This article contains SPOILERS for Superman: Warworld Apocalypse #1
The conclusion to "Warworld Saga" confirms that Superman's greatest power has never been his strength or heat vision. Superman's most potent ability has always been his belief in other people, how he uplifts and inspires them. "Warworld Saga" could have been an easy Superman tale about a powerful hero descending and doing the work himself. Instead, Superman gave the oppressed people of Warworld the tools they needed to save themselves.
In the pages of Action Comics, Superman has recently discovered the existence of a Kryptonian-descended people called the Phaelosians. The Phaelosians, however, had their world razed by Mongul, the tyrant of Warworld, who then enslaved them for generations. Superman and a team of outcast heroes and anti-heroes called the Authority left the comforts of Earth to free the Phaelosians and the other oppressed inhabitants of Warworld from Mongul's rule. Superman and the Authority worked to inspire revolution not through violence and killing, but through collaboration and integrity, encouraging the Phaelosians—including a pair of Phaelosian children—to see their enslavement for what it is, and so to dream of a better world.
Superman's "Warworld Saga" comes to its chaotic climax in Superman: Warworld Apocalypse #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Will Conrad, Brandon Peterson, Miguel Mendonca, Max Raynor, Lee Loughridge, and Dave Sharpe. The issue opens with a crowd of revolutionaries charging into battle against Mongul's forces, wearing the famous S-shield and crying "For Superman!" Elsewhere, Superman confronts Mongul, who has taken two Phaelosian children hostage. Mongul kills the young boy when he tries to save his sister—his last words are Superman's famous catchphrase, his rallying cry: "truth and justice." Superman ends up saving the child from death, gifting him Olgrun's Fire, which could have given the bearer strength beyond imagination. But Superman believes only the greatest hero deserves the fire. As he says when he plunges the fire into the child, saving his life: "It belongs to the best and bravest of us. And that's neither you...nor me."
So much of this finale Superman's greatest acts in "Warworld Saga" are acts of kindness, grace, and integrity in the service of others—the kinds of acts that inspire other forces to rise up against oppression on their own , including and especially these Phaelosian children.
While it's always fun to debate Superman's best physical power, his ability to inspire others has always been and will always be his greatest strength. Superman is a symbol of "truth and justice" the world over, and the same is true inside the fictional universe of DC Comics. The Warworld revolution succeeded not because of Superman's great strength, but instead because he gave others the hope they needed to rise up and save themselves.
Check out Superman: Warworld Apocalypse #1, available now from DC Comics!
