About Heroes

This Review was submitted by Knightwingbk:
Writers: Geoff Johns & Richard Donner
Artist: Adam Kubert

After last issue, I was under whelmed. The story seemed too familiar to Superman Returns and the recently wrapped Batman arc. I thought the art was mediocre, Superman never looked the same and the characters looked really sketchy. But this issue changed my mind of this run. Sorta.

The first thing you see with this issue is the cover, it’s better than last issue's but I still hate the two-tone coloring. I wish this was in color rather than the two-tone. Simone Bianchi's covers on Detective Comics look better than the last two Action Comics covers. Anyway, Bizarro's back...

The story opens dealing with Superman's kidnapping of the boy from Krypton who landed last issue. Initially Clark wants his Ma & Pa Kent to raise the boy, but then decides that he wants to try to do it himself. Lois says no, that they were meant not to raise kids; Clark was put on this earth to save it, her to find the truth. With that, Superman calls Sarge Steel and the Department of Metahuman Affairs to give the boy back, and inspect where he will be living. So, you stole the boy, and now want to give him back? He's not a DVD player Clark! Lex Luthor gets wind of this and unlocks Bizarro. Bizarro has spent the last year watching TV, so I'm sure he's itching to get out and stretch.

What happens next has to be seen to believe. It's truly a battle of the Super-powers as Bizarro hurls cars and buses at Superman, and then throws him through 3 buildings, and we see them crash through each wall. It is this sequence that really makes Adam Kubert's pencils stand out. The city is painstakingly rendered, and just looks fantastic. The panel layouts are simple and wide, we can see all of the action between the two Super-men and everything that stems from their battle. Strangely though, in these shots, Superman and Bizarro look really flat, like crude cartoons against this real world background. A bus ends up being thrown and lands on the Boy from Krypton, as Lois watches, unable to do anything. Lois goes to the boy after the bus has landed and sees him crying. The boy is clearly terrified and Lois changes her mind about keeping the boy.

I won't give away the ending, because it is fantastic and yet cliché. Up until the ending I had been loving the issue, ready to sing the praises of all involved. It really feels like Donner is writing the comic rather than Johns, if it is more Johns than Donner, than it is unlike anything Johns has ever done in his career. If Donner and Johns stay on for the foreseeable future, it may be this run that defines his career, not the Flash or Infinite Crisis. Anyway the ending. It certainly adds a twist to the storyline, but somehow I wish they could've avoid using these characters. They are almost Donner's staple, so their appearance here feels exciting but clichéd. Donner's doing new things with Superman, but he's still using his same bag of tricks at the same time. Other than that, this issue is an A+. Go get this issue, you don't need to have read the previous issue to understand it, it’s a fantastic read. Go get it.