The Absolute Universe has differentiated itself by changing fundamental characteristics of its heroes. For Superman, this meant growing up on Krypton and watching it die, then landing on Earth, but only staying with the Kents for a moment before going on the run. The Man of Tomorrow has no family and is truly the Last Son of Krypton. However, even though he’s lost all of the people who were supposed to raise and protect him as family, that doesn’t mean that he’s been alone. In fact, Absolute Superman #12 revealed that Superman has a brand new brother, and he’s been here the entire time.
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Sol, the artificial intelligence and living super suit made to ferry Kryptonians off their dying planet, has been with Kal ever since they escaped to space. He’s been the one to pull Superman out of his darkest moments and keep him on the right path, and now, Kal has finally accepted Sol as a member of his family. He called him Sol-El, his older brother, and the two dedicated themselves to stopping Ra’s al Ghul and saving the day the right way. The way Kal wants to. However, while a new brother is a great addition, it also opens the door for two awesome and dangerous new stories.
Sol-El, the Ultimate Test
The entire time Superman has been on Earth, Ra’s al Ghul has wanted to wear down his soul and turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. Ra’s wants nothing more than to break Superman’s spirit. He’s tormented Superman by having his Peacemakers execute innocents, and had Brainiac put him through millions of simulations where he became a murderer, but still, Superman refused to become a monster. He held onto his morals no matter what Ra’s put him through, but after Brainiac’s torture, the only one able to pull him back from the brink was Sol.
If Sol was killed in the final fight against Ra’s, then Superman’s rage would flare beyond anything we’ve seen before. He just finally accepted Sol as the last member of his family, and if he dies or gives his life to save Kal, then Superman really would lose his last connection to his first home. He would be more alone than ever before and likely start destroying everything around him. It would be up to Lois and Jimmy to stop him from killing Ra’s’s army, and based on everything we’ve seen, they might not even be close enough to get through to him.
The entire story of Absolute Superman so far has been pushing the Man of Steel as far as he can go to see if he breaks. Killing Sol would be the logical final step in that plot, giving him the true test of whether Superman is willing to stay a hero or he’ll become Darkseid’s warrior of vengeance. Given how much this issue went out of its way to make us love Sol and all that he’s done, killing him within the next few issues would be a massive gut punch to the reader and make for a powerful moment. Of course, there is another option.
The Absolute Red Tornado
A popular fan theory that cropped up several issues ago was that Sol wouldn’t remain the AI assistant of Superman, but rise to become his own hero as the Absolute Red Tornado. There are a few signs present at the moment, though none are conclusive. First and most obviously, both are red. Beyond that, both have incredible control over creating storms. While Red Tornado is capable of controlling the wind, Sol does so by creating whirlwinds with his red dust, and is himself compared to a storm in this issue.
The most concrete piece of evidence came in Absolute Superman #8, where Sol initiated Tornado Mode. He coated Superman in a suit of spiked armor, with a red dust tornado swirling around him. Tornado Mode could be a coincidental name, but it could also be a clear call to Sol’s future role. The final evidence is definitely the most tangential and almost certainly not related, but it could be a very deep cut into Red Tornado’s mythos. See, the original universe Red Tornado was created by T. O. Morrow, and Superman is the Man of Tomorrow, which is yet another small connection between them. Again, this is almost definitely not a piece of the puzzle, but it always could be.
The plot might even turn out to be a mixture of both of these twists, where Sol is killed but brought back as his own entity, taking the name Red Tornado. It could also very well be neither, but we can’t know for sure until we see where this story takes us. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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