WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Future State: Superman: Worlds of War #2 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Mikel Janin, Jordie Bellaire, and Dave Sharpe, on sale now.
Future State: Superman: Worlds of War #2 continues to examine how the Earth is coping with the Man of Steel's absence. Without the original Man of Steek, the world is struggling without its beacon of justice, and the Earth's people don't know he's actually a prisoner of DC's other deadly cosmic god.
While Darkseid and Superman had one of Future State's final brutal battles, the New God wasn't the first cosmic tyrant to give Superman trouble. In this issue, Mongul holds the Kryptonian in chains on Warworld. While Superman is eager to escape, he's completely broken thanks to Mongul's sadistic and smart planning.
Superman's in Mongul's gladiator pit, fighting off other aliens while trying to protect warriors there against their will in a Planet Hulk with the powerhouse weakened by what seems to be Mongul's use of a red sun. And it doesn't take long to realize Kal-El's hurting not just physically, but mentally too.
Superman's sticking to his code, though, refusing to kill anyone, knowing that stands as one of his few moral victories against Mongul. However, the warlord wants Superman to murder and please his crowd, and he's even more infuriated when he sees Superman breaking the warriors' chains in an attempt to free them in the heat of battle. While they can't get out the arena, it's a subtle message of rebellion, planting seeds to revolt.
This leads to heavy collateral damage as Mongul kills some of the soldiers and participants to make Kal suffer and send a message of his own. There's no win in this situation and ultimately, Mongul wants to reprogram the Kryptonian by breaking his mind forever.
Every time Superman gets severely injured, Mongul uses his science chambers to revive Superman, resetting the vicious cycle for another fight day. It's all part of the long-term scheme where he's convinced he'll get Kal to forsake his heritage, as well as his family on Earth, and go there as his herald to raze the planet.
Mongul put some of DC's youngest heroes through a similar situation in the Young Justice cartoon, with the heroes wanting to liberate the enslaved people there and were forced to watch innocents die. Now, Superman's no-kill policy has him facing similar consequences in this case, but the Man of Steel still harbors hope he can stop the tyrant and break the cycle. But for the moment, this seems like a decisive victory on the part of Mongul.