Superman is on an upswing, and DC Comics is doings its best to put its best foot forward when it comes to the Man of Steel. Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 is an example of exactly the kind of Superman comic that appeals to everyone. The main plot is simple and Superman as all get out — an alien invasion, led by characters familiar to ’90s Superman fans, hits the Earth and Superman does his best to save the day. Of course, it’s more complicated than all of that. Despite being a Superman story, Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 shows the entire superhero community dealing with the invasion when Superman disappears, and readers get an epic moment — the destruction of the Justice League Watchtower satellite base.
This is the third Justice League satellite (and their fourth space base), and was brought back to prominence in the excellent Justice League Unlimited #1. Superhero headquarters are very important part of these kinds of stories, and Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 is an exemplary superhero story. However, the destruction of the Watchtower feels more like a gimmick than an important part of the story, like the destruction of the Watchtower in the run-up to Infinite Crisis. It’s definitely a cool part of the story, but there’s also a question of whether it will matter.
Writers Often Destroy Superhero Headquarters for Shock Value
As mentioned above, superhero bases are one of the most iconic parts of superhero comics. Can you imagine Batman without the Batcave or Superman without the Fortress of Solitude? Would the X-Men have the family vibe without all of them living in the X-Mansion (we’ve actually learned the answer to this question and it’s no, they wouldn’t)? The Avengers have had both Avengers Mansion and Avengers Tower (as well as the Hydrobase, which no one but me and Brian Michael Bendis remembers), and the latter became very well known because of the MCU (the Tower, not the Hydrobase; only the serious wiki reading MCU fans know about the Hydrobase). Superhero bases are such an important part of the iconography of superheroes, and the Justice League has had several. The first was known as Mount Justice in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. Mount Justice is still around and several teams have used it as a base after the League left it, including the Doom Patrol. Next, they got the first Justice League satellite, and that would last until the League moved to Detroit for a forgotten run. The Justice League satellite has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, most notably in Crisis on Infinite Earths and “New World Order”, the first story arc of JLA. There was the embassy system, where multiple countries had Justice League embassies, and then the Watchtower on the moon. The Watchtower was destroyed by Superboy-Prime, and the Justice League got two bases next — the Hall of Justice on Earth and the new Watchtower, which was destroyed at some point— that they used at the same time. The latest Watchtower is based on the one from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, and seeing it’s destruction already was a shocking moment. However, I don’t think this is going to matter like some of the other base destructions have.
One of the things you realize after reading superhero comics for a while is that sometimes, creators “job” out icons to make a threat look more dangerous. This is the case in Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1. The Watchtower was destroyed to show how powerful the invading fleet was, jobbing out the Justice League’s base to show the invaders mean business. They do massive damage to the entire planet, so the League losing the Watchtower is just another example of that. Superman is able to defeat the invaders, obviously, and the reconstruction of the world begins. So, the Watchtower is definitely on that list and will be rebuilt. Anyone who didn’t read Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 will never know it was ever destroyed, and that’s kind of disappointing in its way. Previous instances of the Justice League losing their base have actually mattered, but this one is almost certainly going to have zero impact. That’s honestly pretty disappointing when it comes right down to it.
The Destruction of the Watchtower Sends the Wrong Message to New Readers
As I was reading Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1, I definitely got the feeling that this was a book made for new readers who walk into the comic store after watching Superman at the movies. It works perfectly for new readers, but there is a problem — the destruction of the Watchtower. We all know that in the next issue of Justice League Unlimited, the Watchtower will still be there. If a new readers decides to check out that book to see about what happened in Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1, they might, at best, get a blurb about it (usually a caption box at the beginning of the issue that says th story takes place before or after Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1). More than likely, there will be no explanation.
This is one of the problems with modern day superhero comics that you don’t really see in superhero movies. In superhero movies, when things like this happen, they’re referenced in later installments. While this used to be the case in superhero comics — it’s where the MCU got the idea — it’s something that has stopped in recent years, as the editors at Marvel and DC (honestly, mostly Marvel) stopped caring about continuity as much they used to. So, while this is a cool scene, it’s definitely not the best thing to put in a comic that is meant to hook new readers.
Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 is on sale now.
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