[SPOILER] Returns in Superman Reborn Part 3

03/15/2017 11:24 am EDT

WARNING: spoilers ahead for Superman #19, in stores today.

The "Superman Reborn" story arc lived up to its name with today's issue, in which the New 52 Superman, with a little nudging from Jonathan Kent, found his way back to life.

The character, seen at first as a blob of red electrical energy who silently communes with Jonathan Kent, appears on the final page of the story, surrounded in a crackling halo of red electricity which seemingly confirms our long-running theory that the "Superman Reborn" storyline is a riff on "Superman Red/Superman Blue," a 1962 story that was reimagined in 1997.

In the '90s version of "Superman Red/Superman Blue," the Man of Steel's powers and appearance had changed, giving him blue skin and hair and a set of electricity-based powers as he had become an energy-based life form. Eventually, a villain trying to kill Superman instead split him into two distinct beings -- a red-colored one and a blue one -- whose personalities were essentially each a portion of Superman, but neither was his whole.

"Every year at the Super-summit, it would become the running gag that I would pitch the idea," longtime Superman colorist Glenn Whitmore recently told ComicBook.com. "The story would simply be one about a split personality; Red would have the more aggressive personality while Blue was the more cerebral and thoughtful one."

"That was really fun, because Superman Blue, for me at least, became the 'serious' Superman," elaborated Superman: The Man of Steel artist Jon Bogdanove. "Very much the Dan Jurgens sort of grim hero. Superman Red was the late '40s bantering Superman, who would punch something and make some lame pun about it. A Superman who seemed to be having fun doing super-stuff. I liked the possibility of splitting Superman into two personalities, that both were sides of him, sort of 'Mirror Mirror'-like from Star Trek, having him deal with different sides of his personality, except one's not crazy and bad, they're just different sides of his personality."

The New 52 Superman's return comes on the final page of the issue, so it is not clear what role he will play in the final chapter of the story, or whether he will remain alive or go back to being dead following the events of "Superman Reborn." The most popular theory is that he will somehow be "folded in" to the existing Superman so that his New 52 history can be added to the long life and memories of the current Man of Steel and fans of the New 52 Superman won't feel quite so much like they are being told their version "doesn't count."

Certainly, there are a number of obvious personality differences between the New 52 Superman and the "classic" version who existed before and after him, although they do not break down as clearly as in the '90s when the story was set up to showcase those differences.

You can get a copy of Superman #19 at your local comic shop or, if you're snowed in on the East Coast, pick up a digital copy here.

Check back later in the week for a wide-ranging roundtable conversation with these creators and more about the 20th anniversary of the "Electric Superman" storyline.

More Electric Superman news:

• Dan Jurgens Looks Back at 20 Years Since Electric Superman
• Could Superman Red/Superman Blue Be Coming Back in 2017?
• "Superman Reborn" Hints at Superman Red/Superman Blue
• Superwoman Goes Electric For DC Rebirth

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