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Mild Mannered Reviews - "Superman" Comics

Superman #6

Superman #6

Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 22, 2012

Cover date: April 2012

"The Measure of a Superman"

Writer: George Pérez
Penciller: Nicola Scott
Inker: Trevor Scott
Cover: George Perez

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge



Kara arrives in time to rescue Billy from the fall and confronts whom she believes is her cousin. Intending originally to asking him about the clone of the house of El (Kon-El aka Superboy) she instead sees his out of character actions as something she needs to stop.

With Lois and the rest of the city watching, the two battle it out. Kara is formidable but eventually loses her edge. Lois (still connected to Clark's cellphone) calls out in fear, alerting the real Superman in space. Despite the impostor trying to sever the connection, Clark has realized because of Lois' inadvertent help, that he and his impostor share a two way link. As the impostor had used it to read and control Clark, he reverses his way into the impostor's memories.

The impostor was in fact nano technology that bonded with its host to create a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with its host and environment. Jazuur was its home world and it was a beautiful, harmonious planet. One day however an intruder came, stole a city, bottled it and studied it with the express intention of learning the secrets of the nano technology. This collector of worlds tinkered with the miniaturized people but when his experiments to integrate his technology with the nanites failed he accidentally decimated the bottle and the tech. The creature however had millions of these bottles so he quickly forgot about Jazuur. Not realizing just a tiny piece of the nanotech survived and was roaming his very ship.

With the events (of Action Comics) in motion the nanite was able to hide aboard Superman's white pod suit seemingly dormant for five years. At this point the impostor tries hard to block the mental link and in doing so gives Supergirl a chance to fight again. Meanwhile General Lane orders an airstrike on Metropolis while Mayor Morrisroe prepares to flee the city. Lane can't risk losing Lois and tells her his plan while ordering her to also escape the city.

Lois refuses to leave, shocked at the lengths her father would go to be rid of Superman. It is at this point that her phone connection to Clark pays off and with the strength of her words Superman is reborn and arrives to defeat - Superman!

The citizens seeing the proof realize the Superman they had seen acting strangely out of character was an evil copy. Superman declares his devotion to Metropolis by leaving with his copy before the airstrike can take place. Seeing him sacrifice his own safety for theirs, the citizens and leader of the anti Superman campaign, Billy McCoy voice their regret at misjudging the hero.

Taking his foe to the Arctic, Superman reveals he's figured out what his copy was trying to do, how it was doing it and why it manifested in the way it did. As he does so he establishes more and more control over his foe's tech. Superman refuses to ever be the Superman his 'replacement' became and allows it to slowly destroy itself back into its insect-like form.

Supergirl arrives and asks her cousin what had happened. He agrees to reveal it all one day but only when his grasp of Kryptonian improves, he returns a question about the clone she had encountered. Kara is surprised that Superman heard what was told to his copy. He mentions the mental link and Kara theorizes perhaps as it was able to hear what had woken him up. Superman shrugs it off leaving Lois out of it. The two grab the remains of the nanites and hurl it into the sun.

Later, as Clark visits Heather they watch the PGN broadcast on how Superman pledged to continue to protect the city, rebuild what was destroyed and work towards helping those injured and the families of the dead. Heather has enough of the schmaltz and turns to Clark. Before Clark can come up with an apology, Heather cuts him off, reassuring him nothing was his fault and that she knows he doesn't feel the same as she does about him.

One day she hopes Clark will find the right person for himself. Lois outside the door listens in to the conversation.

5Story - 5: Every minute. I literally enjoyed every minute reading this. The twists, the flashbacks, the links to the Action Comics story... It was pure brilliance. I love this story. Now it's complete it is a very strong introduction to Superman. Even the preachy stuff fit and even when mocked it didn't feel stupid. Pure Superman.

4Art - 4: Beautiful art. Creative Jazuurian design and great action sequences. The art suffers a little because it is fighting for space with the mass of story but does so incredibly well. The book perhaps would have benefitted with a few extra pages.

4Cover Art - 4: Although Supergirl is in the issue and the fight is an impressive one, she really isn't the 'big bad' of the story. It would have been nicer to see the arc end with a more powerful cover.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2012

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2012

February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012

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