Superman #15 came out last week, ending the House of Brainiac arc and bringing us into Absolute Power. I have enjoyed Joshua Williamson's run on the character and this Brainiac arc has been pretty engrossing. I think it has nicely showcased the new world order that Williamson has made - villains as allies, family as phalanx, Brainiac as universal threat.
Does this closing chapter stick the landing? The answer is mostly.
I love the way this story ends, mirroring Superman's origin and leading us to 2 major new plots. I like how the super-family has to come together to bring about victory. Throughout Williamson's run I have been intrigued by this 'new Lex', the guy who wants to be Superman's partner. We see that, at least in this storyline, he was telling us the truth.
Things I don't know if I completely understand is Brainiac's overall plot. He wants to bring about the Brainiac Queen, it seems, to destroy all life in the universe. That doesn't jibe with historic Brainiac, the one who wanted to gather knowledge. I still don't know if the other Brainiac's are from other timelines? When did Brainiac become overwhelmed with emotions? I suppose if I just say Brainiac is evil I can just accept much of this. I was hoping for more understanding of Brainiac's motives.
The art is again by Rafa Sandoval who is now one of my favorite artists working for DC. I love his take on Supergirl! And the page layouts, panel construction, and pacing of the book really sing. This felt like a finale to a big story artwise.
I am hoping Williamson stays on the book because I have enjoyed his run and this arc was another good chunk of his run. On to the particulars!
Another great splash page.
Lobo has the bright idea to use the Brainiac shrink ray on all the cities to make them really petite and therefore save them all in one canister.
Last issue ended with the Brainiac Queen depowered because Brainiac's ship is falling apart. The drones begin repairing her.
Lex had entered Brainiac's hive mind to try and take out the whole network. But he needed his body to be protected while he was doing it.
Brainiac seemed to be touched by the appearance of his ex-wife but quickly reverted to his goal to destroy the universe.
Great opening double page splash with Supergirl front and center in the frame taking out Brainiac drones. Love it.
It looks like Kara, Lobo, and Superman will be overwhelmed by the drones when the cavalry arrives. The super-family had been told to save the bottled cities and get away but the stuck around. They didn't have enough room for all the cities on their escape ship.
Another great splash page.
While I still think Kara, Lobo, and Superman should be able to take out some robots, it is cool to see the united force of the family.
After all, family seems to be at the heart of this story. Brainiac wants one. Superman has one.
Inside Brainiac's brain, Luthor knows how he can erase the network but it will most likely be at the cost of his life.
I have never been a big fan of 'Lex as hero' but Williamson's version of that story has been compelling. Usually when Lex is a hero it has felt like he just wanted to be a bigger hero than Superman. Here he just seems to want to be a hero for its own sake and own reward.
He taps into the mind and begins erasing data.
Nice way to save everyone. I wish Vril Dox got to do this move. Makes a little more sense for a smart Coluan to figure that out than a brawler. But nice moment.
With his knowledge slipping away, Brainiac's emotions surge.
He feels angry and sad and just loses his mind crying.
Have these feelings always been there? I guess if you have human emotions, you might feel alone and want to a family. It is odd to see him like this. I just wonder if there is more going on here? When did he become unhinged like this?
But then the good stuff.
With the ship falling apart and the heroes in escape ships, Brainiac gives us a take on Superman's origin. He places his Queen in an escape rocket and tells her that her story is only beginning. He rockets her off the doomed ship to Earth.
If this whole arc is about Brainiac's desire for a family, then his sacrifice of sending her away like Jor-El is a nice little twist. I really liked this. Pretty cool!
The threat is seemingly gone. So all that is left is the wrap-up.
The many cities get enlarged on a new Colu!
It looks a little tech-y, a little OG Warworldy, a little GL Mosaic-y.
I really hope we see more of this world in some book. Give me space characters book please! Bring back REBELS and Vril! I'd buy it!
I wish it was as Clark. Remember the secret identity is back in the bag.
But still, I appreciate Williamson showing us how important the Lois/Clark love is. I love that page.
And then another cliffhanger. While Lex survived his bout with Brainiac's mind, it cost him. He looks dazed and confused.
