Superman as the Modern Moses – FT. Theories for Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Action Comics and Grant Morrison’s Superman and the Authority (July 2021)
Finally, my latest post from last month. Everything here is pretty up to date, except for solicits confirming that the Authority are going to be with Clark on Warworld in the present, so I'll just let you get to it.
Link to the original post from Reddit
I look forward to finally making some new posts for here and Reddit.
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Superman as the Modern Moses
FT. Theories for Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Action Comics and Grant Morrison’s Superman and the Authority
This is a post pointing out something I noticed with the direction of the Super books coming in, with some theories and predictions at the end.
I have plans for Infinite Frontier posts following up my last one for sure, but I decided to make this one first. This post is divided into 4 parts so you can read this one at a time:
Introduction
Parallels in Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Warworld Saga
Parallels in Superman and the Authority
Final Theories and Predictions
…Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two second generation Jewish immigrants sharing a love for adventure and science fiction. When they created the Superman, we know (as in after the Lex Luthor-esque, bald, evil Super-Man) they drew inspiration from important figures in the Jewish scriptures like Moses and Samson. (The former is the one I’ll focus here)
Nowadays Superman is often compared and paralleled with Jesus Christ, either through images, allegory or themes. You can see this in live-action adaptations like the Donner films, Smallville, Superman Returns and the DCEU to varying effect.
I’m a religious Catholic Christian myself, not Jewish, and I do think there are many aspects of Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew, who Himself is a Jew and who we believe was their messiah) character-wise that can be applied to him to great effect and have been in comics at least since the Bronze Age with Elliot S! Maggin (who himself is Jewish but has Clark be Methodist and portrayed as destined to be the universe's savior, see: Sword of Superman, Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday). However, Superman is ultimately not meant to be Jesus.
Near incorruptible and idealistic as he may be, he’s not the ultimate savior. He’s ultimately still human (despite being biologically an alien) and can be imperfect, more like those characters of the Old Testament who he was originally based on, meant to inspire others to follow his lead and in the hope they carry on to surpass him.
Just like Moses, who himself did not reach the promised land, but lead a new generation to it.
But more on that later.
Intentional or not I think this is what may be influencing the direction of his stories moving forward.
From PKJ’s Future State work in Worlds of War and House of El, to his Action Comics now, there seems to be a direction in his plans, connections and hints to what comes next which he plants with some great world building.
Now, let’s take a look at the similarities between Moses and Superman in the current AC arc.
Disclaimer: Though I consider myself fairly educated on Biblical stories, formally and informally, I am by no means an expert.
Ancient Hebrew slaves of Egypt
The Hebrews Enslaved in Egypt – God’s chosen people, descendants of Abraham, who ended up in Egypt by the end of Genesis, but later on after Joseph died, were oppressed and enslaved. They prayed for their God to free them and deliver them to the land promised by Him.
When they were freed, despite all the miracles God did for them they constantly disobeyed His laws and were punished. At one point they wished to return to slavery in Egypt, rejecting the manna (food) given to them. Only the next generations could let go and see their promised land in the end and their descendants live on today with the Jewish people.
Warworld Slaves
Captive Kryptonians on Warworld – A captive population, oppressed and enslaved on Warworld by Mongul(s). Their dead language and prayers indicate them as descending from a science colony of Krypton known as Phaelosians who left the world after being shunned by the rest of society. This makes them survivors of Krypton.
Thao-La, one of the prisoners found and freed by Superman, was similarly afraid of being free of her chains due to how Mongul treated her and her people on Warworld. If Future State House of El comes to pass, Jon’s descendants seem to also descend from them and they live on in the future with Kal-El existing to them only as legend (until the still living Clark shows up anyway).
Pharaohs
The Pharaoh (Rameses II) – The ruler of Egypt, succeeded his father Seti I as Pharaoh. He is essentially treated as a god, specifically an incarnation of Ra IIRC. In Judeo-Christian beliefs, other “gods” are either non-existent or in fact fallen spiritual beings (angels basically) who rebelled against God and used their limited power to seduce and deceive humanity.
That, along with mass genocide of male Hebrew infants (something his father did) and slavery are of course what lead YHWH to judge them. Each of the ten plagues sent by God were meant to ironically parallel the Egyptian gods with the final one being justice for previously mentioned infant genocide by the previous Pharaoh (as Pharaohs are treated as gods in ancient Egypt).
The New Mongul in Superman: Villains
Mongul MDCCXCII (1792nd) – Son of Mongul MDCCXCI, he continues his father’s (and his father's and his father's etc.) role as the ruler of Warworld, a similarly evil place where slaves are forced into a gladiator arena. Now, they didn’t worship false/evil gods or treat Mongul like a god but the long lineage of Monguls, the conquering of worlds and his enslavement of various alien races including alleged Kryptonians show that parallel.
Moses and the Burning Bush
Moses – Hebrew saved from destruction of his people by a parent placing him in a life basket on the river. He later had a family (a wife and two sons) in the Midian where he ended up when he fled Egypt. He was later called by God to serve Him, revealing himself as the God of his ancestors through a burning bush. When asked for his name He said "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" or "I AM THAT I AM" - YHWH (He is). He went on to confront the Pharaoh to free his people from slavery under God, delivering them to the promised land where their descendants would live.
