Superman: War of the Supermen #2 – Review

By: Sterling Gates & James Robinson (writers), Eduardo Pansica (artist), Wayne Faucher (inker)

The Story: General Lane has turned New Krypton into a pile of rubble, killing almost all the Kryptonians on it. Zod’s navy is on its way to Earth for retribution. Kal-El is the only person standing in their way.

What’s Good: The drama and tension in the book is pretty obvious. The reader is asking himself if Lois will get the story to the Daily Planet before General Lane silences her and if Superman can stop the invading force of Kryptonians. These are two powerful story drivers that make me want to read all the issues of this series already. The dialogue is crisp and pretty solid and although I wasn’t sold on Pansica and Faucher in the beginning, they closed the deal with the first splash panel and the second panel of page 3. There’s a lot of emotion throughout the book and the faces and action sequences are dynamic.

What’s Not So Good: The writing really gave me pause in a couple of places. The biggest plot hole for me was that an American General, wearing an American uniform and deploying (for the most part) American assets, committed attempted genocide that is going to result in the destruction of the Earth. Where is the President in all this? Senate Armed Forces Committee? Secretary of State? How is it that this guy has so much money and staff and yet has nobody watching him? (I have the same problem with the basic premise of Dark Reign.) Another plot problem for me was the senseless fight between Superman and Supergirl. Maybe Kara is grieving and feeling guilty, but is anyone’s first grieving action to slug their cousin? And draw it out and draw it out? And then have her mind changed by a few words? The fight smelled like filler.