Poll: What Will Happen To New Krypton?

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1 comes out tomorrow, bringing us that closer to War of the Supermen and the end of the New Krypton storyline.

So the question is, how is all of this going to end. In particular, what is going to happen to New Krypton? I figured it was time for a poll to see what people think. So please vote and feel free to comment.

What is going to happen to New Krypton?

1) It's going to explode

There would be some odd karmic symmetry if New Krypton suffers the same fate as the original. It would certainly answer the question about the planet. But what about the 100,000 super-powered exiles? Maybe that's why they bring war to Earth?


2) The city gets shrunk again

Well, there is some odd symmetry here as well. We know Brainiac is the key villain in Last Stand so shrinking the city would be his modus operandi. It would restore 'The bottle city of Kandor' to the Superman mythos once more.

Even better, only the Kryptonians who weren't in the city would remain normal size. Maybe the War of the Supermen isn't waged with 100,000 Kryptonians. Maybe it is a much smaller number, those able to escape being reshrunk.

3) It gets shunted into the Phantom Zone

The Phantom Zone doesn't currently exist (although I think Chris/Nightwing will bring about it's recreation. In theory you could shunt the whole planet and population into the Zone. Alura back in the 'safety zone'!


4) It phases out of this dimension

The original Kandor was restored on Rokyn, a phase world which shifted out of our dimension except for a few days now and then.

By phasing it out of the universe, you neatly solve the problem. It would bring back the Silver Age feel of Rokyn. The characters would be there for future stories but inaccessible for over exposure.


5) It gets displaced in time

We know that Rokyn exists in the future, at least as seen in the Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes comic from a few of years ago. Here is Supergirl looking out at the ROokyn cityscape in issue #23.

Now that Legion isn't in continuity now so who knows if the future Rokyn is still in the DCU.

6) Some amalgam of the above choices

I can easily imagine that the city gets shrunk, the planet explodes, and the bad guys get sent back to the Phantom Zone. So maybe more than one answer above makes sense.

7) Other

Maybe I haven't even thought of what's going to happen. If you vote 'other' please let me know what you are thinking!

As I have said in the past, as much as I enjoyed New Krypton, I am excited to see how it all resolves!

Back Issue Box: Superman Family #195

With the Brainiac 5/Supergirl crossover coming up, I have been concentrating my back issue reviews on her appearances in the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen run on Legion of Super-Heroes. But that current continuity crossover is still a couple of months away in the Supergirl title. And I do have more Legion moments to cover.

However, the next crossover to happen in Supergirl is a battle with Superboy. And while a Kara/Conner fight has happened in Supergirl #2 of the current book, I thought I would sift through the long boxes and review some historical Supergirl/Superboy moments from the past.


The first story is found in Superman Family #195. The story certainly looks dramatic doesn't it. It is the primary story showcased on the cover. It is, as the cover suggests, "the colossal battle you never expected to see".

I was pretty excited when I first saw the cover, figuring that this would be a great story with a time travel wrinkle. As we shall see, the old saying 'never judge a book by its cover' is very appropriate here.

One more comment about the issue. Superman #195 came out in 1979 and you can see that is was a simpler more innocent time in comics. The cover was a wrap-around cover with previews of the other stories in the book. Look at the 'Private Life of Clark Kent' one. Can you imagine a story today revolving around someone thinking Clark Kent wears a toupee?

I just wallow in the nostalgia of moments like this.

On to the Supergirl story.

Written by Jack C. Harris and drawn by Don Heck, the story starts out with a bang.

The first page has Superboy slamming into Supergirl, claming that he has sabotaged a blimp to lure Supergirl to her death. It looks like we have a fight on our hands!


Shockingly, the fight ends before it really began. On the very next page, Superboy 'stiffens' and falls from the sky. When Supergirl catches him, she discovers that it isn't Superboy at all. It is a Superboy robot, once used by Superboy to help protect his secret identity.

