Last Son Finale Finally

Over a year since the last chapter, Richard Donner's Last Son saga finally comes to a conclusion.  While DC was able to crank out weekly books on time, the rest of their publishing schedule suffered during this period.  Superman, Action Comics, and Wonder Woman all had delayed conclusions that had to be printed in their annuals, which were seemingly revived solely for that purpose. 

Action Comics Annual #11

Last Son finale

Superman reluctantly joins forces with Lex Luthor and the Superman Revenge Squad--Bizarro, the Parasite, and Metallo--to stop General Zod's invasion of Earth.  Naturally, Luthor plans to betray Superman by trapping him in the Phantom Zone along with the other Kryptonian criminals.  Zod's son, now the Kent's foster son Christopher, sacrifices himself to close the opening to the Phantom Zone.  The unnamed Kryptonian boy gets the credit for saving the world to the chagrin of Lex Luthor who only gets to read the Daily Planet headline in prison.  

The conclusion was hard to reconcile with then-current continuity, where Christopher Kent is still Lois and Clark's foster child.  Perry White asks the couple when they're going to have kids, which is strange because they've already been foster parents until now.  When communing with his Kryptonian father at the Fortress of Solitude, Jor El tells Superman that a human and a Kryptonian are incapable of bearing a child together.  Of course, that rule would be broken a few years later when Lois gives birth to Jon Kent.  Mon El searches the Phantom Zone for Chistopher, who would turn up a year later aged into adulthood.  The exact same thing would happen to Clark's biological son Jonathan years later under the lazy writing of Brian Michael Bendis.  Zod's son Lor-Zod would be seen again after Rebirth, albeit never having been raised by the Kents.

Superman #671

The Insect Queen part 1 of 3

As part of a charity benefit, Superman throws the first pitch of the World Series, and also flies fast enough from the pitcher's mound to the batter's box to hit his own supersonic fastball into orbit.  In about a month (actually two months from now) they'll see how close he came to hitting a target on the moon.

Clark Kent has been meaning to check in on Lana Lang while she runs the floundering LexCorp, but emergencies and baseball games have distracted him.  One night while Lana works late in her office, she's abducted by a mysterious bug-like creature.  Superman follows the trail of the missing CEO to a LexCorp facility that's been taken over by alien insets.  The insects commit suicide rather than divulge any information to the Man of Steel, but he recognizes the chemical traces they leave behind as moon dust.  Somewhere in a lunar hive, Lana Lang awakens to find an insect version of herself has become the space insects' new queen.

In pre-Crisis continuity, Lana Lang had occasionally been transformed into a hero with insect powers called the Insect Queen, and this was the first post-Crisis iteration of that character.

Action Comics #861

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes part 4 of 6

After the Coluans leave the room, Brainiac 5 reveals to Superman and the Legion that he became the dictator of Colu to stall the war between Earth and the United Planets.  The Legion wants to get Superman outside into the sunlight, but they find out Colu's sun has been intentionally turned red too.  Brainiac 5 reveals that Chameleon Girl has been embedded to spy on the Justice League behind enemy lines.  Chameleon Girl finds that the imprisoned Sun Boy's powers have been used to turn Earth's and other suns red, but before she can free him she's caught by Earth Man.  Notified of Brainiac's plans by Earth Man, the Coluans turn on their leader and he escapes with Superman in a rocket.

Superman/Batman #45

K part 2 of 6

Superman and Batman's mission to rid the world of Kryptonite takes them to the far reaches of the Earth and the sea.  Batman even finds a fragment of it in the Joker's cell at Arkham Asylum.  They steal a rock from a museum in Addis Ababa, in a nod to Superman: The Motion Picture where, ironically, Kryptonite was much rarer.  Other heroes start to help them, from Firestorm, Booster Gold, Starfire, and the new Toyman, hoping their volunteering will get them into the Justice League.

Finally, their mission takes them to the largest deposit at the bottom of the ocean.  Superman contemplates where this chunk came from off his home planet, if his father may have touched it at some point.  Unfortunately, the new short-lived post-Infinite Crisis Aquaman isn't so enthusiastic about Superman taking part of his home world away from his undersea domain.  Knowing he isn't powerful enough to bea the Man of Steel, Aquaman makes a crack in Superman's lead-lined armor, exposing him to the Kryptonite all around them.  Batman seals up the crack and Aquaman lets them take the Kryptonite, but he makes them aware that not everybody on the planet feels safer with Superman having no weakness.