Review: Superman/Batman: Worship trade paperback (DC Comics)

I have been wary of these Superman/Batman books of late. With no ties intentionally to continuity and a mission just to "tell stories," the individual issues have tended to be hit or miss -- there's some gems among Mike Johnson and Michael Green's Superman/Batman: Night and Day, but Joe Kelly's Big Noise overall disappointed. Continuity is not the be-all and end-all, of course, but at times this title seems aimless.

Superman/Batman: Worship gave me special pause not only because it seemed to be one of these disconnected stories (this turns out not to be the case), but also because former DC Comics president Paul Levitz's writing has also been hit or miss for me. His first outing on the new (pre-DC Relaunch) Legion of Super-Heroes series, The Choice, was great stuff, but his Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes was not, and I recall calling his JSA: Ghost Stories "stodgy."

Worship, however, is a delight. With art by Jerry Ordway, the "Worship" story feels like its cut from the 1990s Superman "Triangle Titles" heyday, while at the same time adhering to the unspoken rules of the Superman/Batman title. Add a few contemporary twists at the end, and Worship emerges as something entirely satisfying -- a little bit classic, a little bit new.

[Contains spoilers]

In the main, the "Worship" storyline contains just four characters -- Superman, Batman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor. Levitz tells the story from their four perspectives, and Worship is at its best in the second and third chapters of that storyline, when Levitz parallels the thoughts not just of the heroes, as Jeph Loeb and others have done before him, but of all four characters. This little change gives the story unexpected depth -- we see not just how Superman and Batman try to solve their case, but also how Lois works alongside them, and how Lex moves to foil them. There are interesting ideas here that may not hold up to a lot of scrutiny. but serve as wonderful tidbits for consideration -- that Lex ramps up crime around Crime Alley in Gotham at times when he wants Batman distracted because studies show Lex that Batman has a focus on that area; and that even as Batman can't tell who's behind it, he's so attuned to crime in Gotham that he can tell there's a force working behind the crimes.

"Worship" is in part a re-telling of a series of Silver Age stories in which Lex Luthor becomes the "Superman" of a planet called Lexor, on which Superman is considered a villain. Levitz presents the concept of "worship" mostly in a negative context here; Superman considers early on that mankind creates their own (often erroneous) religious explanations for cosmic events. We see this both in the cult that worships Superman to the point of trying to kill Lois (egged on by Lex), and the aliens of Lexor who misunderstand Superman's intentions and worship Lex.

In an unusual storytelling choice, Levitz does not actually tie the two plot threads together, but rather ends the third issue with Batman and Superman's dual confrontations with Lex. The stories' connections are thematic rather than explicit and I appreciate Levitz letting the readers think for themselves. Further, the slightly unfinished nature of the entire tale again evokes the "Triangle Titles" era; we could just as soon imagine Lexor would show up again a few issues down the road (maybe Maxima would land there, or Draaga would try to take it over) as that Levitz would revisit it again in the final part of "Worship."

That last chapter is Superman/Batman #75, and rightfully so it's an anniversary-type time-travel tale that involves the future Legion of Super-Heroes and the past Superboy. For time travel in Superman/Batman, I might have liked to see some usage of "young Batman," too, but having Batman make a rare appearance beside the Legion is fun nonetheless. Only the hardest heart, too, could fail to be moved by Batman nursing a Kryptonite-infused Superman back to health in the Bat-cave while the Legion ventures into the past; great choice by Levitz to keep Batman on screen here, rather than replacing him with Alfred. A throw-away line or two, if you're into this kind of thing, keeps the timeline of the Superman/Batman story nebulous, but puts the Legion appearance just before Levitz's Legion: The Choice.

Long-time DC Comics artist Jerry Ordway is in top form in Worship. Throughout the "Worship" story (mainly in the first three chapters), it seems we have Ordway's colored pencils without inks, giving the sequences a painted quality; in the fourth chapter, Ordway's black lines are darker, and images like the close-up of Brainiac 5's face are rich with detail that show Ordway still at his best.

Ordway drew the original comics adaption of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie, and his depiction of the cowl still looks like Michael Keaton's; the artist follows this with a cape attachment, however, that looks more like Adam West's. It's no matter; if Ordway's imagining of Superman and Batman is a little dated, then it's dated in a way that depicts the characters from some of their best stories, like Ordway's "Dark Knight Over Metropolis.". Though almost twenty years old, those "Triangle Title" stories still hold up, and I'd be happy to see Ordway join his old teammate Dan Jurgens as part of the DC New 52 Superman relaunch any time.

Worship starts off with a Batman Beyond tale by Levitz; sequentially, I think this came out just before the new Adam Beechen series. This issue, Superman/Batman Annual #4, proceeds a little slower, with Levitz telling the reader a bit too much and offering a couple of unnecessary scenes to forward the action (as if an influx of criminals from Metropolis wouldn't signal the new Batman to visit that city without first re-confirming said influx on a computer for a page). You'd have to be hard-hearted again, however, not to be touched by the two final panels before the splash page, and I did appreciate DC including a preview of Beechen's Batman Beyond at the end of this book, treated with some Superman/Batman trade dress. If you like Batman Beyond, this is hardly a meal, but it is a passable appetizer, especially when "Worship" satisfies otherwise.

[Contains original covers, Batman Beyond miniseries preview]

Superman/Batman: Sorcerer Kings, I have a hunch, may be the final Superman/Batman collection that DC publishes, what with the DC Relaunch and all. That being the case,
Superman/Batman: Worship is a lovely penultimate collection, forward- and backward-looking, evocative of great team-ups past and yet firmly rooted in this title and the present era. This one surprised me and I give high marks to all involved.

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Review: Superman: The Black Ring Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Writer Paul Cornell gives Lex Luthor everything he's ever wanted, and in this way demonstrates the tragedy inherit in the character. That much of the second volume of Superman: The Black Ring is good, and this is a successful examination of the Lex Luthor character, though it all does get somewhat marred by too much cosmic hoo-ha. As well -- as is the fate of many such long comic book story arcs -- the inevitable interruption of crossovers and threads from other stories creates some confusion here, preventing The Black Ring from ending quite as strongly as it began.

[Contains spoilers]

Lex Luthor merges with a Phantom Zone creature at the end of this book, and in that way attains the god-like power he's always craved. Lex can only keep the power, however, if he uses it for good, and Lex is only able to achieve that magnanimity for a moment before he devolves to base selfishness. All superhero comic books must ultimately be a tragedy for the villain, but Lex's fall is especially poignant because in failing to keep the power, he also fails to truly comprehend any of the lessons he's learned about himself over his two-volume "quest for self-realization," as one character calls it.

