In yesterday’s issue of Action Comics, readers finally learned the identity of Mr. Oz, a mysterious, hooded stranger who had been lurking around the fringes of Superman’s life for over two years — but now that his face has been revealed, it seems to have raised far more questions than it answers.
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Spoilers for Action Comics #987, including the true identity of Mr. Oz, to follow.
For the last year, the prevailing theory had been that Mr. Oz was Ozymandias from Watchmen — a theory that was supported by a great deal of circumstantial evidence, even if it did not line up perfectly with what little readers knew about Mr. Oz himself.
During an interview with ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic Con this year, DC co-publisher Jim Lee even stammered on Mr. Oz’s name in a way that sounded quite a bit like he was trying to avoid saying “Ozymandias.” You can see that above.
With months to work it all out in our collective heads, convincing arguments had been made as to how and why Mr. Oz might be Ozymandias, and links between what he was doing and the cryptic teases about Watchmen characters showing up in the DC Universe established.
With “The Oz Effect” storyline in Action Comics wrapping up just as Doomsday Clock is about to begin in November, it still seems likely the two are linked. But…how? And why did Oz do some of the things he has done along the way?
We will try to break down as much of it as we can figure out…!
Who is Mister Oz?
While Superman will still doubt it and be looking for answers at least until December, Mr. Oz claims to be Jor-El, the Man of Steel’s biological father and the scientist who both foresaw the destruction of Krypton and built the rocket that would send his child to Earth.
Being Jor-El is actually something that makes sense given the character’s very first appearance, when he seemed to suggest that he was at least in part responsible for Superman’s development.
In the time since then, his mysterious nature had let very few clues slip through, until last month when he attacked Lex Luthor, slashing the House of El’s sigil from the villain’s armor with heat vision and deeming him “only human.”
Since his introduction, Mr. Oz has been enigmatic enough that it seemed likely he was going to be a villain, even when he was insisting that he was on Superman’s “side.”
That is what made this week’s issue particularly interesting: seeing Jor-El’s goal and understanding that he is both an ally to Superman and a villain, because he would sacrifice this world to save his son while Superman would gladly sacrifice himself to save the world.
What Does He Have to Do With Doctor Manhattan?
From context, it is clear that Mr. Oz knows about Doctor Manhattan.
In the final chapter of “Superman Reborn,” Mr. Oz seemed pleased to see Superman emerge from the crisis with his family intact and fully restored to normal. He hedged his bets, though, looking out to Mars and wondering, “Is it Superman who has the final say — or him?”
While the “him” was not named, it is easy to imagine that it is Dr. Manhattan, who had a base on Mars in Watchmen. Mars was seen briefly in DC Universe: Rebirth, while dialogue between Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias was repeated over the imagery, and appeared again in a promotional poster for Doomsday Clock, which showed the Justice League standing on the planet’s surface under the looming caption “Who watches the Watchmen?”
There was a persuasive case for Mr. Oz as Ozymandias, and when people thought it was him, ties to Dr. Manhattan were taken for granted.
A lenticular cover for the next issue of Action Comics appears to show Jor-El being whisked away from a dying Krypton by a blast of blue energy — something that has appeared time and time again since DC Universe: Rebirth and has always been associated with Dr. Manhattan in the minds of fans.
So while Mr. Oz is not Ozymandias, and it appears he is not directly working with Dr. Manhattan, it seems as though Manhattan may have saved his life years ago, and brought him to Earth.
What Does He Want With Tim Drake?
The blue light, which has been seen in various spots over the last year or so, first sparked an avalanche of fan theories after Mr. Oz used it to teleport Tim Drake away from certain death — only to lock him away in an extradimensional prison with a number of mostly-unknown cellmates.
It was similarly used to grab and detain Mr. Mxyzptlk, although the fifth dimensional imp was too powerful to be held indefinitely, and escaped to cause trouble for the Last Son of Krypton in the aforementioned “Superman Reborn” story.
Because of Ozymandias’s convoluted master plan in Watchmen, it was easy enough to assume he could be doing these things for reasons that passed understanding and would be explained in Doomsday Clock. The implication that both Wally West and Abra Kadabra had encountered Dr. Manhattan supported this theory, as they were “taken off the board” in the same way Tim Drake was.
Now, though, it appears as though there were at least two distinct individuals/groups at play: Ozymandias and Manhattan, and Mr. Oz.
Wally and Kadabra’s dialogue has suggested that they encountered Manhattan, so little explanation is necessary there. Doomsday, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the Kryptonite stole in this week’s issue all make sense as targets for someone whose only goal is to “protect” Superman.
But Tim Drake?
Whatever tie Jor-El has to Tim Drake remains a mystery — although as one of the greatest detectives in the DC Universe, it is plausible to think Tim could have come close to the truth…somehow. Hopefully this will be explored, either in next week’s Action Comics or in the upcoming Detective Comics story “A Lonely Place of Living,” which deals with Tim’s escape from Mr. Oz’s prison.
What Happened to Jor-El?
Assuming that this is indeed Jor-El, what happened to him?
There is the obvious physical scarring over his missing eye which, given its green discoloration seems likely to be Kryptonite-related. More than that, he is clearly a damaged individual. What happened to make him hate and distrust humanity so?
His behavior toward Superman is actually somewhat understandable, in the context of a controlling parent who believes he is right, but knows that he cannot force his child to see things his way.
Jor-El, in bringing out the worst in humanity, is manipulating Clark’s adoptive “family” in order to convince Clark that he is right and Earth is not good enough for the Last Son of Krypton.
This is the kind of behavior you see in movies, when the father disapproves of his college-aged daughter’s boyfriend but knows he cannot just make a demand that she leave.
The answer may lie in Jor-El’s experiences with Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias (assuming he has some), or it may be something else. What may be a more interesting question is whether or not he is in his right mind: is this how Superman’s father would always have reacted to Earth, or did something cause him to fundamentally change?
