Reign of the Supermen #461: Superman, Last Man on Earth

Source: Action Comics #300 (1963)
Type: The real deal (since retconned), with a little bit of Red K transformation thrown in

You know, even if I know what to expect generally from Silver Age Superman stories, this one still surprised me. Published in an anniversary issue, and referenced in the Justice League animated series' two-part episode "Hereafter", I thought this was gonna be a bona fide classic. As it turns out, it's not even issue-length. Superman has to share the page count with Comet the Super-Horse.

The premise is clever though. The Superman Revenge Squad lures Superman into following them through time, much farther than he's ever gone before, to 1,000,000 A.D. where Earth's sun has turned red. And you know what that means.

And that's their revenge, they leave him there, to die, at the center of a lifeless moon, buried ali--No, sorry, that's The Wrath of Khan. They leave him on a dry, abandoned Earth, with no powers. Yeah, he'll die eventually, but wouldn't it be smarter to drop down to the planet and shoot his vulnerable ass? So Superman starts walking towards Metropolis, which still exists as ruins 1M years hence. But it's empty. Maybe the Hall of Telepathic History can help him.

You know, it's a good thing no one's left on Earth to see him wear that helmet. Silver linings. As the story goes, the sun turned red with age, and the oceans dried up completely, making humanity dependent on high-price factory-made water. The situation became untenable, so we built massive spaceships and left to colonize other worlds. In a million years! So we had a good run. Now, Superman really is the last man on Earth, so how's he gonna get out of this one? Magic?!

Wait, does that WORK? Let me check. DIOKSIS! Nope, still in the 3rd dimension. (But if you know of a story where Superman sends himself to Mxyzptlk's dimension this way, let me know.) In any case, that's not the real Mxy, he's just an android. Why?

That's right. Because in Silver Age stories, people are OBSESSED with Superman, and in the future, they'll have built his entire supporting cast as robots to walk in Superman Commemoration Parades. You'd think after 800,000+ years, there might have been new heroes to worship. And these poor androids are left behind to watch humanity take off to greener pastures. Now, Superman teams up with Perry White-bot (for company) on a quest to find the Fortress of Solitude/cigars. On the way, he's warned off dangerous mutations/evolutions, like...

STAY BACK! Balloon Beasts inflate and float away from danger! Yeah, not exactly alpha predators. And when the duo reaches Smallville (because it's apparently just north of Metropolis, update your maps), they're attacked by a Color Cat, a multicolored tiger that attacks anything with vivid colors, like Superman's outfit.

Also note the further fetishizing of Superman's supporting cast. A million years hence! I bet most people can't name all the apostles! And as the trek continues through North America, there are land-whales, giant eagles that shoot lightning bolts from their eyes, and invisible land octopi. A million years is a long time, sure, and in comics, mutation occurs more readily, but it's kind of sad that humanity was the only species on Earth NOT to evolve during that time. They eventually reach the ocean, but I can't tell you if it's the Atlantic or the Arctic. Metropolis was a sea port, but they walked to Smallville first, and they've walked a while, but Superman's beard has only grown to about Joel McHale length. And if it is the Arctic, what's Atlantis doing there?

Of course, I'm not accounting for the super-accelerated continental drift that no doubt accompanies the fauna's enhanced evolutionary rate. Sadly, no Lori Lemaris Superman Fetish exhibition in Atlantis, so let's move right along to the Fortress of Solitude (by hitching a ride on a Balloon Beast, of course). Using threads from his super-suit, Superman climbs up the rock face and crawls through the keyhole, his security systems have all broken down over time. He's hoping to get help from the bottle city of Kandor, but it's been grown and freed since he last saw it. However, there are a couple things that COULD help:

Well, if you guessed that Superman had in his possession a piece of Red K that once shrunk Krypto down to size, and that he could use it to climb aboard the left-over Kandorian rocket and fly it through the time-stream back to 1963, you were RIGHT!

Hopefully, you didn't miss the crucial step of shaving before Superman's powers came back, or he'd be stuck with a 5 o'clock shadow for the rest of his natural life. The end.

In Justice League's "Hereafter", Toy-Man joins the Superman Revenge Squad and (rather atypically) creates an explosion that throws Superman 30,000 years into the future, which is far enough to get a red sun. The fauna isn't as crazy, but he does have a rather violent fight with some nasty wolves. And Superman ISN'T the only man on Earth. He shares the place with Vandal Savage. And while back in time, everyone thinks him dead, he manages to make a return with the help of Savage's technology. The end.