Look, I love Booster Gold, I’m not even joking. But if the goal is restore Superman to a figure of hope in a world that desperately needs it, this storyline seems like exactly the wrong approach. It ties into the Oz arc, of course, as the nominal goal is to establish whether the secretive baddie truly was Jor-El. On the one hand, seeking this truth and rescuing the man who may be his father seems very much like a job for Superman; on the other, if this experience has truly shaken Kal-El’s faith in the way we’re meant to believe it has — in the way that would justify the Oz story arc — the time-hopping tale is a distraction. We need more than a single epilogue issue to explore Superman’s crisis of faith and his resolution to move forward.

So, that’s the big picture. What else do we learn this issue?

Oz was, as expected, the being who imprisoned Mxyzptlk throughout the New 52 era, and he also intercepted Doomsday on his way to the Phantom Zone. Jor-El tells his son that this was for his protection. “I feared someone would find Doomsday, use him against you,” he says. “You’ll not escape death a second time.” Jor-El kind of ruins the moment, though, by zapping the Man of Steel with his Kryptonite eye, in a non-sequitur representative of most of the Kryptonians’ interactions throughout this arc.

The eye blast sufficiently browns off Superman that he goes and snaps Oz’s crescent-bladed staff, which has been exerting some sort of control over Jor-El’s mind from the start. He immediately softens, due in part to the effects of the Kryptonite in his skull no longer being held in check, and seems to express remorse for his actions.

Jor-El alludes to the one who made him the staff, who set him on this course of action. It’s Dr. Manhattan, isn’t it? As Oz disappears in a flash of blue light, warning his son to fight for his family and his adoptive planet, it sure looks like yes, again, it’s that same Watchmen expat who’s been tinkering with the DCU for years.

Perhaps the big thing, though, something that’s also been alluded to multiple times since Rebirth — including during the merging of New 52 with pre-Flashpoint incarnations of Superman and Lois — is that Jor-El reveals that he was saved “because this is about you,” meaning his son. Geoff Johns has described Doomsday Clock, the twelve-issue series debuting later this month that will lay out Manhattan’s master plan, as primarily a Superman story. What’s interesting is, through all of this, we still haven’t got a clear picture of why. He is DC’s most prominent hero, and in-story is an inspiration both to ordinary people and other heroes. But to a being like Dr. Manhattan, it’s hard to imagine why this would be compelling, on a universal scale. I guess we’ll find out soon!

The problem for a story like “The Oz Effect” failing to land, though, is that it tends to tamp down excitement for the next big thing. In his 17,000-word retrospective on Lost, series writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach recalled discussions around what would ultimately be found in “the Hatch,” and showrunner Damon Lindelof’s “concern that if we shat the bed on that reveal, the audience would depart in droves.”

Though others may disagree, I would say that there was similar pressure on the Oz reveal. It would have been too easy for Oz to be Watchmen villain Ozymandias, as many fans had speculated, but showing him to be Jor-El introduced too many obstacles, and the story just wasn’t up to the task of overcoming them. For my part, while I’m still down for Doomsday Clock — because I love universe-spanning epics done right, and because I’m an eternal optimist — I must admit that my enthusiasm for the entire Superman line has been severely dampened by the clumsy, ill-considered Oz story arc. This mystery has been undergirding the entirety of Superman’s Rebirth adventures, and now we know the foundation is weak. That is possibly not fair to other series like Superman and Super Sons, or even to Jurgens’ generally strong run on Action to date.

But that’s, unfortunately, been the real Oz Effect.