In the Silver Age, the robots became something of a crutch for writers. The decision was made to rid the DCU of the super-robots by saying that their delicate mechanisms could not work in Earth's polluted atmosphere. So no more Supergirl robots hidden in a tree trunk!

Supergirl drops the robot off at STAR labs where former JLA mascot Snapper Carr was working on the robot trying to reactivate it.



It turns out that the robot has somehow been possessed by an evil spirit who is vowing revenge against Supergirl. Unfortunately one area in my Supergirl collection which has some holes in it is the Superman Family run. I can't say 100% who this spirit is. I can say that Supergirl ends up battling a disembodied Lesla Lar later in this run. Maybe that is who is in the robot.

But the big splash cover plot of Supergirl/Superboy fighting is over in 2 pages. And really there wasn't a fight.

Instead of continuing there, the story moves to the New Athens Experimental School where a young scientist is experimenting on a new type of artificial intelligence ... a self-aware robotic brain.

The scientist hopes that his scientific innovation will make up for his unsavory past where he was a member of a criminal gang called the 'Screaming Demons'. Unfortunately, the brain seems to overload.

Later on, a giant robot begins to rampage through the streets of New Athens. Supergirl arrives, running at super-speed. Her attacks against the robot seem ineffective. As she fights him, she notices that he has an aura which changes colors as she changes her powers.

The robot suddenly seems to have superspeed himself and runs off. When Supergirl tries to follow, she collapses in agony. Her legs are throbbing in pain.


Further interactions with the robot end similarly, with the robot's aura changing color and Supergirl suffering pain when she tries to use her powers.

It even effects Supergirl when she isn't in action. When the robot uses supervision during a robbery, Linda Danvers' eyes begin to water and redden.

And when the robot uses 'super-breath', Linda begins to choke and gag. Luckily the pain seems to subside quickly.


Taking off to fight the robot again, Supergirl comes to the realization about the origin of her pain attacks. It seems the robot is able to absorb Supergirl's powers. When he uses those powers, he creates a negative feedback loop to Supergirl causing her pain.

Supergirl wonders if the reverse might be true. Maybe her over-extending her powers will cause a similar feedback to the robot. She crashes through the tonnage of rubble she is buried under, using her strength to the fullest. Amazingly, it works!

The robot collapses in pain. And with the robot out of commission, Supergirl is 'cured' of her pain attacks. She feels like herself again.

Then, in a Scooby Doo moment, the head of the robot falls off revealing it is actually Paul French, the young scientist from earlier in the story. When he awakens, he says he has no recollection of his acts while in the robot and Supergirl's super senses are able to verify that he is telling the truth.


It seems that the reverberations from the brain when it was activated somehow altered his thinking ... making him act more like the gang member he was. He is thrilled to get another chance in life and vows to help the world with his discoveries.

Now how French was able to create a robot suit able to siphon off Kryptonian super-powers, I'll never know. Nor will I quite understand why it caused painful feedback. Still, it was nice to see Supergirl fight through the pain to defeat her enemy. As I said above, the Silver Age was a simpler time.

I have never been a fan of Don Heck's art and this story didn't change my mind. Nor do I feel this has a place in a Supergirl collection outside of completist collections like mine.

Overall grade: D

Review: Adventure Comics #8

The other big book out this week was Adventure Comics #8, a prologue of The Last Stand of New Krypton. Comprised of three short stories written by Sterling Gates, James Robinson and Eric Trautmann, the issue does a good job of aligning some of the disparate parts we have seen floating through the super-titles, getting the pieces in the right place for this arc.

One thing that I have harped on in my reviews of Superman and the other super-titles has been the lack of follow-up on what seemed to be innumerable plot lines. I wondered if someone was keeping track of all of them. This issue made me think that the big picture has always been there. The events have finally made some of these threads of plots start to weave together. All this was wrapped in what is basically a Legion of Super-Heroes book. Put plot progression together with the Legion and you have a winner.

And it was all wrapped up in an Aaron Lopresti cover. I am going to miss Lopresti on Wonder Woman. His art is so slick. Everything about that Lightning Lass is perfect ... the hair, the face, the body language. That is Ayla Ranzz.

