About Heroes

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artists: Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino

Finally, a return to form on this title. After about 3 months of fill in artists and stories we finally get back to the "Camelot Falls" arc that Busiek has been weaving since he jumped on the book. There is a lot to like in this book. Superman is investigating Arion's prophecy that because of him, humanity will die. After the vision of the future, Superman goes and seeks out some of the people he saw in the vision to find out if they trully exist, as he doesn't want to trust Arion blindly. He's also investigating the third Kryptonian that was mentioned by the Auctioneer in Busiek's Action Comics run before Johns, Donner, and Kubert plagued it with delays. Busiek writes a very human Superman, as Clark is constantly thinking and narrating, and he doesn't sound alien at all, and he shouldn't since he was raised on earth. Also, Busiek is referencing Johns' Action Comics arc by including the Phantom Zone kid, Chris (still apparently in Lois and Clark's care) and how Bizarro attacked Superman in Action Comics. This is good because it shows that the Superman titles are connected to themselves, they don't exist outside of one another like multiple titles sometimes do (see Batman and Spider-Man's books). These mentions of other runs in different books give the Superman world a cohesive feeling, which only strengthens the storytelling. There are no fights here in this book, but there is a lot of connectivity and character moments to keep you reading from page to page and even come back to the next issue.

Carlos Pacheco is doing a great job on this book, delays aside. Other than Jim Lee, I think Pacheco is my favorite modern Superman artist. He can display the power and strength of Superman, but also his introspective side, as well as a nerdy Clark Kent. His supporting characters are just as well drawn and emotive. If this book had less side stories and fill in artists I would give it a higher rating, but since it's so inconsistent I just can't do it. If Busiek let the fill in artists do the main Camelot Falls storyline, and we had these great stories instead of the silly Prankster comics or last issue's weird Amazon-like lady, then I would be praising this book, it has the potential to be that good. But we're not getting all of that thus, the C+/B- rating that I'm giving it.