Review: Superman Lost #10

Superman Lost #10 came out this week, ending this mini-series which had a solid main story premise but lost it amidst any number of detours, feints, and confusing subplots. It's a shame. Because that primary plot could have made for a solid 4 issue mini. 

Superman has spent 20 years on a doomed planet and couldn't save it from the divided populace. This world, dubbed Kansas by Superman, is filled with entrenched political sides unwilling to save themselves. Returning home only weeks have past and he is suffering PTSD. How can he come to grips with his life? Give me more of this. Heck, given the premise of the story was set up entirely in the first issue, it could have been a solid 6 issue mini and a decent trade.

Instead, writer Christopher Priest has injected a lot of other side plots. Lois investigating a crooked Senator. Lois asking Lex to help her save Kal and Lex giving her phony cancer. A murderous GL trying to seduce Superman on Kansas and killing an innocent. A side issue where an alternate timeline Superman retells a classic Action Comics tale. All of it sort of wanders about. 

The problem here is that none of these other stories really gel within the main plot well enough for them to bolster the main story. They often felt like a distraction. 

And the overall ending is a little bit underwhelming, a mash of comic book science and a possible misunderstanding of the Superman character.

As usual, the Carlos Pagulayan art is solid but some pages are fill in from Jose Luis Soares Pinto. 

On to some notes.

Review: Superman Lost #9

Superman Lost #9 came out this week. That means the series wraps up next month. And frankly and I suppose appropriately, I am lost. I am also sorry if I have already used that joke in my reviews.

There is a kernel of a good story here. What if Superman lived on a dying planet he couldn't save? What if he wasn't rocketed away as a baby but lived, loved, and failed? How would he respond? And then let's see that response through the lens of his friends and family by doing a timey-wimey jump, living 20 yrs on the doomed planet but gone only hours on ours. 

That could be a good story! Superman reliving in a way the death of Krypton. Superman failing to save everyone. Superman despondent. Throw in a lot of Supergirl talking about her similar history and there is a great 4 issue mini-series there. Heck, make the doomed planet have similarities to Earth and the current climate problems and you have a 6 issue mini-series. 

Instead, we have a 10 issue series which has had a few too many plot threads to keep the story compact and comprehensible. Luthor giving Lois cancer. Lois tracking down some shady Senate crime. Another time jump Superman talking about his lost Earth. A maniacal love interest. 

And it is all told in a sort of sputtering, short chapter way to make it jarring. I simply don't know if one more issue will tie it all up. As you will see, there are a number of plots that are simply ended in this issue.

The art this issue remains strong. Carlo Pagulayan remains slick here. Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding are also present for some pages. 

On to the book itself.

Review: Superman Lost #8

Superman Lost #8 came out this week and was another up and down issue in this up and down mini-series. While this issue had some interesting and beautiful moments, I don't know if it pushed the story forward. Ultimately, that means this issue wasn't 'needed'. And that never sits well with me.

Superman has been back on Earth for 7 issues but lived on that doomed planet of 'Kansas' for 20 years of his time. He has been trying to shake off the trauma of that life and of leaving that planet's citizens to die since being home. But since it felt like a few hours to him, his friends and family are struggling to help him. 

Last issue, Superman went to a therapist Supergirl recommended. There would be some interesting stories to tell there. (I loved the therapy issue after Our Worlds at War for example.) But that isn't explored here. Also last issue, Lois went to Lex to try and figure out how help Superman, a very non-Lois idea. Lex gave her cancer to try and shake Superman awake.

This issue? Superman goes to colleagues for advice - Supergirl, Adam Strange, and Black Adam. They all basically give him tough love. It's time to move on. Lois finally admits that she hasn't been able to help her husband. And Lex stews. 

Writer Christopher Priest has certainly padded this series with side plots, homages, and quick scenes. But from a plot view, this feels like it could have been 6 issues. And things I would like to see (like Lois talking to Clark more, or Superman talking to professionals, or more interaction with the Leaguers) haven't been around enough.