The second volume of Black Ring begins with the two-issue crossover with Secret Six (also collected in Secret Six: The Reptile Brain), an annual, two issues guest-starting the Joker and Orange Lantern Larfleeze respectively, and the two-part conclusion. Of these, the Joker's is the best chapter and the most like the great material in volume one. Most of the issue finds Lex and the Joker sitting across from one another in a cell, debating the differences between order and chaos. Though we've seen team-ups between these two arch-nemeses before, Cornell's issue seemed especially wise; Cornell never tries to find where the two villains coincide, but instead focuses entirely on their differences, and it makes their encounter unexpectedly fresh.

The rest of the book, however, never quite achieves that issue (or the previous volume's) studiousness. The Secret Six story is chaotic, not always as much about Lex as the conflict between Vandal and Scandal Savage. The Larfleeze issue feels tacked-on, an unnecessary pause between the Joker issue and the story's conclusion, though Lex's calm murder of one of his employees there -- reminding the reader that Lex is the villain, not the hero, of this story -- is likely one of the best and most horrifying moments of the story. In the annual, Cornell and artist Marco Rudy do a nice Jack Kirby impression, the story and art weird and whimsical like the best of New Gods, but the story doesn't tie to the rest of the book and so fits unevenly in the narrative.

I had suspected, and indeed internet spoilers suggested, that Brainiac was largely behind Lex's quest, and certainly the controlling force of Lex's Lois Lane robot. Cornell made this obvious indeed because the surprise is that Lex has been aware of the manipulation, and planned for it. Had Brainiac simply been the "power" that Lex had sought throughout these pages, I would have been disappointed, but Cornell turns it to one of the book's best revelations. There's a great nerd-chic moment that follows in which Lex and Braniac shout techno-babble at one another, and I've appreciated how both Black Ring and Grounded have called back to the "New Krypton" storyline more than I expected, as in the fight between Lex and Brainiac.

Unfortunately, said "power" turns out to be a Phantom Zone monster, quite inexplicably. Again, Cornell ties it all up well alongside "New Krypton," but it's tiring to find the Phantom Zone again at the culmination of another Superman story (as if every Batman story would have to end at Crime Alley). The various prophecies and hints from Vandal Savage, the Joker, and Death of the Endless all make sense at the conclusion, but a Phantom Zone monster is rather less than what I expected -- the monster's threatened destruction of the universe hardly seems enough to scare the Joker into remaining at Arkham Asylum or to cure Larfleeze temporarily of his greed. Not to mention that once Superman arrives on the scene, Lex at once seems seems the scheming super-villain and not the story's dashing protagonist, far less impressive with his god-like powers than he was in the Joker's cell in a trench coat and suit.

The final chapter of this book is Action Comics #900; we're not treated to the original issue's back-up stories (controversial as they were) and the main story is not quite an anniversary tale (though a good ol' Superman/Lex Luthor battle never hurts in a pinch). What the issues does is show a number of tragedies from Superman's life, drawn by different artists -- again, not the most hopeful anniversary fare, and especially not for the last Action Comics anniversary issue before the DC New 52 Relaunch, but we are treated to Dan Jurgens drawing once again the death of Superman, and Gary Frank drawing again the death of Pa Kent. Artist Pete Woods, a favorite since his Robin days, gets much of the credit for the nuanced, often silent scenes of Black Ring, but Frank's Superman is bar none, and the sequence where Lex realizes Clark's secret identity is gripping.

Even as Lex has hunted this mysterious power over the past two books, the conclusion is incongruously cosmic; after Lex has wheedled his way through the villains of the DC Universe, to blast Superman back and forth with power beams comes off pedestrian. The climax also turns on Lex having sicced one or more Doomsdays on Superman's allies, something never shown in the book but discussed in dialogue after the fact. Informed readers know this relates to the Return of Doomsday and Reign of Doomsday crossover books, but someone picking up Black Ring in the bookstore because they like Lex Luthor, for instance, might think they lost a page.

All of this contributes to the unraveling of Black Ring's conclusion; there's a bit in the middle here that's of the quality of the previous volume, but much of the rest is confusion and battles of the kind you might find most everywhere else.

Taken as a whole, however, Superman: The Black Ring has been a great romp through the DC Universe, and notable especially for Paul Cornell's use of Sandman's Death, and as a fairly faithful story of the aftermaths of both the Blackest Night even and "New Krypton." If nothing else, this storyline has made me take notice of Cornell's writing, and I'm eager for his Reign of Doomsday (awkward ties to this book notwithstanding) and also his Demon Knights and Stormwatch in the new DC Universe.

[Contains original and variant covers, sketchbook and text pages by Pete Woods]

Loved Lex Luthor in Action Comics? Wanted to see Superman return?  Excited for the return of Doomsday, or just ready for the new 52 already?

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Part 2: Superman: Grounded Vol. 1 review

[This is part two of the Collected Editions review of Superman: Grounded. Read part one of our Superman: Grounded review at the link.]

For the DC Relaunch, Grant Morrison talks about creating a Bruce Springsteen-type Superman -- jeans, T-shirt, more hardscrabble and earthy than superheroic. J. Michael Stracynzski's Superman isn't wearing denim yet, but he is quoting Thoreau (at least anecdotally) and sticking up for the common man. When one person demands that Superman go be a hero rather than walking around, Superman turns the accusation around and demands the person go be a hero instead. What Stracynzski approaches by the end -- when Superman chides a police officer who believes only Superman could have saved the abused boy, whereas Superman says anyone with "ten cents' worth of compassion" could have done it -- is a kind of Superman grassroots movement, in which everyone acts enough like Superman to perhaps even erase the need for Superman altogether.

I'd like to have seen Stracynzski's original ending for Superman: Grounded and what kind of Superman stories he would have told in a post-Grounded world; and I'm curious to read Chris Roberson's Superman stories in the next volume and see how they coincide, or don't, with what Stracynzski started here.

As with Wonder Woman: Odyssey, however, I can't help but see Stracynzski's story as an argument for the DC Comics Relaunch. The danger and personal cost to Superman, as he lies in a comfy motel room in Illinois with Lois one night, is practically none, other than his own existential angst; and everyone from Batman to the Flash talk about how Superman's role is not to be among humanity, but above it. This is the twilight of the gods, essentially -- it's hard to see from inside it, but this the end of Superman's story. He's a universal hero, he's married, he visits with cousin Supergirl, he hangs out with the Justice League in their satellite above the Earth -- there is literally nothing else that can happen to this Superman. His enemies hang around, but essentially, he's won, world peace, game over. Maybe Grounded would have mitigated this somewhat if it had unfolded as intended, but the end result would have been the same -- so eager have we been to top what came before (Dead! Reborn! Married! Lex is President! Supergirl!) that we've moved all the way to the end, and there's nowhere to go except the beginning.

