Superman/Batman #49 – Review

By Michael Green, Mike Johnson, Shane Davis (pencils), Matt “Batt” Banning (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

Batman and Superman continue their quest to rid the world of Kryptonite. Along the way they duke it out with the Government and an old ally from Clark’s past.  It’s an emotional chapter, especially when the fate of Superman’s existence is placed in peril. Sounds pretty simple, but there’s A LOT of good stuff in here.

First of all. the dialogue is fantastic. A lot of writers seem to think that these characters have similar personalities because they have similar goals. Thankfully, that isn’t the case here. Each has their own inner monologue and right from the start we see the evidence of this. The US Government has Lexcorp putting Kryptonite bombs together “just in case.” When they arrive, Superman discovers Lana Lang and Lexcorp have thousands of caches of Kryptonite stashed, and rigged to blow. This would effectively exile Superman from Earth. The button is pushed, and he’s betrayed by his high school sweetheart. Among all the positives this book offers, my biggest gripe is with Toyboy, mostly because he’s such a stereotype. When he creepily accepts a Powergirl robot as payment for doing the right thing, I was done with him. Luckily, he’s only there for a few minutes.

The very detailed art is a true highlight of this book, Each page tells as much as it can with as few panels as possible. This is most evident with Superman, specifically his second confrontation with Lana. After Superman and Batman get everything sorted out, Supes returns to Lexcorp. He doesn’t say much. The image of him floating menacingly, with no detail on his face other than his glowing red eyes is enough. Very cool.

This comic has a lot of action in it, and I was able to get into what was going on right away. This is a credit to both the writing and the art teams. The book’s concluding scenes really tie everything together and speak volumes for the characters.  I was able to pick this up, get right into it, and enjoy it without reading the rest of the series. I think that’s as high of a selling point as anything. (Grade: B)

– Ben Berger