the eccentric mr morrison manages to impress me again with this elseworlds concoction of the man of steel. a huge fan of alternate realities, this strange symphony of a parallel and presidential superman hits all the right notes and is worthy of not a golf clap, but a standing ovation.

the tale opens in the midst of Action on earth 23(obama’s old basketball #)with president superman wrapping up a battle with an excessively furious, if not melodramatic, version of his arch nemesis lex luthor who dismisses an inference of racism by proclaiming he dispises this superman for everything besides his ethnicity.

supes discovers lex’s invention of a musical meta-machine which breaches the dimensional divide and allows the introduction of the refugee trio of one-eyed lois, postmortem jimmy and a burnt to the cinder, disempowered clark who is knocking on death’s door. lois warns of inpending (super)doom, who is hot on their trail, and recounts how on their earth, the trio created a machine that psychedelically manifested their thoughts and desires for an inspiring, nietzscheic superman-messiah that “lived” for 25 minutes before fading into oblivion. requiring more funding and brainpower to sustain a superman, they turned to the corporate company OverCorp who in turn reimagined a violent marketing icon to control the world. in pursuit of the trio accross a few earths, superdoom has managed to kill weaker versions of superman and sets the president in his sites.

also featuring a black JL, an ally in brainic who produces robotic duplicates of president calvin ellis(supes) that takes care of an international crisis while the real president battles superdoom, a cameo by the short, thick rimmed glasses sportin’ man who had glenmorgan’s tie last arc(who i think is mr.mxyzlptk) and even a single background panel cameo of the dark knight as gotham city mayor wayne.

ha’s art nicely complimented morrison’s weird and wonderful story. this title is one of my favorites.