Once again, I’m writing this article on the precipice of election day and, just like before, it feels like an exercise in routine. I’m reviewing the menu on the Hindenburg on the fifth of May kind of anxiety, you know? And yet, I still need to sift through my pile of comics, some of which were first solicited back when I was writing my previous election week article. As this is being written to go out on Wednesday, I don’t know what the state of things will be by then, but for the time being, let’s talk about Superman.

Superman and The Authority by Grant Morrison, Mikel Janín, Fico Ossio, Evan Cagle, Travel Foreman, Jordie Bellaire, Sebastian Cheng, Dave Stewart, Alex Sinclair, and Steve Wands is one of Morrison’s final stories for DC and it does have that sense of finality to it. This is Superman in his twilight years as his powers slowly dwindle and he has left much of the major heroics to his son. But even in this state, he still knows that there are threats out in the Multiverse only he can handle—or, rather, he knows he needs a team to help him pick up where he’s begun to lack. People like Midnighter and Apollo are easy enough, but Manchester Black has tried to kill him on several occasions, and Enchantress is trapped in a hell of her own making. Even still, with a team of disparate talents, Superman can always save the day.

Between Superman and The Authority and the last season of Green Lantern that I covered the other month, Morrison’s final stories for DC have been interesting to see this far removed. For both, there’s a sense of finality—Superman facing his final adventures and Hal Jordan flying off into the unknown—but also a springboard. There are just further stories of these characters that can, and do, continue on into the future. As always, Morrison brings in their interpretation of any character, but they always leave just enough for the next person to come in with more ideas. They know how to leave the toy box open for the next person. And that’s what has made their work so fascinating over all these years. Morrison’s ambitions for story have been vast in every universe and character they’ve touched, but it’s always in service to the universe and character, and to whoever will pick up that mantle after their exit.

Superman and The Authority is a getting-the-band-together book. We watch all of the pieces fall into place before this short run ends to be continued in another issue of Action Comics another universe away. But what the creative team puts together here makes everything on the page feel comforting—that this is this particular Superman’s last story, but that there’s going to be so much more beyond that is the kind of send-off every character would want. It’s no kind of ending, but an invitation. 

Get excited. Get together.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, & 510) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.