Superman '78: The Metal Curtain is a 2023 DC Comics six-issue mini-series. It is the sequel to Superman '78, set an Alternate Continuity connected to Superman: The Movie. It is written by Robert Venditti (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps) and drawn by Gavin Guidry
On the day that Krypton exploded, something else followed young Kal-El to Earth — a chunk of Kryptonite, crash-landing in the Soviet Union. Flash forward to the present day and as Lois tries to investigate mysterious goings on involving the US Military, the Soviet Union prepares a secret project: Metallo, a suit of Powered Armor powered by that very Kryptonite chunk. As Superman continues to grow closer to Lois Lane, he now must deal with this Russian threat that seeks to destroy what they believe to be the symbol of American power.
Tropes Featured in this Series:
- Anti-Villain: Corben is a proud patriot of Communist Russia and is only targeting Superman under the belief that his power aligned with the Capitalist West is an existential threat to his homeland. He even takes out his own commanding officer when he sees he's willing to sacrifice their own people for propaganda purposes. Played with in later issues, as it's hinted that his fanatical devotion to Communism masks at least some narcissistic blood lust in his character as well; he overidentifies himself as "the People", and wants to be the one to kill Superman himself...
- The Cameo: In issue #2, a US pilot crash lands in the Arctic and is instrumental in rescuing Superman after his first fight with Metallo goes bad. In issue #3, he's shown holding his pilot helmet with the callsign "Highball", revealing him to be the Donnerverse version of Hal Jordan.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: As with Brainiac in Superman '78 resembling Yul Brynner, Hal Jordan resembles Kurt Russell. General Sam Lane, meanwhile, resembles Lee Marvin.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Superman's first fight with Metallo goes very south and is only saved thanks to Hal's intervention.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: General Sam Lane meets Superman for the first time. He's clearly unimpressed.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Luthor is very annoyed that his Metallo suit has made its way into the hands of the Soviet Union. He is, after all, a capitalist.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Corbin and his Soviet handlers prepare for a military battle when Superman arrives in Moscow, confident that they can overpower him and utterly annihilate him in battle, and at the very least will make propaganda hay out of all the soldiers Superman will kill in battle — not stopping to consider for a moment that Superman might genuinely not want to fight or kill anyone, but just to talk.
- Green Rocks: Kryptonite, of course. it's the only thing powerful enough to power the armor that Lex designed to combat Superman, it happening to be his weakness a serendipitous coincidence. Exposure to its energies is also implied to be giving Corben super strength, as he punches a hole in concrete without harming himself.
- Heel Realisation: Ultimately Metallo realises that his leaders are wrong about Superman when he sees that Superman has done nothing but protect bystanders during their fight where he was the one who actually endangered lives.
- Help Mistaken for Attack: When Superman arrives in Moscow in #5 hoping to resolve the situation peacefully, he is nothing but friendly and polite to the citizens he encounters, as always — but because they've been subjected to Soviet propaganda depicting him as a weapon of the capitalist West, they react in fear and run away from him. Made explicit when he goes to comfort a crying, lost girl — and someone smashes a branch over his head to 'protect' her.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: With a generous helping of Perspective Flip when Superman arrives in Moscow. He is stunned when the citizens he encounters flee in terror from him despite his attitude to them being nothing but polite and friendly, and is obviously heartbroken when he realises that this is because Soviet propaganda has demonised him as a threat and a weapon of the West. This is quickly rectified when he refuses to fight Corben and instead acts to protect innocent bystanders endangered by his zealous attacks on Superman.
- Hypocrite:
- Corbin. In #5, when Superman arrives in Moscow hoping to talk to Metallo and the Soviets peacefully, Corbin attacks him and accuses him of being "the invader, who comes to my country uninvited [and] terrorises the citizens", leaving Corbin and the Soviets no choice but to fight him. This is practically word for word what Corbin himself did in the previous issue, only unlike Superman (who has actually not attacked anyone and has only tried to be polite and reasonable), Corbin provoked a battle in front of the White House with reckless lack of concern for the citizens. This clearly illustrates how, for all his posturing, he's ultimately just a propaganda-brainwashed fanatic.
- The main Soviet characters in general; while they have a lot of talk about how Superman and the United States are posing an actively-hostile threat to the Soviet Union and are seeking to impose their values and way of life on them, they are the ones who start every fight in the story and are clearly angling to impose the values of Communism over America.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The Reveal from '78 that Jor-El and Lara survived Krypton's explosion by being trapped on Kandor is casually brought up in Issue #2.
- Like Father, Like Son: Turns out that Jor-El was just as awkward as Superman is when he introduced Lara to his own parents.Jor-El: I'd rather he avoided inheriting that trait.
- Powered Armor: Unlike the mainstream Metallo, this Metallo is a massive suit of powered armor, powered by Kryptonite.
- Race Lift: The mainstream John Corbin was a Caucasian American. His counterpart Nikolaev is a Russian.
- The Reveal: In issue #3, General Lane realizes the Metallo armor being active means they somehow got help. The end of the issue reveals from who: Lex Luthor, who isn't happy that it seems that they just ignored his contributions.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Despite having Superman at death's door, Nikolaev is forced to retreat. When questioned why he didn't just kill him then and there, his commanding officer, Morosov, tells him that no one would believe him and they have to show the world that he can be beaten. This really pisses off Nikolaev.
