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Superman: The Man of Steel #113

Scheduled to arrive in stores: April 18, 2001

Cover date: June 2001

2001 Shield No. 24

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Paco Medina
Inker: Walden Wong

Infestation [Part 3 of 4] - "Lois Infected" (Cover Title)

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

Three days ago... Clark dashes out of the window after his possessed wife. She blasts and he is momentarily subdued. She begins to energize him, but her companion summons her away into the skies. Stopping only to don his costume, Superman heads out after Lois.

Two days ago... Superman finally finds the survivors' ships, but there are only forty there. Entering the head ship, he learns that two hundred of the fleet left to lead Viroxx away from the others. Only forty survived the ensuing slaughter. They ask for Superman's aid once again. He promises to do everything he can, and heads into the void.

He finds Viroxx destroying a new world. As he draws closer, he sees Lois directing the damage. Sneaking up behind her, he grabs his wife and for a moment she snaps out of her brainwashing. Apparently Viroxx can't convert humans totally, yet. One of the other drones, however, quickly subdues Kal and they return Lois to Viroxx for recalibrating. Superman looks on in horror as the entire planet is consumed in flames.

Superman spends the next week searching space for the remnants of the flotilla. Finally he finds the remaining ships, only a few hundred instead of the thousand he had seen only a month before. Landing in the flagship, he finds Korsa working obsessively to destroy Viroxx. Korsa leads Superman to a portal where he reveals a huge structure, the Viroxx destroyer. Superman tells Korsa that he is going to save his wife, but the alien refuses to hear any argument. He is going to destroy the planet-eater.

The fleet finds Viroxx again over another planet. Superman and Korsa prepare for the battle. Korsa unleashes his weapon and huge beams of energy begin to decimate the space-borne killer. Thousands of drones are slaughtered in the first strike. Panicked, Superman searches for his wife before she is also destroyed. He catches his wife, and stops her from destroying Korsa's machine. After a moments thought, he abandons her. He cannot let Viroxx live. He begins to tear into the beast, working with Korsa's giant cannon.

Meanwhile, the remaining drones begin to convert Korsa's shuttle, and the pilot, to energy. Superman rushes in to save Korsa, and barely manages to reach him before he is lost.

The two look back to see Viroxx engulf the cannon and assimilate it into its own body, becoming an even greater threat than before. The flotilla begins to retreat with Superman and Korsa behind them. As he flies away, Clark hears Lois tell Korsa of the location of her homeworld, and the feast he will have there.

Story - 5: I am really liking this story. First off, it is a long story, but because it is told in all titles with the same team then it is really linked together well. Also, I love the normal teams, but a change from them is really nice. In addition, for people that have been reading for more than a dozen years or so it has a nice nostalgia to it. Wolfman wrote some great stories back in the eighties and this story, while not related to any of his previous arcs, has a similar feel to some of the stories from back then. It's also very cool to have Superman in space again, against a huge evil. I really hope next issue finishes the story well.

Art - 4: I liked the art better this time, even though it was the same art as Superman. It seems to be a little less cartoon-y and it looks much better. Also, a few pages really stood out. For example, the splash of the world being completely destroyed, and the action shots during the assault on Viroxx were very well done. However, there were also images like Clark's face right before he confronts Viroxx for the last time on page twelve. Stuff like that brings the art down, but other than that it was very good.

Cover Art - 3: The art wasn't bad, and it represented what happened in the issue, but it was just too plain for me. I had to close the issue while reviewing it just so I could remember what was on the cover. It isn't eye-catching at all, and even if it does attract your attention, you aren't going to remember it. Maybe it's the darker colors, but this cover could have been done better. Perhaps with Viroxx hovering menacingly in the background.