Its' a shame because the art by Carlos Pagulayan is great, including the Supergirl scene. She looks fantastic. And Will Conrad gives an assist on some pages but his style meshes nicely. Even the variant covers (like the Stephen Segovia one above or the rarer Denys Cowan one) are quite appealing. 

On to the book.

Review: Superman Lost #7

Superman Lost #7 came out this week, an appropriate title. Sometimes as a reader of this book, I feel lost. There are two plot threads on this book. 

One is a 'flashback' of sorts. Superman has been stranded on a planet doomed by polarized political parties and climate change. Despite all his efforts ... for 20 years, he cannot save the place. In this issue, Superman has finally escaped that world and is heading home.

The other plot is the 'current' time. Even though it has been 20 years of his time, Superman has only been gone a short while on Earth. He is struggling to acclimate himself back at home, re-engage with friends and family, and save his marriage, strained by his psychological damage.

Writer Christopher Priest has been a little hit or miss on the book as he weaves these two stories together. This issue is something of a miss because he suddenly injects a third plot. Most of this issue is told by a Superman from another timeline, trying to stop our Superman on his journey. It is a lot of pages devoted to an Earth we'll never see again, which has little impact on the story, and doesn't make much sense. I mean it. I have read the section several times and I still don't know what this 'other' Superman is trying to accomplish. It's almost like Priest had an Elseworld story he wanted to tell but had no place for it but here.

And then a fourth plot involving Lex Luthor, hence the stark black and white cover contrasting our hero with his nemesis.

The act continues to be lovely. Carlos Pagulayan does the art for the main story. Lee Weeks is brought in to do the 'Elseworld' portion. Both shine. Weeks brings a grittiness to this other Earth which works well for that world's history.

I'll add that sight unseen, Supergirl does play a sort of key role in the plot progression. 

Still, this issue vexed me a bit. On to the details.

Review: Superman Lost #6

Superman Lost #6 came out last week, starting the back half of the series. We are six issues into this series and my feelings for the book have been interesting, rocking between pure enjoyment and sheer frustration. This issue veers more towards the former. This is a good issue.

Writer Christopher Priest has an interesting concept of having Superman having been lost in time, stuck on a planet for 20 years even if the time he was missing on Earth was minutes. Priest has had Superman stuck on a planet that the Man of Steel dubbed Kansas. An obvious stand-in for Earth, the world is plagued with polarized populations and horrific climate change and pollutants. It is dying, much like Krypton, much like our Earth seems to be careening to destruction, and they won't let Superman help them. 

I am one of those people who has felt that politics and activism has seeped too deeply into comics these days. I read comics for super-heroic entertainment not for ham-fisted sermons. Priest walks a fine line here. Yes, this is a political book but told in allegory and shockingly down the middle, skewering all sides in a way. 

But Priest also knows that I need more than that. This is a Superman book. So you see a Superman trying desperately to save his new home. You see him struggle with loneliness. He has a 'villain' to deal with. And we see yet another version of his origin, being rocketed away from a doomed planet. All that ups my interest. It adds to the entertainment. 

Carlo Pagulayan brings a precise and gorgeous art style to the book. There are scenes here that are just conversations that are still beautiful. And the action pieces are wildly energetic. He's a revelation to me here even though it looks like he has been around for a while. 

I am curious what my feelings for this title as a whole will be when it wraps up. On to some particulars.

Review: Superman Lost #5

Superman:Lost #5 came out this week which means we have hit the halfway mark of this book. 

For those following along, I thought the first issue was amazing, really grabbing my interest. But the subsequent issues didn't keep up the momentum and I was losing my patience a bit. Although, regardless of the story, the art by Carlo Pagulayan has remained impeccable. 

This issue seems to have rebounded slightly with writer Christopher Priest giving us a little more story and a few new plot threads to mull over as a reader. We are still stuck on planet Kansas, a metaphorical Earth mired in political dissension and impending ecological disasters. The story definitely plays up the politics of this place but not as overbearing as it has in the past. And there is a more straightforward sense of time in this issue to at least let me wrap my head about where we are in the timeline. The story moves forward. I couldn't say that the last 2 issues.

