Infinite Crisis #5/Birthright Geekery

Not going to go page by page this time, but rather going to posit a theory about what's going on and how it could end up resolved.

Immediately after the crisis, Superman was the Earth-1, planet-juggling Krypton-visiting, silver-to-bronze-age model. Along with the rest of his cast. Then, he changed, into the Byrne version. Why? (In-world explanation, that is.)

Suppose he did it himself. Most of the Byrne changes are ones that he might well have made in the process of building a 'better' superman: Krypton isn't so painful a loss, his parents survive through his adulthood this time, Lex Luthor is no longer a friend-turned-bad, Lana Lang gets over him and moves on, allowing Lois a clear field. The only major change that doesn't fit that pattern is the absence of a superboy career. So maybe that's the thing that motivates the change in the first place: he learns that, in the future, the greatest danger to the new universe will be from (a) Superboy.

So, having replaced himself, Superman-1 then can retire, living on as a sort of guardian spirit of the universe.

The next reality shift is with Hawkman, as the Earth-8 Katar and Shayera Hol are knocked into the DCU probably by Superboy-Prime's first attempts to break in. They later get folded back into the current (Earth-2-based) Hawkman and killed, respectively.

Then, Superman dies fighting Doomsday. This sets into motion a chain of events that lead to the creation of a new Superboy, which alerts Earth-1 Superman to a problem. Still being Earth-1 Superman, he can't kill Superboy, so instead he brings Superman back from the grave to hopefully serve as a mentor and stop him from going bad.

This also sets into motion another chain of events leading to Hal Jordan getting possessed by Parallax. Across dimensional boundaries Alex Luthor manipulates the already conflicted Hal/Parallax, putting the idea of restoring the multiverse into his head, but that doesn't work out so well, although the resolution of the Crisis in Time does cause a bit more shifting of reality about.

Then, somewhere fairly recently, we get another reality shift, in which the carefully constructed Superman is subtly replaced with the Earth-8 version (the Birthright version, in other words), and along with that, Superboy's parentage changes to being a blend of Superman and Luthor DNA. This increases Superman-1's suspicion of the kid, and keeps him still distracted from noticing/thinking about Superboy-Prime.

So, if I'm right, Superman-1's return will be the deus ex machina that beats Superantimonitorboy...


(Anyone else think stories of Earth-8 would be fun? A world where Kyle was Earth's first Green Lantern; where Luthor is both rich and a scientific genius...)
More respectable SF blogging tomorrow