The first part of the book, written by Sterling Gates and drawn by Travis Moore, takes place in the future as the LSH deals with some chronal rifts ripped into space.

Some back story of Brainiac 5 is given, including the history around the title 'Brainiac'. Seem Brainiac was vilified even among the Coluans. The term Brainiac became one associated with evil. The Dox family began to use the term Brainiac again as a way to reclaim it, make it associated with good instead. It is a nice little nugget of history that fleshes out Brainiac 5.

I liked this shot of a young Dox researching his ancestor. Look at the list of planets Brainiac destroyed in the past! Imsk (Shrinking Violet)! Rimbor (Ultra Boy)! Lexor (the planet Luthor ruled over in the Silver Age)! I assumed that some cities Kal freed from Brainiac's ship would end up being replanted on a planet, recreating them. I guess this seals that deal.

But Lexor! Does that mean sometime in the future Lexor comes back into continuity only to be destroyed by Brainiac??

The chronal rifts are continuing to grow and the Legion can't contain them. Things look grim. Soon the rifts will swallow the whole universe.

The origin of these anomalies seems to be from the past.


Somehow Brainiac, while in our time, is trying to change history by killing Superman. If the Legion doesn't stop this plot, the universe is doomed.

It's a nice panel with Brainiac looming over an impaled Superman.

So, at least now we know the threat which has brought so many Legionnaires to the past. It also looks like we are going to get a Brainiac vs. Brainiac 5 encounter.

I am really looking forward to seeing Brainy meet Supergirl.


The next story picks up the Superboy/Mon-El conversation from last week's Superman title. Superboy brings Mon-El to Smallville to meet all the Espionage Squad members and hear their plea to join the fight.

The Legionnaires talk about how they were each sent back in time by RJ Brande to stop the temporal threat the future Legionnaires are fighting. In hopes of not upsetting the timeline that much, Brande told each of them their small part of the plan but did not share the grand plan with all of them. So Cham alone knew that he had to go to Metropolis and help Mon-El. Element Lad knew to go to Smallville but none of the others did.


But it is clear that there is a threat to the future. Specifically this threat emperils the Legion. Something in the past might stop the Legion from ever being formed.

Mon-El and Superboy eagerly agree to help out. After all, what superhero doesn't want to save the future? The threat is shown to be on New Krypton.

I enjoyed this part of the story as well. The opening scene of this piece is Element Lad revealing himself to Superboy and was executed well. James Robinson showed a good feel for each character with their dialogue. Javier Lopez' art fits right in with the current look of the Superman titles. And, of course, we finally see all the time-displaced Legionnaires in the open.



But my favorite part of the issue was the last story which took a close look at both sleeper agent Car-Vex as well as General Lane. So it gets covered the closest.

I had initially been confused when Car-Vex was revealed to be a sleeper agent in the Science Police as to where her true loyalties lied. That is cleared up immediately when she declares her loyalty to General Zod and her role of chaos bringer on Earth.

And while being in the Science Police would be beneficial to Zod, being in Lane's army would be better. Car-Vex asks Lane if she can join his troops.


We learn of her origins. She is shown in the phantom zone, lamenting her crime of accidentally killing children. Interestingly enough, she is also said to be part of the Labor Guild and had been on stimulants at the time to remain awake. It sounds more like it was her lot in life that was responsible for that tragedy, not malice.

She is brought to General Zod by Jax-Ur and brought into the fold. Throughout the story, you can just feel her loyalty to Zod in her words, how she is proud to help him and how he would be proud to see how far she has come on Earth. I can understand her fidelity to the man. She went from disrespected, underappreciated, and imprisoned slave to suddenly having a purpose in life, having a sense of self, feeling important and proud. After a life of hard labor, those feelings must be intoxicating. Zod knows all the right buttons to push, doesn't he.

She needs a hook to get Lane to accept her. And so she gives up information on Quex-Ul, one of the remaining sleeper agents on Earth.

