Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman #148

Superman #148

September 1999

1999 Triangle No. 36

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Steve Epting
Inker: Joe Rubinstein

"Champions"

Reviewed by: Gareth Baker (GHLBJEDI@aol.com)



Superman has travelled to Mars to help NASA out with a small problem. One of the battery packs on one of their "Rover's" has run out. Superman is marvelling at his surrounds and fixes the "Rover" when he is mysteriously teleported away.

Superman finds himself on a planet, covered in sand and far away from home. Suddenly Superman is attacked by a man, but The Big Red S catches the punch and holds his opponent at bay. The stranger introduces himself as Vartox. Suddenly the pair are attacked by a woman and an alien. When the woman uses her sword against Superman, it merely snaps on his body. The four begin to talk...

On Earth, Lois is visiting the Kent's. She's on the phone to work and she gets quite stress out about her column. The Kent's are concerned, Lois must calm down. Lois is missing Clark. They don't talk because he is always away. Then the Rosses arrive along with their new baby, called Clark. The one Clark didn't tell her about. Whoops!

Back on the mysterious planet, the four heroes are contacted by the ones who brought them here - the sand. The heroes have been brought here remove some technologically advanced invaders from their planet. The four go to solve the problem, though without a plan much to Superman's chagrin. They start off well, but they are soon pinned down and are forced to pull out.

They start again, this time with a plan that Superman has devised. The alien hero teleports them all into different places. The swordswoman is teleported into the command complex to take out the Generals. Vartox takes out the energy tower, and Superman throws the empty mothership away from the planet and into space and then destroys it with his heatvison. When the invaders attack, their weapons won't work because the alien hero removed their powerpacks! The aliens leaves and the heroes are teleported back home.

The last three heroes are left behind. It was all a trick. A mysterious figure is controlling them and now he wants them to go to Earth to capture it and Superman...

4Story - 4: A very enjoyable, if somewhat predictable tale. I particularly liked the fact that Superman was in space, he hasn't done it for ages, and it's something I always enjoy. The way that Dan told the beginning of the story was quite nice, some more first person story telling would be goo.

There was some nice humour - for example when the woman doesn't understand an expression that Superman uses. The best bit was probably Lois finding out about little Clark. I can understand why she's upset that big Clark didn't tell her, but she's always getting bent out of shape over these things. Of course I should mention that Vartox is an old Pre-CRISIS character. Will this new version follow a similar path?

4Art - 4: The art over the fist few pages was very strong, but for the most part it was telling the story. However, I do feel that it weakens throughout the comic.

3Cover - 3: This is one of those covers where I just can't make up my mind. One minute I like it, the next...


Mild Mannered Reviews

1999

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

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