55 / 12.04.07

If it makes you feel any better, I'm going insane trying to pronounce "Htrae."

23:03 / 12.04.07

If it makes you feel any better, I'm occupying my time imagining how a (mute?) compulsive liar Bizarro with Tourette's would sound like.
(really, I am. Among other things)

23:19 / 12.04.07

Superman pulls off a double-hit, hurting Cube-World AND defeating the invading Bizarro commandos in the process.

It could also be that the yellow sun light itself hurt Htrae upon exposure. It did seem to "appear" in Earth's shadow.

Regarding the magic door theory, I'll admit I was hoping Superman would return from the Underverse at about 5 inches tall. An imperfect side effect of the changing of scales needed to return to his universe. Them sinking down a hole in the Universe could mean alot of thing when speaking Bizzarro.

I want part 2 tomorrow!!!

Aha! I am Klarion

00:38 / 13.04.07

Zibarro is Superman with Hamlet's depression

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

01:19 / 13.04.07

...and with bright red jogging pants instead of blue tights. Zibarro's poor old supersuit is an awkward Halloween costume by comparison to the "real thing."

I get the feeling, based on Quintum's dialogue & Superman's dialogue, that while the world has indeed seen a Bizarro #1 before (and consequently, Bizarro clones), Htrae is some new variation on the theme...my earlier reading had me thinking that Superman had encountered Htrae before, but now something's forced it to become toxic and corrosive...

The burning couch does seem oddly significant (and FQ & Jamie should totally win an award for their Bizarro Architecture on that page), although it could merely be a problem of Bizarro's being cold on their desolate world, without a proper sun to warm them - we only get the red-tinged cube Noom overhead.

01:24 / 13.04.07

I hope you're right, 'cause just the sound of that rings too many rights.
(thinking Morrison will use him to play up in contrast Superman's qualities in his eyes by absence of them in Zibarro perhaps)

BrianFitzgerald

01:29 / 13.04.07

and why are they sacrificing -- or just burning -- a couch?

The setup there, with the crane kind of lowering the couch (loveseat?) into the yellow flames, reminded me an awful lot of the setup in the PROJECT basement in issue 4. Nothing but speculation here, of course, but I'm thinking that this bit is the Bizarros "exploring" the aboveverse...something about earth accessing the underverse via superheavy liquid, Htrae accessing the upperverse via heat and light?

Anyone else planning their Zibarro Halloween costume yet?

BrianFitzgerald

01:30 / 13.04.07

Guess Papers is...sorry for the crosspost re: Halloween costumes!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

01:37 / 13.04.07

MY GOD.

Bizarro PROJECT technician falling through onto Htrae = Their Christ figure. The couch could be a symbolic representation of their saviour / template embedding himself in their space from the aboverse.

03:00 / 13.04.07

>>>>>reminded me an awful lot of the setup in the PROJECT basement in issue 4.

Yeah, their "mining"/"fishing" tool or whatever from #4 is the same one in this last page (and bizarros are carrying what appears to be the material that fell through -- the bizarro miner also had a "techno-chair" at #4 that fell with him). We might be tripping a long way (and I still can't quite decide what exactly is happening to the bizarro at the first page).

At first thinking Zibarro as "Christ the Redeemer" statue (and his status of unique and self-aware etc), the idea of christ-like bizarro spawning from nowhere (from ABOVEverse), the story taking place at Christmas, the sacrifice(/ial lamb motif) (always a wood to the fire)... it seems to add up. But it just "seems", and I can't see major picture at all. The ugly side about the plot not having being completed yet.

I'm still waiting (probably in vain) for more similarities between the underverse and the "paperverse meta-technology" from The Filth (Agatha's line "foundations of reality... this is where time itself cools to a solid" always seemed to me on that vein).

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:59 / 13.04.07

Do we think that Zibarro is the missing Bizzaro tech from upstairs? If he was derived from Bizarro #1 Clone, possibly some sketchy pseudoscientific programmed memories spawned the Pseuperman identity and gave the Bizarro Matter downstairs a template to shape itself with. Or the technician generated all of this and Zibarro is merely the one anomaly, some element of the original Superman DNA used to create the aboverse Bizarros.

This actually might explain why the Bizarro chess-statue in #2 had the wrong cape emblem; Bizarro #1 might have been specifically cloned (poss. by Luthor) to be an evil Superman, and consequently had a perfect-but-dark copied costume fabricated by Luthor -- when Bizarro #1 failed, PROJECT took the technology and presumably cell samples and grew Bizarro technicians, one of which falls into the Underverse and creates/inspires a civilization of Bizarro drones, looking to mimic themselves some identity...

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