Grounded contains two fill-in issues by G. Willow Wilson, a well-regarded journalist and comic book writer -- which is to say, there's no suggestion here that Wilson "can't write," as the phrase goes, nor even that trying Wilson on a Superman comic was a bad idea. Wilson's two issues, however, are representative of what at times was wrong with the old DC Universe (if not the new one, too) and what DC should stop doing. Wilson's Perry White issue posits Perry as someone who doesn't know a blog from a "blob" and features Perry and Ron Troupe using dialogue like "shitake-storm" and "son-of-a-biscuit" -- basically, they're just not cool. Why DC thinks readers want to read about characters who are, for all intents and purposes, "lame," rather than a Perry White who handles a rumor-mongering rival himself rather than relying on an upstart kid to do so, I don't know -- unless it's because the lame Perry is easy, and familiar, like cliches are easy and familiar, and hence the need for a relaunch.

Wilson's Lois Lane story is probably also a cogent, if not necessarily groundbreaking, deconstruction of the superheroic damsel in distress -- but it's an entirely wrong portrayal of the same Lois who just took down her own father and exposed his role in the US government's plot to destroy New Krypton, and even the Lois who's been giving Superman advice on the Grounded trail. The center of Lois Lane's character is that she's confident about who she is and what she does, an even match for Superman; the answer to her question, via Wilson, of "where has busting my butt running from story to story really gotten me? What do I have to show for it?" is "numerous Pulitzers and national acclaim," to start. Here again, I can't conceive that DC really thinks its fanbase wants to read a story where Lois Lane considers being a housewife rather than Lois Lane (or that Batman, put another way, seriously considers life as a billionaire playboy might be better).

Wilson's stories just don't have a place in Grounded, and they bring it down; that same imaginary fan who picks up Grounded thinking this is the Superman saga, without knowing any of the background, would probably be confused by these issues where Superman's supporting cast essentially falls apart. It's just not acceptable any more for the internet to have to tell the bookstore reader, "Just ignore the two interludes here, they're not really a part of it" -- rather, every part of every story needs to be as good as every other.

Superman: Grounded has something of a bad reputation, but I think it comes from its parts, not its whole. There's no one really to blame for that, except maybe DC in general -- there's a worthy concept here, but in the run-up to the DC Relaunch, I think it got lost among other things.

[Contains original and variant covers]

Liked this past week's Secret Six review? Coming up next week, we continue our look at Gail Simone's Secret Six with Cats in the Cradle.

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Review: Superman: Grounded Vol. 1 hardcover/trade paperback (DC Comics)

I finished reading the first volume of Superman: Grounded with some regret that writer J. Michael Straczynski won't truly be finishing this story in the next volume. The material Stracynzski covers here is not new, necessarily -- Superman saving a beaten child, talking down a suicide, inspiring an old man with his flying -- but that Stracyznski packs it all one right after another on this very "hard traveling heroes"-esque walking tour that Superman's taking, and especially right on the heels of the cosmic "New Krypton" storyline, is largely compelling.

As with Wonder Woman: Odyssey, however, the moment Straczynski hands the reigns to another writer, it shows. I fear what interesting things Straczynski was trying to say with Superman in Grounded could be too easily overshadowed by fill-in stories that really have no place here.

[Contains spoilers]

I give a lot of credit here to artist Eddy Barrows, and whomever decided to keep Barrows on this title between War of the Supermen and Superman: Grounded. I still feel Barrows's art is far too dark, with too-heavy lines -- see how much solid black there is on the splash page where Superman holds the crying jumper, and on the page after, and on the first page of the second full chapter -- but it shows Barrows's strength as an artist that he can draw both War of the Supermen's action sequences, Grounded's "talkie" moments, and also the truly gruesome "dream creature" in chapter four.

And by having Barrows draw Grounded, it makes Grounded and "New Krypton" seem all of a piece -- if everything were working right, "New Krypton" deserves a Superman-centric, Earth-bound epilogue like Grounded, though in the days of the Triangle Titles this might be one month of epilogue stories with some scattered follow-up (see, for instance, the aftermath of Superman: Our Worlds at War) and not a twelve-part story to be collected in two almost-$25 hardcovers.

I say "if everything were working right" because those of us inside the beltway know all of this appears to fit together much better than it actually does. Barrows's presence offers some continuity between War of the Supermen and Grounded, but in fact the two stories have entirely different creators, and Stracynzski's Grounded storyline only happens to coincide with "New Krypton," rather than organically emerging from it. Not to mention that with the next volume, Stracynzski chooses to step away from the Superman title given the DC Relaunch, leaving some fans understandably bitter and more significantly, not completing the thought he approaches through the beginning of this story.

For a reader who picks up Superman books at their local bookstore without ever once perusing the inside baseball on the internet (of which I think there are far more of them than there are of us), War of the Supermen and Grounded seem to work wonderfully well together, and the idealistic part of me clings to that even as the rest of me knows much better.

That's a pity, because what Stracynzski starts to say in Grounded is really rather interesting.

Grounded begins with a post-War of the Supermen press conference, at which a woman slaps Superman because he failed to cure her husband's cancer while Superman was off on New Krypton. The woman's accusation and expectation for Superman is ludicrous and everyone in the gathered crowd tells her so, but the fact that Superman's superheroic duties are indeed "more important" than the husband's life affects Superman deeply. What follows is a string of sequences in which the police, regular people, Superman's fellow superheroes, even his loved ones all offer Superman excuses for why his responsibilities are greater than to regular people, why he should care less, and Superman keeps returning to why he should care more -- and it's remarkable.

I very much like Stracynzski's characterization of Superman. Stracynzski's Superman is subversive, for one -- he sets fire to drug stashes hidden in private homes despite much talk about privacy rights and warrants; he threatens a stalker with bodily harm if the stalker keeps harassing his victim; he gives a little boy a phone number to call every day to be sure the boy's father isn't beating him; he even throws a basketball game to give a smaller teen a boost of self-esteem. This is a Superman assured of himself and his abilities, if not necessarily his place in the world; he deftly predicts the media will stop following him when they see there's nothing sensational to his walk across the country, and indeed they do. Stracynzski's Superman has a confidence that's immediately appealing.

Read Part 2 of our review of Superman: Grounded.

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Review: Superman: Black Ring hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Paul Cornell's Superman: The Black Ring is disarmingly complex. Artist Pete Woods's curvy, almost cartoonish lines suggest less serious superheroics, but Cornell's Lex Luthor story here is deeply, deeply psychological. Whereas Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's Lex Luthor: Man of Steel focused on the Superman/Lex Luthor conflict, Cornell's story is far more internal, explicating the fears, hang-ups, delusions and self-aggrandizement -- often knotted and contradictory -- that make up the villain Lex Luthor. Every offhand comment and pointed glance exudes meaning here; this is a book to be read twice, and it's only even volume one.

