Superman Stuff

Superman Stuff #40: September Reviews

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It’s time once again for a healthy helpin’ of reviews. Here are most (if not all) of the Superman-related comics that hit the stands in September, including the second half of Kingdom of Zod, a few journeys to alternate universes, the “Weirdest” co-star Superman and Batman have ever seen, and the newest incarnation of Superman’s ORIGINAL Super Friends.

Supergirl #17
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Five
Writer: Sophie Campbell
Art: Bruno Frenda & Joe Quinones
Main Cover: Lucas Meyer & Guiliano Peratelli

The second half of Kingdom of Zod kicks off with Supergirl and Superboy (the time-tossed Clark Kent from his teen years) getting caught in a time bubble with Ursa, who’s travelling to the past in an apparent attempt to save Krypton from discussion. The issue checks in briefly with the rest of our cast, including Lana and the Steels dealing with the Krytonite zombies, Superboy (Conner) and Superboy-Prime trying to help an injured Superman, and Lois doing the same with Jonathan. But each of these story threads is given no more than a page or two, with the bulk of the issue focusing on Kara and Clark’s adventures on Krypton.

There’s always a delicate balancing act with intra-family crossover events like this one. In the books where the “lead” character of the franchise (in this case, Superman) is the same as the lead of that title, there’s no real issue. When you have a chapter in an issue of a spinoff character – which Supergirl is, let’s be honest – you have to struggle between maintaining the focus on the person that the regular readers buy the book for and continuing the overall event that may have brought in new readers. Campbell accomplishes this really well. We spend most of the issue with Kara trying to teach a young, inexperienced Clark about the dangers of time travel while at the same time trying to prevent Ursa from making things worse. The interaction between the two of them is really entertaining, with Kara taking on the big sisterly role she thought she would have before she woke up on Earth that first time and discovered that her baby cousin was now older than her. I know that once this is all over Clark is going back to his own time, but I would love to see this dynamic played with more often. 

More importantly, the time-travel arc doesn’t feel like a superfluous side-story here, but part of the large whole, and that’s what you really want most of all when you’re reading a story like this one. It needs to feel consequential, or the readers will feel cheated. I don’t think that’s going to happen with anybody here.

Action Comics #1102
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Six
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Montos
Main Cover: Lucas Meyer & Guilano Peratelli

Like the Supergirl chapter, Action Comics this month focuses mostly on young Clark and Kara on Krypton, although the side-stories progress a little bit further. Of course, they progress to a point where it just seems like it can’t get any worse. The adult Superman and his group finally reunite with Lois and Jon, but the one person who may be able to protect them from the growing Kryptonite radiation that’s engulfing Earth may not be of help after all.

But back in the past, back on Krypton, young Clark is separated from his cousin as Kara and present-day Ursa are taken into custody by past-Zod. Man, time travel makes these recaps harder to write. The gist of it is this: in this issue we see the teenage Clark that’s been the star of this title since Mark Waid took over have to make some of the choices and learn some of the maturity that’s going to characterize him when he gets older and becomes a true Superman, and that’s a great thing. If you read the classic Superboy stories of the Golden and Silver Ages, there’s not a lot of difference between the character as a teenager and as an adult. He’s the stalwart, confident paragon that we want him to be right from the jump, and while that’s a good thing for a mature Superman, it doesn’t make as much sense when you see him as a kid. Waid’s Superboy is someone who is still learning, still capable of making mistakes, but with a core of purity and decency that you can see developing into the all-loving hero that Superman is. This issue makes for a nice focus on that, a great examination of who Clark was and who he’s going to become, all mixed up in the larger storyline. It’s deftly played.

Superman Unlimited #17
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Seven
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Rachael Stott and Montos
Main Cover: Lucas Meyer & Guiliano Peratelli

Part Seven of Kingdom of Zod flips the formula from the last two issues – a quick check-in with Clark and company back on Krypton, with most of the issue in the present, and the wave of El Caldero Kryptonite radiation that’s threatening the entire Earth. But here’s the thing: early in the run of this series, Dan Slott gave Superman a little boost that just may be the thing to save the day.

This is one of those issues where somebody with super-speed does a whole lot of stuff really fast, where things zip along in much less time than it takes to tell the story. I like issues like that, because a good writer can use them to give us quick glimpses at the hero being the hero. As Superman is racing to save the world from the Kryptonite, we see him take moments with friend and enemy alike that remind us of just what kind of a man our hero is. Not that we necessarily NEED that reminder, of course, but seeing Superman in action doing what Superman does is always a treat, and Slott really nails it here. In the midst of this huge storyline, it’s the small moments for Superman that really make this issue worth reading.

Superman #42
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Eight
Writer: Joshua Williams
Pencils: Eddy Barrows & Eduardo Pansica
Inks: Eber Ferreira & Julio Ferreira
Main Cover: Lucas Meyer & Guiliano Peratelli

The penultimate chapter of “Kingdom of Zod” FINALLY brings all of our heroes together. Recovering from the Golden Mode adventure that cancelled out all of the El Calderan Kryptonite on Earth, Superman and his allies come together and learn (courtesy of Booster Gold) that Ursa stole his time-bubble, with Supergirl and young Clark going after her. This issue, they come back, along with a young Zod.

And all hell breaks loose.

Williamson, whose work on this title has made him one of my favorite Superman writers since the Triangle Era, is really showing how adept he is with these characters. Superboy-Prime meets up with Superman again for the first time since his self-proclaimed (and highly effective) Redemption Arc during the “Reign of the Superboys” storyline, and the moments where those two connect are really well-done. On the other hand, Conner Kent seems to be somewhat bitter about the whole thing, and I find myself desperately hoping that Prime’s redemption isn’t going to incorporate a heel turn for the other Superboy. I keep telling myself that Williamson is too good a writer for that. I am telling myself that very, very hard.

The huge cast that shows up in this issue comes together well, with good moments for Lois and Jon, Lena Luthor, and Superboy’s time-travel pals Mary Marvel and Martian Manhunter. Others are somewhat sidelined (I could always do with more Steel in this or any comic book), but that’s kind of the nature of the beast. The more characters there are in a story, the more likely some of them are going to ride the bench. And that’s especially true when you remember that, c’mon now, it IS Superman’s comic book.

Superman: Kingdom of Zod Special
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Nine
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Main Cover: Dan Mora
Supergirl Epilogue By: Sophie Campbell, Tamra Bonvillain & Josh Reed
Action Comics Epilogue By: Mark Waid, David Messina, Ivan Plascensia & Josh Reed
Superman Unlimited Epilogue By: Dan Slott, Rachael Stott, Giuliano Peratelli & Josh Reed
Superman Epilogue By: Joshua Williamson, Bruno Frenda, Luis Guerra & Josh Reed

It’s hard to get too much into this without delving into spoilers. There’s a great fight scene, but it’s actually not the main focus of the book. A lot of the threads of this story have been tied off already in the previous chapters, so all that’s really left here is for Superman and his family to deal with the time-lost Zod who came back from the era before Krypton’s destruction. As they do so, our various heroes are each given something different to deal with: Supergirl gets an artifact of the past that seems poised to set up her future. Tomorrow Man and his dad have a heart-to-heart about Jon’s new direction. The time-travelling Superboy has to deal with the knowledge of his future that he’s picked up along the way. And the other two Superboys – Prime and Conner Kent – each have decisions about their own future to make.

The Conner stuff is, as I mentioned in one of the previous chapters, one of the few parts of this story that gives me concern. We’re seeing a bitterness in the character that doesn’t really suit him. At the same time, it’s understandable: with both Jon and Prime around, he feels like he’s been shunted aside, and honestly, that’s a fairly accurate metaphor for the way fans of his have felt all the way going back to the New 52 reboot. People have been in agreement for quite some time that Conner Kent is a character in need of a new direction, and it seems that Williamson is preparing to finally tackle that story. I’m trusting that he’s too good a writer to make that new direction follow the cliched path of turning him into a villain.

The actual confrontation with Zod is good, but over with surprisingly quickly. The bulk of this issue is concentrated more on putting pieces into place for the future. The creative teams of each of the four respective Superman-family titles each get an epilogue sequence focusing on their own core cast and giving a taste of what we presume will be the next story arc in each. I don’t mind them doing that, but I do feel a little as though it came at the expense of the conclusion of the actual Zod storyline.

As a whole, I’ve enjoyed Kingdom of Zod. Having a new chapter coming out every week made it feel just a little like the glory days of the Triangle Era again, and I miss that period greatly. The ending could have been a bit stronger, but I’m excited to see what comes next.

Absolute Superman #23
Title: The Toyman (Get Brainiac Part Two)
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Juan Ferreyra
Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval

As the Toyman rears his head again, Kal flashes back to a harrowing childhood experience back on Krypton. And of course, Brainiac lingers in the background.

The A-plot here is about Superman seeking the Toyman, whose murderous playthings have been enhanced thanks to a collaboration with Brainiac. That’s all well and good, but honestly, it’s not the part of this book that I’m particularly interested in. It’s the flashback scenes that really get my attention this month. It’s easy to forget just how different this Kal-El is from the one we knew. He lived a whole childhood on Krypton before it was destroyed, he has memories of his birth parents (both good and bad) and an awareness of the culture of his home planet that the main timeline Superman lacks. And this is a very different Krypton than the one we know, a fact accentuated by the awful thing that young Kal-El stumbles upon and the explanation for it he receives from his mother. The main Superman comics have had so many stories and miniseries that explore life on pre-cataclysm Krypton that it’s practically become a cliche. This is one situation where I think an exploration of the world that was would actually be warranted. Come on, DC – Absolute Jor-El and Lara? Guaranteed seller.

Adventures of Superman: Book of El #12
Title: Finale
Writer: Philip Kennedy Johnson
Art: Scott Godlewski
Main Cover: Scott Godlewski

The House of El makes its final stand against Kryl-Ux, and with a Kryptonian carrying the power of a god, even an entire super-family has its work cut out.

I…don’t even know anymore. This series from the outset has felt so divorced, so removed from everything that engages me about the Superman mythos. Pulling him into the distant future, setting up a whole mystery that is predicated on him never coming home…it’s been hard to take it seriously. And the finale of the storyline doesn’t help with that. Ultimately, it still feels somewhat inconsequential.