That isn't to say it is perfect. Lois isn't treated well in this issue. I still don't know why her plotline about some unsavory congressman is in this (unless it eventually will echo 'Kansas'). And there are a couple of other plot points that feel off.

 But overall, this is a better read with more story and less pontificating. And certainly less confusing.

As usual, Pagulayan's artwork just sizzles. We get significant action in this issue as well as the usual quieter moments as Superman works through the PTSD of his 20 year absence. Everything is crisp and beautiful. 

On to the book.

Review: Superman Lost #4

Superman:Lost #4 came out this week and I think the book was appropriately titled. Because I was frankly a little lost throughout the issue. I was so impressed with the first issue of this book. But since then, I think the book has lost momentum. 

Writer Christopher Priest has a good concept. Superman was missing for 20 years in space but to his friends on Earth is was about a day. Superman is troubled by this lost time, self-isolated and trying to re-adapt to life on Earth. That's solid.

We are learning through flashbacks what happened during that time away. But this issue throws us in so many times, so many flashbacks within flashbacks, that I kept needing to reread the book to see if I could figure out 'when' this was. Assuming I am right, it leads me to some difficult questions about what Superman is actually doing in one particular moment. 

Moreover, this issue again is a thinly veiled political commentary placed on an alien world which is using Earth town names. Thinly veiled. At least Priest here is pretty open-minded showing the folly in both sides of a debate when both sides should be trying to help each other.

As I have said before, the art by Carlo Pagulayan is really wonderful. From quiet moments to frustrated moments to battle scenes, he really brings a fine line and detail to the work that is beautiful. I would love to see his stuff on something street level at some point, like The Question or Azrael. The art definitely raises the grade here.

But when I am stuck on some moments and maybe even confused, it leaves me a bit dismayed. On to the book.

Review: Superman Lost #3

Superman: Lost #3 came out this week and I find that the initial significant fascination with the story that I had with the first issue is fading a little bit. Last issue Superman went to a planet that was clearly a metaphor for Earth and was sent on his way. Here he comes to another planet to learn about that world. I don't think we are settling into a 'world of the month' pattern here especially based on some clues we are given. But the planet we visit here, outside of one thing I loved, never quite got my interest. So in some ways this felt like a dense but empty read.

Christopher Priest continues to have Superman struggle to get back home. We learn in the issue he has been gone for about a year of his time. We know that he is gone for 20 years. So this issue is just a sliver of his time away. You might remember that Priest talked a lot about gravity and solar radiation in the prior issues. Here we talk a lot about time, distance, and the speed of light. I have to assume Dave Von Domeien PhD, given a special thanks credit, is helping Priest with the physics. I am reading this book for the Superman part and we get an okay Superman adventure here but with what feels like little stakes. Maybe I am just missing the point. Priest does plant some plot seeds.

That said, Carlo Pagulayan is just killing it on art here. This is a trippy issue with space dolphins, crackling energy fields, a brief super-powered fight, and a slice of Lois life. It all looks gorgeous. The art definitely elevates the book.

On to the book.

Review: Superman Lost #2

Superman: Lost #2 came out this week and was another intriguing read for me. Once again, I have to say that I am of two minds about this comic. In the end, I think the good stuff outweighs the bad and it will get a favorable grade. But I have to be consistent in my critiques and this book suffers in one particular way that probably knocks it down a peg. 

Christopher Priest is a great writer and the overall plot of this book, Superman having been lost in the universe for 20 years (even though he was 'gone' for only minutes on Earth) is an interesting one. By having Superman back on Earth right away, Priest is able to run two plots at once. For one, we see Superman on Earth still suffering some of the emotional trauma of his being gone. We get to see Lois working on a news story. We get to see the League's response to Superman's 'return'. That is a wonderful set-up, especially given the fact that I thought the entirety of the book would be Superman's trip home. By putting half the story in the 'now', we get to see the ramifications of his journey.

We also get to see the actual trip in flashbacks. Superman is in deep space and probably doesn't even know how to get home. There is a lot of deep science here as Superman throughout his interactions with the alien races he comes across talks about his powers and their reliance on both solar energies and gravity. It is another interesting wrinkle to see Superman adapting to the different environs he is put in.

