Pokémon Became DC Canon, but This Story Is Already Making Their Own Version That the Next Superman Loves

In last week’s Batman: Bad Seeds — Streets of Gotham, one of the short stories included confirmed that the Pokémon franchise was canon to the DC Universe. It’s rare for a comic company like DC to directly acknowledge an IP that their parent company doesn’t own, usually using parodies like Wackdonals. They didn’t directly name Pokémon, but did specifically mention a Mon named Scrafty, which is more than enough to show what they actually meant. However, despite the fact that Pokémon was just confirmed canon, in the newest issue #18 of Superman Unlimited, DC still chose to use a fake parody known as Poke-Mage, which seems to be a combination of Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering.

In his search for who he wants to be, Jon Kent, who was once DC’s Superman but now goes by Tomorrow Man, chose to fulfill all of his childhood dreams. However, he found that his superpowers gave him an unfair advantage in just about all of them, including his favorite card game. However, the way they choose to use this knock-off of two incredible games tells us a lot about both what the future holds in store for Jon, and how hilariously little Dan Slott knows about card game tournaments.

Not Superman, But Not Knowing Who Else He Is, Either

Jon is a character defined by the identities ripped away from him. His childhood was stolen in a failed attempt to herald him as the new Superman, but when Clark actually returned from space, that dream died, and so did Jon’s place in the DC Universe. He couldn’t go back to being the plucky young Superboy everyone loved, but he would also never escape his dad’s shadow as anything other than “the other Superman” while they shared a name. When faced with that reality, Jon decided to carve a new identity for himself as Tomorrow Man. A huge part of this journey has focused on finding out what he wants to do with his life. He’s a young man still stuck in that limbo between childhood and adulthood, but unlike everyone else, he hasn’t had the years to figure out who he is.

So began his time living out all of his childhood dreams, which he found way too easy because of his powers. Jon and Clark even get into a fight over the former’s bucking of their family legacy, saying he needs to find his own way forward in a way his dad hadn’t. Ironically, this mimics Clark’s own journey to becoming Superman. He spent his entire life not knowing how or why he could do what he does, and had to carve out his place as the world’s greatest superhero. Now, Jon has to carve his own spot out of his dad’s shadow. However, the way he’s going about it might not be the best for that idea.

See, Jon has made it his mission to save the Earth-3 version of himself, which Clark sees as impossible, given he’s universally predisposed to being evil. Jon’s goal is to become a hero who can do what even Superman sees as impossible, but at the end of the day, that just leads us right back to the “more Superman” problem. Jon says he’s dismantling that perception with this new path, but he’s still doing the exact same thing as before in a fancy new costume. So far, nothing about Jon has changed. Just like how Poke-Mage is a clear copy meant to convey a message, Jon is doing the same actions as before, but with the Superman-filing numbers scraped off. I’m excited to see where this arc takes him for sure, but this is a pitfall worth keeping an eye on.

The Hilarity of the Poke-Mage Tournament

Okay, now that we’ve covered all the important character moments, let’s take a second to examine the insane world of trading card games in DC, because it’s genuinely amazing. When Jon decided to become a professional Poke-Mage player, he dove headfirst into a tournament. Let’s be generous and say that either his years-old cards are still meta or he took the time to make a new deck and learn the current meta. Either way, Jon goes to a tournament that looks to take place at a small-scale convention center, with not many people there at all. In fact, the finals have only him and a few other guys in the room, barring a bored-looking vendor. Then the cash prize of two and a half million and a set of limited-edition cards. This is maybe the funniest thing I’ve ever read.

For context, the Pokémon World Championship offers a cash prize of $50,000 for the first-place winner. The largest MTG cash prize ever was $100,000. That’s in the largest TCG tournaments of the year that you need to spend months qualifying for, which are massively broadcast events that take place over days. Here, Jon just rolled up to what looks like a non-popular regional, walked in, and could have walked out with $2,500,000 in cash and three cards that are probably worth several thousand on their own. Likely much more, frankly. This isn’t in a check or anything, either. Poke-Mage literally had two and a half million in cash just sitting on a table.

Given that the finals took place on a random table with not even a camera or judge, it’s safe to assume that Poke-Mage isn’t making any money on broadcasting, or even releasing match reports. To fund a random tourney with this kind of prizing, Poke-Mage has to make an unfathomable amount of revenue. Pokémon averages around $11 billion in sales every year, and their first-place prize is about one fiftieth of Poke-Mage’s. If we did direct conversation, for the sheer sake of making an absurd number, that would mean Poke-Mage averages $550 billion every year. Forget Lex Luthor and Darkseid, Tomorrow Man has to do something about whoever owns this company. They have to have made at least three deals with Neron for that kind of cash flow.

Obviously, none of this is meant to be taken seriously. It was the set-up for a genuinely interesting and emotionally wrought scene where Superman and Tomorrow Man argue as they stop the Royal Flush Gang from robbing the tournament. Still, diving deep into the details of the set pieces like this can always be hilarious. Especially when it’s clear the writer didn’t think too hard about the logistics of the scenario, and just about how to get through it. Personally, I’d love for a comic focused around a hero whose secret identity was a famous TCG player, but that might just be me.

What’s one insane job you’d love to see a hero have in their civilian identity? Let us know in the comments below!

Superman Unlimited #18 is on sale now!

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