She is unbelievably cool and calculating as she basically condemns a fellow Kryptonian, a fellow Zod acolyte. Soldiers have to make sacrifices in war. If Quex-Ul's capture or death puts Car-Vex in deeper that helps the cause. It is that simple for her.

She explains her motivation for joining Lane as a hatred for Kryptonians who have killed SciPo officers. She then asks Lane what his motivations are ... why he hates them.


We haven't heard Lane explain things so plainly. I thought this was a nice personal look at the man, making him less of a 2-dimensional war monger.

Lane talks about how he worried about Superman since his first appearance. It was clear Superman had been living among the people for some time. So, in essence, he was hiding ... hiding something.

Then Lane talks about how he worried about Lois' attachment to Superman, how he had an easy media presence.

But the most telling part was the warped view Lane took on Superman's actions during Invasion! Lane recalls how his regiment was in a firefight with some Khunds soldiers when Superman swooped down and removed the alien army. Rather than being thankful for this rescue, Lane seems to dwell on the fact that as Superman continued on, the infantry lay dying from their wounds. Those men were 'next to nothing' to Superman. In reality, Superman gave these men a chance at life and was probably flying off to give other soldiers the same chance.

That scene really shows just how twisted Lane's mind thinks.


It looks like Car-Vex' little scheme works as she is welcomed by Lane into Project 7734.

She remains as cold a soldier as she can be. But I wonder if Lane isn't on to her.

This close and personal look at two villains, giving them an interesting background and fleshing out their stories, is just the depth I am looking for in comics these days. These are well-rounded characters with motivations and dreams.

Eric Trautmann does a great job here switching emphasis back and forth from the two. And Pier Gallo's art is moody and thick, just what this story needs. His art reminds me a bit of Pete Woods' art and that's a high compliment.

The pieces are on the playing field. Let's get this started!

Overall grade: A

Review: Cry For Justice #7

Justice League: Cry For Justice #7 came out this week, marking the conclusion of the mini-series. The word that best sums up my feelings for it overall is disappointed. I don't mean to sound harsh. And I will probably be long-winded. So bear with me.

When this mini-series was announced way back when, I was excited to read it. While the idea of a pro-active League isn't 100% innovative, the roster was. There was a mix of old school JLAers (GA and GL), legacy characters (Supergirl and Batwoman), and B-listers (Congorilla and Starman). Prometheus, one of my favorite Grant Morrison characters, was going to be villain, brought back to place of villainous prominence. Art was going to be done exclusively by Mauro Cascioli. And James Robinson said the series would impact the entire DCU. On paper it all sounded great.

But then the series release was delayed. And delayed. And delayed.

I assumed that when the first issue was released that the series was in the can and so no further delays would happen. But then there were more delays. And now we have even seen guest artists on the book. Those sort of problems never make me happy as a consumer.

And from a story point of view, there were some cringe worthy moments as well. The dialogue occasionally sounded clunky or overly ham-handed. The heroes sometimes acted in ways I would not expect them to. (Would the Atom really crawl around people's brains after what his wife did to Sue Dibny?) There were pages devoted to scenes that seemed superfluous. It just never seemed to exactly gel.

But most importantly, and before I even get to the final issue review, I never felt like the team came together. Scenes where the initial intriguing roster were all in the same room are few and far between. And while the initial impetus for them each to join was a 'cry for justice', it felt like outside of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, none of the characters really needed to be there. Let me phrase it a different way ... you could remove Supergirl and replace her with Wonder Girl seamlessly. You could remove Congorilla and put in Freedom Beast. You could replace Starman with the Prince Gavyn Starman. In other words, I never felt like a particular character (outside of GL and GA) was crucial for the plot from a back story point of view; I never felt that one character's viewpoint was so unique to the story that they were indispensable.

