It’s time for another roundup of recent Superman comics. This week I’ll be reviewing the Superman and Superman-related releases that were released on Jan 28 and Feb. 6. Let’s get into it!
Superman Vol. 6 #34
Title: I, Superman (A DC KO Tie-In)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira
Main Cover: Dan Mora
In the arctic, the unusual trio of Lois, Superboy-Prime, and a Superman Robot are fleeing the Fortress of Solitude and the battle with members of Darkseid’s Legion. Meanwhile, the Final Four from the main tournament get a chance to look in on what’s happening back on Earth. It’s a pretty sparse recap, I admit, but the pages are PACKED here with character stuff.
The surprising redemption of Superboy-Prime continues this issue, as he finds himself confronting a Superman Robot that has many of the memories and personality of the original. The contrast between the two is marked and the way that Prime has to reckon with the way the REAL Superman apparently thinks of him…which isn’t what he expected, but is probably exactly what the reader would anticipate. I like Prime’s reactions quite a bit – he’s got an awful lot to cope with here, and for the most part, Williamson is handling it well. He may be going slightly too hard on the fourth wall-breaking dialogue, though. Prime is carrying around knowledge of the fact that he’s in a comic book universe, which is fine, but we don’t want it to go so far as to turn him into Deadpool.
We also spend time with the members of Darkseid’s Legion, who up until this point have come across largely as mindless stormtroopers wearing the faces of our friends. We get a different look here, a reminder that although they’re from a universe corrupted by Darkseid’s Omega Energy, they’re still fundamentally the same people, and perhaps the notion of redemption that Williamson is playing with here isn’t restricted to Prime himself.
I’m all about Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira’s artwork – bold, strong, and proud. They’re also pretty good about drawing a Prime that looks like an actual Superboy. Even at his most villainous, it’s important to remember that he’s still a version of Clark Kent, and there have been artists who occasionally forget that.
DC KO: The Kids Are All Fight Special #1
Writer: Jeremy Adams
Art: Travis Mercer
Main Cover: Bruno Redondo
The Justice League is strained at the moment, with many of their members caught up in the tournament for the Heart of Apokalips, and most of the others fighting to help evacuate Earth or deal with the dozens of other disasters cropping up all over the place. Jon Kent is given one of the most important duties of all: staying on the Watchtower and keeping an eye on some of the younger heroes, including the Boom, Fairplay, Quiz Kid, and Cheshire Cat. Of course, it would be a pretty short special if the kids just sat around and did what they were told, wouldn’t it? Naturally, they get loose, run into trouble against some of Darkseid’s minions, and Jonathan is forced to call on Cassandra Cain for help.
Jon has been in the last several issues of Titans, working with them as they spearhead the evacuation effort. In March, the book is scheduled to be retitled New Titans with issue #32, and the cover (with several characters in silhouette only) implies heavily that Jon will be a member of the new team. If that’s the case, I’m really quite satisfied with it. The character has been rattling around aimless, for entirely too long, and if making him a member of the Titans actually gives him something to do that makes sense, that’s the best we can hope for. What’s more, I like the group of kids that we see in this issue, the ones that Jon is protecting. I’ve wanted to see more of Boom since she first appeared in the Stargirl: The Lost Children miniseries a few years ago. Fairplay, too, is an interesting character, a very different take on Mr. Terrific that has a lot of promising storytelling avenues. Best of all, there’s a surprise guest-star in this issue that filled me with joy, and no doubt will have the same effect on a lot of other readers. It’s someone we haven’t seen in quite some time, but that DC has been teasing very heavily lately. I’m hoping that this character will stick around in New Titans as well.
Of course, none of that is set in stone. Jon is the only character in this issue whose silhouette appears on that New Titans cover. But covers – especially early solicits – can be deceiving. I don’t expect the heroes we see in this issue to be the new Titans team in its entirety, but I hope that Jon isn’t the only young hero that got a tryout in this issue, because I think there’s a lot to work with here.
DC’s Supergirl Next Door #1
Note: This is DC’s Valentine’s Day anthology for 2026. There are eight different stories in the book, but I’m only reviewing the Supergirl story.
Title: A Dream of Different Stars
Writer: CRC Payne
Art: Paulina Ganucheau
Main Cover: Amy Reeder
Allen is a new kid in Midvale, struggling to make friends and struggling to fit in. That is, until he meets another new kid in town, Linda Danvers. The two of them form a bond and she opens up to him, revealing just how deeply she misses her old home, and Allen decides to do something to help her.
Short and sweet, but that’s what this story is. It’s a lovely little tale of a couple of foundlings who find solace in one another. CRC Payne is a name I mostly know from her work on DC’s digital comics, such as Batman Family Adventures and Harley Quinn in Paradise. She’s brought the same kind, quiet, reflective tenor she uses in Batman Family Adventures to this story as well, crafting a tale that makes it easy to relate to the characters despite its brevity. Ganucheau’s art has a loose quality to it as well, befitting the more animated style we see in Payne’s other work and fitting very well for this tidy little love story. There’s real charm here that I appreciate.
DC KO: Boss Battle #1
Writer: Jeremy Adams
Art: Ronan Cliquet, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Kieran McKeown, Pablo M. Collar
Main Cover: Jamal Campbell
Seconds after the end of DC KO #3, the Final Four in the tournament for the Heart of Apokalips are poised for the battle of their lives, but World Forger manages to “pause” the game. They’re not ready, the need more Omega Energy, so he finds a way to generate some by briefly spending the heroes into neighboring realities to have additional battles and charge up, leading to fights against the wildest opponents yet: Sub-Zero and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, Samantha Strong from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vampirella, Red Sonja, the murderous doll Annabelle, and – in the title fight that people have been wanting to see for YEARS, Superman versus Homelander from Garth Ennis and Darrick Robinson’s The Boys.
