Just Stay at Home

So. I think I've figured out what the hell is going on in the Superman books right now.

Rather, I figured it out quite a while ago and now I'm going to share it with you in case anybody out there is still confused.

Here's the deal: as we all know General Lane (wasn't he of considerably lower rank before) faked his death. He did this to get involved with the ridiculously named "Project 7734." Now maybe he started it and maybe he didn't. That doesn't matter.

What does matter is that somebody in the United States government (and specifically the military) managed to gain access to the Multiverse. In the process they undoubtedly came upon the drifting, comatose Captain Atom in the Bleed which separates the universes (as you may recall, we last saw Captain Atom a Monarch during Countdown).

Project 7734 accessed multiple worlds, mostly magical in nature. Remember the satellite "doors" that blasted Superman and Krypto during Robinson's initial Atlas arc? Those were obviously gateways to various magical worlds. Why else would they be called doors?

Speaking of Atlas, Lane and the rest got him from one of the other Multiversal worlds. He's working with them now for his own purposes, possibly to get home or find a new world to conquer.

Where do the mysterious tattoo-faced sorceress and the thuggish green monsters come in? Simple: Project 7734 eventually came upon a world where the established government and military were having troubles with uprisings. Problem was, their world was magic-based and they needed something with raw power. Convenient, considering in our world General Lane and Project 7734 were up against raw power (Kryptonians) and needed some magic to fight them.

And so, as nations have many times done a swap was agreed to. Mirabi (the above mentioned sorceress and apparently a princess of her world) was loaned out to the U. S. Military to deal with the Kryptonians. And Project 7734 was more than happy to loan a brainwashed Captain Atom (how much more powerful can you get?) to Mirabi's people.

That, of course, leads up to where we are now. We've got dangerous military organizations on both sides of the Bleed. On our side, Superman is going to have to clean things up. And it looks like Captain Atom is going to take point (having divested himself of mental control) on the other side.

Should be fun all around.