I’ll give it credit for a few things. The heart of this series is definitely in the right place. Johnson gives the story a focus on all the good things about Superman: compassion, redemption, a belief in the best of us. Those elements are at the heart of all the best Superman stories, and we’ve got that here too. Also, I appreciate the fact that the book didn’t have as hard a reset as I came to expect, and that it wasn’t just an excuse to wipe Otho and Osul off the map. In the end, their story is still there and available. It does raise the question, of course, of where the hell they’ve been in the main Superman comics as of late. There’s an answer available in this issue, but it’s something they’re going to have to address sooner or later.

The best thing I can really say about this series, in the end, is that I’m quite certain it will read better as a whole instead of in chapters the way it’s been parcelled out over the past year. It’s certainly happened before. I was kind of underwhelmed at Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow as a monthly series because of the slow burn, but when it was over and I read it as a single book I was deeply moved and impressed. I hope that will be the case here as well. I’m not going to do it anytime soon – I need a little time away from it to clean the slate – but perhaps some time next year I’ll go back and try to read it as one unified story. If I do, I’ll be sure to tell you what I think about it on the second go-around.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #55
Title: Extinction Event Part One
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Adrian Gutierrez
Main Cover: Dan Mora

With most of the Justice League off-planet, Ra’s Al Ghul assembles a group of villains who share his cause to exterminate most of human life. With his new harbingers of the apocalypse, he unleashes a devastating attack that begins spreading illness across the globe. Superman and Batman are among Earth’s remaining defenders, but when the sickness strikes too close to home, even the Dark Knight may be compromised.

One of the many things that makes Mark Waid’s run on this book is how well he straddles the line between huge storylines of global significance and small, character-focused stories. This issue, for instance, as if Queen Bee’s swarm of alien insects threatening an apocalypse wasn’t bad enough, one of the early victims is somebody that we – and the other heroes – care deeply about. It hurts a little that this book is set in the past and, as the stricken character is someone who is alive and well today, there’s not really a question of IF the heroes will succeed, but rather HOW. On the other hand, it’s still Batman and Superman we’re talking about here, so is there really any question as to whether they’re going to beat the bad guys in the first place?

Getting past that, Waid really explores the way these events affect our heroes. Batman is already approaching the story from a place of conflicted emotion, considering that his primary informant is Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter Talia. This seems to be the first time Superman learns about the whole Batman/Talia thing as well, which puts him in a bit of a pickle. Bruce is his best friend, of course, but can he be counted on to be at his best? It’s a great way to get into the relationship between the two, with a degree of mutual trust that’s impaired just because Batman himself is too emotionally invested in the whole thing.

It’s another excellent issue. I’ve come to expect nothing less.

Batman/Superman/Weird Al: World’s Weirdest #1
Writers: Mark Waid & Tyrone Finch
Vibes: “Weird Al” Yankovic
Art: Dan Schoening & Fico Osso
Main Cover: Dan Schoening

At last! My two favorite heroes in an adventure together with Batman!

In this deliciously absurd one-shot, Mr. Mxyzptlk’s cosy home in the Fifth Dimension is unsettled when everything strange in his world starts to become…normal. Terrified, he goes to Earth to find Superman for help, only to find the plague is striking there as well Mxy, Superman, and Batman quickly discover the key may be the one person who seems to be immune to the “Mundanity Wave” striking both worlds: “Weird Al” Yankovic. 

This story is silly, absurd, totally inconsequential, and has no reason whatsoever to exist. I loved it. Look, I’m an easy sell. Obviously I read anything that has Superman in it, and “Weird Al” is perhaps the last remaining celebrity on Earth that everybody likes (now that we’ve lost Dolly Parton), so it wasn’t really an uphill battle to get me on-board for this one. But that doesn’t mean it’s not still a fun read. Seeing how different DC characters become “normal” when hit with the Mundanity Wave is as weird as anything that’s being turned mundane. (Somehow the Joker in a normal suit and with a normal skin tone is more unsettling than the psychotic clown we all know and love.) 

The villain reveal is a great one, too. It’s not somebody that we see all that often, a relatively obscure villain to anyone but fans of the series that birthed him, but he’s absolutely perfect for this book. Mark Waid’s knowledge of the DCU remains unparalleled, even as he’s able to take a quick dig at himself at one meta-moment.

I haven’t seen a lot of Dan Schoening’s work since IDW’s Ghostbusters series wrapped up, but he’s a good choice for this book. After years of chronicling adventures of characters that looked almost, but not QUITE, like Bill Murray and the boys, he’s got a good eye for near-caricature that suits his depiction of Al very nicely. He also has a light touch with his line, crafting a book that looks almost like a cartoon, which is entirely appropriate. 

Bizarro: Year None #3
Title: How Do I Look?
Writers: Eric Carrasco & Kevin Smith
Art: Nick Pitarra
Main Cover: Nick Pitarra

Jimmy Olsen spends a day with Bizarro on his Bizarro world, and the two of them each begin to realize just how different from Superman he actually is. In the meantime, Bizarro Lois and the others on her world began making their moves to change things about the planet they’re essentially trapped on.

You know, when they said “Kevin Smith is writing a Bizarro origin story,” I bet a lot of us were expecting a sort of goofy, silly exploration of a character that more often than not is played for a joke. We were wrong. Moments of humor in this issue have become few and far between, and the exploration of Bizarro has never been less amusing. It’s like we’ve delved into an exploration of the Bizarro from the first few scenes in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, a deeply troubling creature that’s every bit as strong as Superman but possesses none of his kindness or humanity. It’s actually a bit frightening. 

The really baffling thing about the book is where it belongs, in a publishing respect. The solicits for this series have referred to it as the “official” origin of Bizarro, but those same solicits are written in Bizarro-speak, also calling the series “terrible.” So it’s not official, we got that. It’s also not labeled as an Elseworlds, although it could be. But honestly, as dark as this story has gotten, I’m wondering why the heck it’s NOT marked as a Black Label comic. It would fit there much more than most of the Superman books that have carried that particular sticker. 

Supergirl: Survive #4
Writers: Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan
Art & Main Cover: Rod Reis

Finally having reached a planet with a yellow sun, Kara and Kal-El are beginning to taste the power that being a Kryptonian truly brings with it. But despite their power they’re still stranded, with no way to get to the distant planet Earth that is their destination…until they encounter another visitor to this world who may be able to help them.

As they did with the Lantern Corps and Lobo in previous issues, this month Parker and Sheridan bring in another DC character to build out this other universe. This time, it’s one who has links to the Superman family to begin with, and he falls into his role quite naturally. As an Elseworlds, one is forced to wonder whether his gregarious nature is going to turn out to be a long con and he’s really up for some supervillainy, but so far there doesn’t seem to be any overt indication of that, and I’m glad. It would be a pretty tired trope for this character to go bad, and it’s about time poor Kara got a break.

Another couple of time skips in this issue and we’re watching as Kal-El grows from baby to child, with a personality beginning to develop. So far, he’s coming across as a fairly typical kid, albeit one with remarkable powers. He gets frustrated, he gets scared, and he turns to Kara – his protector, his only family – when that happens. Like this month’s guest star, Kal-El could go in many directions, but we’re definitely getting the sense that Kara is doing the best she can to steer him, which can’t be easy with a super kid.

Once more, I’m really impressed with this book, and I want to see this iteration of the DC Universe explored more and more.

Superman: Father of Tomorrow #5
Title: Strife 
Writer: Kenny Porter
Art & Main Cover: Danny Earls

One issue from the end, Father of Tomorrow takes another step in the right direction. As the sorcerer Lex Luthor makes his move on Metropolis, Jor-El confesses the events that led to his exile on Earth and why he came alone. Luthor, meanwhile, faces off against Lois Lane’s father Sam, who has become this world’s Captain Atom.

My favorite thing about this whole series has to be Luthor playing with magic. It’s intriguing to see him push his genius in this direction rather than science, but he avoids coming off as just a Dr. Doom clone. This is still Luthor through and through, with all the pettiness and ego that implies. He points out of the hypocrisy of Sam Lane’s anti-superhuman stance now that he’s turned himself into one of the world’s powerhouses. He is faced with an extremely real threat and shrugs it off because, you know, he’s LEX LUTHOR, so what could possibly touch him? It’s a great new angle for a classic villain.

The reveal about Jor-El’s past works well, and it gives his position on Earth a little added flavor of tragedy, although I feel like it’s something that could have come earlier in the series. It does explain his urge to “fix” things in a way that’s suitable. My big problem with this series to date has been people opposed to Jor-El “fixing” Earth without actually providing much evidence that there’s any downside to his changes. We still don’t get any of that this issue, but we don’t dwell on the idea that his changes are bad either, so on that front I’m gonna call this issue a draw and look forward to next month’s finale. 

Superman: The Stranger #1
Writer, Artist, and Main Cover: Wes Craig

The newest “Black Label” series featuring the Man of Steel dives back to the Golden Age. In a Metropolis where people are struggling to get by, young Clark Kent is desperately trying to get a job as a reporter while, at the same time, using the bizarre powers he has to patrol the city at night as Superman, defender of the defenseless. But a chance encounter in an alleyway sends him questioning where the real villains may lie.

I’m very much on the fence about this book. First of all, the vagary of the Black Label imprint continues to be an issue. Ostensibly a line of “mature” comics featuring the DC heroes, the Superman books in this series have very rarely had any content that would mark them as such. The “17+” rating on the back cover in tiny little letters doesn’t seem appropriate, and I can’t find anything that makes me think this shouldn’t be an Elseworlds, since that imprint has returned from the dead.

That’s more of a fault of editorial than the comic itself, but the comic itself leaves me with concerns. Frankly, it feels like we’re just exploring some well-worn territory. A Golden Age Superman? Seen it numerous times since the Golden Age. Superman versus corporate greed and corruption (as embodied, of course, by Lex Luthor)? It’s so familiar you could draw it in your sleep. I need something more original to justify the $5 price point of this book.

That’s not to say there’s nothing promising. Clark, honestly, seems to have more to distinguish him from other incarnations of the character than Superman himself. His thirst to work at the Daily Planet has him settling for a job at the very bottom of the pole, and I’m not talking editorial. And despite the fact that his name is, as usual, “Clark Kent,” there are some ruminations in this book that call me to question whether he was actually raised by the Kents or if his Earthly origins are different than what we’re used to. That question remains dangling at the end of this issue, which is fair enough, but I’m hoping that we return to it in the future, because so far there’s little to set The Stranger apart. 

Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Title: Who Killed the Future? 
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art & Main Cover: Hayden Sherman

I wasn’t necessarily planning to write a review of this book. After all, this column is “Superman Stuff,” not “Superman’s Friends Stuff.” But the Legion is, in many ways, as much a Superman spinoff as Supergirl, Steel, or Krypto, and I don’t hesitate to write about those. Plus, even though Superman doesn’t actually appear in this issue…well, he’s all over it.

I am on the record as saying we do not need yet another reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I am standing by that statement. But if you’re gonna do it, Joshua Williamson has found a good way in. The book begins with the murder of R.J. Brande, a name familiar to Legion fans, whose death is being investigated by the unlikely duo of Brainiac 5 and Tenzil Kem. As they search for the facts behind Brande’s death we are introduced to this version of the future: how super-heroes are outlawed, how anybody who develops super powers is required to register them with a peacekeeping force called the Persuaders, and how many people don’t believe the legendary “Superboy” ever even existed. From there, we glimpse at the lives of three very familiar super powered young people, and the shape of this story begins to come into focus.

What’s making this story work for me, along with a healthy dollop of faith in Williamson as a writer, is Garth Ranzz. We see a Lightning Lad here with a thirst to be a hero, a craving for justice, and a locker whose contents could very well have been my own. A one-page glimpse into the legend of Superboy at the beginning serves to frame his desire for a different, better world, and even in one issue that craving feels infectious. It’s going to be rough on him when this issue’s last-page revelation hits home, but I feel like he’s going to be resilient.

And that drive, that thirst seems infectious. Imra and Rokk both appear here as well, and although none of our proto-Legionnaires interact in this first issue, we get the sensation that they’re already linked, and that the threads that link them and that will draw them together go back 1000 years to the age of heroes. 

I liked this first issue very much, and I’m anxious to see how Williamson is planning to tie it into the revelations from this summer’s Superman Annual. But I don’t know if I’m planning to review every issue of this book. It’s not a Superman comic, after all. Except for in all the ways that matter. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #39: Kneel Before Zod!

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The conclusion of Kingdom of Zod drops today (assuming you read this on Sept. 30), but I won’t have time to get to the comic shop and write a review before my admittedly self-imposed deadline on this column, so it’s going to join the overall September wrapup you guys can expect next week. Today, I wanted to go back a couple of years to 2024, and the eight-issue Kneel Before Zod series written by Joe Casey with art by Dan McDaid. 

The series was touted as Zod’s first starring series, although it’s kind of unclear whether it was intended to be a miniseries or if it, like so many comic books in the modern marketplace, was structured in such a way that it could keep going if the sales permitted. Regardless, it’s one of the darkest stories in the main Superman continuity you’ll find. As the series begins, Zod has founded a “New Kandor,” a planet where he intends to restore the glory of Krypton with his wife Ursa and their son, Lor-Zod. But things fall apart almost immediately, as Zod finds himself forced to exile his child (who went off to share the Sinister Sons miniseries with Sinestro’s boy) and his new planet targeted by an alien invasion. 

The first half of this series places Zod in the unusual role of defender, trying to protect his world from the invading aliens. But Casey does it in an effective way, maintaining the general brutality and evil nature of the character. I’ve written recently (in Geek Punditry #194) about how modern media has a disturbing tendency to try to excuse villainy, something that I think is somewhat damaging to the culture as a whole. Casey doesn’t do that. Zod may be the protagonist here, but that doesn’t make him a hero. While the flashback scenes that showcase Zod’s past may help to explain the way he is today, these scenes are presented for the purpose of illumination, not justification, and that makes all the difference.

The reason I think this was probably intended to be an ongoing series is that it takes a drastic turn about halfway through, starting an entirely different storyline with Zod in space, alone, until he finds and takes command of an army of villains. It goes from a story of a man protecting his home to the origin of a sort of cosmic pirate clan, a drastically different story that feels as though it was intended to be the next stage in a longer arc that got cut short. As such, this second half of the series isn’t quite as engaging as the first, feeling less complete and more unfinished.

Dan McDaid’s artwork comes from the Keith Giffen school in many respects. The linework is detailed when need be, sparse when appropriate, and he usually incorporates the nine-panel grid that Giffed so often used. It helps with the pacing, and somehow (despite the fact that Giffen would use these techniques in silly books like Ambush Bug), McDaid’s use of it adds to the sense of menace.

I wish Casey had been given just one more arc on this book to try to tie things up more neatly. As it is, it just kind of ends, dangling Zod in space, where he remained until his reemergence following Absolute Power took him on a slow march to the story that’s happening in the Superman comics right now. There’s connective tissue here, but I feel like there was supposed to be more, and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see it all.  

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #38: An Afternoon With Zod

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With the whole “Kingdom of Zod” storyline in high gear over in the main Superman comics, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at some of the more classic General Zod storylines over the years. This proved to be troublesome, though, when I realized that most of Zod’s characterization is actually based on the movies, specifically Terrence Stamp’s portrayal of the character in the first two Christopher Reeve films. Prior to the movies, Zod was a rather generic “evil” Kryptonian from the Phantom Zone. Since the movies, he’s gained much more depth, but that depth is all based on the cinematic portrayal. What’s more, I already covered some of the best Zod storylines back in the original “Year of Superman” project.

So I turned to the New 52 era, and that month about two years in when the regular titles were given over to “decimal” issues featuring not the heroes, but rather one of their traditional foes. Essentially, they were one-shots that weren’t TECHNICALLY one-shots. So let’s take a look at that era’s version of Zod from Action Comics (Vol. 2)

Action Comics (Vol. 2) #23.2, because integers know what they did.
Title: DC Comics Unleashes Zod
Writer: Greg Pak
Art: Ken Lashley
Main Cover: Gene Ha

This quick read is less a story and more of a series of snapshots from the life of Dru-Zod, beginning in his childhood and ending with his expulsion into the Phantom Zone. There’s interesting stuff here, showing young Zod with his parents, scientists, and how a cataclysm leaves him to fend for himself. A year later, a semi-feral Zod is found by Jor-El and Zor-El and reintegrated into society, but the damage, it seems, has been done.

From there we get to what I think is this issue’s primary failure: the biggest timeskip of out of several. We go straight from lil’ Zod playing Tarzan to a fully grown adult Zod already commanding an army. The rest of the book – the bulk of the issue, in fact – is made up of exploring Zod’s rise to power as a military leader on Krypton. Pak’s story is fine and Lashley’s art is great, but this is an era of Zod that has been covered extensively over the years. There are lots of different stories about “General” Zod, both before and after Krypton’s destruction. And look, I get it, the point of this issue was specifically to detail the history of the New 52 version of Zod. Technically speaking, it was uncharted territory. But is it really uncharted if you’re following a course set by people who just got there in a different way? What I’m getting at is that I wish Pak had spent more time in those in-between years, because the first two scenes of the book are some of the most interesting. We’re very used to seeing Zod as a fascist, a sociopath, and all of the other things that make him one of Superman’s most memorable villains. This is one of the few glimpses of him BEFORE that.

That said, the glimpse is pretty good. Those few scenes at the beginning are bookended with a flashback at the climax of the book, showing us the fate of Zod’s father that had previously been skipped over, and it’s a harrowing moment. It’s more demonstrative of who and what Zod is than any of the military stuff in the rest of the book. I don’t think this particular version of Zod is in continuity anymore (much of the New 52 stuff is of dubious canonicity at best), but either way I think there’s room to explore here.

Alas, explore they did not.

I think there’s room to pick at Zod a little more, though. In 2024, Joe Casey came in with an eight-issue series called Kneel Before Zod, which is far more relevant to what’s happening in the Superman books right now. I haven’t read that one since it first came out, and it feels like maybe next week would be a good time to go back and do that again.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #37: Superman Shelves-The Funko Edition Part I

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In this day and age, if you collect anything related to pop culture, it’s almost inevitable that you’re going to wind up with some Funko Pops in your collection. Some people like to be derisive about them, others call them “Millennial Beanie Babies,” but the simple truth is that if it’s not something that hurts anybody, then whining about it says more about the person doing the whining than anything else. What I like about Funko is the fact that they cover such an incredibly diverse array of properties and characters all in the same line. When I was a kid, I was the sort who liked to mix and mash his action figures and make my own crossovers, and it always kinda bugged me that so many of them were in such vastly different scales from one another. Sure, G.I. Joe could interact with the Star Wars characters easily enough, but having them meet He-Man made it seem like the “Power of Grayskull” was nothing more than a massive overdose of steroids. Super Friends was a little better, although it always bugged me that Robin was taller than Snake-Eyes. And working in the Thundercats? The stuff of nightmares.

With Funko, though, any character from any universe is in the same scale as any other, and I admit, that’s what made me a fan. In recent years I’ve pulled back on collecting them just because of the sheer volume, but I still try to get my hands on any Superman or Superman-related characters I can find. It’s going to take a few posts to get through them all, so I’m going to start today with some of the more standard Superman figures in my collection.These are just the Funko Pops I’ve got of your basic Superman. You wouldn’t think one would need too many of those. You would be wrong. 

On this first row, we’re going to start with a sort of archetypical Superman. This was one of the first Superman Funkos ever produced, and I actually wound up with several of these in my possession when the TV show Krypton debuted. Prior to the beginning of the show there was a week-long trivia competition similar to the defunct HQ Trivia app with a cash prize each night and several runner-up prizes. I never won the top prize, but I got runner up multiple times, and each time I got the same package including a World of Krypton graphic novel, t-shirt that didn’t fit me, charging bank that looked like a Kryptonian crystal, and one of these Funko pops. I gave a couple to friends, one is in Eddie’s toys, and I kept one at home and one at work. Anyway, next to him is a figure labelled “Classic” Superman in our favorite “hands on hips” pose, and to the right is a “First Appearance” Superman, based on how the character was designed in Action Comics #1.

Speaking of Action Comics #1, that was also the subject of this Funko Pop Comic Cover figure. The s-shield is slightly different, as aficionados would be quick to point out. While I’m on the subject of oversized figures, there’s also this Clark Kent popping out of a phone booth, and the jumbo 12-inch Funko next to him. I believe there’s a variant of the jumbo figure with red eyes, like he’s using his heat vision, but I don’t have that one.

Here we have figures based on specific comics or scenes, starting with another Clark Kent in mid-transformation. That “Superman Pose” with the shirt being pulled open to reveal the S-shield is a classic for a reason. Next to him is a Superman based on Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. You can tell by the grimace. It’s not my favorite depiction of Superman, to be honest, but I do love having him on the shelf. I’m more enamored of the next one, Superman bursting chains in a tribute to the classic Neal Adams cover to Superman #233.

