{"id":28579,"date":"2023-09-04T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=28579"},"modified":"2023-09-01T17:40:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T17:40:53","slug":"superman-the-third-kryptonian-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/09\/04\/superman-the-third-kryptonian-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman: The Third Kryptonian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Kurt Busiek<\/strong>, Dwayne McDuffie<\/strong>, Fabian Nicieza<\/strong>, Rick Leonardi<\/strong>, Renato Guedes<\/strong>, Jos\u00e9 Wilson Magalha\u00e9s<\/strong>, Dan Green<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-1987-1 (TPB)<\/p>\n

After interminable page counts and the preponderant never-ending angst of hyper-mega-ultra-braided multi-part cross-overs, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Collecting Action Comics<\/strong> #847, Superman<\/strong> #668-670 and Superman Annual<\/strong> #13, this tome actually has three yarns to delight, beginning with Kurt Busiek, Rick Leonardi and Dan Green\u2019s mini-epic wherein every survivor of lost Krypton on Earth, including Power Girl<\/em>, Clark and Lois\u2019 adopted son Chris<\/em> (don\u2019t fret, it\u2019s all explained in the story) and even Krypto<\/em> are targeted for destruction by brutal space pirate Amalak<\/em>, hungry to take vengeance for the misdeeds of the long dead \u201cKryptonian Empire\u201d.<\/p>\n

Imagine how the irate rogue reacts upon discovering that – unbeknownst to all – an actual survivor of that long-dead galactic aggressor-state has been living secretly on Earth for years\u2026<\/p>\n

Good old-fashioned romp though it is, the real meat of this tale was an adjustment and rewriting of Kryptonian history for the post-Smallville<\/strong>\/Superman Returns<\/strong> generation. As the disparate continuities of TV, Cinema and comic books were massaged closer to overarching homogeneity, the best of the old was retrofitted to the new. This is an uncomplicated adventure thriller with nostalgic overtones that has a lot to recommend it.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Best Day\u2019<\/em> (Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Guedes & Jos\u00e9 Wilson Magalha\u00e9s) offers sheer delight, and beautiful execution. In a quiet moment, Superman and Supergirl<\/strong> take the Kent clan on a picnic to the stars where we get a chance to see beloved characters interact in joy and relaxation, as the skies of a million universes aren\u2019t<\/em><\/strong> collapsing around their invulnerable ears. It\u2019s a brave, rewarding return to old ways and I still want to see more of it.<\/p>\n

So go no further than \u2018Intermezzo\u2019<\/em> (McDuffie and Guedes), another introspective segment sliced from a longer epic, short on punching but big on emotional wallop as Jonathan<\/em> and Martha Kent<\/em> share secrets and reveal close-held fears as their adopted son struggles off-camera with another \u201cNever-Ending Battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such 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 in this anniversary year this collection is an ideal argument for stuff like this to stage a comeback.
\n\u00a9 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kurt Busiek, Dwayne McDuffie, Fabian Nicieza, Rick Leonardi, Renato Guedes, Jos\u00e9 Wilson Magalha\u00e9s, Dan Green & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-1987-1 (TPB) After interminable page counts and the preponderant never-ending angst of hyper-mega-ultra-braided multi-part cross-overs, it\u2019s quite nice to pick up an – admittedly slim – endeavour of more modest means and intent: to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Superman: The Third Kryptonian”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,76,311,315,121,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-dc-superhero","category-legion-of-super-pets","category-power-girl","category-supergirl-graphic-novels","category-superman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7qX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28584,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28579\/revisions\/28584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}