>>76924921Regard the Overman. How he does not celebrate in the mass killing that so eerily mirrors the one he came home to after three years of exile. How he slouches down among the ruins, inconsolable in the face of his continued existence and realization that he is now kin to his adoptive father, complicit in a Holocaust on the German people that trusted and loved him. But is this not the same Overman who was drained of his life force and conscripted by the Monitors in exchange for a ransomed cousin long dead? Who despite all that, won the grudging respect and trust of his polar opposite Billy Batson, and fought against the forces of Mandrakk regardless? Can he come back from this as he did then or will he be “destroyed” as Jurgen claims? Nothing may come of it, but anything is possible because he’s a Superman and it is, as Jurgen says, “The Beginning.”
Side notes
-Fritz Lang was a German-Austrian director who was responsible for the creation of some of the greatest films of the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. Among them was Metropolis and a movie adaptation of Die Nibelungen, possibly making Mastermen one of the most calamitous crossovers ever. Don’t let the often-demonized name fool you; he wasn’t a very big fan of the Nazis and left Germany the moment Hitler came into power.
-Something of note is how Hitler once wielded the Spear of Destiny to combat the Justice Society of America; Odin was rather fond of Gungnir, a lance of immense power.
-Billy’s contempt for Karl is rather ironic given how they both have simplified thunderbolts in place of the traditional Superman crest (Zeus vs. Thor!). Both of them were styled after the idea of Superman, but are not him exactly. And in an added twist, Billy was after a chunk of magic rock in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D while Overman’s motivation for joining Zillo was arguably the most selfless out of the five Supermen, finding his cousin Overgirl.
