Superman: Last Son of Krypton #1 – Free Comic Book Day Review

By: Geoff Johns & Richard Donner (story), Adam Kubert (art), Dave Stewart (colors)

The Story: Superman is relieved to find his biological clock satisfied at last.

The Review: I’ve expressed a fairly cynical view of Free Comic Book Day before, and sadly, every year I’ve been given no reason to change my mind.  I suppose I’ll always have my doubts that anyone running a business for profit would actually ever dole out a free product with no caveats attached.  DC’s offering last year ended up being a rather premature tease for the upcoming Trinity War nonsense, so it was pretty much worth what you paid for it.

At least last year they went through the effort of giving you original material with some superstar art attached.  Apparently, when there’s no money to be had in it, the buck stops just before original.  This year you get a reprint of the first issue of Superman: Last Son, one of the more notable arcs which ran in Action Comics over six years ago.  Without going into the quality of the story itself, I view DC’s decision with a great deal of disdain.

Action Comics #900 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Lex Luthor is about to bring fun, love, and joy to all the people of the universe—the crazy part is I am being totally serious right now.

The Review: Say what you like about Superman: he can be overly naïve, overbearingly preachy, arguably antiquated, and a hopeless optimist.  But any character who can support a title through 900 issues is doing something right.  This unassailable milestone is evidence that Superman remains a deeply embedded icon in our culture.  To be rid of him, our society would have to drastically change—and not necessarily for the better, as this issue demonstrates.

Paul Cornell wisely downplays the Big Blue’s return to his original title to finish off his epic Lex Luthor storyline in grand fashion.  In attempting to break down Superman by forcing him to experience the depths of human emotion, Lex reveals his own under-appreciation for humanity.

Superman already knows more about being human than most of us ever will, while Lex’s quest for his own divinization constantly sets him apart from his fellow man.  He squanders his chance to bless the universe with true, eternal bliss and gain ultimate power by his need to irrevocably prove himself superior to Clark Kent, best man of Smallville, of all people.

The grandeur of this plot gets blemished by the constant distractions from the Reign of Doomsday storyline, which seems obviously forced on Cornell.  He tries to accommodate it as best he can by using it as Lex’s “bait” to get Superman to come to him, but even so it comes off a clumsy, ill-conceived, far more superficial plotline (a grim portent of the material we’ll be getting in upcoming issues) in comparison to Superman confronting a godlike Luthor in space.