I’ve been recovering from an accident, so haven’t been able to really do much (despite what you see in the comics, broken ribs really hurt: Batman shrugs them off, then uses his grappling hook to swing away; I kinda just pop painkillers and try not to move).
I haven’t been able to get comics as regularly as I’d like, but now I’ve got a pile to get through. It might take me a while to get through them all. On the other hand, it is kind of nice to read through a few weeks of comics in a short timeframe.
I normally don’t buy Superman comics, but the "Third Kryptonian" storyline caught my interest. Kurt Busiek is one of my favorite writers, and I do enjoy Superman Family type adventures. But while I think the story is pretty good, it seems like the Superman mythos is collapsing on itself. Even the title of the story arc is amusing, with all the Kryptonians running around, this should be called the search for the Umpteenth Kryptonian.
The plot, in a nutshell, some guy named the Auctioneer had discovered three Kryptonian life signs on Earth: Superman, Supergirl and someone else (Power Girl doesn’t register as an Earth One Kryptonian, and Krypto was offworld, and there’s some new Superboy kid who can’t be called Superboy running around, too, who came after the Auctioneer did his scan). Anyhow, Superman’s on a quest to find this new mysterious Kryptonian.
Logically, he turns to Batman, who gives his some leads. There are some nice moments between Chris (the new super-kid) and Robin, and the typical Superman/Batman interactions (I liked it more when Batman and Superman were happy buddies). Batman’s info leads Superman to the house of Kristen Wells (yay, pre-Crisis continuity porn!).
Kristen is, of course, the third Kryptonian, hiding on Earth to escape the crazy alien being named Amalak who has vowed to destroy all Kryptonians, yada-yada. We learn that Kristen is old (really old) and was a soldier back when Krypton was an expansionist empire, conquering other races, being generally nasty. Kristen is on Earth using Superman as an early warning system, since she knows if anyone comes after a Kryptonian, they’ll go after him first, allowing her to escape.
All this leads to massive fighting, with all the Superman family and Batman getting into it, with the usual surprises and usual cliches (with Kristen running away, but deciding to return at the last minute to save the day/redeem herself).
But after all this, I’m pretty confused. How many different Kryptons have been introduced in the past few years (and is that number greater or less than the number of Supergirls in the same time period)? We also get some different ideas on how red sun radiation affects Superman (it doesn’t remove his powers, it just removes access to them, or some mumbo-jumbo). We get a view into Krypton’s less noble past, but is it the "real" Krypton? What is the real Krypton at this point?
Also, looks like Kryptonians can survive in space without suits/oxygen again (Krypto was traipsing in space, Kristen had no problem between worlds, etc). Not sure when that happened, but I do like it (having Superman in space with an oxygen mask never seemed very super to me).
So while I enjoyed the story, in the end it just seems to muddy the waters (and add yet more Kryptonians into the mix). I like that Kristen Wells is an older woman (and looks it, mostly), while at the same time missing the originality of the pre-Crisis version (Kristen was a time-traveling descendent of Jimmy Olsen, who used scientific gadgetry to replicate superpowers).
The art is very nice, including the cover to the final part of the trilogy (pictured, it should be a poster). Rick Leonardi’s pencils are strong, and the action is well-done.
I think I might start getting Superman more regularly, though: I mean, with Krypto and interplanetary zoos and a Supergirl I actually like, this comic did a great job at sucking me in.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 6:32 pm and is filed under DC Comics, Reviews, Superman, Superman Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://spandexjustice.com/2007/11/12/274/trackback