[Contains spoilers]

At the beginning of The Black Ring, a disgruntled Lexcorp employee attacks Lex, and Lex has him killed. We've seen Lex do this kind of thing before, but never has he had a robotic Lois Lane lookalike, essentially the voice of the reader, to ask him exactly what he's doing. Lex is a sharp businessman with an intellect that can stand up to Superman, and yet his actions are completely outrageous -- firing an employee because he disagreed, and then killing him for the attacking. "Stop for a second," Robo-Lois cautions. "Think about what you just did ... Sure he attacked you because you fired him. But why did you fire him?" Lex is unable to give her an answer.

Cornell demonstrates a contradiction in Lex Luthor's character here that I don't think's been presented quite this way before. Lex is eminently powerful, so much that he hardly needs worry what the common man thinks of him, and yet he's so obsessed with a minor employee -- not that the man hit him, but that he disagreed with him -- that he has to have the man killed. Common perception would have it that Lex is a focused schemer, but Cornell underlines that Lex's actions, time and again and under numerous writers, suggest the opposite. Rather there's an element of Lex Luthor that's almost childlike or animalistic, slave to his instincts and with no filter or sense of large versus small injury. He cannot tolerate the slightest impediment to his own focused intentions, else he erupts in tantrums that often cost lives; to an extent, Cornell suggests Lex Luthor is just as unpredictable as the Joker, only in a more expensive suit.

And that much you can get just from the first five pages of this wholly intriguing book.





The story puts an even finer point on it when Lex ventures into the wilderness against Gorilla Grodd. Lex's plan to steal potential Black Ring power from Grodd involves Lex and his assistant Spalding disguising themselves as apes, sacrificing robot doubles of themselves in the process. It's clear here that Lex's animal nature must win out against the trappings of his money or intellect. Robo-Lois watches Spalding discard the robots with silent concern; Cornell establishes that Lois knows she's a robot, but feels a longing for the humanity that Lex represents. If we venture that everything Lex does is a metaphor for Superman, then perhaps the emotions Lois envies in Lex are like the powers Lex envies in Superman -- something each can only watch from a distance and strive for, but never achieve.

Earlier, Mr. Mind traps Lex within his own head, subjecting him to fantasies that reveal Lex's different facets. We see Lex as Prometheus, the only man brave enough to steal fire from the gods; then he's Dr. Frankenstein, and the modern-day Promethean monster that he creates is himself. In a western scenario, Lex battles the alien stranger who's come to town, Superman; last, Lex becomes Superman himself to save Metropolis from a giant Mr. Mind. There are equal parts determination and self-loathing here -- Lex believes in himself but is also horrified by himself; he wants to save Metropolis from their superheroic invader but really he wants to be that hero himself.

Lex emerges from the fantasies having to face still more contradictions -- he only trusts himself, he knows, but can't escape his overarching need for public support and acclaim. Lex Luthor can't ever, ever be happy; even faced with the promise of never-ending heaven, of bliss, from Death of Sandman fame, Lex admits he'd always be looking for a catch. "Send me where you're going to send me," he tells Death. " I'll find something to do. I'll find something to win. Even when I'm dead."

All of this examination of Lex Luthor, ultimately, is in service of a mystery. Death, Mr. Mind and his secret employer, even Vandal Savage all seek to understand Lex's weaknesses, for some reason we don't yet know. There's a wonderful sense of displacement that pervades this book, like a good Hitchcock movie; it starts sometime after Blackest Night, and we never see Lex's impetus for building the Lois robot -- or if he even built the Lois robot at all. There's any number of jumping off points for the entire story to be a dream or some trick on Lex, from when he's hit in the head to when he connects himself to his Isopod super-computer, through all of Mr. Mind's fantasies and Lex's near-Death experience. Robo-Lois, the book tells us from the beginning, is built from Brainiac's technology, and this fact alone imbues the story with rich paranoia -- anyone, whether Robo-Lois or Spalding or even Lex's power suit, could be Brainiac; the reader trusts no one and can never quite believe everything they read.

I previously expressed some dismay that DC Comics breaks The Black Ring up into two volumes. This is no fault of Cornell's, but it flattens the end of an otherwise interesting story. DC no doubt ends Black Ring after the sixth chapter precisely because the next issue begins the crossover with Gail Simone's Secret Six, but the end of the story comes very suddenly. I dare say it even seems like Cornell marks time a bit in the final chapter before the crossover; the issue focuses on Vandal Savage and his eons-long wait for Lex Luthor to fulfill a rumored prophecy. This is entertaining -- including the two pages where Cornell re-writes Savage/Luthor team-ups to fit this story -- but overall it would probably read better with the second volume alongside; here it seems Lex disappears from the forward action of the book a bunch of pages before the end.

The Black Ring is not the picaresque tour of DC Universe villainy that it pretends to be; it's more. I was struck however that this volume, which features a DC Comics villain and which has a murder in its first issue, works so well when the Titans: Villains for Hire I read recently includes much the same thing and goes awry. I'd like to think the difference is a little deeper than just that Cornell's Lex kills an anonymous employee and Eric Wallace's Deathstroke kills the Atom Ryan Choi; moreover, I think the Black Ring reader is helped considerably by the first page where Lex teases the villains who've kidnapped him. Lex is a charmer, and Cornell makes him charming, and I believe the reader will follow charm even when the protagonist does bad things; Deathstroke's murder of the Atom is forthright, unpitying, and bloody, and I don't think it gives the reader any opportunity to like Deathstroke before it happens. Second, I think we can't overestimate the importance of Robo-Lois in this book, calling Lex to task on his villainy. The other Titans express discomfort with the murder of the Atom, but Wallace's Tattooed Man, for instance, is not as forthright as Cornell's Lois is in just a single pag. I wondered after reading Titans -- still with me, obviously -- whether the current era of the villain comics began and ended with Secret Six; Cornell shows that that's not the case, and it's the way the story's built that's perhaps the mitigating factor.

I never got into Doctor Who (my dark geek secret; no idea where to start, really), and I never read any of Paul Cornell's Marvel work, so he's arrived to my attention a bit out of nowhere -- and then proceeded to take the reigns of one of DC's highest profile book, wrote a Secret Six crossover, and got permission to use Neil Gaiman's Death, for gosh sake; would his writing, I wondered, live up to the hype? The answer is that it does. Reading Superman: The Black Ring is like going down the rabbit hole, with every page curiouser and curiouser; I have high hopes that the answers provided in volume two match the superlative build-up they're given here.

[Contains original and variant covers. Printed on glossy paper.]

More reviews next week. See you then!

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Review: Superman: Secret Origin deluxe hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Geoff Johns's Superman: Secret Origin seems to take as its dual purposes to provide some basis for the 1950s Silver Age elements that have returned to Superman comics of late after the Infinite Crisis crossover, and to set up events currently taking place in the Superman titles. The origin Johns presents is tenable and the story is entertaining, with lush buoyant art by Gary Frank, though at times the book seems more concerned with hitting the origin touchstones than telling a cogent story.

