It's no secret that I'm a pretty big Superman fan. And anyone who know me knows one of my favorite writers is Geoff Johns. Johns is the guy who resurrected Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman into DC hits. But as soon as Johns left those books I quickly lost interest. He has a way of capturing the best in any character he writes. A task that seems hard to replicate with some comic writers. And while I haven't loved his current Justice League run it's been better than most books coming out of DC Comics these days.
Twenty-five years ago two scientists worked for the government on cracking inter dimensional travel. Their work turned south and a black hole began to grow that would consume the world. In an act of desperation, the couple sent their only child to one of the five dimensions they'd discovered. There, the child grew up with powers beyond imagination and helped create a modern utopia. But that couple that sent their child away to be saved? Minutes later they stopped the black hole from consuming all of Earth. And have been trying to find their son ever since.
Superman faces off against a new villain on the streets of Metropolis and gets a little help from a new hero; Ulysses. Ulysses grew up in a another dimension and has the power to absorb energy to make himself fly and become much stronger than the average man. He can even absorb Superman's heat vision. Kal-El soon reunites Ulysses with his long lost parents and for a short time all seems good. But Ulysses real motivation for coming back to Earth has yet to be revealed, and it involves six million lives.
I was excited for Johns to be back writing the Man of Steel. Superman: Secret Origin is one of my favorites and his story(Superman: Last Son) with acclaimed film director Richard Donner added another level to the Superman myth by giving him and Lois a son. Aside from James Robinson, very few writers I think capture Superman the way Johns does. He knows the character is at his best when his hardest battle is within. Ulysses comes from a utopia where hunger and disease no longer exist. Clark has to to explain to this new visitor why they can't just use their abilities to make the people of Earth fall in line. Ulysses must be reading Gods Among Us.
While this is not one of my favorite Johns stories it is still quite entertaining. Johns added a new power to the Man of Steel's bag of tricks, but I didn't really see the point of it. Clark now has the ability to admit a solar flare that decimates his enemies, but then Superman's powers are drained and Clark is human for several hours until his body recharges. When Superman first appeared back in 1938 he couldn't fly and it was added later, but this new power just seems a bit over the top. Do we really need to make Superman more powerful so the general audience will disconnect with him more? I'm not a fan of it, but I guess as long as they don't use this new power that often I can learn to live with it.
John Romita Jr pens this book beautifully. I've enjoyed his art ever since he was drawing Spider-Man in the 1990's and then much later with Kick-Ass. His style is very unique that I think it goes well with Johns's way of story telling. I still prefer Johns to work with Gary Frank more, but Romita is good enough for me.
This book adds a few things to the Superman myth like giving him a new villain, a new power, and a person in Clark's life finds out his secret; and it isn't Lois Lane. In fact, I was a little disappointed how little Lois had to do in this book. Before the New 52, when Lois and Clark were married, their relationship was a center piece of Superman's humanity and life. Now that Clark is hooking up with Wonder Woman Lois is really irrelevant; which makes me kind of sad.
If you are a true fan of Superman tales or tales written by Geoff Johns I recommend this book for you. But if you are borderline agreeable on either of those topics you can probably skip this one for now.
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