Some more story-specific figures here. We’ve got a Superman based on Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come, which of course is one of the greatest Superman stories of all time. Next to him is the bearded, black suit Superman from the 2015 Lois and Clark miniseries by Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks. I love this design, possibly because it’s just from such a great story, but I also think that the black suit and beard combo work well. And next I’ve got two versions of the holiday Superman: a full-size Funko and a miniature version that came from a DC Advent Calendar a few years back.

I call this next row the 90s Trilogy. In the middle we’ve got long-hair Superman, based on his appearance after the Death and Return of Superman. I’ve got him flanked by the versions of Superman from the story that came right after he finally got a haircut: Superman-Blue and Superman-Red. I just feel like these three all belong together, they’re so “of an era,” y’know?

I’ll close off this part of the tour with a few color variations. First up there’s a nice little Black and White Superman. This is not the only Black and White figure in the collection, but some of the others will appear best in other sets. Pink Superman was part of a line of figures released for breast cancer awareness, and on the other side is the Blackest Night version of Superman from that classic scene in which he, and other heroes who had died and been resurrected over the years, were transformed into Black Lanterns. If you’ve never read that series, why not? It’s great.

As I said, this is just the first of several Funko shelves. In future installments we’ll look at alternate versions of Superman, versions from other media, and of course, his friends and foes. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #36: Checking In With Peter David’s Supergirl

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Back in June, just before the Supergirl movie dropped, I devoted a column to the first few issues of the longest-running series the girl of steel has had to date: Peter David’s 80-issue run from 1996 through 2003. At the time, I talked about the first five issues of the series, as well as the prologue short story from Showcase ‘96. Since then, I’ve been working issues of the series in my regular rotation of re-reads, and this week I wanted to check in on the series so far.

At this point, I’ve gotten through the first 24 issues of the series, along with its two annuals and the two issues of Resurrection Man that the title crossed over with in 1998. This is the first time I’ve read most of these issues since they first came out nearly 30 years ago, which is an appalling number that whoever is in charge of time should be immediately apologizing to me for. I find that, while I remember most of the broad strokes, it’s the little things that I’m really getting into this time around.

For example, the broad strokes in question include the fact that Peter David’s Supergirl is what’s called an “Earth-Bound Angel,” a sort of heavenly being that is created when someone who is utterly unselfish sacrifices themself to save the life of someone beyond redemption. In this case, the former is Supergirl (the Matrix version) and the latter is Leesburg resident Linda Danvers. The Earth-Bound Angel is created by fusing the two of them into a single being. Much of the story comes from Linda, whose past is far dirtier than you usually expect from a member of the Superman family, trying to navigate the fact that she’s now cast into the role of a hero, and attempting to reconcile two sets of memories that have become one.

This much I remember. The stuff I didn’t remember is where the book really shines: the conflict between Linda and her parents, particularly her mother, who struggles with the knowledge that her child has been irrevocably transformed, for example. Or the surprisingly large presence that Jonathan and Martha Kent have in these issues – surprising inasmuch as I didn’t remember them being in it quite so often, not surprising that they would want to take care of “Mae,” whom they raised as a daughter. 

I’d forgotten a lot of the supporting cast as well. I remembered the demonic Buzz and the bizarre reboot of Comet (the Silver Age “Superhorse”), but I had forgotten characters like Linda’s struggling journalist pal Cutter, his ex-wife Andrea (who winds up with a crush on Linda), Linda’s best friend Mattie Harcourt, and the odd little boy named Wally who claims to be God and who, frankly, you struggle trying to argue with. Peter David had an uncanny knack for bringing in societal concepts and big ideas, concepts that were hot button topics at the time (and in some cases, still are today), and approaching them in a way that treats them as components of a story rather than an effort to make any sort of statement on the writer’s part. While one can probably figure out David’s political and spiritual beliefs with a deep enough reading of his work, that’s always subtext, and he never comes across as though he’s standing on a soapbox.

What’s more, David does all of this while dodging and navigating one DC “event” intruding into his story after another. Issue #3 was part of the Final Night crossover, then issue #14 was interrupted for Genesis (and believe me, that’s the kindest word to use for Genesis), and in issue #20 Supergirl had to leave town to help Superman deal with the Millennium Giants in his own titles. Some writers allow their book to be derailed entirely, while others give a crossover only the cursory acknowledgement and then ignore the fact that the sky has turned red. David is one of the few who really succeeded in striking a balance. In all of these issues, while Supergirl is dealing with the larger threats that are encompassing the DC Universe, we see the excellent supporting cast handling the trauma on their own, with lasting repercussions for the ongoing storyline that make these issues feel relevant and not just a bump in the road.

It’s also worth noting that original artist Gary Frank left the book less than a year into his run, making way for the man who partnered with David for most of the series, Leonard Kirk. And with all due respect to Frank, I think it was a change for the better. Gary Frank comes from a very highly detailed school of art, which is all well and good, but David uses a softer line and a more classic school of character design, without ever giving up the ability of the characters to emote or “act” on the page.

A little more than a quarter of the way through David’s run, and I’m enjoying it thoroughly. With the news that Sophie Campbell intends to bring back the Matrix Supergirl in the current run of the series, I can only hope she’s studied these issues intently, because there’s a lot of gold to be mined here. I’ll check in again later, maybe once I round issue #50. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #35: August Reviews

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It’s time once again for a healthy helpin’ of reviews. Here are most (if not all) of the Superman-related comics that hit the stands in August, including the first half of the epic crossover event Kingdom of Zod!

Absolute Superman #22
Title: Get Brainiac Part One: Metallo
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Juan Ferreyra
Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola

Don’t you just love how DC stamps “A New Story Stars Here!” on the cover any time a new story is starting in an Absolute book? It’s a grand practice and I wish they’d implement it across the line. And with a book like this one, it’s almost a necessity. Even someone who reads the book each month like me might be a tad confused without that label there, because the story leaps right into the action feet-first. As the story begins, Superman is in Argentina facing off against a brutal, powerful cyborg that we soon learn (in case you didn’t guess it from the title of this issue) is the Absolute Universe version of Metallo. But as befits the Absolute line, although Metallo is familiar in many ways, when Superman gets a peek beneath the helmet, the face underneath turns out to be a very unexpected one.

The Absolute books, in my opinion, always are at their most interesting when they take the formula of the regular DC Universe and give it a twist, rather than those parts where they go off and do their own thing entirely, kind of like how Ra’s Al Ghul has been an arch-foe for Superman instead of Batman. Metallo is somewhat similar in that respect. Although the basic concept of a man rebuilt into a cyborg and sent off to fight Superman is intact, the man beneath the mask is a surprise and puts a very different spin on the dynamic between him and our hero. 

Jason Aaron and artist Juan Ferreyra give us other twists as well. The flashback scene where we see Brainiac breathing life into this Metallo, for example, plays less like a scene from a superhero comic book and more like a segment of a horror movie. The darkness in certain corners of this world is so severe that it makes Superman stand apart all the more whenever he lets his light shine through. 

I like some of the ways Ferreyra plays with the layout in this issue as well. There’s a two-page spread, for instance, of Superman and Metallo clashing with one another in outline, the panels appearing in the shapes of their bodies to tell the story. It helps not only make the pages stand out, but improves the pacing as Superman tries (in true Superman fashion) to attempt a dialogue with Metallo before either of them winds up beating the other to death. The last couple of pages are a nice emotional capper on the episode, and leave you with all the questions you need about where the rest of this storyline is going to take us.

Adventures of Superman: Book of El #11
Title: The Garden of the Promethean Giants
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Art & Main Cover: Scott Godlewski

As we spiral into the final battle between the forces of Kryx-Ul and the heroes of the House of El, Superman finds a new ally, and in the way only Superman can, he tries to reach out to his enemy before it’s too late.

The frustrating thing here is that, after 10 issues that I’ve felt were somewhat lackluster, this penultimate chapter is the first one that I’ve actually found engaging. Maybe it’s a Lord of the Rings thing, but I’ve always had an affinity for scenes of our heroes girding for the “final battle” (as is promised on the cover), getting ready to fight for their lives, preparing to face impossible odds. When it’s done well, I often find it to be the most inspiring part of the whole story, and it’s the kind of thing that really stirs up the emotions just when you want them stirred up the most.

I also like how Johnson brought the story back around to Otho and Osul-Ra, although I’m more worried than ever that if there’s to be any lasting repercussions from this series, it’s going to be to shunt those two off to comic book limbo. It would be a shame to take them off the table, but as Johnson is the one who brought them into the mythos in the first place, it seems like he’s being the one that’s gearing up to put them off to the side. 

I do feel like I’ve been harsh on this series, and although I do my best to be fair in these reviews, I don’t know if I’ve entirely succeeded here. This is a series that almost certainly will read better in its collected form than it has one chapter at a time (not unlike Kennedy’s original run on Action Comics, with the Warworld story that preceded this one). After it’s all said and done, I do intend to take a little time off then come back and read it as a whole to see if that improves my attitude towards the series. And if it does, I promise I’ll tell you all about it.

If it doesn’t, I’ll just keep my mouth shut. 

Supergirl: Survive #3
Writers: Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan
Art & Main Cover: Rod Reis

Having escaped the destruction of Krypton, Kara and little Kal-El have been recovered by representatives of the Lantern Corps, a peacekeeping organization made up (in this universe) of agents of all the different colors of the emotional spectrum. When Kara learns that the Lanterns plan to take the two of them to a place called Oa, she and Kal-El escape again, taking with them the means to recreate their home.

There’s a lot of good in this issue. Kara’s attempt at protecting Kal-El is pretty clever, and very much in keeping with the sort of solution a teenage girl would come up with in these circumstances. That said, there are limitations inherent in her plan, and Parker and Sheridan do a nice job of addressing them. We also get introduced to a new player in this issue, a different take on a classic Superman character that seems primed to play a larger part in this story. The Guardians’ interest in the Els is also intriguing. There seems to be an obvious logic behind what they’ve got in mind, particularly considering that the Lanterns were ordered to keep them away from yellow suns, but there’s definitely room for the story to throw us a curve ball.

The timeline is slightly confusing here. There are a few pages of time skips and the narration doesn’t help with keeping track of it, despite there being captions telling us how much time has progressed since “K-Day.” To be fair, the problem isn’t that it’s hard to figure out what order things are happening in, but things clearly happen within those time skips that I feel should have been addressed more directly. I’m not the kind of reader who demands that every single detail be spelled out, and a little mystery could be fun, but the combination of the elements here makes this a bit more perplexing than they need to be.