If anything, I love that this take Lex off the board for Amanda Waller's power play in Absolute Power. Lex would never let Waller run things.
We get one last hint of an upcoming story. We see the door to hell cracking under Doomsday's punches. We saw that in the Action Comics Presents: Doomsday Special #1 . Looks like we might get a pretty cool Hell/Doomsday arc after the big crossover.
So basically the House of Brainiac was undone by Conner destroying the satellite's integrity and Lex erasing his mind. But overall, this whole arc was pretty interesting. I liked the many Brainiac forms. I liked the idea of some hole in his memory causing him to go nuts. I liked the historical perspective of seeing the many Brainiacs. And seeing the idea of family sort of permeate the story - the intact Els, Lobo wondering what it might be like to have a family as a 'last son', and Brainiac trying to create one - was an interesting wrinkle. Rafa Sandoval is a new favorite of mine. It is just this feeling that I still don't 100% know what Brainiac's plan was that is bugging me.
Overall grade (issue): B
Overall grade (arc): B+
4 comments:
Yes indeed, this was good stuff. I liked the Superman/Lois kiss pose, it was almost a nod to the original and Byrne copy of Superman and Lori’s Big Underwater Snog.
Please good though, no more Doomsday for at least a decade.
Good review, as per usual. This issue and the arc were mostly fine. I'm somewhat baffled by how arbitrarily various super powered characters power levels are at any given moment, but that's ultimately not enough to wreck the plot. Beyond that I'm also somewhat disappointed by that about half of the Superfamily was barely used or absent from the plot. I get that a Superfamily this big can be a bit tricky to write for, but Johnson was able to pull it off pretty well, so it is doable.
Perhaps the biggest regret though is that the whole nature of the "All Star" concept means that we won't get an ongoing story in Action Comics that helps move some of the character and world developments from this plot forward, while Absolute Power looks set to effectively hijack Superman for the next few months and potentially put exploring some of the non-Brainiac Queen related developments on hold. Particularly after the god awful I Bizarro story line in Action Comics and the underwhelming conclusion to the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad story in Superman, I really appreciated like this that featured the wider Superfamily facing a common challenge and growing as characters (even if as noted that really only applies to about half of them). Possibly missing out on that for a few months will be a letdown after this.
As for positives, aside from my aforementioned appreciation of a solid Superfamily plot I appreciated the way Connor and Kara were both handled here. Kara continues to show that she's an effective second in command with a great deal of skill and initiative who can easily operate without Clark's guidance, and Connor's ongoing pluckiness combined with his creative wielding of his tactile telekinesis opens up such interesting directions for his character. Lobo's characterization here is also much better than a lot of the stories he's featured in and shows that there is more to him than a bunch of attitude and brutality. The Brainiac Queen has also ended up being a surprisingly good addition to the DCU. I won't go into spoilers, but the way she's turned to Waller in Absolute Power and the role she goes on to play in that event is legitimately creative and compelling.
The use of Lex and Lena is the strongest aspect of this story. This is one of the better handled good turns for Lex, and using his daughter as a major motive for that turn has been a very good decision. Lena's reconciliation with him was genuinely well handled, and I hope we can see more of her working with Lex and Supercorp to use her hyper intelligence to back up the Superfamily. Finally, the ending nicely tied up a lot of the plot threads, the Clark and Lois moment was genuinely sweet, and the cliffhanger of dealing with a brain damaged Lex is legitimately intriguing. If we just could have figured out who Kara was going to date at the beginning of this, that would have been truly nice.
I just don't see how you redeem Lex Luthor, mindwipe or no mindwipe, it's the same issue as Supergirl wiping out Thanagarians whilst in a trance, both situations are explanations but they will never serve the larger requirements of justice.
But...it was a fun panel to look at anyway....
Not at all looking forward to "Absolute Power" but I have bigger fish to fry at the moment.
JF
Yeah, the powering/depowering/powering was a bit wonky and not explained.
As for Lex, I do think you can get some redemption out of him. It's just that whenever he does these turns to try and be a 'hero' he never expresses regret for what he has done before. And that is sort of a crucial piece for me.
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