Lois is dying and Superman's mind is being manipulated by the first Superman or the Blaker Ghost. Superman can't focus because he is assailed by images of being in a "perfect world", which basically is him and his allies beating all evil and him marrying Lois and having nothing else to do, I suppose.
Superman tries to resist and focus his mind while Lois' niece tries to help keep her Aunt from succumbing to her injuries. We get some background on the Blaker Ghost and how he actually came to be on Earth and live in Kansas as Adam Blake. His life almost parallels Clark's but he was not fortunate to have his direction/fate. Adam's father throws him out after the death of his mother, blaming him for it.
Superman eventually summons the will to resist and takes on Adam Blake. Blake tries to explain he is trying to save Susie from the evil that is coming. Superman tells him he has gone about it the wrong way. Blake is teleported out by his spaceship before Superman could defeat him. Amid all this hulabuloo, Johnny Clark dies.
Superman then speed-reads all the medical books ever written, and performs surgery on Lois and saves her life.
He meets with Batman who tells him to try to find a way of bringing Clark Kent back. We then find out his landlady is not a normal lady but Mxyzptkl's wife and she can magically wipe people's memories and give him back his identity. We end with strange creepy man appearing in Susie's bedroom, looming ominously at the end of her bed.
This issue was a mixed bag for me. Grant Morrison homages a lot of the old mythos but at times this kind of thing just makes the plot more convoluted in my opinion. As one who is enjoying the more realistic take on jean and t-shirt Superman, these elements don't make it reader friendly. I loved seeing Superman able to focus and fight against being mind controlled. Too often that's such a cliched, overused way to weaken him. I don't get why Lois would want to be married to a man she barely knows. I mean, this is not Clark Kent, this is Superman. She supposedly is in a relationship with another good guy and I never got the impression this Lois sits about dreaming the teenage fantasy as well. This "perfect world", is one of those unreal things that only happens in fairy tales and is this young Clark desperate for that? Unless those are Adam Blake's desires.
The whole Johnny Clark thing was pretty pointless as well. I never saw how that could work with him wandering around with a beanie and no one noticing his features in our media obsessed world. It was also played with and discared way too quickly to have any impact. Then there is what Grant Morrison always does. The deus ex machina. Superman saves Lois by reading books in a flash and bam, she is alive and well. That really detracts from the whole set up and it subverts the raw and modern take and drags it back to the wackiness of the past. It undermines Superman's growth, I feel. I would have liked to see him saving Lois in a different way. It was just too easy. It always has been too easy, that was half of Superman's problem as a character.
Batman's relationship with Superman is good. I get a big brotherly vibe off Bruce towards Clark and that is refreshing. I have been sick of seeing Batman always talking down to or being antagonistic towards Superman.
To top it off, the landlady is the wife of a Superman villain I never cared for. I never could take Mxyzptlk seriously. I am not sure I really care why she is here. She felt more interesting as a normal woman. The last page with Susie and the creepy man was more powerful than most of the book.
I give this issue 3 out of 5.
Best Panel. Good to see the twinkle and the confidence after the self doubting.
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