Rod Reis’ artwork is really sublime. If you look at that cover there, of a Blue Lantern Kara surrounded by…well, you can read what she’s surrounded by yourself. But it looks phenomenal, and with a huge chunk of the issue taking place in this environment, it’s really impressive that the all-blue world feels dynamic and engaging rather than monotonous. Overall, this book has been highly enjoyable. 

Superman: Father of Tomorrow #4
Title: Vexed
Writer: Kenny Porter
Art & Main Cover: Danny Earls & Nick Filardi

After an encounter with Batman and Robin in Gotham City, Superman (Jor-El in this continuity, remember) finds himself facing unexpected adversaries in the American government. Lex Luthor, meanwhile, continues to pillage this universe’s magic users, bringing him into conflict with John Constantine.

I continue to have a complicated relationship with this story. On the one hand, I really like the world-building. Kenny Porter has done an incredible job extrapolating an Earth that has access to Kryptonian technology, and the differences and variations on the familiar DC characters is well-done. I particularly like his characterization of Lex Luthor, drawing on magic in this world to fuel his battle against Superman. Considering that magic is one of Superman’s few recognized weaknesses, it’s actually pretty surprising that the mainstream Lex hasn’t tried this sort of thing.

The motivations still lack authenticity, though. It’s a little better this issue than last, where the world seemed to turn against Superman for no reason. Here, we at least see that Batman is skeptical of Jor-El’s “gifts” because he doesn’t believe that humankind is ready for the responsibility that having such advanced technology will bring to them, an idea that is punctuated by a clever tie-in to his origin. The villains, though – Sam Lane in particular – seem to fall into the old stale “Villain doesn’t trust aliens” plot, up to and including doctoring footage to make the hero seem like the bad guy. It’s a cliche that we’ve seen far too often, and without an interesting twist on it, I don’t really need to see it again. It doesn’t help that the narrative still doesn’t seem to have decided if we, the reader, are supposed to be on Jor-El’s side or not. Hopefully we’ll have an answer to that before this Elseworlds wraps up.  

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #54
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Bruno Frenda
Main Cover: Dan Mora

It’s the kind of wild, wooly tale that only Mark Waid can tell, and of course, it begins with the threat of nuclear war. The two countries of Qurac and Bialya stand poised to annihilate one another, and the cries of the damned have grown so powerful that the demon Neron is empowered to act. Abducting a squad of DC’s finest heroes – including, of course, Superman, Batman, and Robin – Neron puts together perdition’s first ever game of baseball. It’s heroes versus demons, and if the heroes lose, the war will be allowed to grow and take over the entire world.

It’s an insane kind of story with a very silver age sort of flavor to it. But Mark Waid being Mark Waid, he takes this ludicrous premise and uses it to tell a nice little character story. Superman is dismayed to find a baseball player he’d idolized in his youth is among the denizens of hell, and he reaches out the way that only Superman can. Hell may be a nasty place, but Waid convincingly makes us believe that Superman can make it better, even there.

I do have some continuity questions, which I know is kind of silly all things considered, but it’s the kind of thing that makes me wonder just how much DC’s history has been juggled around. Neron’s first appearance was in the Underworld Unleashed miniseries, also written by Mark Waid. In that series, it was clearly Neron’s first encounter with DC’s heroes. In this story, which is clearly set before that crossover (as evidenced by the fact that Dick Grayson isn’t Nightwing yet), they’ve obviously encountered them before. Normally I’d be questioning why nobody is paying attention to that sort of little continuity snarl, but it’s Mark Waid. He literally rewrote DC’s history last year. If he’s decided that their first meeting with Neron was earlier than Underworld Unleashed, who am I to judge?

Supergirl #16
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part One
Writer: Sophie Campbell
Art: Joe Quinones & Paulo Villanelli
Main Cover: Guillem March

Kingdom of Zod, the two-month Superman family crossover event, begins here. Picking up immediately from the prologue in last month’s Action Comics #1100, Lois has summoned the Superman family together to investigate the new regime that has taken over the Kryptonite-rich country of El Caldero. Things are off to a rough start, though: although Superboy-Prime has been going through a redemption arc (and succeeding quite well, I have to say), Conner Kent hasn’t forgotten the fact that Prime killed him once, and the two young Superboys butt heads at the worst possible time. The team to investigate El Caldero is assembled, and since some non-Kryptonian operatives are going to come in handy when it comes to infiltrating a country whose riches are based on a literal mountain of Kryptonite, Supergirl summons her pals in the Super Force to lend a hand.

Incorporating an ongoing series into any sort of crossover always requires something of a balancing act, and Campbell’s story deftly walks that tightrope. The story advances the various plots that have been percolating in the assorted Superman titles for months now, primarily the El Caldero storyline from Superman Unlimited, but Campbell hasn’t abandoned the stuff that has made Supergirl fun to read on its own. Incorporating the Super Force doesn’t feel tacked-on or superfluous here, but rather like Supergirl is bringing in her friends because they serve a legitimate purpose in the story. I also quite like the direction Kara’s character is taking. Although the readers know that the missing Superman was found in the aforementioned Action #1100, the Superman Family does NOT, and Kara feels the weight of having to step into her cousin’s boots as leader of this informal team. It’s a good look for her, and Campbell gives it the appropriate amount of emotional weight without tipping into angst the way some writers would take it.

I can’t say as many good things about the artwork, however. Joe Quinones, whose work I quite enjoy, splits the art chores with Paulo Villanelli, whose work I’m sorry to say I find somewhat lacking. Not only Villanelli’s pages not as sharp as Quinones’, but the styles clash in an unpleasant way. I’m sure that a lot of extra hands jumped in to complete this storyline sandwiched between the giant Action #1100 and the one-shot Kingdom of Zod Special from next month that will serve as the bookends for this storyline, but I wish the artwork in this opening salvo had been a bit more consistent.

Action Comics #1101
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Two
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Montos
Main Cover: Guillem March

In part two of the big event, the time-tossed Justice League team of J’onn J’onzz, Mary Marvel, and Booster Gold have recovered Superman from the timestream with the help of a Superboy plucked from Clark Kent’s youth. They don’t even have time to catch their breath, though, before they return to a present-day where the Superman family is invading an El Caldero controlled by Zod. As Supergirl’s friends take to the fight, Zod tries to interrogate a captive Lois Lane, but her sheer determination proves that even without the powers she inadvertently took from him, she’s still got a lot of Superwoman in her.

The Zod/Lois scenes are hands-down the crown jewel of this issue. He’s flailing around in rage as she – even while bound and technically at his mercy – expertly prods and antagonizes him into spewing his whole supervillain plan without it coming across as an Incredibles-style monologue cliche. Honestly, how has there never been a story about Lois becoming a Green Lantern yet? Even an Elseworlds?

I would have thought that the mystery of Superman’s time traveling had ended with his return and last month’s exploration of where he’s been in this year’s Superman Annual, but it turns out there’s still more to consider here: namely, why doesn’t he remember this adventure from when HE was Superboy? Waid doesn’t answer the question, but shines enough of a light on it for the reader to be confident that we’re going to come back around to this, and it’s going to be important.

Like the Supergirl issue, the artwork here is the weak point. It’s a darker, less clean look than we’re used to with the Superman titles, and it’s a style that doesn’t particularly suit these characters. Looking ahead, it doesn’t appear as though the regular Superman art teams are playing a big part in this crossover, and that’s a disappointment, because the writing deserves better. 

Superman Unlimited #16
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Three
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Rachael Stott
Main Cover: Guillem March

Part Three finally gives me what I’ve been waiting for: Superman for real back in the game. Even as El Caldero is exploding with Kryptonite, and even while the Kryptonite Plague is beginning to affect his non-Kryptonian allies, Superman does what Superman does best and finds a way to fight back against Zod’s regime. 

This issue isn’t entirely about Superman, though, showing that this is a conflict that’s grown to a global scale. Dan Slott allows us to check in on all of our heroes across the planet as we see what’s going on, including the first meeting between our time-lost Superboy Clark and his cousin Kara. It’s a lovely moment that really ratchets up the emotion here, as we see a teen Clark’s reaction to learning he ISN’T the last Kryptonian. Similarly, Superman’s reunion with Lois and Jon is a fantastic moment. It’s quick, and it’s funny, and it plays perfectly into the personalities of all three of them. Rather than wring it out for emotion the way we’ve seen (for example) when Superman came back from the dead, there’s a quick acknowledgement from each of them that they’re together again, with the underlying message being that not a one of the Kent family ever doubted that this moment was going to come.

I make have spoken too soon about the artwork in this crossover. Rachael Stott isn’t the regular artist on this title, but she’s good enough to be. This is the kind of clean, energetic artwork that the last two issues were lacking, with some wonderful “acting” on the faces of our characters that help to build on the foundation of the script, the way good artwork is supposed to do. Just fantastic. I look forward to seeing more from her.

Superman #41
Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Four
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Eddy Barrows
Main Cover: Guillem March

Superman #41 is the last chapter of the crossover for this month, and holy CRAP, does Joshua Williamson throw us some curveballs as we go into halftime! The first half of the issue is concerned with the fight between a depowered Superman and a fully-charged Zod, and it’s as rough and brutal a fight between the two of them. The back half returns to the B-plot about Zod trying to use the Krypytonian technology to resurrect his wife, Ursa, and…well, I don’t want to go any further, but there are at minimum three moments in this issue that made me go, “WHAT?” This chapter takes things into an entirely different and unexpected direction, and once more the pieces on the board have been tossed all over the place.

Eddy Barrows, who HAS worked on this title in the past, is back on board for the artwork, and it’s just as good as Stott’s was on Part Three. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the problems I had with the first two chapters are resolved when we loop back around to Supergirl and Action Comics in September.

What I really am enjoying about this crossover in general is that, even though it’s a Superman story, it’s more of an ensemble piece. Kara, Conner, Prime, Lois, Jon – every one of them is playing a major role here. Secondary characters like Steel, Lana Lang, and the time travelling Justice League trio may not be showing up on every page, but their contributions are significant. This is a remarkably well-balanced storyline, keeping everybody in play and giving everybody something important to do. I’m enjoying the hell out of it.