During the Year of Superman, I included Homelander in the week I wrote about “Superman gone wrong” – characters who are intended to be dark or even evil versions of the Man of Steel. To me, Homelander is one of the most insidious of those. He is what people who never understand Superman THINK Superman should be like. And knowing that Superman is one of the few superheroes that Ennis actually has respect for, from the minute this book was announced, I was looking forward to seeing our boy Clark finally giving Homelander the beatdown he so richly deserves.
The result is…okay.
Look, the concept of this book is fantastic. It’s utterly insane, and the matchups are crazy. (Joker versus Annabelle, anybody? COME ON!) But it’s just too short. It seems like nearly half the book is taken up just with giving each of the champions borrowed from other universes a page of introduction each, then the fights themselves are over and done with far too quickly. I have never said this before, but this is a crossover spinoff one-shot that probably SHOULD have been a crossover spinoff miniseries.
What’s more, it’s kind of inconsequential. It picks up just as DC KO #3 ends, and the final page promises that the story leaps from this book straight into DC KO #4, and it’s structured in such a way that people who are only reading that main book will feel like they haven’t missed anything. I get why they structured it that way, and I don’t begrudge that, but considering that this book is ultimately just a fun little sidestory rather than required reading (like so many of the books from “All Fight Month” were) just kind of makes me lament the fact that there wasn’t time for a little more fun.
Superman: Chains of Love Special #1
Title: Creepers
Writer: Leah Williams
Art: Ig Guarra
Main Cover: Yasmine Putri
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we get this one-shot. Livewire is being paroled from prison, but her years away have left her without her audience…until she stumbles into the Creeper, who finds a way to help her climb back to prominence. And then, with love in the air, the sparks fly.
It’s a cute enough story – questions of continuity aside (Livewire says early that she’s “from the 90s,” which feels a little meta), the two characters have an interesting chemistry that actually plays out in an entertaining way. Superman’s presence in the story is minimal however, mostly there for structure in the new environment that Leslie Willis finds herself in. But I guess DC (correctly) assumed that branding this as a Superman special rather than a Creeper/Livewire special would get more readers.
Title: Bill Zarro’s World
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Rosi Kampe
Dan Slott and Rosi Kampe also come through with a back-up story in this issue. Bill Zarro is a lowly peon working at the Daily Planet. His boss is a jerk, his wife resents him, his kids disdain him…until one day he wakes up on Bizarro World, and everything changes. This is a short story that’s essentially an extended gag piece that builds up to an unusual and amusing punchline. The ending is funny enough to make the story worth recommending.
Absolute Superman #16
Title: The Never-Ending Begins Part Two: This Universe Will Break Your Heart, Kid
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Juan Ferreyra
Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval
This issue brings us the full introduction of a new Absolute Universe hero as Superman is approached by the mysterious Hawkman. This version of Carter Hall has been around for a long time, and initially doesn’t know what to make of this newcomer with all of the powers. We also see Lois as she tries to find a new direction in the wake of her departure from the espionage game, a new version of another classic character, and the recruitment of Lex Luthor continuing unabated.
Here’s something that I haven’t really said before about many of the Absolute comics: this issue is surprisingly funny. The first couple of pages in which Superman and Hawkman meet in midair are punctuated by Kal-El getting distracted by disasters both minor and major and then zipping off to deal with them and leaving Hawkman flapping his wings. The introduction to this new Hawkman works really well. It can be easy to forget that this “young” universe is still a universe, with a history all of its own, and Hawkman feels like a great opportunity to explore that a little bit more.
The Lois story has some humor as well. For a while it didn’t seem as though this book was going to brush much on the traditional Superman status quo at all, but here we’ve got Lois and Jimmy looking into being reporters, the introduction of the Daily Planet, and the debut of one Perry White. Even there, though, we see the influence of Darkseid on this world. The Planet ain’t the grand old dame she is in the main DC Universe, and although Perry has the same sort of grit you’d want from the character, it comes with more grime than one would usually expect. The way this is structured he may be a one-off character, but I really hope that’s not the case. I feel like there’s a lot of potential here, especially in having him interact with Lois.
Even the Lex Luthor scene is darkly comedic. The Absolute Luthor – with a proud shock of red hair and a burly beard, is a man utterly happy and content in his simple like. The difference between him and “our” Lex Luthor is perhaps more striking than any other Absolute character we’ve met yet, which is amusing, but at the same time, seems poised to bring him to a bitter, heartbreaking end.
Or not. Aaron has been surprising me a lot with this book.
Juan Ferreyra handles both the line art and colors for this book, and I really like his work. The flashback scenes, showing some of Carter’s adventures in the 40s, have a nice sort of archaic look to them. In the modern scenes, where he and Kal-El meet, he does this really interesting blur effect to show Superman zipping into action. It’s not wholly unique – I’ve seen similar effects from other artists – but his execution is great. I’m also a big fan of the monster designs from later in the issue, and his battle scenes look stunning.
We’re on the second issue of this new story arc, and it’s honestly shaping up to be my favorite from the series so far. It’s brighter somehow, and while that may be a deviation from the whole ethos of the Absolute Universe, I feel like that’s kind of the point. A Superman – a REAL Superman – should always be the bright spot in his world, no matter how dark the world itself may be.
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!
Blake M. Petit 