Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Superman #685
DC Comics
Robinson & Pina

Superman says goodbye to Earth. Mon-El escapes the Phantom Zone. The people that interact with Superman on Earth are left to carry on without him. This issue reads very much like a preview issue for the coming months of the Superman books. It’s an okay issue but it lacks in substance when dealing with the major events it breezes past in this issue. I can’t help but feel this issue was filler and could have been folded into either the previous issue of Superman or of Action Comics or fleshed out into its own arc.

Mon-El emerges from the Phantom Zone dying from lead poisoning. Superman manages to save him. That’s right, he’s spent years trying to find a cure but only when his feet are to the fire he comes through with a solution. The cure is completely unexplained and felt so wrongly rushed that it almost seemed like an afterthought. I’m not saying Mon-El needed a Rebirth series but I feel like more than four pages was needed to tell this story that has been building for so long.

Superman is faced with the decision of whether or not to leave Earth to live on New Krypton in order to keep an eye on Zod. Obviously he leaves Earth, but his explanation to Lois and his Ma, while done really well, is a one sided conversation. Sure, you could say that the women in Superman’s life trust him and that’s why they don’t question the decision, but Lois is a reporter and is very inquisitive. Her nodding and calling Clark “baby” doesn’t feel like the Lois that Clark married. At the end of the scene I found myself shocked that neither woman piped up even a little doubt. Especially when Ma Kent was beside herself when Superman went into space to find Brainiac only a few issues ago. I was left a little miffed by this interaction.

Finally, Superman leaves his affairs in the hands of others in what’s a good launching point for the coming months. The backup story focuses on Mon-El and is so well done it makes me genuinely interested in this character as a staple of the line in both the short and long term.

The artwork has its highlights but it suffers in two key areas. First, the coloring is drab yet again. This direction for the Superman line is extremely puzzling to me. Secondly, Superman just doesn’t look like himself page to page. I’m not sure if the direction had him depicted in this way or if the colors make him appear to range in age from fifteen to fifty-five but the art doesn’t capture all of the drama in the way that I would have hoped.

The issue is okay but not a must read. I would have thought Superman leaving his family and the return a character from the Superman mythos would have been a cant miss issue. Unfortunately, this issue doesn’t fully achieve that level. However, the character work done on Mon-El makes him a very intriguing character to watch. Again, this issue bridges the gap to get us to the new short term status quo in the Superman universe.

2.5 out of 5 geek goggles