Superman Unchained #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (story), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Superman multitasks rampaging robots, black hole tech, and doppelgangers.

The Review: It didn’t register on me last time, but since it has a back-up feature, that means it’s one of DC’s few, extra-sized series: a higher price point for an added page count.  Since Snyder only uses a couple pages for his back-up, he basically has three extra pages for his own use.  In similar fashion to how stifled DC comics felt after they reduced their page counts two years ago, it’s remarkable how much more substantial those additional pages make the story.*

Even without them, the issue would have felt pretty dense anyway; that’s just how Snyder writes.  But those pages allow Snyder to add all those wonderful, brainy details that make his stories so naturally fascinating to read: references to Greek history (i.e., Apollodorius), British folk figures (i.e. Ned Ludd), and labor movement ballads sung to the tune of battle hymns.  Unlike Geoff Johns, who throws in these things to give his work a veneer of sophistication, Snyder uses them to enrich the story, to comment on the action, to hint on events to come.