Parallel?
Superman – Kal-El/Clark Kent was a Kryptonian saved from destructions of his people by his parents placing him in a rocket sent to space and to Earth. He later had a family there, a wife and a son. Like Moses he now knows he may have fellow Kryptonians enslaved by an oppressive ruler in a foreign place. In Future State, he had long left Earth to fight for their freedom on Warworld against Mongul.
He discovered a strange power source, with “Source” substance, that seems to be connected to some sort of god. The Source is the Omniversal supreme power, implied in the original Fourth World saga and confirmed in Death Metal to be one with The Presence, with their differences arising due to the nature of God, the Godhead/Trinity etc. However, in DC other gods return to the Source upon death, which originates from Jack Kirby’s original New Gods run too, so this being may be one of them. If anything it sounds quite lovecraftian.
Who or whatever this is, it seems to have prophesized his role in the future. As shown in Future State, an older, gray haired Superman with the same Kingdom Come-esque shield fighting on Warworld against Mongul to free the enslaved people there. He seemed to have left due to an international incident, likely involving this artifact the Atlanteans named “Genesis” as Steve Trevor and Arthur Curry were about to be on conflict with its possession.
PKJ confirmed back then that his Future State work was made for FS, not one of the 5G books. One coming series theorized by some to be the 5G Superman book, that this now links up to of course is….
Superman and the Authority
Now, Grant Morrison wrote this way back and retroactively integrated it into PKJ’s story afterwards, but I see the parallels here too still, nonetheless.
The obvious influences here are of course:
Kingdom Come - grey haired, darker Superman, initially less connected to humanity with a red and black shield. This also took inspiration from the Old Testament with Samson.
Batman and the Outsiders – Bruce forming a new, more gray, team separate from the League to go on a mission they cannot join him in
First, see Grant Morrison’s stance on authoritarian Superman in their CBR interview:
Source: https://www.cbr.com/superman-and-the-authority-grant-morrison-interview/
Given a task to write an authoritarian Superman, Morrison’s take is that of keeping him in character. This time it’s not tragedy but the people’s failures that lead to this. However, as they emphasize in their interview, he is still good, he is still Superman.
Now, a lot of people seem to think the Old Testament God is different from the New Testament’s, or that he was harsher in the former, while more loving in the latter. That’s a long debate, so if you seek more context please see the two videos here:
In short, the God of the Old Testament IS the same as the New. What changed wasn’t Him but the people and context but he’s otherwise both a God of love and of justice in both. His wrath was due to the sins of humanity, and His instructions in Torah were never meant to be unchanging universal law.
But again, Superman is not God (whether it’s the Father or the Son) or a god so I’m not entirely sold Clark’s judgment is right here, but I trust in Morrison’s writing and experience to make this a great story nonetheless so I’m still really excited to read their work. Mikel Janin’s art is great as well.
With Manchester Black on the team, some “Superman vs the Elite/What’s so Funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way?” influence may be here, especially since the Elite parodied the Authority. I’m hoping Clark turns back or keeps them in control. Maybe that dark "god" of the Genesis artifact partially changed him, but not completely.
So what are my theories for what’s to come?
First, Clark must leave Earth due to an international incident. From the solicits, the stuff with the Genesis device being sought by governments around the world and Atlantis may be what leads to this, with Superman taking it so none can have it.
Either this or another incident leads to him secretly forming the Authority, as he’s “had enough” as Morrison said. He retains his ideals but decides to form this team to do what he believes what needs to be done.
With or without the Authority, he goes to Warworld to take on Mongul to free the slaves.
In the future, Jon’s descendants marry with one of the survivor, birthing Ronan and Rowan Kent.
But wait?!
PKJ hints at a huge crossover event between the super family books. Jon has his own solo title as the new Superman and would already be a few issues in by then. Meanwhile Midnighter is going through his own story, related to Future State via time travel. Shilo Norman is there too.
Remember that Future State is meant to be a possible future, with most of it already being undone.
I believe it’s possible Jon, the missing piece here, could change the future.
He knew about this from the Legion’s history records as one of the possible outcomes. He was there around the same era as the House of El and yet he only met one descendant in Mon-El.
He could be the key to prevent the darker aspects of Future State from coming to pass, like Superman and the Authority. Of course he has his own FS story, so he may fail, but that Jon didn’t have help from another time traveler, like Midnighter whose currently involved in a repeating time loop himself. Perhaps they can discover the true origins of this Genesis artifact and the identity of the being in it too. Maybe it corrupted Clark as well.
Either way, I’m really excited for Tom Taylor’s Superman Son of Kal-El too and whatever event comes. I understand a lot of people are still hoping he gets deaged, I kind of am too, but if Tom Taylor can make something great with teenage Jon then I’m fine with it. He did write an older Jon in DCeased Dead Planet. Though of course I hope he retcons the stuff with Ultraman.
Thanks for reading.
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