I think that was something Moore felt he needed to do, a final good-bye of sorts to Kara. Since she was dead by this point, he had to work her in somehow, and that was what he came up with.

Overall, it's still a great piece, and one of the few Moore works I can say I really love. Def much more moving than the Bizarro entry. And Swan and Perez made a gorgeous team on the art. I love the meta-line "Supergirl is in the past."

Don't ask me why, but Saturn's Girl line, while a bit cheesy, always gets me as well.

You know what? The Legion were kind of dicks to bring Supergirl along just because “she insisted on coming.” They could make their little goodbye trip at literally ANYTIME after Supergirl left because, y’know, time travel.

To me, The Legion is an interesting symbol in the Superman myth. During the Weisinger period, Krypton and Earth in the 30th Century were depicted as being effectively the same. The implication being that the example of Superman turned Earth into Krypton. They are, in a sense, his descendents.

Supergirl was the last Kryptonian woman. You do not have to read much sci-fi to know what is supposed to happen when a dying civilization sends one male and one female to an alien planet. Being purely good,Superman chose to treat the naive newcomer like a kid sister rather than a mail order bride.
Nevertheless, the death of Supergirl seemingly closed off any prospect of Superman having any literal children.

The question of marriage and children seemed to come up in every single issue of Superman during the Silver Age. Confronting Superman on what he believes to be the day of his death by that group is sort of beyond dick-ish.

John, have you ever read any Silver Age LoSH comics? The legion were always dicks.

You know what? The Legion were kind of dicks to bring Supergirl along just because “she insisted on coming.” They could make their little goodbye trip at literally ANYTIME after Supergirl left because, y’know, time travel.

Yeah - I always thought that.

@Random Stranger -- I'm almost certain that the new edition of the DCU stories of AM DOES NOT have the text intro to "whatever...", nor does it have the rainy endpapers of Killing Joke.

@Dan CJ -- "Bad dog" YES. That's definitely one I was thinking. "Is run no more"

Also, I think I was thinking of "For the Man who has Everything" as being pre-DKR/Watchmen. I think you are right that "Whatever..." was either concurrent or after. It doesn't invalidate my point, though, I hope.

@Mark -- the "go this way" I think would indicate that Supes is leading Supergirl away from her memorial. In Alan Moore's Writing for Comics that Avatar put out a few years ago, there's a discussion of his writing "For the Man..." that says that when he wrote THAT script, he used a layout drawing that Dave Gibbons had of the Fortress so he would know where the characters ended up in the battle. So that when the battle ends, he's in front of the statues of Jor-El and Lara. I assume Moore still had the layout drawings so he could indicate where Supes would lead Supergirl away from. Or just made the implication that her memorial was that way.

Man, I'm a nerd. A BA in Art History and posting comments online is about all it's been good for.

And how awkward must it have been for the Legion the next time Superboy visited the 30th Century?

Man, that final splash page is just a brilliant layout. I love how the pterodactil's wing frame Krypto & leads your eye back to Superman. Same with the bent girder. I wonder if Moore's script specified which trophies Superman should be surrounded by. Knowing how notoriously detailed Moore's scripts typically are, I bet it did.

Don't sweat it. She comes back later when some writer decided to screw with continuity. That was of course after there where a couple other attempts to bring back a "Supergirl" to keep the copyright alive.

Oh! Well that's good news. I guess... so I die today?

Hell no. You die fighting some huge monster named "Doomsday" to the death a couple years from now.

Ugh!!

But you come back.

Oh!

But so does Doomsday.

Wait! Does anyone stay dead?

No.

I mean, We3 alone could get you a week.

"Bad dog"

And this was pre-Watchmen and DKR.

Nope - this was either post or during Watchmen and DKR

See, this is what I love about this stuff. YEARS after a book comes out, there is still more to discover. That, my friends, is what they call art.

