By Kurt Busiek, Dwayne McDuffie, Rick Leonardi & Renato Guedes (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-005-5
After interminable page counts and the never-ending angst of hyper-mega-ultra braided multi-part cross-overs, it’s quite nice to pick up an – admittedly slim – endeavour of more modest means and intent: to wit, a book with a couple of stories that actually begin, occur and end.
Collecting the contents of Action Comics #847, Superman #668-670 and Superman Annual #13, this tome actually has three yarns to delight, beginning with Busiek, Leonardi, and Dan Green’s mini-epic in which all the survivors of lost Krypton on Earth, including Power Girl, Clark and Lois’ adopted son Chris (don’t fret, it’s all explained in the story) and even Krypto are targeted for destruction by brutal space pirate Amalak, hungry to take vengeance for the misdeeds of the long dead Kryptonian Empire.
Imagine how the irascible rogue reacts when he discovers that unbeknownst to all, an actual survivor of that long-dead galactic aggressor state has been living secretly on Earth for years…
Good old-fashioned romp though it is, the real meat of this tale is the rewriting of Kryptonian history (Again! Better keep a scorecard handy!) for the post-Smallville/Superman Returns generation. As the disparate continuities of TV, Cinema and comic-books are massaged closer to homogeneity, the best of the old is being refitted to the new and if the result is more readers then I’m all for it. This is an uncomplicated adventure thriller with nostalgic overtones that has a lot to recommend it.
‘The Best Day’ (Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Guedes and José Wilson Magalhães) is a sheer delight, beautifully executed. In a quiet moment Superman and Supergirl take the Kent clan on a picnic to the stars and we get a chance to see beloved characters interact in joy and relaxation, when the skies of a million universes aren’t collapsing around their invulnerable ears. It’s a brave, rewarding return to old ways and I want to see more of it.
So go no further than ‘Intermezzo’ (McDuffie and Guedes), another introspective segment sliced from a longer epic, short on punching but big on emotional wallop as Jonathan and Martha Kent share secrets and reveal close-held fears as their adopted son struggles off-camera with another “Never-Ending Battle.”
It’s the gentle moments and the emotional beats that give the best adventure fiction its edge, and this book has them in delightful quantities. This is the stuff that made Superman a legend, and I’m so very glad it making a comeback.
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