This issue we get to see two legs of Superman's trip, two alien races he interacts with. One of them is a not-so-subtle metaphor for Earth. (The story is called 'Kansas', the name Superman gives the Earth-like planet.) The 'zealots' are face down in their cell phones. Their world is ravaged by pollution and war. They couldn't be bothered with how their planet is dying out from underneath them. No one was willing to cooperate to save the place. Ok ... ok ... I get it. This place is, in some ways, Earth. But this is a pretty blunt metaphor. And it felt a bit fatalistic. And ham-fisted social commentary just always gives me pause.

The book is lifted by the incredibly detailed art by Carlo Pagulayan. From deep space to the Metropolis apartments, the art is just gorgeous. And his aliens and his human expressive work is great as well. Put him on a Lois Lane book and I'd be thrilled. 

We have a long way to go in this book and this is a very solid set-up for a plot. I love Priest's work. So I am hopeful. 

On to the book.

Review: Superman Lost #1

Superman:Lost #1 came out this week, a delightful surprise in my pull list.

The book appeared in solicits a few months ago, described as a 10 issue maxi-series by (Christopher) Priest and Carlo Pagulayan with the overall plot of Superman being thrown into space and taking 20 years to return to Earth. I have always enjoyed Priest's stories but this one didn't strike me at first.

I wasn't too interested in reading a story where Superman returns to an aged Lois, a new world order, a (presumed) dystopia. This is why I am not a professional writer.

Because Priest sets the stage wonderfully here and takes the story down a path I wasn't expecting. A great path. Moreover, Priest always ... I mean always ... writes a great Justice League and we get a lot of the team here in this first issue. And then, surprisingly for a story throwing Superman into deep space with a long travel home, he throws in a very engaging Lois subplot. We get a lot of sweet moments of the Kents in their home. I finished the issue and wanted more.

Now what puts Superman into space might be a macguffin but it gets us where we need to be.

Carlo Pagulayan does great work here. The issue is a mix of quiet character moments and high action and his work is just stellar. His work feels almost like a Gary Frank merged with Mike Allred. High high compliment!

On to the book!

Review: Convergence #8

Convergence as an event initially sounded like a two month layover, a way to allow DC to continue to publish comics while the company moved coasts, leaving New York and heading to California.

Somewhere along the way, it became something more. It became another universe redefining event, a way for DC to reset things, a mere 3 years removed from the New 52 upheaval. I have certainly had my issues with the company's approach to their characters in the New 52 DCU but soft rebooting that hard reboot has something of a whiff of desperation.

But I can't have it both ways as a fan, can I? I can't sit back and complain about the New 52 and then complain when DC tries to reshape things away from that harsh new continuity.

And so we get Convergence #8, a book which gives DC readers back a multiverse (which I thought we might already have), folding in some of the Multiversity Earths as being legitimately in canon. But I don't necessarily know if I feel like anything is necessarily different. And I don't know if I 100% understand what happened here. And I wonder of Scott Lobdell had the audacity to rewrite the ending of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the granddaddy of all crossover events and really the gold standard of these sort of books. I know Crisis. I am friends with Crisis. And Convergence, you are no Crisis.

Writers Jeff King and Scott Lobdell do their best to explain things here. Things in the DCU are very different at the end. But I also feel like the first 7 issues were just biding time. Many of the plots and subplots of this series aren't crucial to this ending.

Art is done by a whole stable of artists (Stephen Segovia, Carlo Pagulayan, Eddie Pansica, Ethan Van Sciver, Jason Paz, Scott Hanna, and Trevor Scott). I guess it is too much to ask that a universe-redefining issue gets done by one artist?

Last issue, we had a great moment where Parallax incinerates Deimos, an evil sorceror from the Warlord series who was hoping to rule the universe.

Unfortunately, all the time-traveling chronal energy Deimos had absorbed is now being taken into the Convergence planet, making it unstable.

