Superman 23.3
Special “Villains Month” Title: H’El 1
Scott Lobdell, Dan Jurgens, Ray McCarthy
Forever Evil Crossover
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
The Superman tie-in to Villains Month and Forever Evil was a little refreshing, to be quite honest. Scott Lobdell has always been one of my favorite writers, but much like the Flash, the half-ass reboot of the entire DC Universe (excluding the works of Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder, of course) made the character of Superman very stale. There is no more romance, no more Clark Kent foolishness, and really, when it comes right down to it, no more humanity at all. Just a super powerful godlike alien who looks like a human and is part of a super team of inexperienced whiners. And Batman.
But I digress. Because Lobdell is finally starting to find his footing in a world not of his own creation and by using characters like H’El, I think he’ll be able to fix what past writers have seemed to have lost or even broken in just two short years. (I’m looking at you, Grant Morrison.) So we have a new motive and a little more information about this mysterious character. But that stuff is pretty basic, when it comes right down to it. And even though I enjoy Lobdell’s writing (not to mention the always-excellent Dan Jurgens with an assist by Ray McCarthy on art), it all seemed a little… Alien. Then we get to the ending, where we see Zod and Jor-El actually being buddies (which was neat) just in time to see a newly-angered H’El on a mission: He isn’t going to save Krypton (or Earth, for that matter). No. He’s going to rule it. And then he does the unthinkable: He kills both Jor-El and Zod.
So go ahead and save yourself the buck and buy the regular cover, because this issue leads directly into the next Superman family-wide event. Let’s hope that this one does better than the “H’El on Earth” storyline last year. I have faith in Lobdell and company to make this the true Superman crossover event that I know they can deliver. It’s about time something happened in those books. Otherwise, what’s the point? If you can’t do your flagship character right, why even reboot to begin with? Hopefully this is the story that shows me why they found it necessary to negate years’ worth of story. Needless to say, I’m sticking around and for the first time since the introduction of the New 52, I’m excited about Superman again.
My Rating: 3/5
