Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: dan mora, Joshua Williamson, Manchester Black, meta, superboy prime

The Typo That Made A Superman #38 Out Of Superboy-Prime (Spoilers)

The Typo That Made A Superman #38 Out Of Superboy-Prime (Spoilers) ... and maybe there is more than meets the eye...

Today sees the publication of Superman #38 by Joshua Williamson and Dan Mora, and it may be the most meta yet. And may also catch a few folk out along the journey…

Yeah, let's check that, shall we? What did the solicitation for this issue say?

• SUPERMAN #38
  (W) JOSHUA WILLIAMSON (A) DAN MORA
  Superboy-Prime uncovers a secret coven of witches in Metropolis led by the hellish Witchfire. Prime wants to prove he can be the better Superman so badly that he takes on one of his vulnerabilities…magic! But the problem is, now Prime finds himself drawn to Witchfire's deadly charms in more ways than one…all while one of Superman's deadliest enemies spies on the wannabe Man of Steel and waits for his moment to strike!

Coven, check. Witchfire, check, though Rebecca is not particularly hellish…

…. she's just drawn that way.

And she seems to have a little meta-inkling herself…

Reality has indeed been rewritten; she has been killed and brought back by different reboots. But as to Superboy Prime's motivation? The solicitation is indeed wrong. He isn't trying to be a better Superman and picking a fight with magic to prove it.

So what is Superboy Prime's motivation if not to show how much better of a Superman he is? Turns out it's a bit more classic, if self-aware…

It's a redemption arc…. hang on, did they misspell "accident" as "accidnet"?? I rather think they did. Time to go online and complain, look, it's even greyed out as if the spellchecker picked it up, but DC Comics editorial didn't. Honestly, modern comic book editors are so unprofessional. To X, Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok!

I mean, they still have time for meta-captions, just not for spellchecks. Maybe I should work at DC Comics, I can typo with the best of them. But is there another motivation for this specific mission?

He just fancies Rebecca. And drawn by Dan Mora, who can blame him? And hey, he's drawn by Dan Mora, too, and it's working on Rebecca as well. That's a kind of magic, right? No wonder he got angry with the comic book customers about Peter Parker and Mary Jane no longer being married. More comic book meta here… the other Clark Kent and Lois Lane will never split. Not now. But as the solicitation said, there is someone else gunning for him, and even more meta than usual…

Ripped from the very page. So does that mean that every copy of Superman #38 is now no longer mint? Will DC Comics have to send a note to CGC so they can reflect this? Again? And then it goes into full-blown Bugs Bunny territory. And you know that typo from before?

Maybe it wasn't an accidnet after all. Maybe it was foreshadowing. We knew he was coming. We knew he was a bit meta himself. Possibly not this much. Man, I hope they make an Artist's Edition of this issue, it would look even weirder than usual…

Manchester Black, DC editorials' greatest nightmare, and planter of typos. He always spells everything the British way as well, and you can ask Bleeding Cool editor Kaitlyn Booth how she feels about that. Really colours her opinion of me, I can tell you. You are meant to love your neighbour, I always thought it added flavour to my labour, maybe a little humour, but when she analyses what I write, I feel paralysed, like some traveller unable to manoeuvre, positively paediatric. In my defence, I never want to cause offence, and any pretence at artistic licence is just another catalogue of sins. I really need to get with the programme, right? And also any future or past typos, can now be ascribed to Manchester Black in this very issue, trying to aim for his target… Superman #38 by Joshua Williamson and Dan Mora is published by DC Comics today. The solicitation ran up top.

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