Over twenty years ago, John Byrne wrote and drew a stripped-down version of Superman's origins for a new DC Comics era (of which I'm very fond), and the lack of Silver Age elements must have been somewhat surprising for comics fans at the time. Johns's origin might seem similarly unfamiliar to comics fans proper, but whereas Byrne recreated Superman whole cloth, Johns's story is a pastiche of Superman elements from television and movies that will be exceedingly recognizable to those audiences.

Johns's biggest change to the existing Superman mythos is to reintroduce Superman's time as Superboy in Smallville. After young Clark saves Lana Lang from a tornado (a la Smallville), his parents fashion him a costume in the style of the World War II Justice Society -- Clark, we find, likes saving people, but feels adolescent embarrassment at the underwear-on-the-outside costume. This is Johns's attempt at "modernizing" Superman, if that's necessary -- Superman was Superboy, perhaps the corniest of corny Silver Age concepts, but in a reluctant rather than whole-hearted way that makes it still "cool" for modern audiences.

If "legitimizing" Superman's Superboy years seems unnecessary (if you're going to introduce Superboy, might as well do so enthusiastically), I did like that Johns depicts Superboy getting over his initial embarrassment with the support of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The return of Superman's childhood friendship with the Legion is the best part of Johns's Silver Age revitalization, and it's clear here how the Legion's influence fits in with Clark Kent's overall development. The Legion's influence implicitly shapes Superman's later actions; just as the Legion befriends a down-and-out Clark, Superman does the same for Jimmy Olsen, and just as the Legion miraculously promises Clark a better tomorrow, Superman does the same for the previously-faithless Metropolis.

Yet, for an audience out of the comics mainstream reading Superman: Secret Origin on its own, that elements like the Legion only appear once in the story and then never reappear might seem strange -- Secret Origin is a strong and more traditional Superman story than J. Michael Straczynski's Superman Earth One, but Earth One is more self-contained and thematically complete. As with the Legion and Superboy, Johns returns Superman's dog Krypto to his Smallville origins, but only off-panel -- we see Krypto's rocketship land, but never see the dog itself nor does it appear again in the book. It's unclear whether Johns says all he thinks he needs to, or if this is a setup for a Secret Origins sequel or a Superman storyline, but it seems too casual for an origin story. Superman's Kryptonian parents Jor-El and Lara, and Clark's friend Lana Lang, all similarly disappear after the first half of the story, making the Smallville and Metropolis halves of this story feel in part like two separate books.

It's obvious both Johns and Frank let Richard Donner's Superman movie heavily influence this book; gone is Byrne's 1980s-era Superman saving Lois from a crashing space shuttle, replaced with his catching Lois and a helicopter as they fall off a building (Johns stops just short of having Lois actually say "You've got me -- who's got you?" but only barely). Whereas Byne's more modern Clark Kent disassociated itself from the mild-mannered reporter of the past, Johns's Clark Kent is Christopher Reeves's classic bumbling oaf, his secret identity hidden by Frank under too-big glasses and a goofy smile. This approach wouldn't be my first choice, but it's hard not to like it (Johns plays the clumsy Clark especially well in the first chapter of Superman: Brainiac); in addition, Johns offers one of the best beginnings of the Lois and Clark relationship I've seen in having Lois be the only one who can tell Clark's awkwardness is an act, even if she can't necessarily figure out why.

Indeed, at its core I'll say Superman: Secret Origin makes a lot of sense. Johns's Metropolis, in the beginning, is one where the citizens would just as soon trip over as help their fellow man, and the highest they would look up would be to see where Lex Luthor might grant them a windfall. Lois is a crusading journalist, but her exposes become repetitive in that she has no faith in the inherit goodness of anyone; Lois, like Lex Luthor and the people of Metropolis, doesn't believe in miracles, and Superman's appearance is exactly that -- a reason to believe in miracles, in honesty, and in things greater than oneself. I'd reject assertions that this is hokey -- if you can't be heartfelt in a Superman comic, then where can you? -- and certainly I like this better than in Superman Earth One, where Metropolis has to inspire Superman to heroism and not the other way around.

It's interesting that the major villain of Superman: Secret Origin turns out to be the US government. This is obviously meant in part to lead into the later events of Superman: New Krypton, but I think the significance of Superman vs the US government in an origin story can't be understated. For all the loving Superman cliches in Secret Origin (we get "Up, up and away" at least twice), "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" never comes up, and "the American Way" gets a little bit of tarnish. The late-2000s Superman: Secret Origin emerges a long way away from the 1980s' Dark Knight Returns, where Superman was a patsy of the Reagan administration; Johns's Superman is the traditional superhero, but also a free-thinker, someone more suited to playing on the world stage of modern sensibilities than Supermen of the past.

As has been Johns's wont in revamping other DC Comics superhero origins, what is exterior for Superman here ties back to the interior. Lex Luthor officially emerges from Smallville as Clark does (though, showing some restraint, Johns portrays Clark and Lex as acquaintances but not friends). The Parasite is a Daily Planet janitor transformed into a monster by Kryptonite (again, a la Smallvile) and Metallo is now Sergeant John Corben, favorite of Lois's father Sam Lane and obsessed with Lois. Johns also reveals that Lois is now essentially an orphan, estranged from her father and having lost her mother at a young age (canceling years worth of 1990s Superman stories and hewing, again, closer to Smallville), something that immediately endears her to Clark. Items like Metallo's connection to Lois were present in the recent Superman: New Krypton storyline but still vague enough, pre-Secret Origin, to be effective; as Johns is not specifically writing Superman as he was Green Lantern after that character's Secret Origin, I'll be curious to see whether any other writers actually pick up on the varied interrelationships that Johns has established.

Ultimately I think that's what will determine the success of Secret Origin -- whether DC makes sure other writers adhere to it or not. Byrne wrote Superman just after Man of Steel, as did Jeph Loeb after the Superman for All Season soft reboot, and Lex's renewed Smallville origins caught on handily after Superman: Birthright. However, since Infinite Crisis we've already seen an origin for Jimmy Olsen in Superman: 3-2-1 Action and the first meeting of Superboy and the Legion in DC Universe: Legacies that both differ from Secret Origin, such that readers can't be blamed for still being confused. The monster Doomsday's revamped Kryptonian origins, hinted at since just after Infinite Crisis, also get a reference in Secret Origin, and the ongoing Reign of Doomsday storyline will be one such test of Secret Origin's pervasiveness.

[Introduction by David Goyer. Contains full, variant, and unused covers. Printed on glossy paper.]

I'll always have a soft spot for John Byrne's Man of Steel, but Geoff Johns's Superman: Secret Origin is a satisfactory outing -- different than Man of Steel, to be sure, but without quite the sense of sweeping difference that I think Birthright carried with it. Secret Origin is Superman for the masses -- the comic book Superman overlaid with the Donner movies, Smallville, even bits of Superman: The Animated Series. The purist in me wants to reject that, even as I know that it's probably the Superman with the best chance of reaching the multimedia audiences that DC Comics (and their multi-genre product arm DC Entertainment) needs to reach right now.

