Not All Stories End With Death
- Thao is so terrified of and traumatized by Mongul, she's willing at first to turn on her rescuers just to appease him
- The fate of the Authority after their defeat at Mongul's hands is incredibly distressing. One of their number is dead and the rest have a bleak existence to look forward to in the short term as slaves.
- Tracy Corben, the sister of Metallo, is reduced to tears upon seeing her brother's current state. A lifetime of fights with Superman have reduced Metallo to a barely functioning heap of scrap, and Metallo is not handling his current state well given Stryker's Island ripped out his voice box to keep him from screaming all the time.
- Action Comics #1050 goes extra cruel with Luthor's pettiness:
- After Project Blackout is activated, Perry White comes by to visit the Kents and is confused as to why Jay is there. But when Clark and Jon shows up, the cruelty of the Project comes into play as Perry is nearly killed by an aneurism and heart attack caused by the Project's brainwashing and the evidence presented to him caused him to break down.
- When Superman learns Luthor murdered Manchester Black for Project Blackout and suggests that Black didn't really care for aiding Superman, Supes lashes out:
Superman: MURDERER! I ASKED FOR HIS HELP! THAT'S WHY HE WENT TO WARWORLD! I asked Manchester Black, a criminal, to risk his life for people he never even met! AND EVEN WHEN THE JUSTICE LEAGUE SAID NO, HE SAID YES! And you KILLED HIM! - Metallo's backstory is heartbreaking. His father used him to hide evidence of crimes, but that didn't stop him from beating Corben. Once his father started beating Tracy however, Corben couldn't stand it and shot his father with the same gun he had been ordered to dispose of. After that he was thrown into a school system that cultivated his worst traits, and put him to use as a killer, ultimately causing him to become Metallo.
