Superman #710
Written by Chris Roberson and J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Eddy Barrows and Travel Foreman
There is something about the coloring in this issue that seemed a bit off to me, like everyone was super tan. All I can say about this issue is oh come on! How many first meetings between Bruce and Clark can there be. DC shouldn’t let every writer write a new beginning for their relationship. To make it worse they even say that Bruce Wayne’s family car broke down in Smallville when he was a kid. First of all that is so dumb and second of all why in the fuck would the Wayne family be traveling cross country in a car as if they were dirt poor. And why would Batman refer to Superman’s Dad as “Pa Kent”. It wasn’t his Pa and that is so not Batman-like, that is the author speaking, and out of his ass. In fact everything Batman says here is out of character. Horrible issue.
Superman #711
Written by Chris Roberson and J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Eddy Barrows and Travel Foreman
Superman is drawn to Las Vegas by Jimmy Olsen and finds Livewire attacking him. Eddy Barrows draws Jimm Olsen as a pre-teen in this comic. That being said Roberson really does a good job of mining DC’s continuity by having Iron Munro appear and he even has the electric blue superman suit show up! After last issue’s awfulness this was a return to form and the comic even made a great point about the American dream. And it wasn’t heavy handed. Good issue.
Superman #712
Written by Kurt Busiek
Art by Rick Leonardi
We take from the regular arc for this what would be filler but was actually a quite beautiful story about Krpto watching Infinite Crisis happen and witnessing the death of Superboy during that event. Any animal lover has got to love this issue. I wonder why DC took so long to publish this story.
Superman #713
Written by Chris Roberson and J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Eddy Barrows, Diogenes Neves, Oclaire Albert, JP Mayer, Jamal Igle, and Jon Sibal
Dear God why are THERE SO MANY ARTISTS IN THIS ISSUE. I was expecting to hate this issue especially when Superman randomly and without warning tells Superboy and Supergirl he no longer wants to be Superman but his talking to people on the street about what their opinion of Superman was actually heartwarming and not in a fake heavy handed way. And the art was actually pretty consistent for having so many different pencillers.
Superman #714
Written by Chris Roberson and J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Jamal Igle
This was a beautiful ending to what started off as a terrible arc as Superman embraces his role and we flash forward to the future where the “Superman Squad” reflects back on this. As it turns out the shard got plummeted back in time and the essence of Superman is transferred to other heroes including Super-Chief and I believe the first superhero from Final Crisis. That is brilliant! This was a wonderful finale to the first volume of Superman. I look forward to seeing the real Superman – this Superman – returning after DC Rebirth.
The Continuity Blog 