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Review: Superman/Batman: Big Noise trade paperback (DC Comics)

One of the original tenets of the Collected Editions site, sometimes lost in the shuffle, was to review trade paperbacks like a bookstore customer, as if they were books and not the byproduct of previously-released monthly issues. The goal was to escape some of the monthly ups and downs of the titles -- if, for instance, delays struck the monthly issues of a book such that the issues came out two years apart, our focus would still be on "how does it read?" when finally collected. It was with a bit of this in mind that, rooting around for something light to read the other day, I picked up Superman/Batman: Big Noise.

DC Comics billed the monthly issues of this book, as you may know (and here I ruin the "book on its own" illusion already) as an "Our Worlds at War" tie-in, offering a sort of untold story of Superman and Batman during the aftermath of that 2001 crossover. The story, however, by one of the original "Our Worlds at War" writers Joe Casey, has little integral connection to the crossover. Fans were vocal in their upset over what appeared to be some gross marketing by DC -- suggesting Big Noise would tie in to "Our Worlds at War" and offering the barest of connection to make that true, but ultimately not delivering what the readers put down their money for.

What's interesting is that the collection of Big Noise -- along with being the first paperback-only collection of Superman/Batman -- doesn't mention "Our Worlds at War" anywhere in the trade dress. It suggests perhaps that DC learned their lesson with the monthly issues, and so decided first of all not to promise an "Our Worlds at War" tie if they couldn't deliver, and second to present the book at the paperback price in hopes that would bring in customers otherwise burned by the negative publicity.

It was lack of mention of "Our Worlds at War" that caught my interest. Here was this Superman/Batman story -- one that, as it turns out, is really just a non-continuity "general" Superman/Batman story -- that had been marketed as an "Our Worlds at War" aftermath and as such drew in readers with all sorts of expectations, now presented on its own just as a Superman/Batman story, no expectations needed. The question becomes, if you go into Big Noise blind, in the way that Collected Editions reviews are somewhat intended, is it a good story?

The answer is, it isn't terrible.

Big Noise is by no means of the caliber of Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite, writers Mike Johnson and Michael Green's masterpiece that's as good as the original Jeph Loeb Superman/Batman stories. But, it is on par with Finest Worlds, Night & Day, and Torment, other standalone Superman/Batman stories that a reader might just pick up "off the cuff" from the shelves.

Among Big Noise's overarching premises is that Superman must confront the fallout from Krypton's warlike past in the form of a time-lost alien warrior. This is emotionally difficult for the Man of Steel given his own general pacifism, and -- Casey has Superman admit -- that Superman has somewhat idealized the history of the Krypton that he never really knew. Big Noise is a considerably more Superman-centered than Batman-centered volume, but Casey does well in noting the irony that Superman mourns emotionally the dead civilization he never really knew, while Batman remains stoic in the shadow of the death of his own parents.

Despite that, in part Big Noise reads as well as your average Superman/Batman story precisely because Casey does not try to force the parallel narration or meta-examination of the characters that other writers do. Instead Big Noise just a solid story of DC's Big Two teaming up to solve a cosmic mystery, and I appreciated it for that. Ardian Syaf draws a sharp, realistic Superman and Batman in the first chapters, helping Casey's mystery get started, though the story peters out toward the end; a handful of fill-in artists pencil an elongated fight scene as Casey's dialogue begins to fail ("Bring it," a fiery villain emotes; "Oh, I am," Superman snaps back).

The book doesn't try to do too much -- and I can just as easily see why this is a detraction, not an asset -- but rather gives Superman and Batman a challenge and lets them figure it out, and uses established DC Universe elements for the big reveal. Big Noise, to an extent, could be a team-up episode of the Superman or Batman animated series, perhaps not surprisingly given Casey's Ben 10 and Generation Rex animation credits.

Yet, for a reader picking up Big Noise on its own, the fact that DC doesn't overtly mention "Our Worlds at War" here might be both a blessing and a curse. The Big Noise story certainly presents that some major cosmic war has just taken place on Earth; in a Comic Book Resources story, Casey suggests the reader could take this as any generic alien attack on Earth, from "Our Worlds at War" to the Blackest Night crossover, but my guess is that an uninformed reader will just feel like they missed something.

For the informed reader, even if Big Noise never directly states "we just fought Brainiac and Darkseid," there's little touches I liked, such as the 2000s "tesseract" Fortress of Solitude, and Superman's slang-talking Kryptonian robot Kelex. Casey also gets in a nod to the later events of Superman: New Krypton, and notes Big Noise as an adventure recorded in Batman's "black casebook" that we see in Batman RIP.

In the end, if you were going to pick up Superman/Batman: Big Noise or Blackest Night, pick up Blackest Night. If you were going to get Big Noise or the equally-defamed Justice League: Cry for Justice, get Cry for Justice -- the latter book has more heft, and ties more strongly for better or worse to what's going on in the present DC Universe. If, however, you just want a Superman/Batman story, what I found is that Big Noise is no worse than other standalone Superman/Batman volumes, despite the controversy that surrounded it

[Contains full covers. Printed on glossy paper]

When talking about Joe Casey I always like to mention his Adventures of Superman run from just after "Our Worlds at War" until Casey left the title. As part of the aftermath of "Our Worlds at War" (implicitly if not actually stated), Casey wrote a string of stories where Superman never resorted to violence to defeat his enemies.

The run is impressive not for that single fact alone -- though it makes a considerable amount of sense; if anyone should be slow to violence, it's Superman; and frankly what the world probably needs is more pacifist superheroes -- but also for the stories that resulted from it, full of weird worlds and super-science-fiction. By loosing himself from the constraints of superhero-punches-supervillain, Casey opened a world of Superman storytelling that felt fresh and exciting, and one doesn't miss the physical violence. One day, I'd like to see DC collect these stories and solicit them as what they are; DC touting a collection of issues where Superman saves the day without hitting anyone would be a significant thing indeed.

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Review: War of the Supermen hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

As the conclusion to the sweeping, eighty-plus part, over two-years long Superman: New Krypton saga, War of the Supermen does a passable job -- not satisfactory, by any means, but better than other readers had lead me to expect. Over the course of at least four different series and a number of different writers, New Krypton transformed from the story as which it started out into a different one; writers Sterling Gates and James Robinson offer a good ending, but not the one I was looking for.

