SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Superman #44, by Patrick Gleason, Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Wil Quintana and Rob Leigh, on sale now.


It’s a story we’ve seen time and time again; in times of crisis, those who’re at odds with one another put their differences aside, uniting to face whatever threat awaits them and subsequently strengthening their bond by doing so. And while that’s all well and good, it’s not exactly the way things tend to go on Htrae – just ask the Bizarro family.

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As Superman #44 kicks off, we find the Man of Steel locked in a heated battle in space with his Bizarroverse doppelganger. Meanwhile, back on Htrae, Jon, Kathy and Nobody are working desperately with Boyzarro and Robzarro to stop the planet from collapsing – a disaster directly tied to Bizarro’s own inner turmoil.

Thankfully, Superman is able to get through to Bizarro and convince him that, as fathers, they’re not so different after all, and that their primary goal should be protecting their respective families. However, in true Bizarro fashion, this yields disastrous results.

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Upon returning to Htrae, Bizarro is met with a blast to the chest, courtesy of his wife Loiz, who proclaims that she’s leaving both him and Boyzarro. As the planet continues to implode around them, the pair’s domestic dispute turns violent, and the clash culminates with Bizarro landing a devastating punch on Loiz before attempting to commandeer her escape ship. The true victim, though, appears to be Boyzarro, who begs his father not to abandon him in his time of need.

“My world am not your world now,” Bizarro tells his distraught son as he climbs into the ship. “Me an not free.” Then, despite acknowledging that there’s room for one more passenger in the ship, Bizarro closes the hatch, giving Boyzarro the thumbs-down and saying goodbye (or rather, hello).

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As the ship takes off, Boyzarro looks on with tears in his eyes while his homeworld approaches the brink of destruction. However, while he’s surrounded by flames, he hears a voice reach out to him, only to discover Superman, Jon, Kathy, Nobody and Robzarro extending an open arm into the portal back to Earth. Boyzarro takes their hands, and they pull him to safety just as Htrae is obliterated in the final moments of the issue.

What does all this mean for the newly introduced Bizarro family, though? Unless she was also able to escape off-panel, it would seem as though Loiz went down with the ship that was Htrae. Meanwhile, we’ve got two Bizarros in the DC Universe – one who’s MIA and another who’s active in the pages of Red Hood and the Outlaws – and to top it all off, we now have the displaced Boyzarro and Robzarro headed back to Earth. With just a few more issues left in their Superman run, Tomasi and Gleason certainly have a lot of questions to answer before “Bizarroverse” comes to a close.

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