On top of that, this really became a whole DCU story with Starfire, Donna Troy, Jay Garrick, Animal Man, Vixen, Black Canary all starring; you name it ... everyone was there. I mean, Donna Troy is the one who actually defeated Prometheus! And so I don't know if I ever saw Robinson's vision for the team he created and how they would interact with each other. It was that mesh of characters that got me interested in the first place.

All right, on to the issue.

Last issue, a captured Prometheus revealed his grand plan to teleport several cities around the world into another dimension as a way to emotionally torture his super-hero enemies. Despite being captured, the devices activate.

Without being granted his freedom, Prometheus won't tell the Justice League the codes to deactivate the devices. Unclear of the next best step, the bulk of the JLA teleport to Earth on a rescue mission. Others stay back to continue the interrogation.

Ominously dripping with foreshadowing, Green Arrow vows to Prometheus that the two of them aren't done dealing with each other.

For some reason, Prometheus' devices aren't working as designed. Rather than simply teleporting the cities away, the devices seem to be imploding the cities, destroying them.

Star City is shaking itself apart. One of the casualties is Roy Harper's daughter Lian.

I know this is supposed to be shocking. I mean a child was just killed. But again, the feeling here was disappointed. Did Lian really have to die here? Did we really need to see a child get killed to move this plot along? Haven't I seen enough death and maiming in comics recently? I suppose I should at least be happy that the point of view is from behind Ollie so I am not luridly looking right at Lian's corpse.

Still, a child was killed in this book as a plot device. It just felt unnecessary. Have we really reached a point in story-telling that we need to kill kids to try to get a response out of readers? And I didn't have much time in the issue to really have the death resonate with me because we were already moving on.




While the Earth's heroes scatter themselves to the effected cities, trying to slow down the carnage, the Atom tries to talk Prometheus into willingly giving up the codes. He even brings up the fact that Prometheus has really upset Green Arrow, killing Ollie's 'grand daughter' and maiming his 'son'.

Prometheus refuses to give up the codes unless he gets his freedom in return. At least he confesses that his machines aren't working as planned. Remember they were supposed to just make the cities disappear.

It all seems a bit contrived. Everything that Prometheus has planned in this book, every theft and counterattack and defense, has worked perfectly. Of course, if his machines worked as planned, the cities would just blip away and we wouldn't have the devastation and death we have been treated to. We wouldn't have Lian's death. It just seemed like an easy out to get to that point.


Because absolutely everything else Prometheus has planned is working like a charm. He has a defense against telepathy. Miss Martian feels some sort of backlash when she tries to mentally pry to codes from his mind.


And he has planned against magic. First he has sewn Freddy Freeman's mouth shut to keep him from saying his magic word. Again, this seems a bit off to me. We are talking about a man who skinned the Tasmanian Devil and used the pelt as a rug. Would he really stitch Freddy's lips? Wouldn't he just kill him? Of course, killing Captain Marvel would be too big a deal for this book. And besides we wouldn't see this gory shot of his sutures being removed. And that is all this is good for in my mind, something gruesome to try to get a response from me as a reader.

What's more, even when freed, Captain Marvel can't do anything to the device in Fawcett City because Prometheus made it impervious to magic!

In fact, all the devices seem impervious to any super-hero interference. Prometheus has covered all the contingencies.

There was a sequence I did enjoy in the book. With Star City crumbling around them, with the death tolls growing, the heroes have a quick discussion about what to do.

Do they deal with Prometheus and end the disasters? Do they keep him in custody and hold him responsible for this tragedy? It is an interesting 2 page spread (of which this is one corner). There is some disagreement amongst the group. Some say no deal. Some say deal for the greater good.

As always, small editorial errors bother me. So when the Flash says they need to decide quickly because 'they're loosing' (instead of losing) I had to roll my eyes.

Finally, Green Arrow cuts through the chatter. The heroes need to save people. And in this instance the best way to do that is to release Prometheus and have him turn over the codes.

He states it simply: 'we have to think of the living'. On first reading, I thought this was a nice moment. After all, Arrow lost the most here. Since the beginning, I thought he was going to be the moral compass for the team, joining it to keep Hal in line. So to have him take 'the high road' made some initial sense to me. He could look past his own tragedies and think about others ... that's sort of what heroes do, right?