And since the Convergence planet exists outside the space/time continuum of the multiverse, this planetary destruction will destroy everything.

Now I suppose that since there are cities from all continuities on this planet, it has a sort of finger into all those realities. So maybe this makes sense?

Telos, who name drops both Zero Hour and Countdown, knows that the temporal energy needs to be absorbed by something other than the planet itself.

Initially there is hope that Booster Gold and Waverider could take it in. But it is too much for them to do alone. In fact, the only one who can take it all in is Brainiac.

Brainiac, the villain who started all this, who has imprisoned these people, has suddenly become a needed ally.

We finally learn a bit about this version of Brainiac.

When he survived the Flashpoint event, he went beyond the Source, existing outside reality, and witnessing everything. He saw the Crisis and multiple versions of himself, us reading comics, Infinity Crisis, Countdown, and even the birth of the New 52.

In a moment of clarity, he asks for help, hoping to return to his original form and not this 'cancerous' monster warped by all the continuity-changing events he has witnessed.

So Brainiac living outside time and witnessing all these events is an interesting concept. He is, in essence, the stand-in for long time readers who also have lived through all these reboots and has come out angry and deformed. Maybe Brainiac begging to return to somewhere else, somewhen else is Lobdell and King acknowledging the fans?

Remember all the maneuvering of the New 52 heroes outside the Convergence planet the last 2 weeks? Well that also seems completely superfluous. Because once the planet manifests itself in the Earth 0 universe and nears destruction, those characters all turn tail and run, returning home to 'say goodbye'. Only Superman and Supergirl stay behind to watch.

You would think that Superman and Supergirl being there together, holding hands and hoping, would be a good moment. But for me, this was a horrible moment.

First off, how terrible is it that with the universe, heck all reality, about to be snuffed out, the heroes of the New 52 left. Did they really exhaust all their options? Did they try to save everyone? Nope. They left to say goodbye to their loved ones. I would think the heroes would be trying anything to save everyone.

Brainiac absorbs the temporal energy and promises to return the occupants of the cities to whatever universe they desire.

His plan goes awry when the 'First Crisis' is too strong to send everyone back. If that crisis, Crisis on Infinite Earths, is not 'changed' the DCU will become a universe again, rather than a multiverse as where all can exist.

Brainiac sends Supergirl and the Flash back to that Crisis to meet their fates. But then, oddly, Parallax and the Pre-Flashpoint Superman (with Lois and his newborn son in tow) also head there to try to help.

Of course, this Flash and Supergirl are heroes willing to sacrifice themselves to save everyone. But their mission isn't to save the universe. Their mission is to prevent the collapse of the multiverse.

I don't know how to read this. Are they trying to change the ending of Crisis on Infinite Earths? Stop the creation of a Universe? Altering that story?

Or is it that they simply  need to relive the ending of the Crisis, create a universe, so that all the subsequent event comics can unfold as they did?

I am sooooo confused.

Because if the Crisis ended differently, did Supergirl live? Is Superman/Lois/Baby Jon out there somewhere? Inside Alex Luthor in Paradise (we know how that goes)?

And who would dare to try to change that book? 

And then we get to see that they were 'successful'. There is now a multiverse.

We see multiple Earths again.

But you see how behind each Earth is a 'shadow' of characters. The pre-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint trinity are behind the New 52 characters. We see worlds from the Multiverse sourcebook.

And we hear that each world has evolved.

We don't get an old school Earth 2, we get the New 52 Earth 2. We don't get the pre-Crisis heroes, we get the 'evolved' New 52.

So do we have all the continuities in play? Or not?

Meanwhile, the Convergence planet survives, is reinvigorated by Alan Scott, and becomes the new Earth 2.

Why is Dick Grayson so important? Unknown.
What is Telos' real name and why was that crucial? Unknown.

Is there really anything that different about this DCU now than there was before this? Didn't Multiversity give us these worlds anyways?

And is what about Crisis on Infinite Earths? Undone? Changed? Redone? If it is changed, I have a doozy of a Supergirl prediction.

As for Convergence, it is no Crisis. It is just another event on the pile.

Overall grade: C+