Davis used this fascinating premise to craft a story with characters, heroes and villains that populate this universe. Especially with the characters he grew up with, who he cares about the most, he makes this comic a love letter to those legends who gave him a good time as a kid.
Nowadays we are very used to seeing all kinds of alternate realities of the characters we meet, different from what we expect, but three decades ago when this work was conceived, this was not the norm. Davis takes great care from the beginning to show how the absence of the Man of Steel has affected the lives of all those affected by him in our reality.
The horseshoe is lost for lack of nails, the horse is lost for lack of a horse, the rider is lost for lack of a horse, the battle is lost for lack of a knight. Thus the whole kingdom was lost… all lack of nails.
An oral adaptation of a quote by George Herbert
But we see that Clark Kent’s absence not only deprives them of their personal relationships, but that fact has left society in a worse place than it was with him. Desperation has caused the world to fall from grace, where the heroes must fight to make this change before it’s too late. And although in the end everything ends as it is, the consequences of what happened here lead us to a new story that takes place a year later …
Another nail
Now the world has to adjust to Superman’s presence, but so does the Justice League. When the war of different galactic reactions takes place, the team members have to deal with the fact that there is only one person who can do all their work together. They have become divisible…
Davis uses this story to work with characters he didn’t include in the first installment, and they’re used perfectly in this story to open the door to new areas and do what a series should do: expand what’s been said. An original story, giving a new dimension to everything we know so far and expanding the plot without falling into repetitions or simple solutions.
In this diptych, Davies constructs the Silver Age, the Silver Age, a work that plays to confront the stories of those times from an almost postmodern perspective. The result is a comic that fans of the DC Universe and its characters can’t help but love.
This volume is presented in hardcover, with 304 color pages, and the American version of the three-issue limited series JLA: The Nail and the series JLA: Another Nail, as well as the covers of the included issues. It has a recommended retail price of €38 and went on sale in January 2024.