SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for "Superman" #18 by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, on sale now.
Clark Kent – that is, the seemingly non-Kryptonian doppelganger of Clark that turned up recently – might not be Superman, but he's crossed the line over to super-creepy in "Superman" #18, part one of Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's "Superman Reborn" arc.
After Lois Lane turned away not-Clark's inappropriate and unexpected advances in last week's "Action Comics" #974, a rush of unrevealed memories at the end of that issue led him to stalk the residence of the "Smith" family, aka the real Clark, Lois and Jon. His arrival kicks off some surprising and drastic changes for Mr. and Mrs. Smith and son, which seems to have a likely connection to the still-unclear machinations of the mysterious Mr. Oz.
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Pseudo-Clark Shows Up, And Everything Else Vanishes - Almost
Along with Jon, Lois and Clark celebrate their wedding anniversary on what's intended to be a quiet evening at their rural Hamilton County home, at least until Clark's double shows up just long enough to leave a mysterious package at the front door. When opened, that package turns out to be a photo album labeled "The Kents," filled with pictures going back as far Clark's 19th-Century ancestors up to his recent life, at least up until the point where this pre-"Flashpoint" incarnation of Clark and Lois journeyed from their world to the one of DC Comics "Rebirth." Curiously, Jon observes that the book contains no photos of him. While a likely explanation of that could be that the pictures predate Jon's time, the mention of such an otherwise unremarkable context hints at a more continuity-shaking possibility: that Jon never existed in that reality, just as he never did on New Earth, at least up until the time of "Flashpoint."
With counterfeit-Clark apparently disappearing even beyond the sight of the real Clark's super-vision, an even stranger occurrence unfolds as the family peruses the album: what appears to start as a fire in their kitchen turns out to be something even more destructive. The white flames selectively spread out to a point where they consume not only the entire Smith homestead, but Jon as well. The flames don't consume like those of a typical fire – instead, anything they touch seems to simply get wiped from existence, as the family's home vanishes, along with Jon, despite Superman's attempts to save him. Notably, although the physical album remains, the images on the photos are now blank, save for one picture showing the Metropolis skyline. Clark deduces that his troublesome doppelgänger is responsible, and the issue closes with him resolving to confront him about Jon's disappearance.
Fortunately, Clark and Lois remain, and so presumably does Krypto, who isn't expressly shown to have disappeared, but who also isn't subsequently seen again as his fate goes unmentioned. Presuming Krypto remains, the pattern of the white fire's selective nature aligns with anything that came into existence past the time of any depictions contained within the contents of this newly-bestowed photo album. Lois and Clark's new family home, along with their young son, were elements not present in their world prior to the DC Universe migrating over to the New 52 Earth. There's a kind of cosmic-comeuppance feel here, as something, or someone, seems focused on ensuring that anything that didn't originally exist on that world shouldn't exist in this one, either.
The white inferno and its clean, disintegrative property also evokes the behavior of the Anti-Monitor's antimatter cloud, first seen in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" eating its way through the multiverse. A connection has yet to be established, as does any possible relation to the similar looking energy seen on the first page, leading into the introductory Mr. Oz sequence.
Is "The Kents" Officially Part Of The Superman Canon?
The family name affixed to the cover of this collection of photos recalls the name of the identically-titled twelve-issue maxi-series by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman and Tom Mandrake from nearly twenty years ago. "The Kents" chronicled the Civil War-era history of brothers Jeb and Nathaniel Kent – with the latter directly mentioned in this issue – and the early days of the Kent family farm in Smallville. Whether this history of the Kent family had ever been firmly established as continuity is debatable – its 19th Century setting largely made it a moot point – but its mention here and the not-so-subtly placed parallels to that series strongly hint that it's once again a definitive early chapter in Clark's adoptive family's history.
Of course, it's still a seemingly and relatively moot point, but its potential acknowledgment as a firm part of Superman's history – that is, the history of a Superman from another world – plays into the notion that this particular history shouldn't exist in this continuity, as witnessed by the wiping of nearly every photograph in the Kent family album. The sole remaining photo – at least the only one shown – of the city of Metropolis would logically remain immune from any kind of continuity-wiping event, as the city exists in both worlds. If "The Kents" is canon, though, it's canon from a reality that no longer exists, and whether it remains so is one of many questions that remain to be addressed as the exploration of the new "Rebirth" continuity unfolds.
The presence of Mr. Oz early in the issue doesn't appear to have any direct impact on the subsequent events with Jon, Lois, Clark and un-Clark, although there's no certainty of this and his involvement likely will have some impact on a big-picture level. More clues might be forthcoming as early as next week, however, when "Superman Reborn" continues in "Action Comics" #975, on sale March 8.