Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1 Review
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artists: Eddy Barrows & Yasmine Putri
Colorist: Adriano Lucas & Yasmine Putri
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Cover Artist: Eddy Barrows & Alejandro Sánchez
Variant Cover Artists: Mark Spears; Ariel Olivetti; Mario Foccillo & Pressy; Alex Eckman-Lawn
Editors: Jillian Grant & Paul Kaminski
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $5.99 US/Variant $6.99 US (Card Stock)
Release Date: July 29, 2026
Superman's friends miss him. His Justice League teammates scour the timestream for him. Yet no one misses Clark Kent as much as Lois Lane. She misses her husband, co-worker, and confidant.
As the dangers to Earth multiply, so do the threats to her family. Lois Lane is a hardworking reporter. She oversees a global news outlet. But how does Clark Kent's absence affect his wife? And when Clark returns, how will wielding divine powers and his journey through time have altered him? Let's leap into Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1 and see what happens!
The Return of Superman: Story
While apart, Lois dreams they are together. Arising from their bed, she finds him on the couch, pouring his thoughts onto his laptop. Like her, Clark expresses who he is through his writing. Yet despite their dedication to spending their lives together, Clark envisions a different future than Lois.
Unlike his adversary Lex Luthor, or even his friend Batman, Superman never sought to transform his reality. Forging a perfect future where his Kryptonian family still lives is anathema to him. Instead, Superman seeks to heal the damage Darkseid had wreaked on reality. After correcting the damage to the past and present, Superman sensed further damage in the future. So, he sets off to correct those wounds.
In Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1, Clark has an investment in the future. After Time Trapper's revelation, he should protect the timestream to safeguard himself. Instead, Superman risks imprisonment and amnesia. Like people in his present, even his adversaries in the future deserve a second chance.
The Return of Superman: Art
When Lois Lane rises from bed, she finds Clark sitting on the couch. As they talk, a robed figure surrounded by chains and fire burns in Clark’s mind. Eddy Barrows replays Superman's memories of the Omega tournament across the top of a double-page spread, while Superman’s efforts to repair reality line the bottom. More glimpses from his odyssey spill around him as he flies onward. Superman discovers a vessel navigating the timestream that differs greatly from Booster Gold's. Yet as Superman remembers all he has lost, lightning crackles through the air, emanating from a giant white silhouette.
As Adriano Lucas lavishes luminous colors on Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1, Lois Lane rises from a dark bedroom bathed in indigo and violet. She finds Clark in a lighter room surrounded by shades of orange, violet, and red. But as he travels through time, yellow and orange dominate Superman's appearance. The blue of his costume fades as the red S symbol on his chest glows yellow and orange. His cape turns yellow, as does the headdress denoting the power he wields. Yet as Superman forms a streak of yellow and orange across a sea of red, blue, and yellow, he encounters a region surrounded by an entire spectrum of colors, with white at its center.
Legion Found: Story
As Superman navigated the future, he encountered some moments in time that were fixed, while others were more malleable. Yet when he discovered people who had turned their backs on villainy, Superman realized that he could break down the barriers to protect them and give others a similar chance to turn their lives around. But after he uses his power to help them and vanishes into the timestream, Superman creates an absence.
Everyone realizes that Darkseid is returning. In Legion Found, heroes and villains scramble to gain a foothold before the war for reality resumes. Joshua Williamson’s story evokes how Lois Lane sought to emulate her husband during her brief tenure as Superwoman, and why she prefers to report the news rather than make it.
Legion Found: Art
Two children in a playpen bring a smile to a man’s face. As he picks them up and carries them outside, his wife lingers in the doorway. Hovering among the broken buildings and ruined towers, someone watches the happy family who live in the shack surrounded by sandbags. Then a sudden arrival, trailing yellow and orange, casts smoke into the air, creating more rubble for the survivors to clear away.
As Yasmine Putri adorns her artwork with vibrant colors in Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1, red-and-brown roofs cover gray shacks. The blue, red, and yellow visitor watches as lightly colored people and colorful bubbles surround the family. At first sight, the object at the crash site seems little different from the dark gray ruins of the nearby city. Yet when silver appears, green represents the opposite of willpower.
Lettering
Ariana Maher fills white dialogue balloons with black uppercase letters. Clark's white uppercase thoughts fill blue boxes, while in his transformed state, Clark's blue thoughts fill white boxes. Other characters' offscreen dialogue appears in colored boxes. Color-coded balloon borders further identify speakers. As sound effects accompany the dangers threatening the timestream, Superman's blue dialogue swells as he seeks to correct the imbalance. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.
Final Thoughts
Everyone wishes they had the power to improve the world around them. But when Superman's already formidable powers get upgraded, he risks his life to preserve everyone's ability to make their own choices. Still, villains lurk everywhere, evoking Batman's unhappiness over Superman's decision to divest himself of godhood in Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1. As Joshua Williamson's stories look back at Action Comics #1100, they also pave the way toward the Kingdom of Zod crossover and the Legion of Super-Heroes series.
Rating 9.8/10
To look inside, see my preview of Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1.
For what happened last time, see my review of Action Comics #1100: Mission Failure.
For what happened after that, see my review of Action Comics #1100: Superman Meets Superboy.
For how Superman obtained divine powers, see my review of DC K.O. #5.
For how Lois helped her husband during DC K.O., see my review of Superman #35.
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