Superman: New Krypton vol. 1 & 2
Written by James Robinson, Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates
Illustrated by Jesus Merino, Leno Carvahlo, Steve Scott, Nelson Pereira, Kevin Stokes, Lee Loughridge, Sal Cipriano, Pere Pérez, David Baron, John J. Hill, Pete Woods, Gary Frank, Renato Guedes, Jon Sibal, José Wilson Magalhães, Hi-Fi (I assume that’s his real name), Steve Wands, David Curiel, Brad Anderson, Rob Leigh, Jamal Igle, Keith Champagne, Nei Ruffino, Jared K. Fletcher, Tom Chu and Jorgé Correa Jr.

Yeah, I dig Superman. I sit here reviewing Jason and classic strips and relevant prose books and intriguing literary-minded independent comics, but at my core, I totally dig Superman. Of course, I have more conflicted feelings toward the Superman comics themselves and many of the extraneous elements of the Superman mythos, and Kandor is no exception. The possibility of Superman being reunited with his people is one of potential; yet I’ve never – in any incarnation – cared much about Krypton or Kandor. It’s all just an excuse to justify powers beyond those of mortal men, to me.

Despite a large indifference (meaning, they were okay, but nothing that affirmed by love of the character) the few volumes leading into New Krypton, I did my best to give the books a fair shake. Geoff Johns’ lead-in, Brainiac, was solidly plotted, but trended toward predictable, and Robinson’s Coming of Atlas managed a few sharp lines, but padded an issue and a half of story out across five full issues.

Things get off to a pretty intriguing start, with two special issues, one focused on Jimmy Olsen, and a direct sequel to Jimmy’s story, this time starring the Guardian. Channeling a noir atmosphere, Robinson builds a conspiracy involving government cloning projects (which, unfortunately for this Kirby Jimmy Olsen and Karl Kesel-era Superboy fan, required slaughtering huge swaths of the classic Cadmus cast), shadowy military figures, a super-powered assassin (an old character, I think, but it’s not important here) and a very clear plan to exterminate our Man of Steel. The characterization of Olsen and Guardian is solid throughout, tinged with an appropriate darkness. I look forward to seeing more of the Guardian if Robinson can keep up this level of work.

The New Krypton saga hits full stride next, and ironically, the story’s emotional high point hits in the first few pages – a largely silent sequence drawn superbly by Gary Frank that shows Clark Kent mourning the recent (see Brainiac) death of his adoptive father Jonathan Kent.

My initial trepidation over the return of Kandor was misplaced, fortunately. Typically, when I see a “classic” concept reintroduced, my reaction is “seen it, must be something fresher to spend limited comics funds on”, but the immediate restoration of Kandor to full-size proportions allows us to explore an aspect of Superman we’ve witnessed in a few alternate realities, but never truly explored in the way we have the potential to see here.

With Krypton restored, we get to see the full effect of Krypton society, and unlike a certain Clark Kent, they are set in their ways and not terribly interested in acclimating with human society.

The opening salvo is essentially dedicated to introducing Supergirl’s parents, Allura and Zor-El, acclimating Superman and Supergirl to their fellow survivors, and allowing Jimmy to bring Lois up to date with what he’s uncovered regarding the conspiracy against Superman. It’s all nicely set up, but it’s also the high point of the storyline, as New Krypton quickly descends into standardness. Some other superheroes show up to express concern about the sudden increase in the world’s Kryptonian population, Agent Liberty is rescued from the dustbins of 90s obscurity to become obvious cannon fodder, a handful of Kryptonian soldiers behave predictably poorly, and Doomsday is used, again, to show how badass this new threat – thousands of Kryptonians – can possibly be.

As the second volume opens – and honestly, why was this even split into two books? Neither edition is particularly heavy on pages, and putting both under a single cover would certainly make for a more convenient and sensible package for casual readers to pick up – though admittedly, even vol. 2 doesn’t have what one would charitably call an “ending.” Anyway, volume two opens by wasting several pages explaining away some inconsistencies in Supergirl’s behavior and history, none of which I realize existed because the horrid reviews of Supergirl to this point kept me from reading the title, and frankly, none of these “problems” seem sufficiently important to bother with at this point.

Just as James Robinson begins to pull the story back on track, with a well executed chapter detailing how the Kryptonians preemptively capture all of Superman’s foes and exile them to the Phantom Zone, it all goes a little wobbly again. Johns does some solid work building the conspiracy of General Sam (father of Lois) Lane and setting up the slaying of Supergirl’s pop, but he also hamstrings himself with some unnecessary secondary characters (the Creature Commandos?!) and begins a continuing depiction of Superman as inept and unable to provide any authority or leadership to Kandor’s refugees. The repetitive conversation between Allura and Superman about turning Kryptonian murderers over to human justice is plausible and realistic, and you can readily identify with the concerns of all the parties, but it still presents Clark as weak.

Then a new Superwoman appears, but doesn’t get enough page time to make much of an impression, and then it descents in a mediocre slugfest. A slew of superheroes, many of whom I’m sure most of you are excited to see, but frankly, I’d be just as happy if they were all disemboweled (except for Steel, to a one, actually), duke it out with a few dozen Kryptonians. I don’t quite buy how a few of the heroes held their own – Guardian hit a guy with Superman’s powers on the head with a shield! – and I’m pretty numb to this sort of superhero all-in meleeing, so it all kind of left me indifferent. I mean, even in the dubious realm of superhero logic, how does Zatanna saying “Shazam” backwards rob Kryptonians of their powers makes any sense at all?

Finally, the Kryptonians dig up Kandor, fly it into space, and somehow the clump of rock that it’s located on magically spins a new planet, which they park in orbit on the opposite side of the sun. Okay, taking their city and putting it on the other side of the sun is cool, I’ll give you that.

So, yeah, not sure what to say at this point. The last few Superman books have been right at, or slightly below, justification level – that is, the minimum level of enjoyment required to justify subsequent purchases, and for me, justification level for a Superman title is much more liberal than with any other Marvel or DC character. And these two books, right about the same – a few solid moments, some intrigue, a couple tré cool scenes, but New Krypton still wallows in the DCU superhero fraternity, exercises too-casual violence, is plagued by inconsistent art (the line art itself ranges from solid to plus – Sirs Frank and Igle, take a bow – but the shifting from artist to artist, and the generally mediocre over-coloring, does the book no favors), and suffers retro/nostaglia aspects that just leaves me cold. The addition of writer Greg Rucka to subsequent Superman/New Krypton issues does give me hope, however.

Finally, while both covers are very striking (Vol. 1 by Gary Frank, Vol. 2 by Alex Ross), does anybody besides me find it bizarre that DC opted to have different artists provide the cover for each volume? Doesn’t a serialized storyline such as this benefit from having a consistent cover design (check) and art style (umm…, no check)?

Superman: New Krypton vol. 1 and 2, they’re okay. Not great, but not terrible. If you dig Supes like I do, it might be enough, but just barely. We’ll have to see how the wallet feels when it comes time to invest in another round of the Metropolis Ace’s adventures.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Mike's Musings, News & Views, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.