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Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman: The Man of Steel #111

Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 21, 2001

Cover date: April 2001

2001 Shield No. 16

Writer: Mark Schultz
Penciller: Doug Mahnke
Inker: Tom Nguyen

"The Most Dangerous Kryptonian Game"

Reviewed by: Nick Newman (NNewman8283@yahoo.com)

Superman and Lois, adorned with protective suits and rocket packs, fly over the Kryptonian landscape. As they fly over, Kal reflects on the past few hours. He remembers his family fighting off the Eradicators and then fleeing the house. They are met by a group of Jor-El's friends, who help them overpower their pursuers and seize the ship. They were outfitted in their current clothing and headed for Kandor.

Landing in the crater that was once one of Krypton's greatest cities, they are met by a group of aliens. The strangers greet Superman and Lois as Nightwing and Flamebird, and speak of the sudden removal of their city. The few survivors have lived undetected in the ruins of the once great city. They walk along when suddenly a blast from the sky incinerates a number of the aliens. Their leader quickly leads Lois and Clark underground to what they seek, a meteor of Xuthful ore that will help the couple get home. He speaks of the Xan, who once ruled Krypton and pulled the meteors down to the surface. Suddenly a blast destroys the rock. They spin around to find two Kryptonian hunters, whom are identified as Kru-El and Faora, the hounds of Zod. Superman barely has time to think about the man named Zod that he had killed (Superman #22) before they start firing.

Superman grabs Lois and, firing a few shots at Kru-El and Faora, begins to retreat. Left unhindered by the hunters, the aliens quickly open the Proto-tombs to aid Lois and Clark. Diving underwater, Lois and Clark quickly lose their pursuers. They emerge in meteor valley and Clark begins to cut into the ground, when a blast suddenly strikes his back. Lois spins and fires, but she is not as skillful as the two Kryptonians. They return fire and Superman drags Lois to cover. Realizing that she is slowing Clark down, she lifts off to draw Faora away. Lois tries her hardest, but in the end Faora strikes her and her jet pack and sends her falling. Faora lines up her sight, when she is suddenly electrocuted into unconsciousness. A voice from nowhere begins to comfort Lois.

Superman fights Kru-El hand to hand, but finally overcomes him and knocks him to the ground. Suddenly Lois appears, glowing with an ethereal light and Kru-El is quickly electrocuted in the same fashion as Faora.

Lois floats toward Clark, and then a voice comes from the field surrounding her. It is the Xan, released from the Proto-tombs. They have possessed Lois to communicate with him. They tell Kal how they communicated with Jor-El to tell him of Krypton's demise, and how they drew meteors to Krypton, and to Earth. Extending a hand, they trickle a handful of the ore into Clark's hand. Releasing Lois, the Xan vanish. Now possessing the ore that they need to get home, Lois and Clark fly toward the Antarctic.

Story - 3: I felt like giving this a three and a half, but we don't do that. However, I couldn't bring myself to give this issue a four. The story was good, but not as good as it could have been. I loved seeing Kru-El and Faora, as well as the continuing resurgence of General Zod into the Superman mythos. However, I don't know if I like the aliens on Krypton, or the Xan. I'll have to wait until next week to see how this develops.

Art - 4: Mahnke's art is consistently hovering between a three and four, but he really excelled at this issue. This was the dark issue of the series, with the aliens and the appearance of the hounds, so his art worked very well. I especially liked the first scene with Kru-El and Faora as well as the scene underwater with the Kryptonian creatures.

Cover Art - 2: The novelty has worn off and I can't stand these covers. They are ugly and don't portray the issue at all. Lois and Clark aren't even wearing their correct costumes (which were very cool by the way) and the art just isn't doing it for me. McGuinness should have done all four.