Fingers crossed I’ll be saying the same thing in next month’s recap. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #34: Super Friends-The Death of Superman

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An intriguing side-effect of having children is that your sick days at work are more likely to be used to take care of the kid when HE’S sick than saved for yourself. Such was the case earlier this week when my son came down with a nasty stomach bug that sidelined him and had me calling in to take care of him. But on the plus side, in his illness all he wanted to do was lie around watching MeTV Toons, including Super Friends, which is how I happened to rewatch, for the first time in decades, the 1985 final-season episode “The Death of Superman.” 

You have to admit, he’s looked better.

The final season of the show was titled The Super Power Team: Galactic Guardians, as a tie-in to the then-running Super Powers toy line, and as such most of the characters were characters who had action figures in the line, including the then-new DC hero Firestorm, who is actually the focal character of this episode. It begins in medias res (just like all great children’s entertainment), with the world mourning the shocking death of the Man of Steel. There was a massive funeral procession, ceremonies at the United Nations, and people wearing black armbands just as they would when DC Comics would kill him “for real” seven years later. In fact, I’m wondering now if they were deliberately invoking this episode when the comic book storyline was planned.

Everyone is naturally distraught over Superman’s death, but no one more so than the Super Powers Team’s newest member, Firestorm, who considers himself personally responsible. Firestorm is captured by Darkseid (the Big Bad for the final two seasons) who purges the young hero’s memory of Superman’s death. The two of them were on a mission in space where Superman was seeking minerals to cure Kryptonite poisoning, but Firestorm was distracted and, upon returning to his partner, found Superman dead of exposure to a Kryptonite meteor that Firestorm could have saved him from had he listened to Superman and stayed where he was supposed to be. As Darkseid plans an assault on the heroes, Batman and some of the others go to the Fortress of Solitude, where a Superman robot reveals that Superman had the ability to place himself into a trance to stay alive while being afflicted by Kryptonite poisoning. Hawkman recognizes the posture of the trance as being the same way he was found lying by Firestorm, meaning that he placed himself in the trance and there’s still a chance to save him. The Super Friends recover Superman’s body and revive him just in time to return and save the team from Darkseid, who goes fleeing back to Apokalips.

I have this same reaction any time the McRib goes away again.

This final season episode suffered from the same limited animation as most Hanna-Barbera cartoons (especially of the 80s). Not all of the voice acting is great either, with Darkseid sounding more like Toast from Histeria! than an actual menace. On the plus side, this was the era where they had Adam West voicing Batman, which was kind of cool, and Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois as Desaad was a treat. But the real surprise of the episode was the way they told the story. The world was legitimately mourning. Firestorm was an absolute WRECK. I watched this show faithfully as a child, and I have vague memories of this episode from back then, but I was surprised at just how DARK it was.

For all the silliness and camp that the Super Friends shows had, I’m actually impressed that with this episode (the second-to-last of the entire series, it should be noted) they told a real story with real emotional stakes. The ending is still a little pat, a little too easy to come by, but they did more with this than they did with 99 percent of the preceding Super Friends episodes, and that is greatly appreciated. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #33: Blake’s Superman Shelves-Fast Food Friends

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Once again, we’re returning to the Superman Shelves for a peek at just a few of the many, many items filling my collection. One of my favorite subcategories of collectibles is fast food toys. There have been so many different fast food collections over the years, and some of them are far more random than you get in a typical action figure line. You don’t just see action figures, but other sorts of oddities as well. It makes for really weird, different things. (The same thing goes for cereal box toys, it should be noted, but I don’t currently have any Superman-related cereal toys. I’m not even sure if there have been any. If you know of any, let me know.)

I should point out here that none of the Fast Food Friends I’m about to share with you are things that I got firsthand, pulling them out of a Happy Meal Box, although the last one is an eBay replacement for one that I pulled as a child. Most of these came through eBay, from a secondary seller like at a convention, or as a gift. But the fact that they got their start in a cardboard box nestled between a cheeseburger and a sleeve of french fries makes them a little special to me. I’m going to go in reverse order of the most recent toy to be released to the oldest.

“What does God…need…with a starship?” –William Shatner, upon seeing these toys

We’re starting with these two, Superman and Supergirl from Wendy’s “DC Rides” line from earlier this year. (You’ve seen the Supergirl before when I shared “Supergirl Stuff” right before the movie came out, but this is the proper category, so let’s look at her again.) The DC Rides were a cool little line, with figures for five heroes and a “mirror” villain, each with some sort of vehicle or power suit. The line included Green Lantern/Sinestro, Batman/Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, Flash and Reverse Flash, and Superman and Supergirl with their respective Bizarro counterparts. At some point I’d like to add the Bizarros to my collection as well, but one thing at a time.

This next set also came from Wendy’s, this time last year. They’ve twice done these lines of DC Comics miniature figures, which come in packs of three. The three-packs include related characters (usually two heroes and a villain) and mini trading cards as well, and the different figures are also available in multiple colors, which means that collecting the entire set gets particularly difficult if you’re trying to get all the variants. I was satisfied with just the “red” set of Superman, Supergirl, and Lex Luthor. I really like this series, though – the size of the figures and the solid color blocks remind me of the M.U.S.C.L.E. Things toys of my youth, which was a series I had seemingly hundreds of.

The last of the “recent” toys in my collection are this Superman and Supergirl from a Burger King series of DC Heroes that came out two or three years ago. I didn’t know that these even existed until my family stopped at Burger King on a vacation and my son pulled out a Superman figure from his kids’ meal bag. (My son, I should note, is a godsend when it comes to learning about these things. He’s got a very diverse palette – he will eat the chicken nuggets and french fries from virtually any restaurant you can name.) I want to note that I did NOT abscond with Eddie’s Superman figure and put it on my shelf. I am not the kind of father who would ever do such a thing. No, I got these two figures the same way I got the Wendy’s figures I’ve already showed you: eBay. 

Moving WAY back in time, we’re going all the way to my college years and this hanger based (I THINK) on Superman from the Justice League cartoon. I know it originally came from Subway, because a friend of mine who had a much smaller appetite than I did and always got the kids’ meals with the small, round sandwiches pulled this toy and gave it to me, aware of my appreciation of Superman. The original hanger dangled from the rearview mirror in my car for many, many years until the colors were completely warped and the S-shield sticker was bleached to the point of almost being blank. Years later at a convention, I happened to come across a seller with a whole bin full of the things that he was selling for just a few dollars, so I bought a pristine replacement. This guy now stays inside, out of the sun.

From Superman: The Animated Series, this Daily Planet figure is probably the Fast Food item that’s been in my collection the longest. It’s two pieces: the building, and the flying Superman figure, which balances on the top of the building via a precarious pin-shape in his chin. You can spin him around and when it wiggles, it creates a sort of “hovering” illusion. I like this one.

Finally, many years ago McDonald’s did a series of Looney Tunes figures with snap-on superhero costumes. The set included Daffy Duck as Batman, the Tasmanian Devil as the Flash, Petunia Pig as Wonder Woman (I assume because she was the most prominent female Looney Tunes character at the time except perhaps for Granny, and nobody wants to see her in a Wonder Woman bathing suit – were this series to be remade today Petunia would absolutely be replaced by Lola Bunny), and of course, Bugs Bunny as Superman. I had some of these toys as a kid, and a couple of years ago in a fit of nostalgia I got a set of the four of them pretty cheap on…say it with me now…eBay.

Of all the categories of my Superman collections, this is the one I most frequently feel the need to expand upon. Supergirl had a series of KFC figures that coincided with the movie, and I haven’t gotten my hands on any of those yet. And that Daily Planet figure was part of an entire line of Superman: TAS toys, of which I don’t have any of the others. I feel periodically that I should try to amend that, and see what else is out there. There are more, I am 100 percent certain of that, that I could hunt down if the urge took me. Fortunately, we live in a time period where doing such things are easier than they used to be…even if the expense sometimes shuts us out of getting all of the things we’d want. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #32: 1971 All Over Again

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This weekend was the annual Nola Comic-Con, a small, local show that I enjoy going to whenever I can. It doesn’t always land at the right time in the schedule, but this year my wife happened to have the day off, so we headed out together. And naturally, I grabbed a few Superman family books from the bargain bins. Coincidentally, these two are both from 1971. It’s like it was fate or something. 

Superboy #173
Title: The Super-Clark of Smallville
Writer: Leo Dorfman
Art: Bob Brown & Dick Giordano
Cover: Neal Adams

The story begins with Clark helping Lana Lang and her archaeologist father open up an ancient jar that is rumored to constrain a small amount of ambrosia, the food of the gods of ancient Greece. Professor Lang’s experiments somehow cause an explosion, knocking him out. Clark leaps to save him, but in his haste, neglects to switch to his Superboy costume. When Lana sees him using his powers with her own eyes, she immediately realizes she’s been right all this time – Clark IS Superboy!

Then, even FASTER, she jumps to a totally DIFFERENT conclusion: that Clark ate some of the ambrosia, and it gave him the powers of the gods!

Lana, I love you, but come on.

Clark plays along with Lana’s absurd assumption in order to protect his secret, so she whips up the ugliest costume in superhero history and starts parading him around Smallville. Within seconds, the citizenry have embraced Clark as their new hero, having him do any menial task they can find for him and trash-talking Superboy. When an actual emergency happens, Clark relishes the chance to slip away and do some REAL Superboy stuff, but as he’s out of town, Lex Luthor comes striding back in. Lex shows up just in time to see the Smallvillians tear down their statue of Superboy and replace it with one of Super-Clark (this is the most fickle town in the history of history), and Lex vows to vanquish Clark as well…but Superboy first. 

As Superboy returns to town he confronts Luthor, who hits him with a ray that steals his powers! It’s all over, right? Nah, because as luck would have it, Superboy happens to stumble upon a bit of REAL Greek ambrosia! He eats it and uses his new godlike powers to beat Lex. Then, once his magic powers are gone and his Kryptonian might restored, Clark tells the townspeople the ambrosia wore off and Lana goes right back to telling him how lame he is.

There are a lot of screwy Superman stories from this time period, but I gotta tell ya, this one is next-level. That the people of Smallville with toss Superboy out so quickly feels utterly ridiculous and frankly makes the entire town look bad. Lana comes across even worse. She plants a big kiss on Super-Clark, leads the whole “Who needs Superboy?” movement, but she’s STILL the first to say “Thank Heavens we still have Superboy” when “Clark’s powers” go away. What did she expect, he could just keep magic ambrosia powers through sheer force of manliness? 