[Contains spoilers]

The New Krypton series as a whole had a number of good stories and well-established characters, and Gates and Robinson treat them all well here. They didn't forget Greg Rucka's Nightwing and Flamebird, thankfully, and the characters' exits, if brief, are at least built on threads of the New Krypton story, as when Flamebird defeats the Kryptonian god Rao one more time. Superman gets another moment with his adopted son Chris before the latter disappears into the Phantom Zone; Robinson's Mon-El, perhaps the best part of all of New Krypton, makes a cameo; and the writers tease future stories with those characters and with the new Guardian and Billi Harper. New Krypton was an ensemble story, and the real disappointment would have been if the ensemble hadn't been able to take their bows; in that, Gates and Robinson deliver hands down.

I also thought the writers presented the book's tragedy well. That New Krypton would be destroyed has been a given since the beginning, but I didn't expect the twist in that the bomb would be Reactron, and the trigger would be Supergirl's mother Alura's overzealous torture of her enemy. The destruction of the planet, as depicted by Jamal Igle (I think) is visually astounding (if lacking sufficient similarity to depictions of Krypton's original destruction). The pages of Superman and Supergirl's grief, especially the silent pages, were very affecting, their tears bubbling in the zero gravity. I hadn't expected Lex Luthor's role in the destruction of New Krypton, and that surprised me as did how this book leads in to Paul Cornell's forthcoming Lex Luthor story Superman: The Black Ring.

Unfortunately, I think War of the Supermen missed the mark in a number of different ways.

First of all, I think to posit as War of the Supermen does that the New Krypton story is about Superman trying to broker peace between Earth and the Kryptonians is to miss the point of Geoff Johns's fantastic set up for this story. New Krypton is about Clark Kent in mourning over the death of his human father, and how this makes him too-readily accept the New Kryptonians who are not the surrogate family he presumed they would be. New Krypton is full reflective instances of fathers and sons -- Lois and General Lane, Nightwing and how he sacrifices himself for Superman -- and at the end of the book we even learn Mon-El is going to be a father. The writers even go so far as to have Lois think to herself about something Pa Kent told her, but there's never that scene with Superman that ties the story back to where it started, with Pa Kent's death. I liked the modern age incarnation of Superman where he parents were alive, I think it worked well in a number of stories, and that Johns killed off Pa Kent as the launchpad for New Krypton, only to have that death mean nothing in the end, is a disappointment to me.

Second, I felt the central conflict of War of the Supermen -- Superman versus General Zod and a horde of Kryptonians attacking Earth -- much too closely mirrored that of Superman: Last Son, and it's hard to top a work by Geoff Johns and Adam Kubert. Robinson and Greg Rucka's work in the third volume of Superman: New Krypton went a long way toward establishing Zod not as a one-note villain, but as a war hero dedicated to helping his people at all costs; War of the Supermen would have us believe that all of Zod and Superman's growing relationship was a sham, and that Zod really is just revenge-obsessed and "evil." More's the shame. Not to mention that I must have missed in the eighty-plus issues where the Phantom Zone destroyed projector regenerated itself; Superboy's retrieving it was a terrible deus ex machina, and a rather dull conclusion to the story -- Zod always gets re-imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, and sure enough, here he was again.

Third, and maybe this dovetails with the lack of acknowledgment for Pa Kent in the book, I disagree with focusing War of the Supermen's epilogue on Lois and Clark's relationship. Yes, the two had to separate for Superman to live on New Krypton, but it was always with the understanding that Superman was keeping an eye on Zod, and any number of times we saw Clark come back to Earth to visit Lois. The writers even have Lois ask Clark never to leave her again, and then follow it, essentially, with "just kidding." As far as I'm concerned, Lois Lane -- the DC Universe's most capable civilian -- ought be the first person who understands the responsibilities of her spouse and the last person to ask him to shy away from what he has to do. The Death of Superman -- shortly after Lois and Clark's engagement, with Clark in mortal danger -- was a story about Lois and Clark's relationship, and that story's romance-laden end was especially fitting; here, ending New Krypton with "I can't stop kissing you" and "I love you Lois," rather than, say, "Let's get Swamp Thing to build a memorial to the innocent Kryptonians that Reactron killed." It seems again a conclusion to a different New Krypton saga than the one I started out reading.

What to say then about Superman: New Krypton? Like "Batman Reborn," it was an ambitious story with a telegraphed ending, and the suspense was in how the writers would get there -- "Batman Reborn" is about how the world reacts to Batman's death, knowing as we did that Batman would be back; similarly we knew the planet of New Krypton couldn't last, but the question was how it might be destroyed. The Batman story, interestingly, is a comedy (a story with a happy ending), and the Superman story the tragedy. New Krypton was most certainly written by talented writers who like the same Superman eras as I do -- it had Bibbo, Natasha Irons, the Guardian, Dubblex, and even Agent Liberty in it, for gosh sakes; it fell flat, in the end, but there were so many highs getting to this point that I certainly can't discount the story entirely.

I liked New Krypton's ambitiousness, I liked the ways in which it reminded me of the "Triangle Era" of Superman comics. Part of me wants to say, "Try again! For Rao's sake, try again!" Superman deserves storytelling of the kind this could have been -- maybe a second attempt could be the charm.

[Contains full and variant covers. Printed on glossy paper.]

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Review: Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Sterling Gates's afterword to Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2 goes a long way toward, if not justifying the distinct lack of Superman himself in this story, explaining the lack in a satisfying manner. "Last Stand of New Krypton," Gates notes, was originally to be called "Brainiac and the Legion of Super-Heroes." Indeed, if we can forget that this story marks the near-end of almost two years worth of Superman stories, and instead just accept it as a Legion of Super-Heroes story set in the present, there's actually a bit to like here.

[Contains spoilers]

It's about at the point where Legionnaire Brainiac 5, arrived from the future, looks at our young Supergirl Kara Zor-El and remembers when, in her future, Supergirl will die, that this volume of Last Stand of New Krypton becomes something different. At that moment, I'm not sure what playbook Gates (who shares writing duties with James Robinson) is working from, but we now have tacit acknowledgement that this back-in-continuity Legion remembers the aspect of Crisis on Infinite Earths where the Golden/Silver Age Supergirl perished; even as today's heroes know Barry Allen died during Crisis, the original Supergirl was supposedly out of continuity entirely, a figment of the old Earth-1 that no longer exists.

I get why these kinds of continuity puzzles are annoying to some readers; Gates ultimately provides no explanation in this book as to who remembers what, and ultimately the whole puzzle may cause more confusion than it does add to the story. I hold out hope, perhaps, that indeed Gates is writing from a playbook -- that we as the reader will at some point learn more about what Brainiac 5 knows versus what Superman and Supergirl do -- though I may ultimately be disappointed. From this moment, however, Last Stand of New Krypton becomes Brainiac 5's story, and his mourning over the still-alive Supergirl, his drive to save Superman, and his fear in confronting his ancestor Brainiac all make for compelling reading.

