Superman #709

Grounded Part Seven

J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Roberson Writers
Eddy Barrows & Allan Goldman Pencillers
J.P. Mayer & Júlio Ferreira Inkers
Rod Reis Colorist
John J. Hill Letterer
John Cassady & David Baron Cover
Kenneth Rocafort Variant Cover
Wil Moss Associate Editor
Matt Idelson Editor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Our cover shows Superman continuing his long, slow and boring walk across America, as the Flash happily zips past him on a starry night. It's actually not a bad cover. I enjoy the bemused look on Superman's face and Barry's dorky little salute. Barry does look a little chunky, though, but otherwise everything about this image is fine.

There are times I love Kenneth Rocafort's art, and there are times I can't stand it. This is one of the times where I love it. It's a simple, yet dynamic look of Superman flying over a city with a handful of passersby gaping up at him. The only downside to this cover is it conveys a much more exciting tale than the one we do get.

The Grounded storyline is kind of a derided one among many Superman fans. It involved Superman walking — not flying — across America, trying to visit as many states as possible, all part of some strange attempt to "reconnect" to the world or something like that. Anyway, today's story brings Superman to Boulder, Colorado, where he encounters an out-of-control Barry Allen. The Flash is unable to slow down to a normal speed, and is not only spouting off random Kryptonian history factoids in the original language, but is also bizarrely decorating the town and its people to look like ancient Krypton.

Superman eventually manages to catch Barry and sees he's wearing a Kryptonian headband. Once he pulls it off, Barry explains that he discovered the headband at the bottom of a crater in the Sonora Desert. And like a complete idiot, Barry placed the band on his head without conducting any kind of tests. The headband flooded Barry's mind with the complete history of Krypton, feeding him too much information to process. He did, however, manage to eventually find Superman after crisscrossing North America five times. And he communicated the only way he could — with chunks of historic text and imagery.

The two heroes head into a diner to talk, where the TVs are broadcasting the Superboy/Kid Flash race. Barry predicts Bart's going to win, saying if he keeps at it, Bart will one day be faster than him. Superman naturally pulls for Superboy, saying Conner's really coming into his own. The two then have a very lengthy and boring discussion about the nature of morality and honesty, prompting Clark to tell a story about him sharing a detention period with Lex Luthor in high school.

As they leave the diner, Barry glances at the TV once more, noting how odd it is to have a teenage grandson when he doesn't even have a son yet. This leads to another conversation about the nature of legacy, and Barry admits he was initially overwhelmed by all the other speedsters out there. But now he takes comfort in that thought — that no matter what, there will always be a Flash to fight for justice.

Before Barry leaves, Superman asks him one last question. Back when he started this meandering walk across America, he asked Barry what he sees when runs across the country and Barry said at the time all he saw was a blur. This was a very disturbing thought for Superman at the time and a major motivation for this journey of self-reflection. But when reminded of this comment, Barry laughs, saying he was joking at the time. He explains that he can think at the speed of light and perceive events that last less than an attosecond. In other words, when he runs across the country, he sees everything and everyone. He tells Superman that things do get better, then takes off, leaving Superman to happily walk toward Utah.




There were so many creators involved in this comic, it almost felt like the right hand didn't know what the left was doing. For example, Superman explicitly does not order any food at the diner, but in some panels he has a hamburger. In other panels, he doesn't. But more frustrating than that was the sense that none of these writers or editors had read Flash: Rebirth, because Superman acts like this is the first time he's interacted with Barry since he came back. He keeps making comments about how he always wondered who's faster. And Barry has to point out that he allowed Superman to catch him. If anybody who worked on this comic actually read Rebirth, they would have known that when Barry doesn't want to be caught, he can easily leave Superman in the dust.

But I was appreciative to see that collage of speedsters including John Fox and XS. And  I do like when comics reference concurrent events in other books. However, I would have preferred an ending where Barry encouraged Clark to join him at the finish line to unite with family and friends to cheer on Kid Flash and Superboy. Of course, something weird is going on with Superman's family — his own wife, Lois, won't even answer his calls. And we've seen how strained Barry's relationship is with his family in his own series. But then again, it's not like this series really understands Barry's personality, either. First of all, why would he have made such a flippant joke about only seeing a blur to a clearly distressed and depressed Superman? Secondly, why would this intelligent, careful crime lab scientist randomly put a piece of alien technology on his head before running any kind of tests on it? That bit of stupidity is a contradiction of everything we know about Barry Allen.

Next time, we'll return to Teen Titans #93.