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I would add the clones as well in the category of replacements. I always read the scene with Sup's dark side unleashed punching clones in #4 as part of the fear of death and replacement. You know, "Saturn devouring his son" and stuff like that.
Incidental as it stands but another "avatar of Death" might be meeting himself as a young man - and, as well, meeting up with Bizarro - because of that notion of "meeting yourself on the road" = Death is coming (or has already come). Mash that up against Tim Hunter & Molly O'Reilly entering Hell in Books of Magic and meeting the "No One" character who mirrors them in silhouette.
Yes! Was I the only one who assumed they made love on the moon (something about the way all those craters were in the background and the two were in a empty space, waiting to be "marked" to the return of the moon's significance of imaginationXsensuality -- or just marking it like Jimmy's "I love Lucy").
I'd almost hazard to say that it was intentionally left ambiguous, whether they consummated up there on the Moon or not. The scene plays out as chaste, but I think it works well because there's room there to see it either way and have reasons/logic behind both. Having worked through the paranoias and madness associated with the relationship (Madwoman Lois gets back for years of Superdickery), Lois is elevated to become Superman's physical equal now that their relationship is in a healthier, more open place and she's been anointed to lie with the Sun God (Think of Dionysus's mother exploding at the sight of Zeus's true shape -- Lois has been prepared against potential violence). Additionally, because you could argue that Lois hasn't fully worked through their relationship (depends on how you read her ribbing of him in the Dino-Czar's realm) and that it's pressing forward a bit too quickly for someone as even-tempered as Clark, the scene can remain chaste and have similar impact.
I tend to think they made love, up there on the moon - which does resonate with Jimmy's I Love Lucy because Jimmy's looked upon by others as he looks upon Superman, and Lucy is similarly a "Little Lois." Fractal relationships.
Jimmy's friendship saved the day - more than fighting, ass-whooping and debasing Sups into a toy store as Doomsday, as if "that's where you belong, silly thing" (after Supes is pissed shouting "you point dumb gun at me": the gun that labels him as silly and dumb) amidst the grim gritty mock-reenactment from the 90's Death of Superman. The friendship was what brought the day together in the end, that little colorful "silly" watch filled with significance, joy, togetherness and friendship opposing the state where a empty Superman is thrown in the "silly dumb toy" and attempted to inject "seriousness", rock-steroids and grit.
Which is why it's important that Jimmy holds Superman in his arms, naked-vulnerable in the way that Superman's emotionally-vulnerable -- the signal-watch brings Jimmy out of his Nineties Stupor just in time to remind us that, for all the Kewl Fight Scenes, we'd be lost without the love. |
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