Of course, it is one thing to say that happened. It is another thing to write it. Here we see the aftermath of the scene where a disgusted Vixen walks Prometheus to the teleporter.

But how did it play out? If Prometheus gave the codes and they worked, would Vixen really let him just walk away because she 'gave her word'? I don't think so. And would they ever let Prometheus walk without giving them the codes and trying them first? In other words, I can't play out the actual scene in my head in a satisfactory way. Maybe that is why we only see the conclusion ... because the scene can't be written well.

I figured I'd throw in the second panel because it the only shot of Supergirl in the book. Wasn't she supposed to be one of the key characters in this book? And she isn't even in the finale. This is what I was trying to get at earlier. This really wasn't a team book the way it was advertised. The characters we were told would 'star' were really just part of a cast of thousands.

And so we finally get to the 'big ending'. Despite his speech about the greater good, Ollie needs 'justice' and he thinks murder is the way to get it.

But even this scene ... the dramatic last page of the series ... fell flat.

From a story point of view, I can't get around the fact that Prometheus dies this way. Here is a villain so prepared that he has a defense against everything ... including having nanites to defeat the Atom in his blood. He had shown himself to be protected against telepathy and magic. But his helmet isn't arrow proof? Just a plain old steel-tipped arrow is what brings him down? Really?

Really?

And that is without my asking just how the hell Green Arrow got into the Ghost Zone and walked into Prometheus' stronghold. Are you telling me Prometheus doesn't have any defense systems there? Prometheus had just walked through the JLA satellite and defeated almost the entire team and he allows a hero to simply walk into his home and shoot him in the head with an arrow?

But even more than that, I am just sick of seeing heroes kill people. I don't think I need to see my heroes fall and go through a moral crisis and then reinvent themselves any more. I think I just want to see them be heroes again. As readers, we keep hearing that comics will try to move away from 'dark' and 'grim and gritty' but we see this the month after The Sentry literally rips Ares apart over in the Avengers.

And the fact that we see it over and over means that I have become somewhat inured to it. Maybe 10 years ago this would be shocking. Now I just sighed and thought 'here we go again ... another hero who crossed the line.' And that truly is a whimper for an ending, not the bang I think Robinson was going for.

Overall grade (issue): D+
Overall grade (series): C-

Sensor Girl And Quislet

Every so often I get reminded just how old I am as a comics reader. Maybe old is too pejorative a term. Maybe I should say distinguished. I have never hidden the fact that I am 39 years old (with the big 4-0 looming just a few months away).

Basically, I realized that Sensor Girl and Quislet are being re-introduced to the comic public. They were introduced way back in 1985. That's 25 years ago!! And they were only 'around' for a handful of years after that.

So after I complained about the 'new' costume for Sensor Girl and the potential 'new' powers and armaments for Quislet, I realized that some people may not know the 'old' costume or powers. Plus, I promised I would do some research on the characters, reacquainting myself with them.

And so, here are some Who's Who pages on the characters. These entries were more comprehensive and detailed than the entries in the Who's Who in the Legion mini-series which was published after the general DCU directory.

The Sensor Girl page was drawn by Steve Lightle, one of my favorite artists, who had a brief but memorable stint on the Legion. I just love that original costume design.

And, as I recalled, outside of her illusion powers, Sensor Girl also had the vague ability to 'see through the illusions of the world' giving her super-senses. (It is scary that that phrase somehow stuck in my mind more than 2 decades later.)

Also, when Sensor Girl was first introduced, her identity was a mystery. In fact, some Legionnaires (especially Brainy) thought she was Supergirl. Here is a link to my 'back issue' review of one of the issues that explored that mystery:
http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2008/08/it-came-from-back-issue-box-legion-of.html


So some elements of the original costume are kept here, but I still think the original is much more striking. For some reason, I really dislike that I can see her eyes. I prefer the white 'spidey eyes' much much more.

