Superman: War of the Supermen Book 3 TPB

Written by James Robinson

Really?

I have never in my life seen such a big, blinking reset button hit in a comic book.  I am struggling to think of when a comic has so transparently moved itself back to square one.

I have actually enjoyed a lot of the New Krypton tale.  For those catching up, the bottle city of Kandor from Superman's home planet became a community on Earth, complete with people with the powers of Superman.  Humans distrust the Kryptonians and after some sabotage between the two races, the Kryptonians establish a new planet that mirrors Earth's orbit.  General Sam Lane (Lois Lane's father who was thought to be dead) leads a plan that involves Braniac and Lex Luthor to destroy New Krypton.  The end of volume 2 had the Kryptonians' military leader (and Superman arch-villain) General Zod declaring war on Earth.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) I am not even going to get into the arc of this story as it is pretty slight (especially considering it is a full scale war between thousands of Superman-like beings and Earth).  To put it in some perspective, at one point Luthor launches a rocket that turns the yellow sun into a red sun, negating the Kryptonians' powers.  Within a minute, this major development is undone by someone from Superman's extended family.  Within a minute.

The ending really colors the entire run of James Robinson for me.  In the end, Mon-El, Zod, Non and Ursa are all back in the Phantom Zone.  Flamebird is dead.  Nightwing (no relation to Batman's Nightwing) is in the Phantom Zone to keep an eye on Zod.  General Lane who surprisingly was not dead at the beginning of the series, killed himself at the end.  I am hard-pressed to think of a new character who survived any of the goings on here.

The art is good.  I prefer the more human, less ridiculously muscular depictions of Superman and he is handled well in the graphic novel.  There's a lot of characters and a lot of different locations and they are all detailed and beautifully drawn.

This was a real disappointment.  A story that felt like it was building to a dramatic showdown just kind of petered out.  Superman's new status quo is the same as before the New Krypton story arc.  Meh.

** out of *****