The only person in this story who’s even remotely effective is Lex Luthor, who does in fact invent a device that takes Superboy’s powers, but doesn’t even realize it – in fact, when Superboy starts doing things like throwing around the lightning of Zeus, Lex thinks he somehow gave Superboy EXTRA powers. 

Everybody in this story is the stupidest person in Smallville, is my point.

Superboy comes across looking a lot better in this issue’s back-up story, “Trust Me Or Kill Me” by Cary Bates, with art by George Tuska. In this Legion of Super-Heroes story, most of the Legion is on their way to a medico-asteroid (that’s a thing, kids) to get vaccinated against a virus that’s contaminating Earth. Cosmic Boy, having had the disease as a child, is the only immune Legionnaire and is left holding down the fort alone, until a mirror duplicate of himself pops out and starts a fight. Cos summons Superboy from the past, hoping that he can determine which of the two is the real Cosmic Boy, and they learn the whole thing is a scheme from the Legion’s old foe, the sorcerer Mordru. Superboy has only until the rest of the Legion returns to determine which of the two is the real Cosmic Boy, or the fake will destroy the Legion.

That Mordru is pretty confident, isn’t he? In fact, he’s SO confident that he promises to leave (for now) is Superboy can figure out which one is the bona fide Legionnaire. Fortunately for the people of the 30th Century, Cary Bates writes Superboy as much more intelligent than Leo Dorfman: after a few tests fail to prove which of them is the genuine article, Superboy comes up with a quick test, hurling iron boulders at them to see who has the magnetic powers to repel them. When one of them fails, Superboy declares HIM the true Cosmic Boy, as the “iron” boulders are really plastic, unaffected by the real hero, but repelled by the fake’s magic powers.

If only Superboy was always the smart one, huh?

Adventure Comics #408
Title: The Face at the Window
Writer, Pencils, and Cover: Mike Sekowsky
Inks: Henry Scarpelli

In the 70s, Linda Danvers bounced from city and city and job to job pretty frequently, as the writers didn’t seem to really know what to do with her. This issue is set during a brief time when she was working as a journalist. As she and her team film some old homes for a documentary, they wind up being run off a spooky old property by an old man with a shotgun. Before they flee, though, Linda spies a little girl in the window of the house. That night Supergirl returns – as does her rival reporter Nasthalthia Luthor. That’s right, Lex’s niece, who they actually called “Nasty.” The little girl appears to Supergirl, telling her that her parents are inside the house as well.

If you’ve ever told stories around a campfire you can probably figure out where this is going. Supergirl uncovers the old man’s dark secret and the literal skeletons in his closet, and in the end, finds that the girl who summoned her in the first place isn’t with us anymore either.

It’s spoooooky.

Supergirl gets a second story in this issue, “Invasion of the Mer-Men.” Linda and her co-worker, Johnny, are enjoying a day at the beach when they’re suddenly attacked by aliens wearing bubble helmets full of water. Linda dashes off to change into Supergirl (she couldn’t very well wear her costume under her bikini), but when she returns she finds that Johnny has been taken by the aliens. What’s worse, for a few issues now her powers had been cutting out at inopportune times, and when she tries to make chase, they die on her again. As her co-workers begin diving in a search for Johnny (feels like this should be a job for the Coast Guard, but whatever), Supergirl goes to Kandor to get some implants to allow her to breathe underwater. The aliens, meanwhile, show up at a conclave of scientists and announce that they’re stealing Earth’s water, because they need it more than we do. And with that announcement from what I assume are primitive AI bros, the story ends on a cliffhanger.

It was a glorious time, the 70s.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #31: July Reviews

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It’s time once again for a healthy helpin’ of reviews. Here are most (if not all) of the Superman-related comics that hit the stands in July, beginning with an anniversary special.

Action Comics #1100
Title: Mission Failure/Superman Meets Superboy (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writers: Mark Waid & Joshua Williamson
Art: Skylar Patridge, Ryan Sook, & Daniel Sampere
Main Cover: Ryan Sook

Action Comics turns the big 1-1-0-0, and it doesn’t look a day over 872. But the Reign of the Superboys continues here with Clark “Superboy” Kent facing the time-travelling villain Epoch, powerless, with his time-tossed allies from the Justice League missing. Even without powers, though, he proves his mettle, and he’s soon reunited with the Leaguers to finish the mission that started all this – finding the Superman who’s been missing since the end of DC KO. I guess this is technically two stories, but the creators put them together so seamlessly that you don’t even realize it until you get to the credits on the last page. It’s a great little tribute to the character, though, showing Superboy glimpses of his future and culminating in a grand reunion. It does, however, raise a few questions, including a glimpse of a Legion of Super-Heroes that doesn’t quite seem to gel with the reboot that Joshua Williamson is writing in a few months. Curiouser and curiouser. 

The other creative teams of the current Superman comics are also in on the fun, contributing a few more back-up stories.

Title: Game Night
Writer: Sophie Campbell
Art: Dan Mora

The regular Supergirl writer and Superman team up for this story, in which we check in on Lois Lane and the rest of the family during Superman’s absence. The first thing I noticed about this story is that I probably should have read the other Reign of the Superboys finales before this one, because it seems to spoil certain things. Ah well. The important thing here is that we finally get a confrontation between Conner Kent and Superboy-Prime, whom you may remember KILLING Conner back in Infinite Crisis, way before his current redemption arc. It’s a confrontation I’ve been waiting for, honestly, and although it was a little abrupt, I was very amused that Campbell managed to sneak in a little self-deprecating humor via Prime’s fourth wall awareness. I do like jokes like that.

Title: End of Reign
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Lucas Meyer

The final story in this issue is a neat little adjunct to the El Caldero story that’s happening over in Superman Unlimited. We get a little history of the country that’s building on the riches of its Kryptonite deposits, as well as a couple of chilling revelations.

Overall, the issue works fairly well in advancing and tying together the storylines that have been happening in all of the assorted Superman titles, and the upcoming Kingdom of Zod crossover looming between the four titles (a real one this time, not a thematic one like Reign of the Superboys), it feels perfectly timed.

Superman #40
Title: Prime Time: The End (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Dan Mora
Main Cover: Dan Mora

Superboy-Prime vs. Manchester Black is not what I expected to be the faceoff of the year, but this arc has been fantastic. With Prime trying his hardest to redeem himself, Manchester Black is hoping to use Prime’s unique status and awareness of his existence in comic books to give himself an upgrade and make the whole DC Universe as nasty and edgy as him. 

This.
Issue.
Rocked.

It’s not just the fight, as good as it was. It’s the heart of the story behind it. Those of us who remember Prime’s first appearances back in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths have probably always felt a pang of regret that a character who seemed to have such potential would fall as far as he did. Williamson has done the impossible – he’s done the hard work to take a character who seemed indelibly tarnished and bring him back from the brink, making him sympathetic, even likable again. The Superboy-Prime in this issue may not truly be worthy of the S-shield that he wears, but he’s trying again. He wants to be. And that’s important.

What’s more, the battle between the two of them hinges on a meta-commentary about the state of comic books and comic book fandom as it exists today. It has something to say, and even the page where Prime gives us a speech doesn’t feel preachy or unearned. It’s a magnificent thing.

We also get a catchup with the rest of what Prime is now calling his own supporting cast, including Witchfire, and I can’t believe how much I hope we get to see these two together again. Prime even hints that it’s coming, but not before Supergirl swings by to pick him up for the upcoming crossover. Ah, a Kryptonian’s work is never done.

If you had told me a year ago that the Superboy-Prime redemption arc would be one of the best things to happen to comics in 2026, I would have thought you were crazy. But even without Superman appearing in this arc, Williamson has made it about Superman and who he is and what he means, and I love that so, so much.

Supergirl #15
Title: Hero of Kandor Finale (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer, Art, & Main Cover: Sophie Campbell

It’s the final battle for the fate of Kandor. Supergirl and Luminary face off against the Black Flame and – although I don’t want to spoil anything – I WILL say that, once again, Conner Kent’s presence here was completely superfluous. More than ever, I’m convinced that Campbell was asked to shoehorn him into a story that he didn’t belong in so that they could market this book as part of the “Reign of the Superboys.”

That said, once you get over that little hiccup, it’s a great finale. The ending comes naturally, playing off the character work that Campbell has been putting into this series since issue one. And while Luminary does something here that feels hopelessly naive, I can’t argue that it doesn’t feel appropriate to the character and the path that she’s been taking, so I have to respect that. 

This issue also seems to set up a new status quo for the character and the title, although whether it’s going to be a long-term arrangement or something that’s done away with after an arc or two remains to be seen. I hope it sticks around at least for a little while, because there’s an interesting dynamic that I would like to see played with here. Although I worry that the whole thing might be derailed right off the bat since next issue is going to kick off the whole Kingdom of Zod crossover with the other books, so just how much Campbell is allowed to explore this new dynamic remains to be seen.

Superman Unlimited #15
Title: Save Yourself (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Lucas Meyer
Main Cover: Taurin Clarke

At the end of last issue, the truth about the time-tossed “Superboy” was revealed – he’s actually Ultraboy, son of Ultraman of the Crime Syndicate, who was trapped in the same volcano as Jon and tortured the same way. This issue, as Kryptonite threatens to overrun Smallville, the rest of Team Superman (namely Steel, Superwoman, Krypto, and Lois) try to save the day, while Batman and Robin join Tomorrow Man to face an Ultraboy who’s going out of control.

Lots to like here. Again, without giving away how the story ends, Slott pulls a very Superman-like play here, demonstrating that Jon – like his father – has the ability to see the inherent good in anybody, and will fight to bring that good out whenever possible. The confrontation between Damian and Ultraboy works well too. True, the Bat-family in no way suffers from a lack of exposure, but having Damian as part of this story actually makes sense. It doesn’t feel shoehorned in like some Bat-appearances. Jon is his best friend, and he’s taking this whole thing very personally.

One spoiler I WILL let through – I’m surprised but happy that Jon seems to be holding on to the Tomorrow Man name, at least for the time being. I never liked it when they took to calling him “Superman,” not because of the character himself, but because I really hate the modern practice of having multiple people running around using the same code name. I can accept it for the Green Lanterns, as that’s really more of a job description than an actual code name. And I’ll let it slide for the Flash, because how to do you tell any of those guys that they need to step down? Everybody else? Get yer own name, sparky. Anyway, “Tomorrow Man” works just fine.

