Superman Unlimited #8 (2025)

Clark and Lois have traveled to Coast City to cover the launch of Stagg Enterprises' latest project, a vessel for deep space exploration. Lois has volunteered to go onboard for the maiden voyage, something that Clark does not believe to be a good idea because he does not trust either Sebastian Stagg or the ship's builder, not to mention that the Starliner uses Kryptonite as fuel, but Lois assures him that she will be fine. A group of celebrities and billionaires will be joining Lois and Stagg for the trip and Toyman is announced as the ship's builder. Although Stagg has publicly stated that, sooner or later, the Starliner will be available for the entire public, he has made a secret deal with a mysterious group of individuals clad in astronaut suits. Meanwhile, on a space station located at the border of Sector 2814, a group of alien criminals has become aware that humans have can mass-produce faster-than-light drives. The aliens fear that, if humans spread beyond their Solar System, they could threaten the crime syndicate's dominance, which is already in peril thanks to metahumans and the Green Lantern Corps. That is why they will sabotage the Starliner and keep humans confined to their planet. At the Watchtower, Guy Gardner is trying to use his ring to get a haircut until he gets a call from Jessica Cruz, who informs him about the Starliners mission and assigns him to protect it. Although Guy believes Hal is better suited for this task, given his experiences with experimental vehicles, Martian Manhunter and Carol Ferris remind Guy that Hal is on medical leave and Carol is unable to partake in this mission because Ferris Air has a contract to build shuttles for the Watchtower, so her presence could be seen as a conflict of interest. Much to his own chagrin, Guy accepts the mission. Before the Starliners launch, Clark expresses his belief of Lois trying to do too much at once: being a wife, a mother, editor-in-chief of Daily Planet, etc. Lois replies she can handle the burden and the Starliner launches into space, a deed observed by Guy. The Starliner quickly departs from the Solar System but Guy easily keeps pace with it. Vreeland is happy that she can get footage of a superhero and says that the crew onboard the Starliner are, in a way, superheroes for embarking on a dangerous trip, but Stagg replies that superheroes like Guy are not special because they have rings. Instead, normal people are special because, unlike superheroes, they had to take destiny in their own hands. He then pushes a button, which alert the criminal ships to their location. Clark, listening to the mission from the radio at the Coast City base, puts on his uniform and flies in to save his wife, only to find that Guy is already fighting the criminal fleet. Unfortunately, he missed one of the ships, which breaks through the Starliners hull. Stagg tells the crew to evacuate from the cargo hold but they are attacked by the mysterious individuals in space suits. One of the attackers grabs an astronaut and quickly replicates his physical appearance, which allows Lois to deduce that the attackers are shapeshifters. To fool the aliens, she grabs Veronica's Kryptonite-laced lipstick and applies it on herself. Guy has decimated the alien fleet and captured the criminals, while Superman secures the escape pod holding the astronauts that evacuated from the Starliner, which has suffered severe damage from the attack. The criminals believe the resultant explosion will kill Superman because the ship used Kryptonite as fuel, but no such explosion occurs and Toyman informs Superman that the ship's fuel tanks were reinforced with inertron. Superman is thankful for Toyman's foresight. The surviving astronauts are taken back to Earth, but when Superman sees Lois wearing Kryptonite-laced lipstick, he deduces she is not really his wife. Superman quickly captures the impostors and exposes them as Durlans, shapeshifting aliens. The real astronauts, including Lois, were placed in stasis pods and quickly released by Guy. Furthermore, Stagg is exposed for conspiring with the alien criminals. Guy believes that the mission was a waste of his talents and Lois admits to Superman that maybe she should take a break.