The thing is, I like the Legion of Super-Heroes, and have grown more to like them lately between Mark Waid's re-imagining of the team, the cartoon, and the return of the post-Crisis classic team. Where I've often felt that the Legion goes wrong is in not having any connection to the goings-on of the modern DC Universe; the Legion exists in a bubble and is therefore not "essential" to DC Universe reading otherwise. Last Stand of New Krypton is a great example of how the Legion can be integrated into the ongoing DC Universe -- it's an entire book where Brainiac 5, Chameleon, Sensor Girl, Tellus, and others fight "our" Brainiac over the skies of New Krypton. This is exactly the kind of Legion book I want to read, Superman's name on the masthead notwithstanding.

I considered in my review of Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1 that one (of a few) plotlines I'd like to see wrapped up by the end of the New Krypton books is that of the Kryptonian guild system, which segregates the Kryptonians and which Superman has tried to combat. Also in Gates's afterword, the writer explains that the Kryptonians are now united despite guild -- all against Earth under the rulership of General Zod. This is a fair turn, an alternative to the neat bow under which the plotline could have been tied up, and I like that; at the same time, the moment in the story is so very subtle that it took Gates's afterword to explain it, which might mean it's too subtle.

It is, however, an indication at least that Last Stand's writer and its audience are on something of the same page in terms of what they want from this story, even if not quite everything that I'm personally  looking for gets delivered.

Last Stand of New Krypton not only ends with Gates's afterword, but also with a couple of pages excerpted from the next and final New Krypton book, War of the Supermen. As in the first Doom Patrol trade, which ended with the trailer for the next book in the series, I love that DC includes this extra material acknowledging that a trade reader might want the next trade in a series, and encouraging them to pick it up. Between Gates's afterword and this extra material, Last Stand re-establishes the early sense of excitement the New Krypton storyline had about itself, and it made me feel good at the close this book, even if that excitement comes late, just one volume before the end of the storyline.

None of this excuses, of course, the fact that Superman doesn't play much of a role here. The hero is far from absent; indeed there's a fantastic multi-page widescreen sequence in which Superman tried to hold back Brainiac's crashing ship that's truly cinematic. But much of the book's plot surrounds the Legion trying to save Superman and preserve his legacy; this is a book about Superman more than one starring him. In that way, if the reader can't find enjoyment in the Legion story, they may feel that Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2 simply seems to be biding its time between the first volume and the concluding War of the Supermen.

It seems the New Krypton storyline will come down to this final book, War of the Supermen, to make or break how the story ultimately fares.

[Contains full and variant covers, afterword by Sterling Gates, preview pages of War of the Supermen. Printed on glossy paper.]

Later this week ... the Collected Editions review of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. Don't miss it!

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Superman: New Krypton trade reading order

Blink and you might've missed it, but over the weekend DC Comics had War of the Supermen as a Comixology new release again, with a note that the whole eight-plus-issue Superman: New Krypton saga would be $0.99 for a few days, much like they did with Batman #600-700 some months ago. Either I misunderstood or this didn't happen, because War of the Supermen left the digital new release list shortly thereafter. [Edit: Sale later happened March 4-5, 2011.]

At the back of the digital War of the Supermen #0, however, is a boffo checklist of all the Superman: New Krypton stories, organized in single issue reading order. For our trade reading friends out there, we now present that list translated into the definitive reading order for hardcover and trade paperback -- if you still haven't picked up the Superman: New Krypton books, here's how to do it.

Suggested preludes: Superman: The Coming of Atlas, Superman: Brainiac

City of Supermen
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special #1	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 1
Adventure Comics Special Featuring the Guardian #1	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 1
Superman: New Krypton Special #1	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 1
Superman #681	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 1
Action Comics #871	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 1
Supergirl #35	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 2
Superman #682	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 2
Action Comics #872	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 2
Supergirl #36	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 2
Superman #683	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 2
Action Comics #873	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 2
Mon-El
Superman #684	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Action Comics #874	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Superman #685	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Brave New World
Superman: World of New Krypton #1	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 3
Superman: World of New Krypton #2	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 3
Superman: World of New Krypton #3	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 3
Superman: World of New Krypton #4	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 3
Superman: World of New Krypton #5	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 3
Gods of Krypton, Heroes on Earth
Action Comics #875	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 1
Action Comics #876	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 1
Action Comics #877	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 1
Action Comics #878	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 1
Action Comics #879	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 1
Action Comics Annual #12	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 1
A New Hero Will Rise
Superman #686	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Superman #687	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Superman #688	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Superman #689	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Superman #690	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 1
Superman Annual #14	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 2: Man of Valor
Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #37	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #38	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #39	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #40	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #41	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #42	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl #43	Supergirl: Who is Superwoman?
Supergirl Annual #1	Supergirl: Death and the Family
Codename: Patriot
Superman: World of New Krypton #6	Superman: Codename Patriot
Action Comics #880	Superman: Codename Patriot
Supergirl #44	Superman: Codename Patriot
Superman #691	Superman: Codename Patriot
Superman: Secret Files 2009 #1	Superman: Codename Patriot
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special #2	Superman: Codename Patriot
Friends and Fugitives
Action Comics #881	Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives
Supergirl #45	Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives
Action Comics #882	Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives
Supergirl #46	Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives
Supergirl #47	Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives
Man of Valor
Superman #692	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 2: Man of Valor
Superman #693	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 2: Man of Valor
Superman #694	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 2: Man of Valor
Superman #695	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 2: Man of Valor
Nightwing and Flamebird
Action Comics #883	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Action Comics #884	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Action Comics #885	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Superman #696	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Superman #697	Superman: Mon-El Vol. 2: Man of Valor
Kneel Before Rao
Action Comics #886	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Action Comics #887	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Action Comics #888	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Action Comics #889	Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2
Death and the Family
Supergirl #48	Supergirl: Death and the Family
Supergirl #49	Supergirl: Death and the Family
Supergirl #50	Supergirl: Death and the Family
Worlds in the Balance
Superman: World of New Krypton #7	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 4
Superman: World of New Krypton #8	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 4
Superman: World of New Krypton #9	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 4
Superman: World of New Krypton #10	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 4
Superman: World of New Krypton #11	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 4
Superman: World of New Krypton #12	Superman: World of New Krypton Vol. 4
The Battle of Brainiac
Adventure Comics #8	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1
Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1
Supergirl #51	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1
Superman #698	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1
Adventure Comics #9	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1
Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #2	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1
Adventure Comics #10	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2
Supergirl #52	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2
Superman #699	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2
Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #3	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2
Adventure Comics #11	Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2
The 100-Minute War
War of the Supermen #0	War of the Superman
War of the Supermen #1	War of the Superman
War of the Supermen #2	War of the Superman
War of the Supermen #3	War of the Superman
War of the Supermen #4	War of the Superman
Superman #700	War of the Superman

For more DC Comics trade paperback reading orders, visit the Collected Editions DC Trade Paperback Timeline.

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