Dark Knights of Steel II #1
Writer: Tom Taylor
Art: Otto Schmidt
Main Cover: Yasmine Putri

The original Dark Knights of Steel is one of the series that convinced DC it was time to bring back the Elseworlds imprint in the first place, so it’s nice to see that this sequel brings that universe into Elseworlds proper. This isn’t purely a Superman story, mind you, but the main thrust of this universe hinges on the Superman family: Jor-El and a pregnant Lara came to a medieval Earth together. Then…stuff happened. Look, just read the book, okay? There’s a nice little recap page here that tells you the high points of the original series and lets us jump to the main story: the three kingdoms of the League (Metropolis, Amazonia, and the Kingdom of Storms) are planning to defend themselves from an imminent threat by the shape-shifting creatures from Mars. A day of happiness for the three kingdoms turns to tragedy when a treacherous attack from beneath the seas reveals yet another kingdom – and leads them all potentially to war.

Tom Taylor does a great job of bringing new readers up to speed here. I’ve mentioned before that I wish DC Comics would include “previously” pages the way Marvel typically does, but it was really helpful here (I haven’t read the original series since it concluded in 2023 and, frankly, I needed the refresher). There’s a bit of expansion of the world here, but mostly what we get is a reminder of where the major players were at the end of the previous series (specifically Kal-El, Diana, Bruce, and Arthur), with their stories being reestablished and pushed forward incrementally, until the scene at the end changes everything. It’s a great way to begin a sequel, and while I would still recommend anybody interested in this series read the original first, if for some reason you can’t, this book will give you everything you need to know to jump in.

Absolute Superman #21
Title: Moon Fall (Reign of the Superman Finale)
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art & Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval

The epic battle between Superman and King Shazam comes to a conclusion this issue. With Superman and Hawkman facing the former Teth-Adam on the surface of the moon, their allies back on Earth are taking care of other business, particularly seeking retribution against Talia Al Ghul. 

With a serialized story like this one – like most modern superhero comics, really – the end of an arc needs to accomplish two things. It needs to tie up the story that was told over the course of the previous however many issues in the arc, and it needs to lay the seeds for future storylines. Aaron really handles them both well here. The battles against King Shazam and Talia both come to very satisfying conclusions here, and while conclusions are indeed had, they’re the kind of the conclusions that open more doors than they close. A new threat looms on the last page, and Jimmy and Lois both experience shifts in their personal status that lays the framework for more stories in the future.

Superman himself, meanwhile, ends this issue in something of a darker place. Although Kal-El continues to be the bright spot in this Absolute world, as this issue reminds us quite adroitly, most of the people he’s surrounded with are darker than the versions we’re used to seeing in the main DC Universe. By the end of it, it feels as though that’s taken its toll on Superman, and that’s a logical place to bring this arc to a close. 

Adventures of Superman: Book of El #10
Title: So Say the Dead
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Art & Main Cover: Scott Godliewski

The members of the House of El face off against Kryl-Ux. Tamarind lies in the balance, and I can’t lie, I couldn’t care less. Ten issues now, we’ve been drifting through a future that has failed to engage me. It’s the same ol’ problem – the reset button is looming, and the idea that this will ultimately be a story of consequence will not take hold. 

In an Elseworlds story, you think about the fate of the alternate reality that you’re dealing with. Here we’re dealing with a world that feels like it’s going to vanish as soon as Superman returns to his proper time. If that DOESN’T happen, then this whole thing will be invariably relegated to an alternate timeline, in which case it STILL will have no consequence. It would be different if I was interested in these characters, if I cared about them, if I felt like they mattered but…I just don’t.

I honestly feel bad being so negative about this book. I know other people are enjoying it, and I would never want to take that away from them, but I simply can’t see it. I don’t get what – if anything – I’m supposed to care about here. Maybe once it’s over, maybe once the final issue hits and the story can be viewed as a whole, I’ll feel differently. I sincerely hope so. But for the time being, all I can really bring myself to do is wait for the end. 

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #53
Title: Warlords Conclusion
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Adrian Gutierrez
Main Cover: Dan Mora

Our heroes’ epic journey to Skartaris comes to a conclusion this month. Tyrant Rex has not only ensorcelled Batman and Superman’s minds, but he has stolen Superman’s powers and distributed them among his minions, leaving Robin and Warlord to take them on. This whole story really has been sort of a Robin spotlight. He’s the one who has worked hardest to forge bonds with the people of Skartaris, he’s the one who has to step up with his mentors stolen and pulled to the other side of the chessboard. The story is a nice look at the young man who will eventually be the Nightwing we know today. There isn’t much action going on with either Superman or Batman here, but I don’t mind that. Seeing him get the spotlight is a nice change of pace that still fits well into the framework of this series.

Superman: Father of Tomorrow #3
Title: Machinations
Writer: Kenny Porter
Art & Main Cover: Danny Earls

Having spent years sharing Kryptonian technology to improve life on Earth, Jor-El is beginning to feel pushback from people who feel like he’s going too far. Lex Luthor, as usual, being the most fervent adversary to the House of El, decides to seek magical help from the Tower of Fate. And General Sam Lane is putting together his own team to deal with the problem.

Such as it is.

I feel like the wheels are starting to come off this story a bit. The basic premise is fine – Jor-El is the one who comes to Earth rather than Kal-El. Traumatized from watching one world die, he decides to make his adopted home better by sharing the technology of his planet of birth. The idea that doing so somehow stifles humanity is the core of the conflict. The problem is that nothing in the story actually sells the idea that Jor-El’s shared technology is doing any damage. As presented, the world seems to be a demonstrably better place. Maybe I’m missing something, but the worst thing I can find anyone saying about this altered world is that despite the fact that Jor-El has improved medical technology, hospitals still aren’t free. And as much as it may enrage some people to hear this, that ain’t enough for me to accept that a fascist regime is taking over.

At one point, Martha Kent suggests that Jor-El is behaving like a parent who is doing everything FOR a child rather than teaching the child HOW to do it. Is that actually true? The Kryptonian technology is everywhere, and presumably SOMEBODY out there is manufacturing and maintaining it. Even Superman Jor-El can’t possibly be doing it all HIMSELF, so logically we have to assume that humans HAVE learned how to do it. The message of this book is collapsing rapidly, and barring some sinister secret that Jor-El is keeping that will be revealed in a later issue, I’m not sure how to reconcile the point the author is trying to make with the world that he’s presented us with. 

Supergirl: Survive #2
Writers: Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan
Art & Main Cover: Rod Reis

After the destruction of their homeworld, Kara and Kal-El are found by a new Corps made of Lanterns of every color. Their safety is short-lived, though, as Lobo and a squad of Czarnians are out for the baby, thirsty for the bounty of a survivor of Krypton. 

I mean, with Lobo as the big guest-star in the Supergirl movie, it’s not surprising that they would bring him in here as an antagonist for this series. And the way he’s being used is pretty logical, making sense for what would happen in a world of this nature, where there are two known survivors of their planet’s destruction. What I’m really interested in, though, is what’s up with the Lanterns. The first issue gave us hints that there was more to the death of Krypton in this world than we were being presented with, and this issue’s conversation with the Guardians of the Universe pushes that narrative forward, spooling out a little more of this mystery as we go along and making me all the more curious as to what the real story is here. This story may be labelled as a Supergirl story, but like some of the best of the modern Elseworlds, it feels like there’s an entire universe here worth exploring, and lots of other characters and corners that are going to be worth looking into and playing with.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest 2026 Annual
Title: The Hero Trap
Writer: Mark Russell
Art: Clayton Henry
Main Cover: Dan Mora

It’s Father’s Day, and Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are having lunch with their respective adoptive fathers when a Justice League alert summons them away, leaving Jonathan Kent and Alfred Pennyworth to bond without them.

As a writer, Mark Russell is hit or miss with me. Sometimes I feel like he’s indulging in soapbox writing that starts to get tiresome, but on a story like this one, he knocks it out of the park. The story drifts between the heroes trying to solve the supervillain plot du jour and the conversation between the fathers, and it’s obvious to everyone that the second part is the most important. This is an emotional issue, it’s a story about fatherhood and what exactly that means, especially for fathers of particularly extraordinary sons. But while stories like this one often neglect the other half of the narrative, Russell has a clever trap laid for our heroes and some really entertaining moments as they struggle to puzzle a way out of it. Neither the superhero side nor the fatherhood side of the story is neglected or damaged by the other, giving us a story that’s an absolute joy to read.

Title: Date Night
Writers: Mark Waid & Tyrone Finch
Art: Pat Boutin

Regular World’s Finest writer Mark Waid teams up with Tyrone Finch for this issue’s back-up story, “Date Night.” A spat between Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptylk leads to Bruce Wayne taking Lois Lane on a date to the state fair while a disgruntled Superman is forced to watch from afar. This one is…okay. It’s a silly, lighthearted story with no real stakes, as we all know that Lois will ultimately wind up with Clark Kent and that any flirtation with Bruce by necessity won’t go anywhere. There’s nothing wrong with a strange little story like this one once in a while, but it kind of pales in comparison to the main story in this book. 

Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand
Title: The Return of Superman & Legion Found
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Eddy Barrows & Yasmine Putri
Main Cover: Eddy Barrows

As we all know by now, Superman went missing after taking on the mantle of King Omega at the end of DC KO. In Action Comics #1100, he was found by his Justice League teammates and his own younger self, because time travel. This annual tells us the story of what happened in-between, which means it’s that rarest of animals in this day an age: an annual that’s actually relevant to the ongoing story. 

Shortly after the end of the tournament, Superman discovers that the death of the Time Trapper (whose powers have been added to his own) has left the timestream in turmoil, and something is using that chaos to feed on the destruction being created in its wake. In his attempt to repair the damage to the timeline, Superman finds himself once again encountering Darkseid’s Legion, but a very different Legion than he’s met before.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that the Legion was coming back in their own title, written by Joshua Williamson. As great as he’s been as the Superman writer, I was a bit put off when the description of the book made it seem like the Legion was being rebooted YET AGAIN. (This would be at least Legion Version Six, depending on how you want to count.) But I do have faith in Williamson, and this issue makes me feel like that faith is justified. Without getting into spoilers, it feels as though this newest reboot is part of the story, and that the previous iterations of one of my favorite teams are not being shunted into Comic Book Limbo after all, but may indeed have a part to play. I hope that’s right. I guess we’ll find out when Legion of Super-Heroes #1 hits in a few weeks.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!