History Headscratchers / WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow

* A lot of potential headscratchers (like how Toyman and Prankster knew that Pete Ross knew Superman was Clark Kent) are going to be answered by the fact that Mr. Mxyxsptlk was secretly munipulating events until the end.

* A lot of potential headscratchers (like how Toyman and Trickster knew that Pete Ross knew Superman was Clark Kent) are going to be answered by the fact that Mr. Mxyxsptlk was secretly munipulating events until the end.

** Considering that it becomes almost immediately apparent to Superman that that all of his enemies are teaming up to curb-stomp him in a final battle royale, it's probably less that he doesn't plan on doing so and more that he simply both doesn't have the time and sees no reason in immediately doing so if he might be killed for real within a matter of days. Under different circumstances, he could well have done so or already ''had'' done so (at least provisionally) -- after all, Jordan Elliot had to come from ''somewhere''.

** Considering that it becomes almost immediately apparent that all of Superman's enemies are teaming up to curb-stomp him in a final battle royale, it's probably less that he doesn't plan on doing so and more that he simply both doesn't have the time and sees no reason in doing so if he might be killed for real within a matter of days. Under different circumstances, he could well have done so or already ''had'' done so (at least provisionally) -- after all, Jordan Elliot had to come from ''somewhere''.

* What killed Supergirl in this timeline if Crisis never happened? From a meta standpoint, it might've been cruel to kill her again, but frustrating to her fans to show her finally replacing her cousin as earth's guardian when they doubted they would see her again, but the rest of the story never pulls punches, and has Superwoman survive, despite also being rectonned out of existence by Crisis.
** The same thing. For some number of months after the end of "Crisis" (but before the actual "Man of Steel" Byrne reboot miniseries), the pre-Crisis continuity continued to exist for Superman, despite his now living on a now-unified, single Earth. (The reason why Captain Marvel appeared with the other heroes at the end of "Man of Tomorrow?".) Thus, Supergirl was dead due to the events of "Crisis"; Superman still recalls that, plus his pre-Crisis career/life events, as did the general public. Once "Man of Steel" came out, the post-Crisis continuity became firmly established for Superman.

* What killed Supergirl in this timeline if Crisis never happened? From a meta standpoint, it might've been cruel to kill her again, but frustrating to her fans to show her finally replacing her cousin as earth's guardian when they doubted they would see her again, but the rest of the story never pulls punches, and has Superwoman survive, despite also being rectonned out of existence by Crisis.

* What killed Supergirl in this timeline if Crisis never happened? From a meta standpoint, it might've been a little ackward to talk about how much Kara's grown if readers doubt they'll ever see her again, but if SuperWoman is allowed to survive the story, wouldn't it be even more of a BittersweetEnding to show Clark finally letting her grow up and replace him, like she was always meant to?

** In addition, you want a variety of powers, because you can see how easily Lana's powers were removed. Jimmy as Elastic Lad did disable the device.

** Nostalgia (both on the author and on the character's part), perhaps. Or perhaps because the Elastic Lad powerset was more familiar to Jimmy than the Kryptonian superpowers, thus requiring less of an adjustment period. That's about all I can think of, off the top of my head.