Of course, the problem with all this is the DC universe has become an even more confusing, inaccessible-to-new-readers place. Who can keep track of character histories, and who's who. I mean, we now have Earth 2 characters -- gone for decades -- back in the picture. How can you explain Power Girl being the Earth 2 Supergirl to some new reader without explaining the entire Crisis and the reasons for it?

It stings but I'll wait. I did go ahead and order the hardcover Killing Joke to complete the set.

T raises an interesting point about Superman cowering in his fortress. While it doesn't make Supes look good, it does, to me, have a purpose. Let's see if that Art History degree was a waste of 4 years or not (look mom, I can post semi-erudite comments on a comics blog!)

Moore said in interviews that I've read that he thought that the stark good vs evil moral code that Superman has (being "good", no killing) is a good place for kids to start, but that it can break down in the real world and more nuance is required (I'm paraphrasing, and can't remember the source, so I may not be conveying his viewpoint totally accurately).

So here's Superman, "playing by the rules" with his villains. They're bad, but it's more robbery, anti-social pranks, bizarre behavior. Nobody ever really gets hurt badly. Then, Bizarro commits genocide, Toyman and Prankster are killing, there's Metallo suicide bombers at the Planet (I think I'm remembering that part right). They're no longer playing by the rules, and Superman doesn't know what to do, as he solves problems with his fists, but if he does that, he'll have to cross the "no killing" line. So he hides, then finally once the big bad is revealed and defeated, he can no longer be the Superman he was, so he leaves that behind.

So, it's maybe not so much cowering in his fortress as simply not knowing what to do from that point. His friends are maybe willing to cross the line, so that's why they're getting slaughtered too. They don't really have it in them to kill either.

As I said in an earlier post, "even the loser villains are killing" is an ok way to end out a grand continuing saga, but that seems to be the status quo any more. Something gets lost if every hero is willing to cross the line.

And remember, there was a reason why every villain went haywire beyond "somebody has to kill people".

So I doubt I changed T's mind, but I hope I didn't sound too stupid.

Moore said in other things I've read something to the effect that Superman provides a good moral compass for children, but it's a very basic one. Superman's moral code against killing and him being "good" and not being "evil" being the very basic dichotomy. Into that basic structure, the villains "played by the rules" -- they were "bad" but not "BAD", if you understand the distinction. Robbery, theft, anti-social behavior, but overall not out to really HURT anybody.

And then comes Bizarro killing people, Prankster and Toyman killing people, there's Metallo suicide bombers at the Planet, right? All this killing goes beyond what happened before, and Supes can't deal with it, so he shuts himself away because he can't make the decision to kill. His friends are willing to cross the line if necessary (if I remember wrong, let me know). I believe the big bad at the end says something about changing the rules of the game. Also, since he tends to solve problems with his fists, he can't do anything else physically without crossing his moral line.

And this was pre-Watchmen and DKR.

So Moore knew, as I said in an earlier post, that you can pull out all these stops at the END of a series, but I think now we're seeing writers at the big 2 trying to outdo Moore, Miller, and others in SERIALIZED stories. Eventually people are turned off with no moral compass at the base of superhero stories.

So I doubt I changed T's mind, but I did want to offer up my take on it.

Super-whisper. He's sending individual air molecules to jiggle Brainy's hammer and anvil.

Brian, it's an extreme change of pace, but I suggest the pope's speech transcribed at the end of Judenhass for tear-jerker week. I've never cared much about the pope, but boy did it ever hit me hard. I cried not for the suffering of millions, but for the hope engendered of creating a more just world. It really touched me, and I'd love to see you highlight the story.

If anyone has been avoiding Judenhass due to Dave Sim's deplorable statements about women, I'd urge you to reconsider and pick up this great book.

Also, to John, I never noticed that before about the invisible Kid, either! That's amazingly cool.

Brainy is very subtly telling Superman how to defeat his final, greatest enemy.

That's very Brainy: cheating against history.