Superman 23.4
Special “Villains Month” Title: Parasite 1
Aaron Kuder
Forever Evil Crossover
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
The final Superman tie-in to Villains Month and Forever Evil features one of my favorite villains in the Man of Steel’s list of enemies: Parasite. Though my personal favorite was the Rudy Jones version in the Pre-Flashpoint era (with a close second being the portrayal featured on Superman: The Animated Series), this new version, Joshua Michael Allen, is just different enough and fresh enough to grab my attention again. Plus, if I didn’t like him, they could always do the classic version later on down the line. What’s not to love? And you have to respect a man who does all of the work himself. That’s right, Aaron Kuder not only draws this issue, but he also writes it. Talk about talent!
The issue gives us the origin of the new Parasite. He’s a down-on-his luck smart-ass with a great knack for inner monologues about judging the disgusting world around him. From the rooftops of Suicide Slum in Metropolis, or, “if Gotham and Detroit had a love child,” he narrates his recent history. We see him losing his job, his girlfriend, and his health. Then we see him transformed, quite literally, into a giant purple monster that feeds off others’ life force. The fact that he looks creepy as hell isn’t what makes him a villain. It isn’t even his attitude toward killing innocent people. It’s the fact that he is motivated by something that no matter what he does or what type of person he might have been or become, he’s going to be a killer. He has to “eat” to live. So when he’s seen sitting in the backseat of a young mother’s car (ever-so-slightly inching closer to touching her child) and entering back into Metropolis city limits, we know that he’s going to feast.
So save the buck and buy the regular cover, but don’t be scared away by some of the other lackluster Superman books of the last few years. This one’s well-done and even though not a whole lot happens, it shows that with people like Kuder working on these characters, they don’t have to have the same repetitive boring battles. They can still be scary. They can still be original. And in the case of this one in particular, they can still be brand new.
My Rating: 4/5