As for Quislet, here is his page from the Who's Who Update '88.

Quislet could leave his ship and entire nonorganic objects and animate them. As I thought, at least back then, he could only stay in an object like that for a short time before the object unraveled at a molecular level. Since he was able to maintain his disguise as a Science Police HoverCam for a prolonged period of time in recent issues, I have to assume his powers have been changed slightly.

Hope this trip down memory lane was helpful. I definitely liked looking at Lightle's art again. The layout of the Sensor Girl page is great.

War Of The Supermen #0 Preview

May 1st is Free Comic Book Day and one of DC's contributions is War of the Superman #0.

Over on the DC Source, we are treated to the first three pages of this issue and it looks like the story starts off with a bang! Here is the link:
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/03/01/first-look-war-of-the-supermen-0/


The first page is an irate Kal-El, back in his Superman garb, crashing through a wall. Nice way to grab the reader from the get go!



And then we are treated to Superman finally slugging General Zod. It's about time!

It appears as though this fight takes place on New Krypton. So I guess the planet survives The Last Stand of New Krypton. I wondered if the destruction of the planet at the hands of Brainiac is what spurred the war to finally happen. Guess I was wrong.

Given that Kal is back in the big red S, I suspect that Superman has already made the decision to return to Earth. Which means some falling out has happened. Hmmm ...

I am looking forward to this series as it will wrap up New Krypton story and set up the Superman mythos for the coming years. I am partial to Eddy Barrows' art but he seems to have deadline issues. Let's hope he is able to complete this issue and his other War of the Supermen issue.

Review: Superman #697

The 'Year Without Superman' is coming to a close over the next couple of months so the stories running in the super-titles need to be heading to their conclusions. I have felt that 'rush to finish' in Action Comics where the religious and relationship part of the story have dominated the book leaving the 'sleeper agent' storyline as almost an after thought.

I have not felt that sort of rush in Superman. As I have commented before, there have been so many small plotlines that have been started in this book that just have languished or been forgotten that I wonder how this can all be wrapped up. Remember Zatara? Prince Ra-Man? The hint of Mordru in a satellite? Atlas? Metallo? Evil Gorilla scientists? Mirabai and her magic world? Dr. Light and the Guardian? These haven't been advanced in a while. I am sure there are plot lines I have forgotten about so I can't even mention them there.

Superman #697 unfortunately doesn't do much for these lagging plot lines. The book concentrates on the Mon-El/Legion story and begins to hint about Mon-El's ultimate destiny. But it does so in a brief way. There are a large number of splash panels or double splash pages which basically limits how much story can be told. While the art (split duties by Bernard Chang and Javier Pina) is very good, I just want more story.

I also can't help but feel like a bit of a hypocrite when I review this book. When there are too many plots, I complain. When there is only one plot covered, I complain. I guess what I am trying to convey is that if the entire run was like this issue, concentrating on one underlying story, I probably would be happy. But when other plot lines are begun, I want there to be resolution. My guess is Superman returns as the star of this title with issue number 700. That means James Robinson has 3 issues to bring this book to some sort of closure.

Of course, some of the big picture hinted at here could be resolved in the War of the Supermen book too.

Last issue ended with the destruction of the Science Police Headquarters in Metropolis and the reveal that Control officer Rachel was Chameleon Boy.

Something stressed here is General Lane's overall xenophobia. He hates more than just Kryptonians. He has his troops surround Cham with the expectation that they'll capture him or worse.


Cham says he is not alone and one of the SciPo's camera drones turns into Quislet.

After Chameleon Boy tells Quislet to 'go easy' on the military, Quislet uses (I guess) the weapons system on his ship to blast away at the troops so the Legionnaires have time to escape.

I'll have to review Quislet's powers but I don't recall them working entirely like this. I thought he left his ship to enter something and animate it. Here it looks like the ship morphs as well. I also thought that Quislet could only stay in something he manipulated for a short period of time before the object disintegrated at a molecular level. Of course, we are talking about a my memories of comics from 2 decades ago. I'll follow up on this I promise.

