Superman Ending Battle + Lost Hearts Review

 

Superman : Ending Battle

• Superman #186 - "Morning Twilight" = This was fine. Not a great opener, but it sufficed I guess. The art brought it way down for me, the colors were terrible, and that kind of digital ink/color just isn't for me. Master Jailer and Neutron were cool, but I didn't get a lot out of it.
• Adventures of Superman #608 - "Dawn's Early Light" = I have to admit, this chapter was a step up. The art was a smidge better, and Joe Casey did a great job with the framing device of the senator's interview. The d-listers were all great (even a couple I never even heard of) and some of the targets were very diverse. I already know Manchester is involved, but still hyped to see how this plays out.
• Superman: The Man of Steel #130 - "In The Dark of The Noon Day Sun" = Oh my god the art is killing me! One of the small enjoyments I get out of this is seeing where the city of metropolis is at this moment in DC continuity, as well as what characters are doing. The appearance of Terra man is fascinating since he has a whole suit of armor here, and post 52 will return to silver age look just to get torn in half by Black Adam. Evil Star looks like vomit, and the inks on the art also look like vomit. Lois Lane's monologue has some merits, but it gets a little tiresome towards the back-half of the chapter. Last note; what did they do to Steel's helmet?
• Action Comics #795 - "The Thirteenth Hour" = Art was better, Lex interaction was fine. Not much to say, but this isn't as good as I hope. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I'm just not enjoying this as much as I wish I was.
• Superman #187 - "After School Special" = The pacing for this story is something else. I'm not sure if it's because I've been binging the whole storyline, but the formula is getting a little repetitive, even if the timeframe justifies the chaos (it's all happening over the course of one day?). I'm sorry guys, this art is making it real hard for me to engage with the story. Mxy posts up out of nowhere and then vanishes, lol so random. The only merit I can give is that this is making me as crazy as Superman is probably feeling, so moving forward into this next half I'm going to try to apply that perspective as much as possible.
• Adventures of Superman #609 - "Rush Hour" = The art was great in this one! Superman vs the Marvel universe I guess? I think it's funny how they set up Metallo in the last cliffhanger and Supes just smashes him to pieces in the opening. The use of the senator is interesting but if you take a step back and look at the environment of the DCU, you can render his argument inert pretty easily. The cat's out of the bag y'all, Neanderthals can't just sit around and complain while homo-sapiens go out and do better stuff. Opti-humans and super-humanity/meta-gene is just the next step in evolution, and super-hero vs super-criminal is just the next step of the power struggle between good and evil. You can't eradicate evil, so you just have to start fighting it in bigger and better ways. Humans in the DCU can't sit back and expect to go backwards, the future is here, deal with it. Batman/Lex Luthor and Orchis from HiX-Men are probably the best representations of this, except the Nimrod/Phalanx stuff in the MU is on a whole different level. As for humans becoming obsolete, good and good can still coexist, but the class warfare is where it starts to get messy I guess. But you can't eradicate inequality either, which blows because super-humans are just inherently better. But adaptation is adaptation and nature does it all the time sooooooo...
• Superman: The Man of Steel #131 - "Nightfall" = I can't lie, the Manchester Black vs Lois sequence was great. Those last couple pages were great. The art was a little stuffy, but the final battle with Supes using Neutron as a nuke was dope. It's interesting to see Supes more confident and headstrong since he feels a false sense of control knowing everyone is safe in the vault, but the fact that Lois got out makes it painful to watch Supes toy with Mongul and Master Jailer. There's a lot of hype about this final chapter, let's see if it lives up to the rep.
• Action Comics #796 - "The Last Super-Villain" = Wow. Joe Kelly saved it... or maybe all of the buildup was in prep for this? I don't know, but what I do know is that this was great. I loved this so much that I'm contemplating my love for Action #775 because this might be better. And that fight vision sequence was awesome.

Superman : Lost Hearts

• Superman #189 - "Lost" = This first issue was a mixed bag. The art wasn't good in the first half, especially the inking and the colors. I liked the Power Girl hinting and the fight with Mr. 104, but the dialogue just seemed clunky. However, when Clark and Bruce converse in the second half of the issue, the art/coloring had a significant improvement. The ambience was very fitting, even if the interaction between the two heroes made no sense in the context of that DCU. Why are Batman and Supes at odds? I wonder if it has to do with Hush, or Murderer/Fugitive, but since Obsidian Age it doesn't seem like they should have any beef. Final note: I had no idea this was the first appearance of Traci 13!
• Adventures of Superman #611 - "Heartbroken" = Very interesting look into poverty and the never-ending ouroboros of the drug epidemic through the lens of Superman. Traci and her iguana are cool, the heartbreakers are placeholders to make the story more interesting than just Supes vs Drugs. I'm not sure how Lana is so messed up, maybe uber-drugged or the heartbreaker got her extremely susceptible. The art is fine, but the dialogue was a little clunky. I'm starting to see that Joe Kelly can get a little hit or miss depending on the scenario; the first couple pages were rough, as he was trying to imitate some kind of ebonic/slang dialect.
• Superman: Man of Steel #133 - "Giving In" = Jesus christ what the heck is going on in this story. Clark gets Superman III'd by the heartbreakers and goes edgy, Lana is zooted to infinity, and Traci's iguana turns into a kaiju. I'm not sure if it's trying too hard or if I just really don't like this kind of story where the heroes get corrupted. The art is pretty good by Tom Derenick, but it barely saves the script. That last page was a major facepalm moment, and I feel second-hand embarrassment reading this storyline. One more to go, let's see if Kelly can salvage this.
• Action Comics #798 - "Heartsong" = Lukewarm, bittersweet, whatever you want to call it. I will have to admit that Kelly did cobble something wholesome for the end. It's a bit of a nothing-burger besides the intro of Traci Thirteen and the Power Girl sequence. In retrospect, this storyline appears to have been an attempt by Johns and Kelly to exorcise the Lana/Clark relationship and move on in some fashion. I don't think they did it in the cleanest way, but the back-half epilogue was solid enough for it to be passable. The first kiss scene was a little too sexualized, the Christ-pose floating was very meh, but Kelly throws in a couple powerful lines of dialogue to tie everything together.