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.
