Black Mercy - Plot

Plot

Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman visit the Fortress of Solitude with gifts on Superman's birthday, only to find him in a vegetative state, a large alien plant stuck to his chest, its tendrils wrapped around his body. As they analyze the situation, the alien Mongul steps into the scene, revealing the name of the plant (the "Black Mercy") and how it has put Superman into a coma, feeding him an extremely realistic and plausible dream based on his "heart's desire". As he explains, Mongul touches the Mercy while wearing a pair of protective, oversized gauntlets. Interspersed with the scenes in the Fortress are pages of Superman's dream of living a normal life on his long-destroyed home planet of Krypton, happily married with two children.

While Wonder Woman battles Mongul, whose power and strength exceed hers, Batman and Robin try to free Superman. Meantime, Superman's fantasy takes a dark turn. His father Jor-El's prediction of Krypton's doom was unfulfilled in the fantasy, leading to Jor-El being discredited and embittered. Superman's mother Lara has died from the "Eating Sickness," which has further isolated Jor-El from his son and the rest of his family. Even the death of his brother Zor-El has not reconciled him to his sister-in-law Alura and niece Kara Zor-El.

The Kryptonian society within the dream is undergoing polarization and political upheaval. Jor-El has become chairman of an extremist reactionary movement called the "Sword of Rao" which calls for a return to Krypton's "noble and unspoiled" past. The Phantom Zone, Krypton's other-dimensional prison system, has become a major point of contention in this dreamworld. As it was developed by Jor-El, the House of El is unpopular with the public, who see the Zone as cruel and unusual punishment. Kara Zor-El is brutally assaulted by anti-Zone protesters, who use the criminal Jax-Ur (sentenced to an eternity in the Zone) as a martyr and symbol.

Superman gradually begins to wake up from the increasingly disturbing dream, with it finally dissolving with a scene of his "son", Van-El, slipping away from him as they visit the Kandor crater. In the conscious world, Batman has resorted to trying to pry the Mercy off Superman's chest. Without protective clothing, the plant immediately attacks him, submerging Batman into his own "heart's desire" dream, in which the murder of his parents is narrowly prevented by Thomas Wayne disarming Joe Chill. Superman awakens, infuriated by the Mercy's attack and the loss of the fantasy (as Mongul later describes, "escaping it must have been like tearing off your own arm"). He savagely attacks Mongul, who was about to kill the defeated Wonder Woman. The two adversaries battle across the Fortress, causing massive damage to it.

Robin, anxiously seeking a solution, puts on Mongul's discarded gauntlets and pries the Mercy off Batman. Thinking quickly, he stuffs the Mercy into one of the gauntlets, allowing him to safely carry it to the battle. Superman, on the verge of delivering a crushing blow to Mongul, becomes distracted by the sight of the statues of his parents, allowing Mongul to deliver a stunning counterattack. Mongul is on the verge of delivering a lethal blow to Superman when Robin drops the Mercy on him. Mongul is instantly seized by the plant and submerged into his own deepest fantasy, in which he swats the Mercy aside, kills Robin, then Superman, then goes on to conquer Earth and the universe.

In the aftermath, Batman and Wonder Woman's wounds have been bandaged up; Batman idly explains how his fantasy had included him marrying Kathy Kane and having a teenage daughter, while Wonder Woman confesses envy that she couldn't find out what her heart's desire was. After revealing plans to imprison Mongul by dumping him in a black hole on the other side of the galaxy, Superman unwraps his gifts; Wonder Woman had brought a replica of Kandor made by "gem-smiths" of Paradise Island, which prompts Superman to fly off, hide his own replica of the Bottle City, and return at super-speed before his absence is noticed. Batman’s gift, sadly, turns out to be another plant – a new breed of rose which has been named “The Krypton” – which had accidentally been stepped on and killed during the fight. Philosophically stating that it’s perhaps for the best, Superman volunteers to make coffee for everyone while he cleans up the mess around the Fortress. The final page documents Mongul's universal conquest fantasy - "The stars run red", "The nebulae echo with the screams of the dying" – leaving him at last content.

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