I definitely don't remember him having unreal weapon systems on his ship.

While this was a great shot of Quislet holding the line for Cham, it was a huge 2 page spread. Could that space have been used better ... to tell more story?


Mon-El gives chase but before he can close in, he is shocked to see Superman flying at him.

It turns out that Superman is only an illusion, nicely depicted here in a panel that took up half a page.


With that Wilcox reveals herself to be Projectra and drops her SciPo disguise to become Sensor Girl. She made the distracting Superman illusion appear.

I know it has been said in other places but I don't like this new interpretation of Sensor Girl's outfit either. First off the tiara look seems a bit off. I prefer the white "Spiderman' eye holes as opposed to seeing her eyes. And the short sleeve, high gloves, plunging neck like just doesn't work.

While the broad shoulder of her original outfit may scream '80s, I also think that uniform had a military feel to it. Part of the evolution from Princess Projectra to Sensor Girl was that loss of innocence and that realization that the world is a hard place. After Karate Kid died in LSH, Projectra said she could 'see through the illusions of the world' and recognized the universe as an unforgiving place. The original costume gave that sort of vibe more than this one.


Tellus uses a mental blast to stun Mon-El more and the Legion Espionage Squad flies off.

The original Espionage Squad members include people who could actually pull off the spy stuff - Chameleon Boy for his disguise, Shrinking Violet and Invisible Kid for stealth. It is hard to imagine funny guy Matter Eater Lad or silly Quislet or even odd appearing Tellus doing anything quietly. Of course, this is again my placing the personalities of the 80s/90's Legion into this incarnation.

This first half of the book was drawn by Bernard Chang. As with last issue, his style is suited for the destroyed fiery battle scenes in the city.


The second half of the book is penciled by Javier Pina and covers the aftermath of the battle at the Science Police HQ as well as shows that Steel has recovered and is back.

Steel has fixed the Metropolis sewer problem so people are no longer short of water. There are multiple big panels showing John Henry fighting with super-villains and even teaming up with Mon-El. I was happy to get an update on how Steel was doing, especially since he is said to play a part in the upcoming crossover events.


And then we are treated to another scene of Mon-El and Billi Harper in a more private environment. There is a two page scene where Mon-El tells Billi about his interaction with the Legion. This includes a nice reveal that Quislet was the hover cam that told the Guardian that Mon-El was drowning a few issues back.

Still I question why this conversation was placed in such a titillating setting. It is not as if an amorous shower was necessary for the discussion. While maybe Robinson is trying to show that the two are getting close, it felt a bit gratuitous. This conversation could have happened in a living room or at a coffee shop. It didn't need to be in the shower with the two lathering each other up.

The issue ends with Conner showing up in Metropolis asking Mon-El to join him in Smallville. Mon-El again flashes back to his earlier conversation with Conner when he asked Con to go to the Fortress and prepare Mon's rocket.

There is a nice exchange about how the two are eager for Superman to return because they are feeling some pressure to fill Kal's shoes. But otherwise not much is said here. Even the big reason why Mon-El wants a readied space ship is only teased again.

It turns out that Superboy wants Mon-El to join him in Smallville so that Mon-El can finally meet the Legion.

Again, while nicely rendered, the Pina pages include a couple of splash pages and a couple of pages with only 2 panels. I am trying to balance the need to visually tell a great story and the need to have enough content to please me. I am glad that this Legion portion of the story was advanced in this issue with all the undercover Legionnaires shedding their disguises.

Still, this issue read quickly. I was hoping that more would happen here.

I think that I need to rearrange my expectations here. Much like with the World of New Krypton, I have to realize that the end here is not going to be with the final issue of Mon-El's run but more likely in the pages of Last Stand or Adventure or War of the Supermen. That said, my biggest pet peeve with this run has been the multiple plot lines left hanging. I just don't feel settled with this title.

Overall grade: C