Exclusive DC Preview: Action Comics #963 Asks “Who Is Clark Kent?”

DC has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive preview of next week’s Action Comics #963, Part One of the “Who Is Clark Kent?” storyline.

Before we go any further, it seems prudent to acknowledge that the solicitation text for this issue is pure gold. Congratulations to series writer Dan Jurgens if it’s he who contrived this riff on the familiar “Look! Up in the Sky!”:

Look—down there on the ground! It’s a guy, he’s kinda ordinary…it’s—Clark Kent?! As Metropolis recovers from the devastating attack of Doomsday, the mysterious figure claiming to be Clark Kent takes the spotlight to clear his name and prove once and for all that Clark Kent is not Superman!

Building a mystery around the newly-arrived and very human (we saw him injure himself) Clark Kent was a stroke of genius in Jurgens’s “Path of Doom” storyline (with art by Patrick Zircher, Tyler Kirkham, Stephen Segovia and more), building anticipation for something that could easily have been a throwaway plot beat.

The likely scenario here is that the “human” Clark is some kind of illusion/construct/life model decoy that will ultimately allow Superman and his family to resume their lives as Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jonathan Kent. Seeding the new Clark in slowly throughout the course of the Doomsday battle allows Jurgens to deal with the ramifications of the previous creative team “outing” Superman as Clark Kent in a way that feels less dismissive than just bringing Clark in and immediatley “fixing” things.

Of course, one interesting question given that the people of the DC Universe have already seen Superman’s son in action is whether Lois and Clark will have to keep their marriage and/or child secret if they switch from being the Smiths to the Kents again. With Superman having an age-appropriate son and Lois and Clark not having had much in the way of a real relationship during the New 52 publishing era, explaining their family unit might be more difficult than explaining Superman himself.

That process starts here, though, as Jurgens and Zircher enter “Who is Clark Kent?” and move toward an answer to the titular question.

Of course, along the way there will be plenty more, including not only some investigative reporting from Lois Lane but also a head-to-head between Lois and Lex Luthor, when Superman’s wife decides it’s time for her to go back to work at the Daily Planet, especially now that the “other” Lois is apparently dead following the events of Superwoman #1.

You can check out preview pages of Action Comics #963 in the attached image gallery. The issue hits the stands next Wednesday, September 14, so you can pre-order a copy at your local comic shop or digitally on ComiXology.