Superman’s Greatest Strength Just Became His Greatest Weakness, Courtesy of DC’s Most Underrated Boss

Superman’s boundless might and fantastic powers all stem from his ability to absorb yellow sunlight and turn it into strength, but now, the source of his abilities has been turned against him. As of Superman (2023) #43, stepping into the light burns Superman’s skin like a vampire, meaning that standing outside during the day could kill him in just a few minutes. This means that, very soon, Superman’s powers are going to fade with zero ability to recharge them, and it’s all thanks to the work of DC’s most underrated end-game threat, Nekron. This embodiment of death has a foothold in Metropolis, and his followers are gearing up to flip the city upside down.

Even more dangerous than Superman’s inability to fly through the sunlight and the weapon that did this to him is the ideology that empowers it. Nekron’s influence is growing through a cult dedicated to a phenomenon indicative of superhero comics, turning a massive strength into a cataclysmic weakness that has even ensnared Cat Grant, who should be one of Superman’s biggest allies. It’s all going down as Superman is forced to confront the idea of death to keep on living.

The Power of Death Inverted Life-Giving Light

Everything started when people in Metropolis began to vanish at night, along with a graveyard popping up practically out of nowhere. Former ghost and resident hero Marilyn Moonlight and Cat Grant investigated, finding a cult dedicated to Nekron, who praised Superman as a prophet able to overcome death, hoping to do the same for their loved ones. They were transforming people to stone with a gauntlet possessing a Black Lantern Ring, which, when Superman looked into the missing persons, blasted him with an energy that made his body burn in the sunlight. He’s forced to hide in the shadows, all while Nekron grows all the stronger.

Cat Grant, who once lost her son, is a dead ringer for a cult like this, having seemingly joined, but it’s equally possible that she’s going deep undercover to figure out how to stop them. The most dangerous part of all of this is definitely the Black Lantern Ring itself, as the ability to transform others to stone was once the specific ability of Black Hand, herald of Nekron. It’s quite possible that this gauntlet is his own severed hand, but regardless, Nekron is on the path to returning to the DC universe, and that is a very, very dangerous thing.

Death Always Wins, in the End

Nekron is the Entity of Death, meaning that his ultimate goal is to wipe out all life across the universe and render it a black void. He was the central villain of the “Blackest Night” event, where he fulfilled the prophecy of the same name by resurrecting every DC hero and villain who had ever died as a Black Lantern zombie. Nekron even converted nearly every hero who had died previously, revealing that he allowed the heroes to constantly cheat death so that his army could grow and turn the Earth’s defenders against them without giving them any time for other heroes to fill the space they left. As if all of that isn’t bad enough, Nekron himself is unimaginably powerful, able to defeat the Anti-Monitor on his own.

What’s interesting about the cult dedicated to Nekron in Metropolis is that it opens the door for a story centered around how Superman is the hero who broke the concept of death in comics. People were coming back from the dead long before the Man of Steel died, but his climactic death and immediate resurrection were the final nail in the coffin of the idea of permanent stakes, showing that there was nobody who died who couldn’t make a return if DC so chose. Superman has become the face of defying death time and again, and he just did it again, having won the DC K.O. death tournament and returning alive, yet again, despite meeting death.

This story has the potential to dive into the in-world implications of death having become a revolving door, and give us the perspective of normal citizens who see their heroes return as if they merely had the common cold. Like it or not, Superman is the face of the superhero community, and thus that phenomenon, meaning that it’s up to him to parse the reality of it and guide these people back to the light, just as he physically finds a way to do the same for himself. This story has the potential to tie its physical threat so intimately to its themes and tackle a part of DC’s world that so often goes ignored, which is something that always makes for an absolutely legendary tale.

Which character do you hope returns from the grave, and which hero or villain do you wish would stay in the ground for at least a few years? Let us know in the comments below!

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